Oregon Football: Darron Thomas Ready To Make Major Improvements for Ducks

When the 2010 season began for Oregon, fans were not sure of what they were going to see. It was a beautiful day at Autzen Stadium and the Ducks were hosting New Mexico in their season opener.

The summer had been filled with question of whether the Ducks should turn the offense over to the young sophomore quarterback or should they give it to the reliable redshirt senior, Nate Costa.

One week before the start of the season, Chip Kelly officially announced that the future of the Oregon program was now the present. Kelly stated that Thomas would be the starter and there was no turning back or rotating quarterbacks.

While the Ducks won that opening game, the overall impression of Darron Thomas was incomplete. Thomas played well, took what the defense gave him but was not as impressive as fans had hoped.

Fans were looking to feel like there was no doubt that Thomas was the right choice. That confirmation was provided the next week in Tennessee and then throughout the rest of the year.

In 2010, Thomas showed the poise and leadership of a senior. He handled playing in hostile road stadiums, being involved in top-10 showdowns and then also handled the spotlight of being the quarterback of the No. 1 team in the nation.

Going into 2011, Thomas is looking to complete his game.

While Thomas had a year that no one could have seen coming, there are still two main points that Thomas needs to improve on.

In order to be successful in Chip Kelly's offense, the first thing a quarterback must do is become a magician with the ball.

One thing that separated Dennis Dixon and Jeremiah Masoli from Thomas so far is they ran the zone read play to near perfection. Both would routinely have poor cameramen searching desperately for the ball.

Throughout the 2010 season, Thomas was good with the read option but would often make the read too late or make the incorrect move. This indecisiveness was most evident in the national championship game when Thomas made a couple of reads that may have cost the Ducks a much-needed score.

If Thomas can use the offseason to perfect this aspect of Kelly's offense, the Oregon offense will find itself reaching new heights.

Finally, if Thomas can mature with his reads it will be a huge step for him.

One thing that was obvious last year with Thomas was he always wanted to make the play instead of living to play another down.

During the season, Thomas found himself facing a pass rush that was getting in his face and instead of pulling it down and keeping the ball, Thomas would try to make too much happen.

Again, this was a problem in the title game. Thomas and the Ducks found themselves outside of the Auburn red zone when pressure came up the middle on Thomas; he rushed a pass that was picked off, ending an Oregon drive.

When looking at Thomas as a whole, he was so good that these improvements were not based off of major problems. Thomas had a great first year as a starter and is ready to lead this team into 2011.

If Thomas can become more patient and master the art of Coach Kelly's zone read, Oregon may be punching its ticket back to the BCS national championship.