Oregon Football HOT TAKES: Dillon Gabriel with 500 yard games?!?! | Oregon Ducks Podcast

couple of scorching hot takes one not as hot as the other but let's go for the hot take uh mailbag is always open YouTube comments X formerly known as Twitter soflin CFB or lockon Ducks if you want Priority Access and a bunch of other perks go become a locked on Ducks Insider that link in the description below wherever you listen to or watch the show eight days to Oregon football by the way this question or uh this hot take I mean surface of the Sun hot came from Darius hot take you got it Dillan Gabriel will have at least five games with 500 passing yards this year okay okay it's one thing if you'd said five games with 400 yards like that'd be a hot take but a little bit more feasible five games with 500 passing yards what Darius my man let's let's let's have a let's have a talk you and me what sort of offense do you think Oregon is running here frankly if Dyan Gabriel were going to go for 500 yards which I believe would be a career high I don't think he's done that before cuz most quarterbacks haven't thrown for half a thousand yards in a single game before Illinois might be one where that could happen they they are not a great team now they're not in the early part of a rebuild for instance but that could be a game Idaho's a game where that could happen if Dylan Gabriel stays in long enough which I don't anticipate happening but five games with 500 yards passing there are two reasons this can't happen number one it's incredibly hard to do you have to to have a 500 yard passing game and to do that in half of Oregon's regular season games you're not doing it a postseason game the teams you'll be playing will be far too good five games almost half I don't even know which five of those would be Idaho would be one Oregon state would probably be another Boise State I suppose just because they're a Mountain West team so those would be the games and then Illinois maybe Maryland when they come to town but I mean Ohio State you're not doing that you're not doing that Wisconsin on the road you're not doing that Washington even though they have a lot of turnover I don't think you're doing that there either that might be the hottest take ever submitted on this show I'm not even kidding not even kidding that might be the hottest take yet if you wanted me to rate that on the Josh Pate boldness scale can I give that an 11 out of 10 that won't happen I think a more interesting question though and realistic one is how many games does Dylan Gabriel go over 300 yards this year I'd certainly expect it would I expect it against Idaho Oregon might be able to run all over the field against Idaho and you've got a really talented lineup of running backs who you might want to get some carries to like Jay Lamar and Jay Harris get them some run does does Dylan Gabriel go for 300 yards against Idaho probably probably because I imagine Evan Stewart and TZ Johnson will just run by a lot of the guys that are going to attempt to guard them and they probably won't do so very successfully but how many times would Dylan Gabriel be over 300 yards that's a question I just made up for myself as kind of a spin-off of this surface of the Sun scorching hot take from Darius I'd probably go with eight I think eight is probably the number I don't think he'll have a game under 200 yards including Michigan and Ohio State uh I I think that's too low of a threshold I don't think bonck had a game under 200 yards bonck didn't have that many games under 300 yards passing in his Oregon career I think Gabriel probably have eight or nine you know the Ohio State Michigan games be tougher those are legit defenses got a lot of big- time players Ohio State especially I think Ohio State's got a more talented defense altogether but yeah I think Gabriel's capable of going with with this receiving core and the offensive line of fully healthy and you know even if they have to figure out you know what the interior rotations are like if if Bedford is still battling an injury or if he comes back and gets reinjured you still have two NFL tackles and you still have a third year experienced starter in Marcus Harper who has been with Oregon for a long time and he's going into his third year as a starter so there are at least three guys that I know for certain are studs Bonafide studs contributed to some of the lowest sack numbers maybe the lowest sack numbers over a multi-year span I've ever seen for for Oregon football so um yeah how many game debate that in the comments section or shoot me a note how many games regular season only just regular season you'll see why I'm emphasizing that in just a moment just regular season how many games does Dylan Gabriel go over 300 yards let me know here's another hot take Nick says that Jordan James can get to, 1500 yards now if you missed a conversation from earlier in the week the take was that Jordan James gets to, 1300 yards which on the surface I said whoa hot take I don't think that can and then I looked at it went well actually that's kind of feasible if he's actually rb1 even if you have a a solid complimentary back in Noah Whittington which I expect him to guess what backs have come very close Royce Freeman 2017 was the last guy to go over 1300 yards but guys have come close Bucky Irving came close uh Troy D Travis D aha see almost almost slipped him up right there Travis D he came close as well in 2021 that was you know aided partially by CJ verdell going down but still it's possible so500 yards so I saw that went man that's that's that's asking a lot you you would really be committed to Jordan James as an rb1 and I I don't think there's ever been a time really in the Oregon backfield where you've had a true number one workhorse and what I mean by that is where you have a guy not who isn't capable of being a Workhorse but who isn't going to get the ball 30 to 35 times you know think like Jonathan Taylor Melvin Gordon at Wisconsin over the years or Blake corm this P even Blake corm had a great backup that's what Oregon has always had is they've had a number two guy there was L Michael but then there was Kenyan you you never had to solely rely on L Michel you worked in a number two running back pretty consistently I expect this backfield to be that as well I think Jordan James will be the number one but I don't think whittington's that far behind him I think there will be days where Oregon fans like last year where there were days when Oregon fans were clamoring for more Jordan James touches and fewer Bucky Irving touches I think you could have that this year no not because James isn't talented because Noah whittington's really good and I don't want people to forget that a big Noah Whittington fan but Nick had a follow-up comment that I caught before I came on to record the show he said just think about why I said that Oregon is sitting with a decent chance at playing up to 16 games this year now I had not considered that assuming they play 15 then James needs to average 100 yards a game I don't think it's unreasonable to think he'll average 100 yards per game this year well that's a good way of looking at it how many games will Oregon play this year should be should if all goes according to plan at least 14 at at least bare minimum to have a successful season Oregon's got to play 14 games that would imply that you have either played in the Big 10 championship and gotten into the playoff or missed the Big 10 Championship but won a first round playoff game either one of those things if Oregon plays 14 games as they did last year that is a that is a real possibility if James can get to, 1500 yards 100 yards a game yeah I think it's reasonable especially you know we were talking about Illinois earlier in today's show don't expect a lot of resistance there and there were a number of games like that Maryland don't know that they're going to be great Purdue could be okay like Ohio State Michigan Wisconsin probably in that order they're going to be tough to run the football on but Washington should be able to run the football first three games of the year Oregon should be able to run the football a lot I'm interested to see if Jordan James has a 200 yard game in any of the first three contests this year I think he's more than capable I think this Oregon offensive line even without Matthew Bedford in there still has a much much bigger advantage or or just has a a significant Advantage is a better way to put that than every defensive line they're going to go up against I think Boise State or Oregon State clearly offers more resistance than Idaho but this is a big gap this is one of the 10 best offensive lines in all college football and George James could absolutely go off and could he average a 100 yards a game by the end of the year yeah I I I could see it I could see it you get that offensive line healthy you get him cooking I could see that happening so that that take on the surface hot take but if you think about it with the postseason Factor not as hot as it seems