Ready to Bo
With their quarterback coming to a billboard near you, the Oregon Ducks are here to make a run through the Pac-12.
EUGENE — Bo Nix is ready, specifically, for the final media availability of his final fall camp as an Oregon Duck.
Feels like he just got here didn’t it? In an instant, the conversation has teleported from wondering whether he was really an upgrade of Anthony Brown Jr. to a point where Oregon fans keep checking the sky at night waiting to see the back of Nix’s jersey on the moon.
Nix seems to embrace all of this. Not that he’ll outright say it. Like past Oregon greats, Nix isn’t one to shower himself in praises. He’s as earnest as Mariota. He’s as polite as Herbert. But unlike either of them, Nix seems, at the very least, comfortable in the spotlight — like now, as he strolls into the press scrum wearing a smile and ribbing media about whether they saw anything exciting in practice.
Just some stretching. Hey Bo, what’s your favorite stretch?
“That’s a great question,” he says.
It’s called the A Skip — he’s been doing it since middle school, which was also one of the last few times college football fans didn’t know who he was.
Because since high school, Bo Nix has been:
1. Bo Nix, the son of an Auburn Legend
2. Bo Nix, Mr. Alabama, the 5-star Recruit
3. Bo Nix, the Auburn Savior
4. Bo Nix, the Auburn Transfer
5. Bo Nix, Oregon?
6. Bo Billboard.
The man — he was a year old when Oregon first pulled out the billboard stunt — has been football famous for a large portion of his life. And while he may not have the three-year stay that Mariota did here, nor have grown up down the street like Herbert, it’s beginning to feel more and more like the Nix/Oregon pairing has similar magic.
Hey Bo, what do you think of the billboards?
“Well,” he says, “Fall camp has been great.”
Then he smiles like this:
Then, a masterclass.
“We’ve really connected over the last few weeks. We’ve had a lot of players step up and fill roles. And a lot of vet guys that have been doing it a long time. And with that comes great things, like billboards…,” he says. “One time you’re on one side [of the story] and then you get to a school like Oregon and things can change and your story can change.”
Stories can change. This, Bo knows.
It’s why he’s enjoyed his final fall camp so much. It’s why he’s smiling during his cat-and-mouse approach to the billboard. Nix has been in college long enough to know that all of this is going to go by fast.
“Once it starts,” Nix says, “It’s on to the next week and it never quits.”