EUGENE — It’s a light day for Bo Nix.

Wednesdays are free from offseason workouts and running, his Oregon Ducks are still weeks away from the beginning of spring practices and, in an office inside of the Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Center, Nix sits thousands of miles away from Indianapolis where a handful of his contemporaries will soon participate in the NFL Combine. 

Here in February of 2023, Eugene is still the home of the former-Mr. Alabama. He didn’t expect this. Neither did his wife, Izzy, when she moved out to Eugene in August after their wedding with about six months worth of supplies. 

It’s not a bad thing, he says. 

“She was born and raised in the same town and she went to Auburn, same house her whole life, that kind of stuff,” Nix says. “So it was going to be a new culture for us regardless of where I ended up. So the fact that we ended up all the way out here, it just amplifies our story a little bit more. 

“Yeah, we went to Eugene, Oregon.” 

And they’re kind of loving it. They’ve been to the coast. They’ve been to the mountains and up to Portland to see the Blazers. The newlyweds enjoy date nights at Elk Horn Brewery and Sabai Cafe. Their schedules don’t often jive — Izzy is a personal trainer at F45 — but they do their best to find pockets here and there. But if she’s working, Nix will often just stay here at the facility. Even with as much has changed in his life the last year, Nix doesn’t do well with free time.

For much of Nix’s life, he reveled in knowing the future. The son of an Auburn quarterback, Nix knew everything about his first school before he ever stepped foot on campus. All of the traditions. All the history. All the pressures placed upon a 5-star recruit like himself.

But here in Oregon, Nix has let himself embrace what’s different, on the field and off. And with his return for the 2023 season, he’s building something no one saw coming: A legacy as Bo Nix, the Oregon Duck.