I really thought a change of scenery might do him good; especially dropping down a few levels in competition. But it's pretty clear now why Brock Thomas made the leap over him last year!

https://duckswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ducks/football/2026/08/31/oregon-football-austin-novosad-named-backup-bowling-green/91541274007/

Ouch, hurts almost as much as Ty Thompson failing at Tulane.

1 hour ago, DuckFan93 said:

Ouch, hurts almost as much as Ty Thompson failing at Tulane.

Might be worse! Novosad seemed like he was actually in a very favorable QB system at Dripping Springs. Will Stein clearly had followed him before coming to Oregon as OC too!

I had read, at least in this case, the QB battle was pretty close but Kastantin was given the edge due to being a better rushing threat (100 carries for 530 yards and 5 TDs last year).

Novosad had 56 carries for -18 yards over 33 career high school games (I can't find any career rushing attempts in his 7 Oregon games).

I believe Bowling Green (under Eddie George) has been known mostly as a run-heavy RPO based offense (favoring mobile dual-threat QBs). I also read Bowling Green will have five new starting OL (four graduating and one transfer), so that might have played a bit into the choice as well.

I guess Novosad is expected to play unless Kastantin (perhaps literally) runs away with the job; but, Bowling Green is looking more and more like an odd choice for Novosad. Maybe it was his best available choice I guess?

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by AnotherOD

Bowling Green? I recall that Novosad was looking for place where he had a high probability to start when he entered the portal.

In addition to Baylor and Oregon, he held offers from Colorado, Houston, Kansas, Louisiana Tech, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Rice, SMU, Stanford, TCU, Texas A&M, Texas State, Texas Tech, UNLV, and Vanderbilt. Novosad was rated the 13th-best quarterback by 247Sports in the class of 2023 and the 12th-best pocket passer quarterback by ESPN, earning a 4-star designation by the majority of outlets.

Perhaps he knew Dante Moore intended to announce he was returning for another season.