EUGENE, Ore. — This all feels kind of surreal.

Justin Herbert sits in the lobby of the University of Oregon’s lavish Hatfield-Dowlin Complex on a mid-April afternoon, occasionally catching glimpses of his own highlights on the huge video boards high on the walls.

Even though he’s in this building every day, he says it’s still surprising to see himself up there in between clips of Royce Freeman and Charles Nelson, guys he grew up rooting for in his parents’ home literally 1 mile down the street. He and his family attended all the Oregon games when he was growing up, although Herbert never took part in any of Chip Kelly’s football camps at UO. He was too nervous.

“I felt like I didn’t belong there,” he says, adding that he was just a kid from Eugene.

The moment he arrived on campus in 2016 as a Ducks player was a dream come true, Herbert says. “I’d prepared myself that even if I didn’t play, just being there was as good as it gets, and I was fine with that.”

But then he did play as a true freshman who took over the starting quarterback job, the first one to do so at Oregon in 33 years. Then, in 2017, he emerged as a budding star, leading Oregon to a 4-1 start before being sidelined with a collarbone injury. He finished the season completing 67.5 percent of his passes with a 15-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

“I pinch myself every day just realizing where I’m at,” Herbert says. “If my 10-year-old self knew where I was at, (he’d) be so excited right now.”

The Ducks averaged 49 points per game in the games Herbert played last season and 15 points in the ones he didn’t. His passing efficiency rating — 167.5 — was considerably higher than those of Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen and Luke Falk. This also is why it’s not shocking that the 6-foot-6 junior-to-be is being touted by many way-too-early NFL mock drafts as a potential first-round pick in 2019.

But those stats aren’t the real jaw-droppers. The kid also has a 4.08 GPA. And he’s majoring in biology, a subject he was drawn to because his grandfather taught it in high school for 34 years. Ask him the easiest class he’s taken this semester, and he’ll tell you it’s physics, “although I wouldn’t call it super easy.” The last time he got any grade below an A was four years ago when he got a B in English as a high school junior.

And from the neck up, he still resembles his younger self. Calling him baby-faced is an understatement. He admits he hasn’t needed to shave in two months.

By football standards, the 20-year-old is still very green.

Herbert was the stud recruit hiding in plain sight for the Ducks. He played on the JV squad as a sophomore at Sheldon High School here. His junior season started out great but lasted only two games because of a leg injury. He was 6-4 at the time, and doctors told the family he was still growing. He healed in time to play basketball and then lead Sheldon to the state baseball title. Without any FBS interest, Herbert figured he’d go to FCS Montana State and throw passes to his older brother Mitch, a star receiver for the Bobcats. Then, in early October of his senior year, Nevada got word that there was an intriguing talent blossoming right in Oregon’s backyard.

“A booster allowed us to use his plane to fly to Eugene to see him practice on Thursday,” said Notre Dame assistant Brian Polian, then the Wolf Pack’s head coach. “We never used a private plane at Nevada, it was a rare ask. But we felt like he was worth it. We practiced in the mornings then, so we left right after to see him. He was tremendous. I was so excited. I thought he was going to be our guy. No one was recruiting him. We offered him on the spot.

“Thursday was date night for (my wife) and I. We were in a movie. I got a text that said Oregon found out we offered, offered him that night, and he committed on the spot. I was so pissed.”

Herbert said he felt so bad he apologized to Polian and his assistant, Nick Rolovich.

Herbert’s freshman season at UO happened while Mark Helfrich’s program was in a tailspin. The local kid overtook two more highly touted quarterback recruits to move up the depth chart. Then a three-game losing streak cost Dakota Prukop — a graduate transfer from Montana State who was a close friend and teammate of Herbert’s brother Mitch — the starting job. Helfrich was going to flip the keys to his young quarterback, which meant facing Washington in his first start. Prukop was the one who broke the news to Herbert.

“It could’ve been awkward, but I didn’t want that to happen,” Prukop says. “I love Justin like a little brother just going back to everything Mitch did for me. I gave him a call when I first found out. ‘Hey, man, this is what’s going on right now. Don’t, by any means, think that I have an issue with you on this. There’s nothing between us.’ Justin’s literally just like his older brother. He’s down to business. He’s like what every mother would want out of their son. He does the right things.

“He was really young, and he got thrust into a really difficult position. The last thing he needed was to feel like one of his best friends on the team was turning on him.”

The Ducks got crushed by Washington 70-21, but in the next two games Herbert threw for 10 TDs with just one pick. His combination of size, accuracy and athleticism — the stuff that wowed Nevada’s coaches — gave a struggling program hope. However, at the end of the season, Helfrich was forced out. Enter Willie Taggart.

“Willie brought some things to Justin that he absolutely needed,” says Mark Herbert, Justin’s father. The biggest thing was Taggart, a Jim Harbaugh disciple and former star quarterback himself, challenged Herbert to become a more vocal leader. Herbert had always been taught to be understated and a leader by example by being a win-the-sprints, hand-the-ball-to-the-ref-after-scoring kind of kid, his dad says. “It kinda went against what he’d always been taught.”

(Stephen R. Sylvanie / USA TODAY Sports)

Taggart saw in Herbert a talent very similar to Andrew Luck, a quarterback he was around when he coached at Stanford. “Justin’s smart like Andrew, and he throws like Andrew. He didn’t have Andrew’s leadership qualities,” Taggart said. “He’s such a perfectionist in everything he does. One day he almost had tears in his eyes after throwing a pick at practice. ‘Dude, it’s practice. You can’t be that way.’ ”

Taggart knew teammates would take their cues from the quarterback’s body language. If they saw him down, they would be down, too. Taggart wanted Herbert to become more of a rah-rah guy and would prod him at certain times to exert more personality onto his teammates.

One day in preseason camp, the defense was dominating the Ducks offense. Defenders were whooping it up and celebrating. Taggart turned to his young quarterback and told him it was a perfect opportunity to grab the guys. Herbert did, getting on the other 10 players in the huddle. His tone caught his teammates, including standout offensive lineman Tyrell Crosby, by surprise, drawing a few snickers. “He told them to shut the hell up, and everybody there was like, ‘Whoa!’ ” Taggart says. “And then he led them down the field for a touchdown on that series.”

Leaving Herbert was one of the toughest parts of Taggart’s decision to go home to Florida and take the FSU job after one season at Oregon.

“He’s what every coach wants in a quarterback,” Taggart says. “He’s everything you want in a teammate. Great person. Great player. Can make all the throws. The sky’s the limit. He’s awesome. He made it hard for me to leave. He said, ‘Coach, I don’t want you to go.’ If he’s not the first pick in the draft, I’ll be very surprised.”

After Taggart left, offensive line coach Mario Cristobal was elevated to take over the program, and Marcus Arroyo was promoted to offensive coordinator. Managing his demeanor has continued to be a focus for Herbert. “I used to get really, really angry at practice,” he says. “I’d have a tough time bouncing back from a bad throw or something like that. But Coach Arroyo and I have really worked on forgetting the past plays and just looking to the future ones. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better at that.”

One of Herbert’s — and the Ducks’ — worst performances in 2017 came against Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl. “They brought some pressures that we just didn’t handle well,” Herbert says.

Last season was the first year he was ever involved in handling protections, but with an additional season with Arroyo, Herbert will have even more responsibility in reacting to what defenses are giving him with more checks at his disposal. Arroyo also says the former pitcher with the mid-90-mph fastball is learning to play with a bit more touch. “His deep-ball accuracy has gotten better,” Arroyo says. So has Herbert’s timing with a group of receivers that is something of a mixed bag. One converted from safety. Another is a former running back. A third is an ex-quarterback.

(Chris Pietsch / Associated Press)

Another development with the Ducks will be a lot more of the Pistol offense, thanks to the arrival of new running backs coach Jim Mastro. The former Washington State and Nevada assistant created the Pistol along with Chris Ault. The Ducks ran the Pistol on probably less than 10 percent of their snaps in 2017, but they were in it on more than 90 percent in the spring. Herbert also has added quite a bit of muscle to his frame with the arrival of new strength coach Aaron Feld from Georgia. He’s close to 240 pounds — up about 15 from last season and roughly 40 from his freshman arrival weight.

“The ball feels a lot lighter,” Herbert says. “It feels really good coming out of my hands. I’ve really enjoyed what Coach Feld has brought, and I’m really excited with where we’re going.

“Coach Feld has talked about the more muscle you can put on, the faster and quicker your body can move. That’s one of his big points of emphasis. Just being able to absorb some hits will also help.”

Feld has become a cult hero in Oregon football circles in a hurry. The 19th-century handlebar mustache has a lot to do with it. Herbert’s first impression of him?

“His very first meeting he just yelled at me,” Herbert said with a sheepish smile. “He picked someone out of the front row, and I happened to be sitting right there. He just said, ‘What your name?’ I said Justin, but I didn’t say it loud enough. So I had to say Justin louder. Then he talked about what do I do to help this program, and I didn’t have an answer. So he said that’s what he’s here for.

“I think what he wanted was exactly how I’d responded to it — passive, caught off-guard. I like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t get yelled at, but I got yelled at.”

Last time he’d been yelled at before that?

“I think it was sophomore year of high school,” Herbert says. “I don’t think I’d run through the line, and my coach got on me for that.”

As Herbert emerges as a more vocal presence in the locker room, weight room and huddle, he remains understated away from football. He’s the rare college player these days who is not on social media. He has no Twitter account, no Instagram or Snapchat, he says. He also — probably not so coincidentally — has no sense of entitlement.

He says thank you to all those touting him now, including the NFL mock draft folks. “I definitely appreciated it, but since I’m not on Twitter or any social media, I don’t get to see very much of it. What I get is from my buddies that tell me about it. I kinda just remind them that it’s just me, and I’m here for Oregon. I’m thankful and appreciative of it, but I’m trying to ground myself.”

Herbert did once have Facebook and Instagram accounts. It was confined to a small circle of his good friends, but then it started to grow. “I don’t feel like I deserve all of that attention,” he says. “I think face-to-face interactions with my buddies is sufficient.”

There is a buzz around Eugene again. Cristobal, Nick Saban’s old O-line coach, has brought Alabama’s structure to Oregon. Players say he’s demanding they become more physical than ever before. There’s a lot more team period at practice now. “He’s always talking about being tough and being physical and dominating at the line of scrimmage,” says edge rusher Justin Hollins, a fifth-year senior.

Cristobal also has emphasized more fundamental work and says they’ve cleaned up their issues with penalties and turnovers. He’s also parlayed the Ducks’ unparalleled high-tech facilities into a glitzy recruiting machine. He says the class he signed in February included as talented a crop of offensive linemen as he ever got to Tuscaloosa. The smallest of the quintet is 6-5, 320.

The recruiting momentum has only picked up. The Ducks have commitments from four of the top prospects in California, all from Orange Country prep powerhouse Mater Dei. They also have a gifted in-state tight end coming — Patrick Herbert, Justin’s kid brother — meaning the Ducks’ quarterback would get the chance to play with him if he doesn’t opt into the NFL Draft after this season. But it’s still too early to wade too deep into that topic.

“Where does his potential lie?” Herbert’s father asks rhetorically. “It’s way ahead of him. He doesn’t know. Nobody knows. He hasn’t had much experience. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes.”

The elder Herbert says we rush kids too much these days.

“You’re gonna miss fun things,” Mark Herbert says. “There’s something to letting things take their natural course.”

(Top photo by Brian Murphy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)