Competition has been a hot topic for the Oregon coaches and players during the first two days of fall football camp, and across the board, there are position battles being waged. At quarterback, Oregon knows they have a star player in senior Justin Herbert as he enters his fourth year as a starter.

But what's behind Herbert? This offseason the Ducks saw Braxton Burmeister transfer out of the program after two seasons with the Ducks and Tyler Shough didn't attempt any passes during his true freshman season in 2018. The newcomer this season is true freshman and three-star quarterback Cale Millen. As the camp has opened up and the Ducks begin building up the depth behind Herbert, Oregon offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo gave some details about what he's looking for in that position beyond Herbert.

"The backup quarterbacks have to be able to continue to show growth, just like any other position," said Arroyo. "Tyler, let's use him as an example, running with the twos right now, making sure his steady progression as we as we go ahead and chart every throw and chart everything he's doing. He's getting as critical coaching as Justin is in that regard. And I think that you can see, he can see his evolution going along."

Arroyo and Oregon's staff have stayed on Shough and Millen to be ready at any moment because it takes just one play to see a reserve get thrust into action. Even though the Ducks have a potential No. 1 overall draft pick at quarterback in Herbert, Shough and Millen need to always be on the ready.

"He (Tyler) can't be comfortable coming into that spring ball and saying, okay, I've gotten better, now I'm gonna go ahead and take a backseat," said Arroyo. Because there's plenty of examples we use all the time of how fast that thing goes, a few years ago, it happened we went down to the third guy and fourth guy."

Shough says his comfort level is much improved from a full year in the system that's allowed him to grow on the football field and also off it.

"It has been good for me. I think just going into last year in the redshirt season, put on 20 plus pounds and just getting comfortable because for this season has been a huge confidence boost for me," said Shough.

Shough says his development this offseason within the playbook and on the field could be credited back to all the player-run practices the team ran on their own this past summer. Coaches were not allowed to instruct players on what to focus on or do during those practices, but with Oregon going into the second year of Mario Cristobal's era at Oregon, the leadership from the veterans paved the way. Shough says how Oregon's leaders ran the team's self-run practices really played a key role in his development.

"I think every practice, every conditioning was just so competitive, it doesn't feel like it's changed much," he said.

Now the coaches are on the field aiding that development at quarterback, and many will be watching to see what transpires behind Herbert this season.