EUGENE -- Do the Oregon Ducks have a problem developing their high school quarterback recruits? It's the kind of criticism coach Mark Helfrich is developing his own aversion toward.



The Ducks last week signed Montana State's Dakota Prukop, their second graduate transfer QB from the Football Championship Subdivision in as many years since January's departure to the NFL of Heisman Trophy winner, three-year starter and one-time overlooked recruit Marcus Mariota.



The results from Oregon's first try at a one-year QB fix are difficult to argue with: Former Eastern Washington quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. led UO to six consecutive victories to finish a once moribund season 9-3. In the process, he finished as the Football Bowl Subdivision leader in passing efficiency one year after Mariota topped the same category.



Now that UO has gone back to the Big Sky Conference for another quarterback, however, its reliance on imported talent rather than homegrown signal-callers has led to increased scrutiny regarding Oregon's effectiveness recruiting high school quarterbacks to campus and, once there, developing them into starting material.



"I don't think it speaks to the development of anything," Helfrich said Friday, before Oregon began its holiday break prior to the Jan. 2 Alamo Bowl. "I think it speaks to the importance of talent certainly at that position. Yeah, it's funny that all the teams that have recruited guys over the last years can't develop people. I think that's a little odd and nobody said one thing about not being able to develop centers that we brought in (graduate transfer) Matt Hegarty or (junior college transfer) Kyle Long or whoever.



"So, if a guy fits our criteria off the field and fits our criteria on the field and it fits, we're going to see if we can make it happen."



The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Prukop started his sophomore and junior seasons for Montana State before graduating last week with an economics degree. He redshirted his first season with the Bobcats and thus can transfer and use his final year of eligibility immediately, without sitting out a season.



Prukop earned FCS first-team All-American honors after combining for 39 total touchdowns in 2015. He rushed for 797 yards and 11 touchdowns and completed 62.8 percent of his passes for 3,025 yards and 28 touchdowns with 10 interceptions. In 2014, he combined for 30 touchdowns. He ultimately chose Oregon over Alabama, though schools such as Michigan -- both the Tide and Wolverines have graduate transfers starting at quarterback this season, too -- Texas and TCU also were interested.

"A couple people have said it's the perfect job opportunity with their supporting cast, their coaches, where the program's at," Prukop said. "I believe it's still on the rise and Oregon's turning into one of the big powerhouse programs every year, in and out, in college football and that's just something I want to be a part of."



Helfrich responded that Ducks quarterbacks fully understand their time in Eugene will come with competition -- a sentiment the QBs have echoed throughout the 2015 season -- and that just as college quarterbacks often transfer quickly to find playing time elsewhere, Oregon will not hesitate in attempting to upgrade its roster.



"Quarterback play is becoming more like a club sport," he said. "These guys are so individualized, they're not playing basketball and leading, they're not playing baseball and leading. Maybe failing, failing is good for these guys at a young age and then they're supposed to lead a program and that's hard.



"We're going to continue to recruit the way we've recruited. We're very honest with guys about competing forever, let alone on the front end of guaranteeing a guy a spot. That comes back to haunt you."



Helfrich wasn't always as comfortable with the philosophy of plugging roster holes through transfers, but cited his changed outlook on advice from UO men's basketball coach Dana Altman.



Since Altman was hired in 2010, the Ducks have used patchwork rosters -- with more than 25 transfers -- to win at least 21 games each season and 132 overall, the second-best six-year span in UO hoops history.



"He made some great points that I never thought of before," Helfrich said. "We'd never been a huge junior college recruiting program and he made some very valid points of, if it's the right guy, it's their last chance. Most guys when it's their last chance they're going to toe the line and do things that much better and again if it's the right guy, that could work."



Of course, Oregon wasn't Prukop's only opportunity to play in an FBS Power Five conference during his senior season. Also, Oregon's attractive style of offense, and its ability to seemingly plug in quarterbacks with little drop off since Dennis Dixon left in 2007, has led to criticism for why an in-house quarterback wasn't ready.



The Ducks have missed on a handful of top quarterbacks in recent recruiting classes but have former four-star recruits Travis Jonsen, a freshman who missed the season due to an injured foot suffered in September, and Morgan Mahalak, who ran the scout team this fall as a redshirt freshman, currently on the roster and will welcome another, Terry Wilson, to campus in time for spring classes. If -- and it's a big if -- all current or incoming quarterbacks remain on the roster by the start of the 2016 season, the depth chart also would include senior Jeff Lockie, junior Taylor Alie and incoming freshman Justin Herbert joining Prukop and the others.



As Mariota's Heisman Trophy sat on its pedestal inside the lobby of UO's football operations center a first down's distance away, Helfrich argued that Oregon's results in developing QBs should be evaluated case-by-case rather than broadly.



"(Freshman) Travis Jonsen is in a situation, he had surgery and you can't control that but at the same time if I'm that guy I'm doing every single thing I can do develop mentally and get back in shape as quickly as possible," he said.

"If I'm somebody else who is of sound physical state, then again I'm doing every single thing possible and some guys take advantage of that and some guys don't, some guys at different rates, some guys not at all -- never at the degree you want them to. That whole development thing is absolutely individually based."



Prukop plans take his GRE and enroll in time for the winter academic quarter, which begins Jan. 4, two days after the 15th-ranked Ducks face No. 11 TCU (10-2) in San Antonio's Alamo Bowl.



-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif