Will Justin Herbert be able to beat back Terry Wilson and Travis Jonsen to remain the Oregon signal caller this fall?

There is no more visible player on a football team than the starting quarterback. They're typically the face and leader of the program. It's why teams with excellent defenses and supporting casts don't typically win titles with subpar signal callers. That brings us to the first of our position breakdown series for spring football: quarterback.

In these breakdowns we'll aim to explain what's at stake for each position, who the major players are and what do we hope to learn as spring football kicks off on April 5.

What we know: Justin Herbert can play football. That might be over-simplified, but the Sheldon product was fabulous last season in seven starts as a true frosh. He threw for 1936 yards, 19 touchdowns with just four interceptions. While the Ducks went just 2-5 with him behind center, that's not as much an indictment of the sophomore's abilities as it is on the previous staff's inability to lead a winning football team.

We also know that there's a new sheriff in town. While the arrival of Willie Taggart has rejuvenated what was a growingly apathetic fanbase, it also means that nothing is guaranteed for Herbert. Herbert was excellent in the vision of the previous regime, but does he fit what Taggart and company will want to do at Oregon? That's perhaps the most pressing question surrounding the program entering this spring.

Who returns: Justin Herbert, 6-6 225 pounds, sophomore; Terry Wilson, 6-3 205 pounds, freshman; Travis Jonsen, 6-3 215 points, sophomore; Taylor Alie, 6-0 185 pounds, senior.

Who's new: Braxton Burmeister, 6-1 195 pounds, freshman.

What's intriguing: We mentioned the mystery behind whether Herbert fits Taggart's vision or not. That's a reasonable inquiry given how South Florida operated the last two years. Both Taggart and Helfrich ran a spread offense, but the comparisons end there. Bulls quarterback Quinton Flowers ran for an astounding 1530 yards last season and 991 the year before. That's a ton. The last two years Flowers ran it 389 and threw it 607 times. Conversely, Herbert ran it 58 times and threw it 255 times last year. Basically Flowers threw it 1.5 times per every rush, while Herbert threw it 4.5 times per every rush. Are you sensing the difference?

None of this is to say that Taggart won't stick with Herbert, but it's worth mentioning that Oregon has a redshirt freshman who fits the Flowers role a whole lot more than Herbert. His name is Terry Wilson, and he was the ninth-rated dual-threat quarterback in the 2016 class. Much of this battle will depend upon how flexible Taggart wants to be. Will he make his personnel fit his offense? Or will he make his offense fit his personnel? It's important to note that Herbert doesn't take the field wearing cement cleats. The kid can move around and has above average top end speed for the position. But his running traits don't compare to Wilson, who reportedly runs a 4.53 40 yard dash as a high schooler.

We don't mean to leave Travis Jonsen or Braxton Burmeister out of the discussion. But it's hard to believe either will be well-equipped enough to beat out Herbert or Wilson.

What we hope to learn this spring: The answer to the two questions above. We expect plenty of questions to be asked of the new head man's vision for his offense. How transparent he'll be will be his choice. With practice expected to be open to some extent to fans and media alike, however, we'll get at least a glimpse of who's running with the ones. We may even get an indication as to what the offense will ultimately look like based upon what sort of drills they appear to be emphasizing.

DuckTerritory's pick: Ultimately, we don't expect Taggart to make an announcement by the end of spring. We might be totally off here and he may make it following the spring game or even before it, but that doesn't really fit Taggart's competition mantra. We think this will be true for all position battles. We'd expect him to keep them pretty hush until the fall, to ensure players don't become disenfranchised. In the end, we anticipate Herbert keeping his job. He's just too good not to. We know it shouldn't matter, but we also wonder what the public backlash would like if a budding star from a local high school is pushed aside after a fantastic opening season. We imagine it wouldn't be good.