EWU's Adams has offer from Oregon

Jan 28, 2015 - 10:22 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Eastern Washington and Oregon are scheduled to open their 2015 football seasons against each other on Sept. 5.

It would be ironic if Vernon Adams Jr. is the starting quarterback for Oregon instead of Eastern Washington, where he has been the highest-profile player in the FCS in recent seasons.

Adams said Wednesday he has a scholarship offer from Oregon and will visit the Pac-12 school this weekend to consider a transfer there.

"I'm not saying I'm leaving Eastern, but I'm just going to check it out and see what they have to say," Adams told the Spokesman-Review newspaper.

Oregon is in the market for a new starting quarterback, looking to replace Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota. Adams, a redshirt junior athletically this past season, would be eligible for his final season immediately under the NCAA's graduate student transfer-exception rule.

Adams, from Pasadena, California, has been named the Big Sky Conference's offensive player of the year and Walter Payton Award runner-up as FCS player of the year in each of the past two seasons. During that time, he has accounted for a combined 9,367 total yards (8,477 passing, 890 rushing) and 100 touchdowns (90 passing, 10 rushing) in 25 games.

He has posted huge games against two of Oregon's fellow Pac-12 schools, Oregon State and Washington. He accounted for 519 yards of offense and six total touchdowns in a 49-46 win over Oregon State to open the 2013 campaign, and passed for 475 yards and a school-record seven touchdowns in a 59-52 loss to Washington this past September.

A transfer to Oregon could boost Adams' NFL Draft status in 2016. He and his girlfriend Cheyenne Merritt have a seven-month-old son, Vernon Cash Adams III.

"He's my motivation," Adams told The Sports Network in December. "Now I really want to try to make it to the NFL or the CFL or be a coach at a Division I school so I can provide for my family and make sure he has everything I didn't have growing up."

Since 2012, Eastern Washington has 34 victories, which represent the best three-year stretch of success in program history. Prior to that stretch, however, the Eagles won the 2010 FCS national title.

Oregon is expected to have a battle among quarterbacks during spring practice, with Jeff Locke considered to be the front-runner entering the competition. The dual-threat style of the 6-foot, 190-pound Adams would appear to be a strong fit for the Ducks' spread attack.