Austin Novosad arrived at Bowling Green with a real chance to win the job, but that door has swung shut for now.
The former Oregon quarterback, who once looked like a promising development story for the Ducks, has been named the backup after Bowling Green coach Eddie George chose Jay Kastanin as the starter on Sunday. Kastanin, a Division II transfer from Assumption University, put together a big 2025 season with 1,974 passing yards and 19 touchdowns and earned Northeastern 10 conference MVP honors.
For Novosad, it’s another setback in a career that has already taken a few sharp turns. A former four-star recruit in the 2023 class, he landed at Oregon after Dante Moore flipped to UCLA and Oregon came in late with an offer.
Novosad then flipped himself on signing day, choosing the Ducks over Baylor. As a freshman, he spent the year backing up and completed 9-of-11 passes.
But once Moore transferred to Oregon, Novosad slid to third on the depth chart and the snaps dried up. He stayed in that third-string role in 2024 and 2025 before deciding to move on and end up at Bowling Green.
That move caught some people off guard. A lot of the offseason chatter had Novosad headed to Kentucky to follow former Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein.
Instead, he picked a situation that looked like it might give him the starting job right away, especially after learning behind quarterbacks like Moore, Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel. Now he’s back in a reserve role.
The bigger question is what comes next. Division II quarterbacks have made noise recently, with Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss serving as a notable example, and Novosad still has a path if the season breaks his way. For now, though, the battle in Bowling Green went against him.
Oregon’s transfer quarterback track record has been uneven, too. Tyler Shough went from Oregon to Texas Tech and then Louisville before becoming the starting quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. Ty Thompson, another former highly regarded Duck, transferred to Tulane and is now a tight end.
Bowling Green is now a place to watch this fall. Novosad may be the backup today, but his chance to start isn’t necessarily gone for good.
In Other News...
Oregon Alum Patrick Herbert Just Got An NFL Chance To Prove Himself
Patrick Herberts NFL path is taking him from one West Coast stop to another, and now it comes with a familiar family connection. The former Oregon tight end was released by the Jacksonville Jaguars during roster cuts, then quickly found a landing spot on the Los Angeles Chargers practice squad, putting him back in the mix as he tries to carve out a role at the pro level.
For Oregon fans, the most interesting part is the reunion waiting in Los Angeles. Patrick will be around his brother Justin Herbert, the Chargers starting quarterback, while he works to turn a practice-squad opportunity into something more permanent. For a player trying to prove he belongs, it is the kind of chance that can lead to a bigger one if he can keep pushing toward the active roster. [Read more 🡒]
Former Oregon Ducks Are Facing Very Different NFL Paths After Cuts
A wave of former Oregon Ducks found new landing spots after NFL cutdown day, with several players quickly moving from release lists to practice squads as teams sorted out the final edges of their rosters. Patrick Herbert landed with the Los Angeles Chargers, while Noah Whittington and Jamal Hill joined the Houston Texans, and veteran tight end Pharaoh Brown signed with the Indianapolis Colts, giving each of them a path to stay in the league for the moment.
The post-cutdown picture was not uniform, though, and that is what makes this stretch of the calendar so volatile for former college standouts. Some ex-Ducks ended up on injured reserve or worked through injury settlements, while others were able to survive the roster squeeze and make 53-man rosters elsewhere, leaving a familiar Oregon pipeline scattered across the NFL with very different short-term outlooks. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon Fans Have Another Staff Shakeup To Worry About Already
Oregon is heading into 2026 with a new-look staff under Dan Lanning, and the Ducks already know they will have different voices running both sides of the ball. Drew Mehringer is in as offensive coordinator, while Chris Hampton has taken over the defense and quickly emerged as one of the more intriguing coaches on the roster because of his track record and the immediate progress Oregon has made in the passing game since his arrival.
For Ducks fans, the larger concern is not just whether the staff can keep the program on a championship track, but how long it can hold together if the success continues. Hampton has already started to draw attention as a possible future head coach elsewhere, and that kind of buzz can be a compliment and a warning at the same time for a program trying to build stability in the middle of coaching turnover. [Read more 🡒]