Austin, TX
What Austin Novosad’s coaches say about Oregon football QB
Oregon football coach Dan Lanning talks after spring game
Oregon football coach Dan Lanning speaks after the Ducks’ annual spring game at Autzen Stadium in Eugene.
Nothing has been given to Austin Novosad.
Despite possessing arm talent like his coaches had never seen, even as a middle-schooler, Novosad didn’t start as a freshman at Dripping Springs High School near Austin, Texas.
Novosad didn’t start the first game of his sophomore season, either.
After subbing in during the second game of his sophomore season, Novosad looked in complete command of the offense, sprinted for a 40-yard touchdown run and gave his coaches every indication they made a mistake by not playing him in Week 1.
“That first opportunity in varsity, I think you’re like, he can be special,” Dripping Springs head coach Galen Zimmerman said. “I feel like he had some good guys around him that were great athletes, and it was just kind of like everything clicked when he got in the game at quarterback.
“From there, he never came out of the game again for the next three years.”
Novosad has thrived in a reserve role at Oregon under the tutelage of NFL quarterbacks Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel, and despite high-profile transfers in and out of the program, is in a full-blown competition with Dante Moore to be Oregon’s starter in 2025.
Here’s what coaches who have known Novosad the longest say about the third-year Duck QB.
‘He’s by far the top arm I’ve ever coached’: Oregon football’s Austin Novosad starred at Texas high school
Even as a middle-schooler, the way the ball flew out of Novosad’s hand impressed his future high school coaches.
When he first joined Dripping Springs’ program as a freshman, the tall and lanky Novosad popped in practice.
Novosad was rewarded for his patience as a sophomore, named his district’s offensive newcomer of the year after leading the Tigers to a 9-4 record and the second round of the state playoffs while completing 65.7% of his passes for 2,673 yards and 35 touchdowns with just four interceptions.
He had two seven-touchdown games that season.
“He’s by far the top arm I’ve ever coached,” offensive coordinator Al Pena said. “I’ve been coaching 17 years, and I’ve coached some good ones.”
Pena, a former Oklahoma State quarterback in the mid-2000s, said Novosad immediately commanded respect in the locker room, even at a young age.
The senior Novosad beat out at quarterback was disappointed but understood and moved to receiver to complement the budding QB. Every starting receiver worked out extra with Novosad after practice.
“Austin was one of those guys that the guys seemed to gravitate towards.
He was a quiet leader. He was always working hard. He was always wanting,” Pena said. “I mean, he was just a junkie for it. He loves football … he just seemed to be a magnet for wanting to get guys to want to work hard and to want to be a part of what we had going on … You wanted to play with him.”
The success only continued to mount for Novosad as a full-time starter his junior season.
He was named an Elite 11 finalist after earning third-team all-state honors and guiding his team to a 10-1 record and the state playoffs again. He was his district’s MVP, completing 63.6% of his passes for 3,399 yards and 40 touchdowns.
As a senior, Novosad was a top-10 quarterback prospect with numerous offers. Dripping Springs made the 6A state playoff quarterfinals and finished with a 12-2 record as Novosad tossed 39 touchdowns.
He finished his high school career with 8,983 yards passing, 114 touchdowns and just 18 interceptions.
A football junkie: Austin Novosad learned from Oregon greats Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel while waiting his turn
A verbal commit to Baylor for a full year, Novosad flipped his commitment and signed with Oregon in December 2022 after the Ducks hired offensive coordinator Will Stein, who had a strong relationship with Novosad while serving as a playcaller at UTSA.
Dripping Springs’ coaches told Novosad what he would be getting in to when he flipped his commitment to the Ducks.
Nix had announced his plans to return for a senior season at Oregon in 2023 and both Zimmerman and Pena told Novosad the Ducks would bring in the best of the best every season to compete at quarterback.
Novosad talked repeatedly throughout the spring about his relationship with Nix, now the starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos, and what he learned from the five-year collegiate veteran in 2023.
His former coaches said Nix and Gabriel, who arrived through the transfer portal in 2024, left a massive imprint on the way Novosad operates as a college quarterback, along with his work with Stein.
“Dillon and Bo were completely different quarterbacks, but one thing that was the super similar was just the preparation and that’s one thing I really learned from both of them,” Novosad said in the spring. “They executed at a really high level.”
Novosad returned home to Dripping Springs in May and broke down film and concepts he’s learned at Oregon with Pena.
Zimmerman said sometimes he’ll walk into his office with a new play drawn on the board and know exactly where it came from.
“I’m learning from him at this point and it’s awesome,” Pena said. “It definitely is a full-circle moment as a coach.”
None of that is new for Novosad, who has always used every opportunity he could to learn, develop and get better. He’s taken it to “another level” at Oregon, per his coaches.
“He studies as hard as anybody,” Stein said. “He is an extremely process-oriented guy, which is hard in our business, because everything is result-driven and it’s what everybody wants: results and playing time and touchdowns, where he’s the opposite.
“That doesn’t make him less competitive than anybody else. I think he just understands that there is a process and when his time is out there to shine, I believe he’s gonna do a hell of a job.”
After sitting and learning behind Nix as a freshman, two touted quarterback transfers arrived in fifth-year starter Gabriel and 2023 top prospect Moore.
The experienced Gabriel was anointed the starting quarterback for 2024 while Moore and Novosad split time as backups throughout the season in mop-up duty.
Through two seasons, Novosad has played in six games and completed 11 of 13 passes for 59 yards.
“Austin is just a student of the game,” Pena said. “Another quarterback coming in with a whole bunch of experience playing in a bunch of different offenses, and he took that opportunity to get tight with Dillon and learn as much and soak in as much as he could from him. That’s just who Austin is.”
‘If you’re a championship person, then you’ve got the chance to be a championship football player’
Novosad has done all the right things to put himself in a position to compete to be Oregon’s starting quarterback in 2025.
While nothing is assured, his coaches say he’s set himself up for success, no matter when it comes.
In high school, Zimmerman recalled Novosad taking time to help out at middle school track and field meets that his sister competed in.
When he comes home to Texas to visit family and friends, he still takes time to work out and throw to improve his game.
Stein said Novosad competed in the Manning Passing Academy in late June with some of the top quarterbacks in the country and never misses a chance to improve or learn something new.
“If you’re a championship person, then you’ve got the chance to be a championship football player,” Zimmerman said. “That’s him. He’s done a good job, and his parents, as well, he’s got a great family, very supportive family.”
That makes him a perfect fit at Oregon, according to Stein and his teammates, who say “the sky’s the limit” for Novosad.
Whether Novosad gets to start this season at Oregon, next year or elsewhere, his coaches are in agreement his time will come and he has set himself up to shine thanks to his preparation and love for competition and the game.
“Whenever his opportunity comes, I think he’s gonna be ready,” Zimmerman said. “I think he’s gonna prepare himself. I think he’s got a great support system around him as well. I’m excited to see, when he gets his opportunity, no matter what it is. Like he’s that kind of person that you genuinely root for.”
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.
AUSTIN, Texas – A 20-year-old was arrested and charged with murder for a deadly shooting at the Cambria Hotel in downtown Austin, police said.
What we know:
Police said on Monday, Jan. 5, around 6:55 a.m., officers responded to a report of a gunshot at the Cambria Hotel at 68 East Avenue #824. The caller said a person had been shot.
When officers arrived, they found a man with injuries. He later died at the scene. He was identified as Luke Bradburn.
The investigation revealed that Bradburn drove and crashed a car that belonged to 20-year-old Maximillian Salinas. After the crash, Bradburn and the other people in the car left and went to the Cambria Hotel.
Salinas went to the hotel and shot Bradburn.
On Jan. 6, Salinas was arrested and charged with murder.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Austin Police at 512-974-TIPS. You may submit your tip anonymously through the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program by visiting austincrimestoppers.org or calling 512-472-8477.
The Source: Information from the Austin Police Department
Chants of “shame” and “ICE out of Texas” rang through the street as Austin-area activists joined thousands across the nation in protesting the killing of Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.
The protest was held in front of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security building in Pflugerville.
Good, 37, was shot in her SUV while attempting to drive away from several ICE officers who ordered her to exit her vehicle.
Scarleth Lopez with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the organization that led the protest, said the videos of the shooting in Minneapolis were “sickening.”
“Trump has lied and and said that Renee was a terrorist. She was a mother. She was an innocent bystander,” Lopez said. “We must organize to stop these people from kidnapping and murdering.”
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Elizabeth Bope, a retired Pflugerville ISD teacher, said the claims from federal and state lawmakers that Good was attempting to strike the ICE agent with her vehicle inspired her to attend the protest.
Such claims were posted online by Vice President J.D. Vance and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Attorney General Ken Paxton reposted a statement from DHS on X, formerly known as Twitter, that said the ICE agent “relied on his training and saved his own life.”
“It’s beyond really any words that they killed this woman for no reason, but also that they’re lying about it,” Bope said. “I’m not even a radical left person, I’m just a regular old Democrat.”
Other key Texas leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have not commented on the shooting.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Doug Tickner, who said he works for a home building company in Austin, said he felt it was important to show up in person for Good.
“I don’t really think of Minneapolis as being that far from here, and it’s not like what happened in Minneapolis was some sort of one off unique event,” Tickner said. “This is part of a pattern, and I feel folks better wake up and realize that this is becoming more and more serious.”
The news that federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon, broke hours before the protest.
The gathering in Pflugerville is among the first of four anti-ICE demonstrations planned across the Austin area over the next few days.
Earlier on Thursday, protesters gathered at the intersection of 45th Street and Lamar Boulevard during rush hour. A protest on Friday will be held at the Capitol and another will be held Saturday at City Hall.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
State and federal leaders are now sparring over who should conduct an investigation into the Minneapolis shooting, according to NPR.
Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which was originally asked to conduct a joint investigation with the FBI, said in a statement it was later told the investigation would be led solely by federal authorities.
AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas agency is concerned that the flesh-eating New World screwworm could be getting closer to Texas without commercial livestock movement.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is sounding the alarm again for livestock owners to remain vigilant in watching for signs of the parasite in their animals.
Screwworm sighting near Texas
The latest:
Miller said in a Thursday release that a screwworm had been detected in a cow in González, Tamaulipas, a little more than 200 miles from the southern Texas border.
According to the commissioner, the cow had no reported history of movement outside Tamaulipas, and is the third active case reported there.
Officials in Mexico have not reported a known population of the worm in Tamaulipas. They’re working with U.S. authorities to investigate further into the new case.
What they’re saying:
“The screwworm now may be moving closer on its own, with no apparent link to commercial animal movement,” Commissioner Miller said. “Texas producers must act now—stay informed, stay vigilant, and prepare immediately. We cannot drop our guard for even a moment.”
Inspect livestock for screwworm
What you can do:
Miller urged immediate action from ranchers along the Texas border.
“Inspect your animals daily,” Miller said. “Check every open wound. If anything looks suspicious, report it right away. Better a false alarm than a delayed response—early detection and rapid reporting are our strongest defenses against this devastating pest.”
U.S. plan to fight screwworm in Texas
Big picture view:
The threat to cattle has been deemed so potentially devastating to the U.S. food supply that the federal government is committing $850 million to fight it.
Most of that money will be spent on building a sterile male fly production facility near the border.
The facility will produce 300 million sterile male flies a week to be dropped into target areas where the screwworm is now. Those male flies help to reduce the population size through mating without reproducing.
A much smaller portion of the funding will be used for screwworm detection technology.
In addition, the federal government has already spent $21 million on a sterile fly production facility in Mexico.
What are New World screwworms?
Dig deeper:
The insect gets its name because it’s only found in the Americas.
It lays its eggs in the open wounds of animals, and its larvae become parasites, threatening livestock, domestic animals, and even people.
The screwworm was mostly eradicated in Texas and the rest of the United States in the 60s. But now, it’s moving north up from Panama and has a known presence a little over 300 miles south of the Texas-Mexico border.
The Source: Information in this article comes from Sid Miller.
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