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QuickTake:
The robotic QB has become a key piece of Oregon’s player development, giving Oregon skill players — and defenders — more ways to train outside of practice.
Oregon offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer isn’t going to name names, but there was a missed catch during the Ducks’ scrimmage last week.
It wasn’t a perfectly thrown pass, but it was catchable — just outside the comfort zone of the intended receiver. It’s spring ball, so the drop wasn’t a big deal. But afterward, Mehringer had a question for the player.
“That one wasn’t thrown right at you, it was thrown outside the frame of your body,” Mehringer said. “So, what do you think you should be doing on the Monarc?”
The Monarc Seeker is a 6-foot-tall, 300-pound modern take on the old JUGS machine – football’s spinning-wheeled version of the pitching machine that’s been prevalent across practice fields since the mid-70s. But instead of needing an extra person to load a football to be launched at a receiver in a fixed location, Monarc has a brain.
It can fire up to six footballs on its own at 80 mph in a span of nine seconds. It can launch balls 100 yards downfield, hit receivers in the chest and be programmed to work on specific things — like throwing just outside a natural catch radius, rep after rep.
It also costs about the same as a new car.
Oregon first tested the machine in 2023, with Dan Lanning saying at the time that they wanted to “create game reps,” though he noted they hadn’t used it long enough to give it a fair review.
Three years later, Mehringer called it integral.
“I think when we got it, it just felt like a fancy JUGS machine,” he said. “And credit to coach Lanning, we really pushed the idea of the utilization of that machine. I think we see dividends from that. It’s the variety of throws it can do that I think helps.”
It has also added another layer of competition.
Oregon defensive coordinator Chris Hampton, who uses the machine with his defensive players, said Monarc tracks which teams use it the most each week.
“We look at it and say, ‘Who’s the No. 1 team in the country?’” Hampton said. “Most weeks it’s us. Some weeks it isn’t. Then we push our guys because we want to be the No. 1 team in the country using the Monarc.”
In 2024, Sports Business Journal reported that 31 of the 68 Power Four football teams were using Monarc, while Pro Football Focus reported that teams switching to the machine saw a 29.1% increase in receiving touchdowns, an 18.3% increase in receiving yards and a 10.2% increase in overall receptions.
The beauty, according to Oregon coaches, is in the accessibility.
Outside practice hours, the Ducks keep the machine set up inside the Moshofsky Center and encourage all players to go get their reps. Coaches prefer players work in pairs, but the Monarc’s advantage over a JUGS machine is that players can use it on their own.
It’s part of why Oregon receiver Jeremiah McClellan has come down with some of the catches he has. During his freshman year, McClellan would come in at 10 p.m. and put in 500 reps on the Monarc.
That accountability shows up at every position, Oregon running back Jordon Davison said.
“Noah Whittington set the standard last year,” Davison said. “He had 100 catches a day.”
And for some players, the machine has become part of the daily routine.
“Carl Williams gets 300 catches every day,” Hampton said of Oregon’s redshirt junior defensive back. “Hopefully that pays off for him. But I know he does 300 every day, seven days a week.
“Guys are really attacking it.”
