When the Eastern Washington Eagles take on the Oregon Ducks in week one of the 2015 NCAA football season, they will see a familiar face. Former EWU quarterback Vernon Adams will presumably being under center for the Ducks when they take the field on September 5, 2015. Adams is taking advantage of the NCAA graduate transfer rule that says a player becomes immediately eligible if he has completed his undergraduate degree. That being said, Adams will not be able to train with his former teammates or use the facilities even though he is still on scholarship.

He was informed by head coach Beau Baldwin that he is not allowed to participate with the Eastern Washington program. "For the next four months, he can't prep down there with them and he certainly can't be in our weight room or throwing with our guys ... and I talked to him about that," Baldwin said. "I go, 'What's your plan for the next four months? How are you going to prepare for your senior year? I love you to death, but one, you're moving on, and two, you're moving on to who we're playing in Week 1.'"

It has to be a hard decision for a coach to make to not allow a former player the opportunity to work out with his former team. You also get a sense he is not a fan of the transfer rule allowing Adams to move from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision.

"It's not what the rule is intended for, and when you're Oregon and we've gotten a guy that we recruited when no one else was ... ultimately we feel like, you know what, we were also the ones who developed him from a level where obviously out of high school he wasn't at that level," Baldwin said. "When you're Oregon and over the last three or four years you're not recruiting a number of guys that can fill in when Marcus [Mariota] leaves, I'm kind of asking the question -- I'm flattered, I guess -- but what are we doing over there? "I don't see [Ohio State coach] Urban Meyer going to Northern Iowa for his next guy."

It will be interesting to see how Adams will stay in shape the next few months prior to his move to Oregon. It's also no sure thing that he will be the starting quarterback for the Ducks when the season starts. He has a lot of catching up to do and will have to work constantly on making sure he is up to speed with the Oregon offense.

In three seasons at Eastern Washington, Adams threw for 10,438 yards and 110 touchdowns with 31 interceptions. He was twice the runner-up for the Walter Payton Award and was named Big Sky player of the year twice as well. The University of Washington Huskies and Oregon State Beavers will not be happy seeing him in the Pac-12. In 2013 against the Beavers, he accounted for 518 yards of total offense, a Reser Stadium record, as the Eagles pulled off a 49-46 upset. In 2014, at Husky Stadium, he threw for a career-high 475 yards with a school-record seven touchdowns against a defense stacked with NFL talent in a 59-52 loss.

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About the author
Chris Blakely
Chris is an American sports journalist based out of Seattle, Washington. Co-Editor of the soccer section of VAVEL USA. He also is the leading editor of VAVEL USA's NWSL section.