Patrick Herbert caught first-quarter touchdown passes of 23 and 49 yards in Oregon’s 49-13 win over Arizona State on Saturday.

He finished the game with three catches for 78 yards. He tied his career-high for receptions. He set a new career-high for yards and scores. And after the game, both his quarterback and his head coach couldn’t say enough about the junior from Sheldon High.

“Everything he does for our team, everything he does for the program, what his family has meant to the Oregon family, I think it’s only right that he’s a captain and goes out there and has two touchdowns,” Nix said after the game.

Herbert is the younger brother of NFL superstar and Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert. In his five years with Oregon, Herbert has been much more of a role player. He redshirted in 2019 and then missed all of 2020 and 2021 because of injuries.

Last season, he appeared in all 13 games. He caught six passes for 95 yards and his first career touchdown. So far this year, Herbert has 13 catches for 175 yards and three scores.

“Pat’s a great player,” Dan Lanning said. “He’s a great example of a guy that just puts in the work every single day and, you know, probably doesn’t get highlighted as much as he deserves. But we talked about everybody’s alive in this offense. Anybody can be the guy that gets targeted and I think that was a great opportunity for Pat to go out there and prove exactly what his ability is.

“He catches the ball with strength. He took a couple of hits on a couple of catches, but for him to go out there and be our first few scores is really impressive.”