ATHENS — Oregon coach Dan Lanning played coy when asked who would start under center for the Ducks, but Kirby Smart already has a pretty good idea.

“I’m not telling you,” Lanning said after Oregon’s practice on Thursday, asked about the starting quarterback position that Auburn quarterback Bo Nix transferred to Eugene to assume.

“The only reason I’m not talking about it with you guys, is I don’t know why that’s an advantage for us,” Lanning explained. “If I felt like it was an advantage, I would tell you guys … When you guys see that first snap, we’ll see who’s out there on the field.”

Redshirt freshmen Jay Butterfield and Ty Thompson are the Ducks’ other quarterbacks.

The No. 11-ranked Ducks play No. 3-ranked Georgia at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in both team’s season-opening game.

“We expect to see a lot of tempo, that’s what they believe in and they like to do it,” Smart said during his interview on Atlanta radio station 680 The Fan.

“(Oregon OC Kenny) Dillingham has been at Florida State and Auburn, and he’s been at Memphis with Dan,” Smart said.

“We certainly have a lot of information on those guys, but at the end of the day, it’s how does he utilize his personnel, and who are the guys he has to get touches to?”

Georgia faced Dillingham when he was the offensive coordinator at Auburn in 2019, holding on for a 21-14 win after Nix rallied the Tigers with two fourth-quarter touchdowns.

Lanning was quick to hire Dillingham, who helped Nix get off to that fast start, after taking over at Oregon.

“Kenny is one of the most innovative minds in football and will bring a dynamic and explosive offense to Eugene,” Lanning said.

“He has been a part of some of the most explosive offenses in college football during his coaching career, and we are eager to see that track record continue to grow at Oregon.”

The 2019 Auburn offense was third in the SEC and 28th in the nation in scoring (33.2 points per game), and in Dillingham’s final game, the Tigers scored more points in a win over Alabama (48) than Nick Saban’s Tide teams had ever allowed.

Nix was the SEC Freshman of the Year that season, breaking Auburn’s freshman team records for completions, yards and touchdowns.

“We know the quarterback they have, (Nix) spent a year with (Dillingham) at Auburn,” Smart said. “So there is some familiarity there.

“That should help them get things sped up, in terms of being ready to go, with a quarterback who has been with the coordinator before.”