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The FSU beat down in the Rosebowl was definitely the highlight of the Helfrich era. But we had lost 10 or 11 starters by the time we played tOSU. To me, promoting Pellum was OK. He had earned the chance. But hiring Hoke was beyond questionable. That was a bonehead move and many here at OBD recognized it. Losing the locker room was the last straw. I will always like MH, good guy, good Oregonian. Not necessarily a HC. As a result, his firing led to Willie, which led to Mari0, which got us to coach Lanning. Which was worth the aggravation to get him. Alls well that ends well.

I agree that Nick would have been the best choice. Though I think the end of the legacy staff was fast approaching regardless of who was HC.

Nick Saban is 73 and turning 74 in 3+ months. I would think it unlikely that at this age he would start a new stressful 3-5 year adventure.

Good discussion. I agree with much of what has been said. Helfrich was an excellent offensive coordinator and a good man. If I remember correctly, it was he who recruited Marcus Mariota. I hated to see him dismissed. However, that was probably the correct decision, not because the fans were restless, but because he had "lost the locker room." I recall a statement from Pharoah Brown,( who had been punished slightly for throwing a snowball at a car), that bordered on contempt for his coach. What they ought to have done after Chip left was to appoint Nick Alioti as head coach and keep Helfrich as OC. Alioti had the leadership ability to maintain the program. The defensive collapse that doomed Helfrich would not have happened on Nick's watch. Nick would have coached about five years, which would have provided Mark time to develop or to move on. I have always had the sense that, although Nick is too good a Duck to admit it publicly, he was deeply unhappy at being passed over in favor of a man who was much less experienced than he.

It did but it was also higher than Bellotti's so when I say norm... He is basically the average of Kelly and Bellotti. Regardless the recruiting game needed to improve. Kelly's average was helped by really one incredible recruiting class and being the hottest offense out there. I would argue that Kelly wasn't going to improve recruiting if he stayed and he probably would start to look more and more like Helfrich's numbers if he stuck around. The engine of Oregon recruiting was quickly becoming outdated ... A change needed to happen.

Well by your own sourced article, Chip averaged #17.5 Rivals ranking and Helf #22.5, so whether this qualifies as "deterioriorating" or not, it clearly went down. Granted his numbers are very comparable to the Bellotti years, but the bar had been raised and I stand by my assertion. Peace out.

It's actually really impressive how many found homes, and pretty far up the depth charts at that. The talent is stacked really deep here.

Great offensive coach and not so great recruiter. Still a good Oregon guy!

When your players' best years were their freshman years you have a coaching problem. As Taggart showed, the gentle nature of Helfrich led to a discipline problem that left players underdeveloped in every possible way, so much so that many regressed in college which means high school teams were better coached. Helfrich did not have that ability to tailor the mindset of the coaches and players to a growth mindset. It's like he thought a "next play" mindset was good enough, but it isn't. Helfrich had no business being a head coach. He didn't deserve to have the AD stomp on him publicly as he went out the door, but moving on was the right decision.

This is why I think he had to go, from stories about that time the team had turned on MH. Kelly created a culture, and whatever shortcomings he had as a coach, "The Blur" and 46-7, covered them up

Yeah, Greg should watch out for the "guy in the know" who told him this or he might sell him a bridge. Saban's already the GOAT, he saw what the sport was turning into and got out.

He was actually in the Oregon norm for the most part. https://fishduck.com/2022/02/a-defense-of-helfrichs-recruiting-legacy/ He was still under the shadow of the Kelly sanctions which reduced scholarships by a couple per year, not great but not a killer, but what really hurt was the amount of official visits per year dropped from 35 (max) to I believe 28 (I think it's in my article posted above). That was killer to Oregon recruiting at the time because the key was always get likely commits on campus and lock them in with the facilities. That is more or less still the case under Lanning. But with 23-25 scholarships spots and only about 28 official visitors allowed, they had to get really really selective as to who they would give an official to because they couldn't afford to take as many long shot recruits. Great example of a long-shot (that paid off) was Kayvon Thibodeux under Cristobal. He didn't see the Ducks as that much of a contender but decided to take an official visit and just take a look at the program. His time at Oregon completely blew him away and that was what sealed the deal for him. However, for every KT out there there far at least 3-5 misses. Even the master recruiter Lanning has suffered a TON of high profiles misses this recruiting cycle. Oregon was already a conservative recruiting operation and it got worse with those sanctions. The first recruiting class Helfrich would have had without sanctions was 2017 and the uncertainty of his position hurt that class. Taggart took over and brought in a class of a lot of Helfrich recruits who would go on to be stars... more on this soon as I finish the Taggart article. I do believe context gives us a fuller picture of these individuals. They're human and by default complex. And not to make myself out to be too much of a Helfrich homer but I do believe Helfrich had a culture problem within the program developing and it manifested in 2016. If he was save his job he was going to need to revamp the Oregon culture, which obviously didn't happen.

Exactly, the game of social media passed him by. Not necessarily his fault . . . See Saban's voluntary exit as the game passed him by. Yes, but not to the heights we are seeing today due to his, Taggarts and Cristobal's departures.

I don't knock the Pellum hire, it was the Oregon way to hire from within when possible and Pellum was close with Aliotti for the better part of 20 years. That seemed like a safe and surefire hire. It didn't work out that way in the end. Pellum didn't have the aggressiveness that Aliotti had when it came to scheme and play-calling. Hoke was a super-duper-major fail and he was the highest paid Oregon staff member that wasn't the HC at the time of his hire. The Ducks paid out for that disaster. There are so many things that went wrong with that hire. I think first and foremost was that Hoke wanted to shift Oregon's defensive front from the 3-4 to a 4-3. The biggest problem in this shift was that Oregon outright lacked the proper bodies to pull it off. It needed more defensive linemen and a part part of Oregon going for a 3-4 defensive front as to reduce their dependency on those linemen who are difficult to recruit as there aren't very many of them. From there on out it all just fell apart. I like to think if Helfrich was given another season Hoke would have been fired and he would have had another shot at hiring. Perhaps the biggest weakness in Brooks-Helfrich era was that Oregon was so dependent on hiring from within at times that many of those coaches never got terribly good at hiring from a large pool of candidates. Look at what happened to Kelly after he left, he may have finally put together a good staff by his last year at UCLA. Lanning has done an incredible job in his hires and Cristobal did a good job hiring good people on paper but that never really came together in practice. I look forward to writing on those two coaches and their methods more in the weeks to come.

I remember him as someone whose learning curve didn’t match up well with the expectation curve of AD staff and fans alike.

USA Today is not wholesale buying Sankey's SOS claims. https://sports.yahoo.com/article/greg-sankey-embellishes-bold-claims-175723796.html

The most problematic defensive player for each of Oregon's 2025 opponents Who will be the best defensive players the Ducks will play this fall? Here are the most problematic ones from each team on the 2025 Oregon schedule. The most problematic defensive player for each of Oregon's 2025 opponents

If the SEC stays with 8 conference games, the PO should stay at 12. The B1G is No. 1 in $$$ and will stay at No. 1 if the PO stays with 12 teams in the field. https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/breaking-news/article/whats-next-for-college-football-playoff-format-sec-commish-says-it-could-stay-the-same-if-sides-remain-divided-164415303.html

I hate it when Pawallll agrees with me. 🤬 https://athlonsports.com/college/lsu-tigers/brian-kelly-gives-honest-reaction-reports-nick-saban-returning-college-football

SEC Media Days begin today. B1G is at the plate on 7/22. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/alabamas-playoff-outlook-texas-protection-for-arch-manning-among-2025-sec-media-days-burning-questions/?ftag=SNL-04-10aaa0b&ET_CID=457809&ET_RID=52482716

Come on Greg! Saint Nick hates the pay-for-play new game. He's wealthy and has his businesses, including being the biggest Mercedes dealer in Alabama, to attend to. He's retired in no state income tax Florida and golfing his ball whenever he wants to. He is still in the game with his Gameday gig that won him an Emmy. I've heard that Greg is coming out of retirement to suit up for the Birmingham Stallions.😁 It's a looooong off season.

One of the "fun things" about road game attendance is near-stadium atmosphere. Personally, a visit to The Grove at Ole Miss would attract me. There are other on-campus stadiums, near campus business districts, that are attractive. One aspect of Iowa's on-campus stadium is that it is close to residential neighborhoods. Season ticket holders often rent parking spaces on the front lawns of homes nearby. If you are invited to a tailgate, your host may tell you, "we're at 223 Melrose Dr." The home owner rents the space, and may provide a porta-potty as part of the annual rent for the Saturday renters, water, electricity hookup. The stadium is "walking distance" from downtown for those reasonably fit. But, if you are going and have a car I would suggest you do some research on parking. A lot of these B1G stadiums are so old they are surrounded by other development rather than being at the edge of town with parking lots. The last two November 8's in Iowa City were 55 degrees. But, you can't count on that.

Dak is EA's No. 1 Newbie. On3Ranking top-50 freshmen in EA Sports College Football 26...EA Sports College Football 26 officially dropped on Thursday. On3 is breaking down the top-50 freshmen in the video game.

Greg McElroy: Insider says Nick Saban isn't done coaching

Where Oregon Commits and Targets Landed in the Updated 2026 Rivals300 Ranking On3Where Oregon Commits and Targets Landed in the Updated 20...Tracking the latest movement of Oregon commits and targets in the 2026 recruiting class following the release of the Rivals 300 ranking.