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According to the AP voters, OBD has one ranked team left to play in the regular season, No. 23 USC. According to the widely circulated and referred to Massey Computer Ratings, including USC, OBD has three top 25 games left, with two of the games on the road at No. 18 Iowa and No. 19 UW. It will be very interesting to see the playoff committee's first ranking on Tuesday, 11/4. Will SEC commissioner Greg Sankey still be enamored with the committee's new metrics? Will B1G commissioner Tony Petitti have reason to stay with his automatic qualifier PO format? Oregon Ducks On SIBreaking Down Oregon's Rough Remaining Big Ten ScheduleThe Oregon Ducks are 7-1, going 4-1 in the Big Ten conference, following a win against the Wisconsin Badgers. The Ducks are heading into a bye week, and will ha

There was a time when most of the SEC was 3 deep at most positions but that IS NOT the case over the last 3 years. I agree with Jon -Franklin roasted the Duck.

Not a guru, but my opinion is that if the mesh is done as you suggest--it can be an RPO, or a play-action pass regardless of where the QB begins the play. Making the linebackers commit to defending the run is the reason for the fake, or mesh, so the passing lanes are open, IMHO. With that being said...coaches everywhere have their own terms and definitions.

Those guys could gain a great perspective if they read Jon's articles. I'd love for Finebaum to have a conversation with Jon as well. But most in Dixieland still think the SEC should have all the top ten teams.

Rumors are swirling that Lane Kiffin might be on the move. If so, I think he should take the PSU job. Lots of resources, great history and college town. Their uniforms are some of the ugliest in college football, but that's probably a bit superficial. I think LSU is the next best opening, but I don't know enough about other coaches around the nation to make a suggestion here.

I think the SEC is deeper, no doubt. But I haven't watched an SEC team this season, including Texas A&M, that cannot be defeated. A&M surrendered a ton of points to Notre Dame and won on a Domer's special teams mistake. A&M defeated Arkansas 45-42. Terrific win over LSU, but LSU has floundered the entire season. The B1G had a winning record against the SEC last season, including winning two games, Illinois vs South Carolina, and Michigan vs. Alabama, where the B1G teams were significant underdogs. I think the SEC is the top football conference, but it is not that much superior to the Big Ten.

I wasn't saying the conference games were easy, just that I wouldn't label any of those games as on par with what you would call a great win. Winning at Oregon was a great game. I've been saying all along that the SEC isn't as great those on ESPN do. Look at the post season results. Alabama lost to a terrible ACC team, but rolled along against what is perceived as top ten teams that haven't beaten a top ten team outside of the conference which got over ranked with South Carolina and Florida both being top fifteen. Both were given the SEC boost. Oklahoma beat a fringe top 25 Michigan. Texas A&M won at Notre Dame. That's what the SEC has done out of league. But you have to look South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma and give them credit for at least scheduling P4 opponents or Notre Dame. Indiana plays absolutely nobody outside of their required conference slate. Oregon has played Georgia in the Lanning era, that's something I've always enjoyed about the Ducks. They've gone to Michigan and Ohio State before they were in the B1G. They earned their flowers and stretched their wings. Indiana has one great win, they looked great in it. They've looked great in dismantling above average B1G teams like Illinois by fifty. But I can't say Curt Cignetti has proven himself to be in the Ryan Day conversation. I can't put him in the Dan Lanning conversation either. Dan Lanning has a B1G title. Ryan Day has a couple B1G titles and a National title. I give them incredible weight. Curt Cignetti has been called by some in this hyperbolic time frame as the greatest coach in college football. To that I quote Lee Corso "Not so fast my friend." To be considered in that elite class and not some plucky underdog with so so expectations, you have to have more than one great win. A great win isn't just winning against conference opponents. If that were the case, James Franklin would still have a job.

This is the best description of what is probably going to be happening at these schools. However, most of them did not resort to these hiring practices in the past when they had a high degree of success. LSU hired Saban from Michigan State after his only successful season in East Lansing (9-2). They then hired Les Miles who never finished higher than 3rd in the Big 12 South. Then they hired Ed O after he was successful as the Tiger's interim HC. Florida had huge success with Steve Spurrier whom they hired from Duke. He was fairly successful but had never won a bowl game before coming UF. Urban Meyer was a highly successful yet unknown coach out of Utah. He had only coached the Utes for two years and was the HC at BGU for three years before that. It seems like schools aren't even interviewing candidates anymore. They just pick a big name and throw money at him. The three big names from 2021 who got poached were replaced by guys who have had more success. I would much rather have Freeman, Venables and Lanning over Kelly, Riley and Mario.

David spot on i would love for JD to start because he brings power and agility to his carries. Perhaps that may bring a quicker jump start to the Duck offense. This old Duck fan owes DL and WS an apology. I have never commented on the game thread until this Wisconsin game. I was critical of the play calls and O line energy and performance. As an old coach who cut his teeth in the Roman Coloseum, i know better than to criticize during the game. A football game at this level is a high stakes chess match. Calling plays to see how the other teams D reacts. Looking for the other teams tell signs. The chess game may take all 60 minutes and the only goal is to win. DL said, because of the wind and rain that there wasnt going to be much passing. OBD's needed to run the ball to win this game....and that the BIG plays great run D and Whisky was strong against the run. On the first few drives NW and JD ran into stone walls. DL said in his post game comments that Wisconsin had tells from film review. And the Duck O had to run different plays to expose the tells. This took awhile but once they did, then JD found a little room and they moved the ball. NW was running designed plays to set up future play calls. On the 99 yard drive, once they got breathing room on the 3rd down pass conversion, then they exploited those tells. Moved down the field and scored.OBD's owned the last 4 minutes of the first half. Then inspite of Dante going down on the 3rd play of 2nd half, Brock came in and the Duck O continued to exploit those tells and controlled the first 4 minutes and beyond. And Whisky could not stop the Ducks. Only 7 penalties, some drive killers and a lazy holding penalty by MU kept the Ducks out of the endzone. These tells and adjustments opened up the running plays. Didn't matter whether NW or JD carried the ball. DL and the team were proud of Brock. DL said Brock called and executed his check downs. They even carried him on their shoulders in the locker room. We may all be underestimating his performance...... Before the start of the 99 yard drive the Ducks had very few rushing yards or any yards for that matter. DL acknowledged that they ended up with over 200 plus rushing yardsl Thats impressive and this fan says kudos to the Duck O. Its fun, exciting and also frustrating to watch these games. It's even more fun to read the game thread comments. The highs, the lows and all that goes into those 4 plus hours during the game. So sorry DL, WS and the O. That was a coaching masterpiece and I criticized it while it was being created. The Duck D dominated Whisky and repeatedly gave the O the opportunity to win this game. I think the pollsters recognized this solid win...... GO DUCKS.......

Thank you, DM, for another spot-on article. Several player rotations seem to be off this season, at least to me. 🙃 Some of this may be due to the coaching staff looking at the long game? Assuming Indiana and Ohio State run the table and Oregon makes the playoff, with the goal being a Natty, ideally, the season is half over. Eight more games to play with three in the regular season against Massey's top 25-ranked Iowa, USC, and Washington, and four PO games against top competition. Davison is a stud, but he is also a freshman who I don't think has played a 16-game season. Not an exact comparison, of course, but on many occasions, rookies in the NFL start strong and taper off as the season progresses. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for pointing out that the Badgers' run defense is not a pile of garbage. Luke Fickell could not have asked for better weather on Saturday. Oregon is not going to roll over every Big Ten opponent. OBD ran the B1G regular season and champ game table last season; Oregon won by three points in Madison. Winning football games is hard. Notwithstanding what ESPN has to say, winning B1G football games in a Power 2 conference is very hard. Even with a talented QB, but one who has not started close to sixty games. Thanks again. Please, OBD, win this bye week and kick Iowa in Kinnock on 11/8.

People at Penn State compare the Franklin firing to Georgia, the funny thing is Kirby still has only beaten Alabama once in his tenure. Of course that was the 2022 National Championship game, but Alabama still owns a place in Athens. Kirby has those two National Titles, but I don't think he's going to have a dynasty like Saban. It's hard to win titles, much tougher in today's era. I don't think you have to be at a traditional power to contend every year. What the heck is a traditional power anyway? The prerequisites change depending on who you ask. Michigan, Notre Dame, USC, and Ohio State think you have to have titles in the 40's. Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Miami, FSU, Tennessee, Nebraska, and Penn State think you have to have at least two titles. So is Minnesota, Army, Michigan State, Colgate, Navy, University of Chicago, and Harvard considered blue bloods? Truth is Indiana, Ole Miss, Texas Tech, BYU, Oregon, Houston, Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, and a G05 program is going to make a run. Imagine a world where Vanderbilt and Indiana meet in the playoff. Imagine a world where Ole Miss is playing memorable games that have actual meaning while Florida , Penn State, and LSU are waiting to talk to their head coach because they have nothing else to look forward to. Penn State is playing at Ohio State this week. Guess where College Game day is headed? Not Columbus for the millionth time. They are going to be in Utah, the first Big 12 game in over three years. A Cincy game is more important and high profile than an Ohio State game. In November!! The nuts in Ohio are going to explode if they discover that. Scott Frost made some waves preseason when he said he regretted taking the Nebraska job. He said he felt pressured to go home and save the big brand, he said he never felt at home back "home", and he discovered UCF is truly where he felt comfortable.. " Sometimes home isn't where you grew up, or even where you played. Sometimes home is where you feel like you can just be you with no pressure. It's not even where all your family and childhood friends reside. You grow up and realize home is where you make it. You get married, have kids. Make new friends, and you find out that you don't have to go any special place to go back home. Sometimes that special place is where you already are, and you discover you've been home all along"

To Gat’s defense, I do believe that the SEC is more balanced, so week-in and week-out it’s more of a slog and teams will beat up on one another. The B1G is top heavy and its teams might be the best this year (we’ll see in the playoffs). I wouldn’t bet Oregon straight up on a neutral field this year against Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss or Texas A&M. Oregon has not beaten a ranked team, yet, and we are midway through the season. What’s our best win to date - Northwestern or Montana State?

It would appear that we share the same favorite teams: Ducks and 49ers . . . awesome! Great comment as I was also thinking that the Ducks could involve more play action with Davison setting the tone in the run game. Question for any Xs/Os gurus. When the Ducks QB does the mesh with the RB, then pulls it to pass, is that "play action". Or is "play action" specifically defined as, from under center, QB's back to the line of scrimmage pretending to hand the ball off but doesn't so he can pass?

Joel Klatt names the first three calls LSU should make, and No. 3's a stunnerAutzen ZooJoel Klatt names the first three calls LSU should make, a...LSU is one of the top jobs in college football with a rich regional talent pool, a passionate fanbase and deep, committed booster support.

“Noah Whittington ended up having a pretty good game with 97 yards, and even had a better yards per carry stat than Davison at 6.9 yards per carry” Great article. As I mentioned in my post below, 9 of Whittington’s 14 carries against Wisconsin were 2 yards or fewer. His averages are misleading because he’ll break a long run to improve his YPC. I’d rather have a RB who consistently gets 4-6 yards a carry. The offense will be playing ahead of the chains, most of the time. Davison appears to be the only RB on Oregon’s roster capable of that against better defenses, IMO. I would prefer to see Oregon rely on the ground game with Davison and then use play action off of it. I’m a Niners fan and Coach Stein should learn from Coach Shannahan. He is a master.

Gat, I love that you are on this board, but with all due respect, winning Big Ten football games is not a piece of cake. Cig's win at Oregon (sigh) was the one that grabbed the nation's attention, of course. But hanging in at 2-loss Iowa on a day the offense wasn't playing well, likely due to Iowa's defense, was a very good win. The win last season against a Michigan team that defeated Bama in the postseason was significant, as are the wins over bowl-eligible B1G teams. We live in a Power 2 CFB world. When did winning in the SEC become Herculean, and winning in the B1G passe? The B1G won two titles in a row, and there seems to be a journalistic jihad against the conference and its leadership. Texas and Bama have to come back against two mediocre SEC opponents, and the comebacks are the greatest of all time. In a monsoon, Wisconsin keeps it close against OBD, and The Athletic drops Oregon to No. 12 in its irrelevant poll. In the Massey computer rankings, Ohio State and Indiana are first and second. No. 6 Oregon has a respectable SOS ranking of 25 to date, 18th going forward. The computer does not rank a G5 team in its top 25. The SEC has the most teams ranked, with 10 in the top 25. The B1G has seven teams ranked: Michigan, Iowa, Washington, and USC are also ranked. Then it's B12 4, ACC 3, and Notre Dame. The Athletic's Stewart Mandel, in his latest Mailbag, referred to UW's record as being 'tainted.' A loss to the No. 1 team in the country and on the road at a ranked Michigan makes UW's 6-2 record 'tainted '? The B1G had the best postseason record in 2024-25. 3-loss PO screwed over South Carolina was defeated by 3-loss Illinois, and 3-loss PO screwed over Alabama was defeated by a 5-loss Michigan team that had many players sitting the game out while Bama had all hands on deck. I watch a lot of SEC football, and I more than respect the quality of play, but I haven't seen a team in any conference this season that cannot be defeated. Good luck with the Gators search. Florida should be competing for national championships.

At LSU the portal opens for 30 days, and some championship talent will hit itChaos is a ladder. With Brian Kelly out at LSU the players on the Tigers roster have 30 days to seek a new deal and a fresh start, and a significant number of them will take it. Part of the frustration with Kelly is that he couldn't win at a championship level despite stacking recruiting classes that ranked No. 10, No. 7 and No. 5 in the last three seasons. There are some big names on the Tiger roster, and a few of them can be pieces that could put a contending team to an entirely new level. In the 2025 class the Ducks battled to the end for 5-star cornerback DJ Pickett. A fake Twitter account went viral yesterday aping the logo of On3 Sports, claiming that 5-star linebacker Harold Perkins intends to sit out the rest of the season and enter the portal. Autzen ZooAt LSU the portal opens for 30 days, and some championshi...Chaos is a ladder. With Brian Kelly out at LSU the players on the Tigers roster have 30 days to seek a new deal and a fresh start,

I think the Coach Lannings and Cigs of the world are far better off at their new blood schools than jumping to blue blood schools. If neither never win a championship, just being in the hunt most years will be good enough for their fan bases. Can you imagine several years in a row like OBD had last year and complaining that your coach just can't get it done? I think we're just beginning to see the problems of the super conference concept. With ever expanding conference sizes, some teams will just be stuck at mid upper tier just do to basic math. UGA, Bama, Texas, OU and LSU can't all win the conference every year. Throw in upstarts like Ole Miss Vandy and a reborn Florida and someone on this list will have to be 4-4 or worse. That's just math doing what math does. OBD went out brought in an up and coming D coordinator, Indiana brought in an old coach that you had to google to find out about. The blue bloods don't want to take that route. That keeps them stuck on a flavor of the month merry go round. In the end I see most of these fired coaches just swapping schools because they will be the biggest names available. Rinse and repeat.

Great post. There is too much money floating around and no patience. Can you imagine where Oregon would be if it fired Coach Brooks before the Rose Bowl? What about Coach Bellotti after a few of his “down” years, instead of showing patience and a commitment to someone who reportedly turned down more attractive head coaching jobs to stay at Oregon? Brian Kelly and James Franklin were considered two of the top coaches in college football. Who are these programs going to get that’s a clear upgrade, worth spending $50M to part ways with those coaches, plus whatever they are going to have to spend on the new coach? Is Nick Saban, Urban Meyer or even Chris Peterson going to give up their low pressure gigs to get back in the game? Are those programs as elite as their boosters, fans and administrations believe they are? How many teams can realistically compete for a national championship every year? Hopefully the top coaching prospects see how their peers were treated by these programs. It’s not like they need the money and do they need the unrealistic expectations and pressure, on top of starting over?

Bo, the last of the QBs drafted at his position in the 1st round, leads them all in the most important stat - WINS! He refined and elevated his game at Oregon. When I see folks down on Dante, I realize how spoiled we were to have QBs with the most starts in CFB back-to-back.

While I agree with the fact that Cignetti and Lanning are special, I think the programs investment and backing help them be special. Indiana didn't give any of their previous head coaches the financial backing they gave Curt, and while what he's done is impressive. He really only has one great win to his name thus far. Indiana has played nobody outside of their forced conference games and their playoff game. Oregon has been a wagon since the Belotti days. Outside of Mark Helfrich who won a playoff game btw, there hasn't been a head coach dismissed due to on field performance in my lifetime I believe. Guys leave Oregon and get fired, but that's because those places don't have the alignment imo. FSU hasn't had a guy the program and fans both loved since Bobby Bowden. Jimbo Fisher left because he didn't get what he wanted, and he failed at Texas A&M with all the things he could ever want except 100 percent alignment. You have more money than agreement out there. Boosters, oil tycoons, and alumni all have different opinions of how to "Gig Em". The only thing they agree on is their hatred for Texas. Mike Elko seems like a guy who might be the one to unite the forces, he has a systematic approach to recruiting and using the portal in lockstep. I never heard of Mike Elko before his Duke team upset Clemson three years ago. I'm certain there is going to be a discussion in four years where we are talking about at least two new names that are going to be considered A list hires.

Franklin, my dear, you screwed the whole conference, and I do give a damn! 🤬

And then The Athletic released their CFB rankings this morning, and moved Oregon down to No. 12. Below is their reasoning, and I can't complain... "Oregon slips a couple of spots after a surprising battle with Wisconsin, a 21-7 win in a rainstorm. I think Oregon is a really good team, but what exactly is the resume right now? Its best win is maybe Northwestern? The teams ahead of the Ducks have better accomplishments, and I can’t keep Oregon near the top five like the polls have just based on brand name. Oregon is 10th in ESPN’s strength of record, too. Go beat Iowa on the road in a couple of weeks, and things can change."

Dan Lanning rumors may swirl with LSU Tigers job, but Oregon Duck fans shouldn't worry In a world where coaches often make vague comments and open-ended statements about coaching rumors, stating that their focus is "on the team, and on the current season," Lanning has been different. On multiple occasions, he's said, point-blank, "I'm not leaving." “I’ve been very clear and adamant," Lanning said earlier this year in an interview with On3. "I think a lot of coaches in those moments get quiet, but I’ve been very clear and adamant that I’m not going anywhere. A lot of coaches use that as an opportunity to say, ‘OK, I’m either going to get a big raise where I’m at,’ or maybe they really want that other job. I don’t want any other jobs. I’ve got the job that I want.” Lanning has done more than talk the talk; he's walked the walk.

Our own Jon Joseph, who many of you know well on this forum, wrote precisely what you see below over the weekend. It almost seemed that On3's Ari Wasserman was quoting Jon today! Big Ten Perception Wasserman questioned why the Big Ten doesn’t get the same respect the SEC receives, despite winning the last two national titles. Oregon fell out of the national conversation after losing to unbeaten Indiana; if an SEC team lost to a top-five conference opponent, the reaction would be far different. There are so many average SEC teams we deem as “tough outs,” and it doesn’t seem to work the same way up north.