All Activity

Thanks, Darren, terrific article on the cusp of the 2025 kickoff. Dan's three-year record in Eugene is not dissimilar to Kirby Smart's at Georgia. It took Kirby six seasons and top recruiting classes season after season, and a couple of heartbreaking PO losses before UGA captured in 1st title in over 40 years. Oregon set NFL draft records for the number of players drafted in 2024; from 2021 through 2025, thirty Georgia Dawg D-players were drafted. The Jimmies and Joes have and always will matter. Dan's opening game spanking at the hands of Kirby and the first game of 2025 hurt, no doubt. But so did some guy named Tua coming off the bench for Bama, and after taking a sack, making a terrific throw into the end zone for a walk-off Natty and depression for the Dawgs. As Kirby said after the opening Ducks dusting, 'Dan knows we have better players.' You also need luck on the way to a title. Dyer's knee was down. The PO seeding last season was so egregious, even conferences that benefited, like the Mountain West and B12, voted to go to straight seeding in 2025-26. You lose a conference champ game and benefit from the loss? That's some bad ju-ju. Before UGA blew out TCU on the way to a title, Ohio State, behind the receiving wizardry of Marv Harrison, was lighting up the Georgia D. Marv went down on a play where the Georgia DB could have been called for targeting, and Georgia gutted out a close win, leaving Ryan Day to be criticized for not winning the big games. Dan's winning percentage of 81.5% has him in fifth place behind the '4-losses to Michigan - Fire the Guy!, No. 1 winner at 87.5%, Ryan Day. All good points made regarding Dan and the Ducks in the article, no doubt. Perhaps with the easiest schedule the Ducks have from 2024 through 2028, Oregon, with four returning starters, will win it all? If so, it would be a Herculean accomplishment. Thanks again for another terrific article. Let's start 1-0 with a bagging of Bobcats!

35-21 Ducks 4 TO's 4 Sacks 260 yards passing

I'm sure Boise is currently scrambling to see if they can schedule Oregon on their schedule as soon as possible right now. Whenever they play us in the early season they have a good season.

33-13 DUCKS! 3 T.O. 3 SACKS 213 YDS PASSING See a run heavy game with "safe" passing plays for the QB's that get to play. Fairly vanilla offense with the focus on execution. See how much pressure the reloaded Duck Defense can exert at all three levels. GO DUCKKKKS!

DUCKS WIN! 31-14 two two 245 yards

Four B1G games to date, four one-score games. Zero B1G covers. If you are going to schedule an opening victory, be certain to bake enough cups into the cake. Ohio U - 2024 MAC Champ. Miami-Ohio 2024 MAC runner-up. Buffalo Bulls - MAC 3rd place, 9-4 in 2024. Cincinnati, a Phil Steele surprise contender for the B12 title this season. Hats off to the MAC teams. With NIL, largely unregulated 'college free agency,' and little or no control over tampering, it's a credit to these G5 teams and their coaches to go down swinging, if they go down. A long way to go in a too-short season, but I think Wisconsin and Minnesota will have a tough time winning in Autzen, and the same for Rutgers on the road. Bob the Cats!

Darren....I really enjoy your style of writing. Your title made me LOL as, "that is so Darren." Great fun, great thoughts, and THANKS.

First misunderstanding from not reading the posts carefully! --You cannot take shots at those who disagree with you, just like in the forum during the week. (I can feel it....in trying to give others an outlet for frustration--it is going to create more hassle for me)

This is great. I can’t wait to confront the negative Nancies!🫢

Ducks! 35-15 2 TO 3 Sacks 260 yds passing A lot of new pieces to figure out against a very experienced, well coached and disciplined FCS team that will be a top 4 finisher in their division, again. Go Ducks!

Great topic Gat. I think Neb’s problem is that the more national college football has become the less regional relevance it’s become. Elite recruits have so many more options these days than just the conference super powers of yesterday year. I think this is also the key issue for many other former top ten fixtures like SUC, LSU and the Florida schools. Before it’s resent resurgence, Texas also watched most of it’s in state players heading elsewhere I’d expect this trend to continue and the Cornhuskers will have to look back at their faded glory like Minnesota, Harvard and Yale.

I was surprised when he decided to take that job, because he does have a tougher job in Lincoln, than a ton of other places. To answer your question...no, I do not think Nebraska will come back, as there are too many more attractive options for a college player, IMHO. BTW GatOrlando....you have been a fantastic poster here. Somebody suggested that you have been the OBD member of the month, and I say, "naw." Best of the Summer!

I think the coaching staff and the athletic department needs to be able to answer one question when it comes to recruiting.... "Why Nebraska?" and they can't answer that question by pointing to anything they've done but what they are currently doing. Their win last night over a Big 12 team was rather embarrassing as I think Cincinnati would like that deep shot that ended the game back. They didn't need to take that shot, they were gifted 10 yards and there was still plenty of time on the clock to take a couple more chunk plays. Yes, they were lacking timeouts but they were in their field goal kicker's range and they just needed to improve their odds. Nebraska should have won that game by double digits but they won by 3. You can't build a national title winning team without the best recruits and Nebraska isn't doing that. They aren't going to be bad, they'll be a dangerous B1G team, but until they can answer the "why Nebraska" question for recruits I think they'll continue to struggle.

I'm not sure a top 4 seed is all that the CFP thought it would be. Yes, teams potentially play 1 less game, but last year not a single top 4 team won their game. It will be interesting to see if the different seeding makes a difference. Going a month between playing games is not great. Dan Lannings thoughts of starting the playoff sooner will probably start picking up steam, if the bye teams keep losing.

Ducks 52-13 3 3 287

This question could be asked about many programs like USC, Miami, or even Florida. But those three have several built in advantages and it's a matter of if not when imo. Like Michigan, Texas or Notre Dame. But Nebraska has no home recruiting base, and the truth is kids nationwide have never known Nebraska to be what people over thirty have seen. The Huskers dominated with a mix of their weight program, walk on monsters and the ability to stack guys on the depth chart. Their option offense was also nearly impossible to stop with the monsters on their line. The defense was black shirt nasty and they rolled teams with more speed like Texas, Oklahoma or Florida. They ran Peyton Manning out during his last Volunteer start in the Orange Bowl, and to me they were the true 1997 champions. Since they got blown out in consecutive games to end the 2001 season it seems like they've just lost their place. First they fired alum Frank Solich after 2003 and hired Bill Callahan. He completely changed the culture and it didn't work. After that it was hot head Pelini, but for all his negatives he did keep them at nine wins. They tried going back to the Callihan system with longtime Oregon State coach Mike Riley and that started their ten year stretch of no bowl game participation. After that they tried to emulate Michigan and hire their golden boy Scott Frost. A guy who led UCF to their best two years ever. Nebraska fans were so happy, but then the games happened.... Frost is now a man seen as a lazy pariah. Matt Rhule has been at the helm for three years now. If he fails by Nebraska standards this year, he might be on the hot seat. My question is what should Nebraska be expected to achieve? Will they ever get into the B1G hierarchy? Can they make a playoff? Can they make a run like Notre Dame did last year?

I've decided. We stick to clear rules in the normal forum threads, but in the GameDay Thread... Anything goes in the GameDay thread toward the coaches and players, anything. (And I am sure it will later create some purposeful "misunderstandings" with some people in the other forum threads)

Duck Tape: Film Analysis of Montana State FootballA preview of Oregon’s week 1 opponent in Autzen Addicted To QuackDuck Tape: Film Analysis of Montana State FootballA preview of Oregon’s week 1 opponent in Autzen

39-14 Ducks win 3 turnovers 4 sacks 268 passing yds

5 questions for Oregon Ducks to answer ahead of Week 1 game vs. Montana State 5 questions for Oregon Ducks to answer

Darren, great article! Just my opinion: On the QB position, many teams will have first time starting QB's. At least Dante Moore has some real time game experience. That experience came with a weak support system around him. That will not be the case this year. Whether its Dante, Austin or Luke under center, the talent is around them. I expect all the QB's to execute at a high level. Now that the rest of the BIG has game film on 14 Duck games, they have a clear view of Steins Offensive game plans. Hopefully, DL and Stein have made some changes/additions so the O can adjust (in game) to an opponent DC with a great game plan. One thing is certain this year. No Duck QB will step on the field with a combined 123 starts that Bo and Dillion brought. It is up to DL and Stein to game plan for the lack of QB experience. As for the Duck D: The D has played a solid role the last three seasons. You dont go something like 35-6 without a solid defense. However, whether it was injuries to key players or lack of game planning by DL and staff, in 5 of those 6 losses our opponents recognized and exploited our D. (We did not have the talent and depth to compete with Georgia) So now we begin the journey with more talent and depth than any Duck team, maybe ever. To me and its just my opinion, anything less than 11-1 in the regular season is on the staff. Go Ducks!

In the past, my rules stated that we could be critical of current coaching decisions, and player performance, but not get personal in the forum. And anything could be said about a former player or coach. So being critical of coaching and player performance is what a forum is for--and thus why we have that available...but do we want to allow OBD members to begin calling current coaches and players, "stupid" or "lazy", or more colorful and denigrating tags? What I liked about the current rules is how the line was clear, and my concern is that if I allow people to call Lupoi or Stein a name and declare their intelligence level in the GameDay thread....how long before we see it in the forum and I have to deal with it? I am trying to let people blow off steam, yet not create for hassles for me.

Taking Nothing For Granted Some moments stop you. They strip away the noise, the routines, the deadlines — everything we convince ourselves matters most — and leave you face to face with what actually does. Duck Sports CentralFlock Talk: Don't You (Forget About Me)Oregon Ducks football, Dan Lanning, Oregon recruiting, college football, NIL, Big Ten, Pac-12, Scott Reed, Duck Sports Central, recruiting news

I agree that this is definitely the "prove it" season for Tosh Lupoi. He needs to show what he can do with an exclusively Dan Lanning team of players. If we don't see an improvement from our secondary and linebacker play then we and more importantly, Lanning, should seriously question the need for a change at DC. With the move to a 12 team, and eventually 16 team playoff, Oregon should absolutely be in the playoff picture every year. And getting there no longer requires teams to bet everything on the huge matchup of the year, and be so demoralized if they lose, that it kills all momentum for the rest of the season. Play within the game plan, stay disciplined, don't commit egregious penalties, don't get caught in trap games and we will almost always be a lock for the playoff every year. It is at that point that we start dialing up the offense as Ohio State did. We start adding extra coverage packages. We make sure we are healthy for the post-season stretch. This is how NFL teams win Superbowls, and it is now how college teams will win the whole thing with extra games added.

Ducks 48-14 2 turnovers 5 sacks 283 passing yards