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According to this article and "sources", Oregon is pursuing Raiola and he will sit behind Dante if Dante returns. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/dante-moore-dylan-raiola-oregon-qb-room-2026-transfer-portal/

I remember another group of misfits that won a championship with 95% of the team undervalued, the 77 BLAZERS. I dont think anybody will stop Indiana. But Ive been wrong before.

Hopefully Dante will let the Ducks know where he is at by Monday, personally I think he should have made his decision by now.

Love for Cig and the Hoosiers - Scarlet and GameCBS Sports sends Ohio State, Michigan, and UGA clear mess...CBS Sports' John Talty and Shehan Jeyarajah believe the 2025 Indiana Hoosiers are the most dominant CFB team in years.

Cheer Up! Chin Up! OBD will likely be favored in every game next season, but for the visit to Columbus - https://duckswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ducks/football/2026/01/11/oregon-football-early-look-2026-opponents-schedule/88119677007/?utm_source=smg-duckswire-strada&utm_medium=email&utm

Or bending one over your knee, throwing it into the adjacent fairway and observing the boomerang effect.

I think the most disappointing part of Friday was playing so far below the standard and getting steamrolled by a more mature roster and coaching staff. Hard to admit it, but I'm convinced after watching the game that even without the avalanche of OBD turnovers, coaching drama, RB injuries and transfers, Indiana likely would have won. They may not have "better" players, but they executed with near perfection and are the better team. Looking at the IPA glass half full, Oregon will be fine going forward. I'm hopeful DM comes back as he remains the best option at QB. The raw talent is there and he only needs seasoning and a good OC and QB coach to thrive. Regardless of who returns, both sides of the ball should be ok. There is a lot of talent ready to step up and portal additions will fill in the gaps. At the start of 2025, many were predicting a 10-2 or 9-3 regular season. Making the CFP was the goal. The Ducks exceeded those expectations. The focus was on 2026 and still should be. Personally I'm going to let the sting subside and leave the wound to heal.

I've pretty much decided to skip over mourning and jump ahead to looking forward to reading about spring practices, the spring game, and enjoying next season.

How about a Three-Peat!

He's far too intelligent to play the stupid game. 😁

Wait Till Next Year! Win IT All in Las Vegas! SIWhat’s Next for Oregon? Early Look at Ducks’ Roster, Outl...Oregon’s season came to a close with a rough 56–22 loss to Indiana in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

You say that the strategies were the same in that 2003 game as they are today? I think not! When Chip Kelly came to Oregon as the OC in 2007, he brought with him the mesh, making quarterbacks who didn’t run the ball about as common as hen’s teeth, thereby also changing the pass rush and blitzing. It took a couple of years but all of college football began to mesh. The change in offensive strategy changed defenses dramatically. Chip also spread receivers to the sidelines more frequently than the offense had done previously, thereby not only changing how the defense was positioned, but also requiring faster and more agile linebackers. Chip also had the Ducks running a “hurry-up” offense throughout the game, where before it was used only at the end of the half and, provided the score was close, at the end of the game. Before that innovative change, time of possession was an important statistic. Today it is often irrelevant. The faster pace of play put a greatly increased emphasis on conditioning and increased substitutions which requires deeper rosters. Dr. J you maybe might just need to reconsider.

Imagine how Penn State feels? They got jumped by us and we laughed at them for it, and in reality they were jumped by Indiana too.

We need to find a way to keep Harris. It shouldn't be that hard. He could be RB 2.5 next year with Whittington and Lamar gone. If he wants to be RB1, then not much we can do to keep him, but otherwise, pay the kid and play the kid.

Doctor, if Miami doesn't turn the ball over, if Miami can stay out of the penalty box, and if Indiana cannot sustain competitive zeal for the fourth consecutive game after the champ game, Rose and Peach bowl wins, Miami playing at home, has an excellent chance of pulling off an upset. If your prediction is correct, I'll be here to give you a solid pat on the back. Mendoza did not touch the football for the first seven minutes of the Peach Bowl game. Then? His game has improved, the Indiana offense as a whole has improved, and no one had heard of WR Charlie Becker when Indiana visited Eugene. Today's Hoosiers can score in a hurry. Of course, I agree with your take on Miami's three impressive postseason wins. Caveat: The long Ohio State layoff showed. I think that A&M played a soft in-conference schedule and was overrated, and Ole Miss did not have the depth and the talent to take advantage of the opportunities gifted to them by the Canes. I also understand why Miami DBs are not playing WR 😁. 1-7. The record for teams coming off of too-long playoff layoffs. The 1 was put up by Indiana and the Hoosiers, a team that defeated solid Ohio State, Alabama, and Oregon teams. Also, a pretty good run. Miami has the star players. Indiana has the better-coached and more disciplined team; the sum of the parts is greater than the whole kind of team. At the essential position, QB, Indiana has the better player. Indiana may not have an individual WR with the skill of Toney, a running back with the skill of Fletcher, but again, Indiana, on the whole, has the deeper group. In this movie script, written by Cig, with the second act coauthored by Fernando Mendoza, how can the Heisman winner not return to his hometown and capture the first title for the 'losingest' program in the history of the sport? Gene Hackman's and Joey Chitwood's Hoosiers didn't lose, I don't see these Hoosiers losing this game. I also do not see the game being over at halftime, but I do see Indiana pulling away for a two-score or better win. Tickets for the champ game are going for far more dinero than for last season's battle of the brand names, Ohio State vs. Notre Dame. I think we'll see more eyes on this game than last year's champ game. For the benefit of 'our conference', I want to see a third Big Ten team win the title for the third year in a row. (Not the team I wanted, but Wait Till Next Year in Las Vegas!) Thanks for a terrific post to ponder.

This Wall Street Journal article is unlocked. It appears to be locked but it is not. https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/indiana-oregon-peach-bowl-8f454e1a?st=vYYSAa&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Such great posts in this thread. Thank you. For those that have ever been part of a losing team you can remember the joy there is in winning. Being able to enjoy winning over 90% of the time is a great situation to be in. For those like me that wanted a playoff we have to keep in mind what that means. Every team in the playoffs finishes with a loss except the champions. 11 of the top 12 teams in the country finished their season with a disappointing loss. Yeah the way we lost was a result of shooting ourselves in the foot, but we still lost to the better team. Junior high teams don't beat high school teams because of the physical and mental differences that come with human development. Keep in mind the brain doesn't finish development until roughly age 26. And the experience gained in any activity is invaluable to development. A 3 year age and experience gap is massive even at age 20ish. Even physical development can still be huge at that age. Then you add in the experience level of IU coaches, and the fact that most of the players had been been in that same system with those coaches for their college career back to JMU and it's just a massive advantage that won't persist.

After attending the 2011 NCG and losing to Auburn in such a bizarre manner, I felt like I had been kicked in the nether region for about a week. Following this, I pretty much vowed to never allow that to happen again. To get so wrapped up into something I had less than zero control over made no sense. It was such a waste of personal & emotional resources. And after being led to the water so many times, only to not be allowed to drink, changed things for me over time. So, while I still love my Ducks, and I still get heavily wrapped up into the games, the hangover from getting our butts handed to us in the biggest games, just doesn't last for more than a few hours anymore, or at the most, a day.

The Beavers finished that year at 10-3 and ranked 17th just a couple spots below the 10-3 15th ranked Ducks. Washington finished that year at 11-2 and ranked 8th. Lanning's never lost to an unranked team and only lost once to a team outside the top ten.

No mourning with this old grey beard. Disappointed at the performance put forth in the Peach Bowl but not the actual loss. In the preseason many on this Forum, including me, felt 10-2 and a CFP spot would be good for a rebuild year. 10-2 may not have gotten OBD a spot. But the team didn't risk it. They won 6 in a row to finish the regular season. It was a wild and exciting ride. The Ducks demolished JMU and TT. Then in the 15th game of the season ( let that sink in) they lost to a team filled with 3rd, 4th and 5th year players. Average age 23. Their is a big difference between 18 and 19 year olds and 23 year olds. Talent took this Duck team to 15 games in 2025. Much of that young talent will be back in 2026. Seasoned veterans. For the 2nd year in a row, DL and his staff did not have the team prepared for the "biggest game"! We all know DL will learn and adjust. Main point is that DL teams beat the teams they should beat. And get the Ducks in the CFP....... Did the huskies get back to the CFP? Did PSU or Michigan? Did ND, ASU or BSU? NOPE. Just tOSU, IU and the Ducks. Darn good company! The future is solid for the Ducks. Maybe next year we don't have our OC and DC pulling double duty! Or see your room mates, great friends entering the TP. Or the running back room talent get decimated with injuries and departures. I cannot believe these situations were not distractions? Go Ducks!

I don’t think the timeline is relevant. The strategy from the coaches can still be the same. The players just have to execute the coaches plan. Against Ole Miss, Miami had two 13 play drives and two 15 play drives, so they can chew up a lot of clock if they choose to use up most of the 40 seconds between plays. This strategy is right up Mario’s alley. Keep in mind that the new rules keep the game clock running after first downs and when a player goes out of bounds the refs start the game clock when the ball is spotted instead of when it’s snapped. The best way to beat a QB as prolific as Mendoza is to limit his possessions during the game.

Don't quote me on this (without a re-check), but the longest streaks I could find not losing to a team that eventually played in the National Championship for some recent coaches: Lanning: 1,161 Smart: 1,121 Swinney: 1,098 Day: 1,022 Saben: 798 Since the Ducks don't play for 238 more days, Dan is going to extend this streak to at least 1,399 days.

I read somewhere today it's been 1161 days (3.2 years) since the Ducks lost to somebody who didn't play in the National Championship game. That's pretty good.

Well that stage won't disappear. My motto is "get your a$$ back up. You're a gladiator. Gladiators never quit." . NEVER, EVER GIVE UP.

Lost, to the Beavers, in '22, I think... Lanning's growth spurt was just beginning! 😝