All Activity

DSC Inside Read: 3-2-1 look back at Indiana and ahead to RutgersFor the first time this season, Oregon didn’t look like the better team. Indiana came into Autzen and exposed the Ducks’ weaknesses — protection issues, inconsistent execution, and an inability to finish drives — handing Oregon a 30-20 loss that felt as frustrating as it was revealing. The defeat snapped Oregon’s home winning streak and raised real questions about how quickly this team can correct its mistakes with another Big Ten matchup waiting on the road. Now the Ducks turn their attention to Rutgers, a 3-3 team that scores over 35 points a game and moves the ball through the air better than anyone Oregon has faced outside of Penn State. The Scarlet Knights aren’t elite on paper, but they’re disciplined, balanced, and comfortable in long drives — the exact kind of opponent that punishes mental lapses. For Oregon, Saturday in Piscataway is less about talent and more about response. Duck Sports CentralDSC Inside Read: 3-2-1 look back at Indiana and ahead to...Oregon Ducks football, Dan Lanning, Oregon recruiting, college football, NIL, Big Ten, Pac-12, Scott Reed, Duck Sports Central, recruiting news

To so many of you who disagree with me: Good. I love to see other opinions, as we hash it out and all the feedback gives everyone a better perspective on the topic. I still believe in having an experienced portal QB, especially considering that moving that way would not be an experiment for Oregon. It has already been a proven strategy here and other places. How good would Indiana be if they had started a young QB who they had been developing? Great discussion, and again--it is so nice to have a community where we give strident opinions, but not take shots at each other. Refreshing.

I am going to climb out on a limb and suggest the Duck coaching staff knows this and have been trying to do it (Conerly Jr., Laloulu, maybe Luli). It just hasn't had the same success with OL as its had at other positions. It has filled in with some still reasonably rated talent but it appears the "hit rate" has been a bit low. It happens. I am pretty sure it would love it if guys like Wilson, Rogers, or Crader were so good they could play them meaningful rotation snaps right now. I am going to go out on a limb and say it has nothing to do with not understanding how important the OL is, nor not grasping what "big time" programs do, nor not trying to develop guys.

Ducks on a collision course along a very tough road in B1G, CFPDan Lanning and his players performed so well to start this season that Oregon fans forgot this was a young team in a rebuilding/reloading year, a team that had sent 13 guys to the NFL.Expectations ratcheted up quickly after five decisive wins and the double overtime gut check at Penn State. It became easy to forget that this team needed to grow, that it had question marks. A great Indiana team laid those flaws bare. The offensive line, quarterback and young running backs have to learn as a group how to recognize and respond to pressure and simulated pressure. Autzen ZooDucks on a collision course along a very tough road in B1...Dan Lanning and his players performed so well to start this season that Oregon fans forgot this was a young team in a rebuilding/reloading year.

A'Mauri Washington stands out to Mel Kiper A'Mauri Washington seen as potential Round 1 prospect after Week 7

We were forced into taking transfer OL because we didn't recruit the position well enough or develop the talent we did have over the last 2-3 years. Big time programs don't rely on 3 transfers on the offensive line. If you need a guy to fill in a hole it's fine, but you have to develop the talent yourself if you want a dominant offensive line, the data back this up. The question over transfer QBs is one where I wonder why any QB would come here if all we do is start transfer QBs, if we develop the rep that we only start transfer QBs, why would any incoming freshman come here? What would be the point? Lanning believed in Moore, it's not a guarantee that Nix or Gabriel would have won that game, it's not a guarantee that either one would have beat Penn St.

David, this article is right on the money reflecting on the performance of our Ducks on Saturday. The O line had very little fight in them for the most part. They got smacked in the mouth, out hustled and out schemed. Worst part, as you stated, Stein was not patient offensively! The runs up the middle coupled with uptempo kept IU just a little off balance. Who cares if we go 15 plays and chew up 7 minutes off the clock. Other than the 44 yard TD pass, very little worked in the passing game. As you mentioned and we all saw, the Duck O line could not protect Dante. For some reason DL and Stein either couldn't see it. If they did they had no answer. In just his 13th start, Dante lacked the game time experience to audible out, so he hit check downs to avoid sacks. Cosches offered very little help, imho! Overall the loss doesnt bother me as much as the lack of performsnce, effort and coaching adjustments. Especially coming out of a bye week. Every team has these types of games, unfortuneately OBD's had it on Saturdays biggest stage. Against a CFP caliber team no less. IU played a great game. They out played and out coached the Ducks. Yet the Ducks could have won this game! Playing as poorly as they did the Ducks had a chance to pull this game out. Coaches simply had no in game answers...... IU has a great chance to finish undeafeated. The teams they face are a combined 16-20. The bottom half of the BIG. Let their reward be in the title game against the Buckeyes..... Five of the 6 remaining opponents the Ducks face have winning records. All 6 will see this game film and try to duplicate what they saw. I am confident OBD's will grow from this and prove this was a one off game. This is the point in the season where DL, the staff and plauers decide to do what it takes to finish the season 11-1 or finish their season like Penn State I am betting we go 11-1. Won't be easy but i belirve in our team.... GO DUCKS......

Yes, we can talk about Julian Sayin being "developed" by Ohio State, but how does that square with other recent highly rated tOSU QBs? Julian Fleming (five star #4 nationally), Kyle McCord (four star #49 nationally), Devin Brown (four star #44 nationally), Lincoln Kienholz (four star #138 nationally), Air Noland (four star #61 nationally)? If it is simply about coaching development, what went into deciding not to really develop these guys? Fleming transferred out and hasn't played and now has some legal trouble, Kyle McCord was pretty much ran out of town, Brown transferred to Cal and almost immediately lost the starting role to JKS, Kienholz is burried behind Sayin and likely will be out in January (St. Clair stays), and Noland is sitting behind LaNorris Sellers (a sophomore) at South Carolina? Shouldn't Fleming have been named starter at Penn State, McCord should never have left Ohio State, Brown should be starting at Cal, Noland at South Carolina (as Sellers is currently #48 in NCAA passing efficiency), and Kienholz really should be more "developed" than Sayin and thus their current starter? Not that you still don't want the best prospect as possible at QB; but, generally I see the position as still largely a crapshoot. With tOSU's defense looking dominant this year, Sayin may not be asked to do a lot most of the season. If indeed a game turns up where their offense needs some plays to win, I could see the possibility of of some freshman there. I guess we will see.

That’s crazy but I guess it’s the price you pay for earning $10M+ a year. Think the new Penn State coach and his agent doesn’t negotiate a huge buyout after seeing what happened with Coach Franklin?

Hiring a hot coordinator is high-risk. How many fail for every one of those names you mentioned. Oregon struck gold with Coach Lanning.

Great topic and article. I also wonder why they would drift away from both Davidson and the power run game. Coming into this game, it felt like Indy was playing the role of the Kelly era Ducks (quick and scrappy) and the Ducks had become more like the Stanford and tOSU teams that could beat them (physical run games with top end QB and receivers). Indy then preceded to play to their strength but OBD did not. Instead, we seemed obsessed with bubble screens and running outside where Indy's quickness was having success. The power game seemed to be effective most of the game but was never relied on the way Furd or the Buckeyes would have. I think long plodding drives would have demoralized them and worn them down like the Ducks back in the day. Second and six, third and two, first down, rinse and repeat all the way down the field for seven minutes would have worn them down and made them more vulnerable to some explosion plays. Davidson should have had twenty carries in this game not just eight. The quick three and outs and interceptions kept the D out there way to long and wore us down instead. I hope the coaching staff learns a lot from this one because I feel the bulk of the responsibility for this loss is on them.

Every single one of these articles have the same five or six names and they are all underwhelming except for Cignetti. It’s funny how nobody mentions any young coordinators as a possible replacement. Some of the better coaches in the nation came from coordinated jobs. Day, Kirby, Lanning, Freeman, Dilly et al. I think that Penn State will hire a head coach from another P4 school because that’s what Penn State does. However, there are some good coordinators out there that will end up being great head coaches. Stein comes to mind, but there are many more. I would expect Hartline, Patricia, Neuheisel and Schumann to be P4 head coaches at some point.

Good topic to discuss David. Yes the offensive live deserve their share of the loss. I think it was a team loss starting with the coaching staff and all the players. I specifically recall the running back Noah in the first half whiffing on one block resulting in a sack. Then on another play choosing to double team with the right guard and not seeing a nose guard coming up the middle to sack the QB. I wonder why the center chose to go left on that play leaving the nose guard unblocked. I'm wondering why the freshmen running backs didn't get more carries and were not starting. I for one would prefer having Davison at 236 lbs picking up a blitzing linebacker than the starters for that last game. In my opinion it wasn't just the offensive line who were not ready. The whole team was unprepared! What were they doing during their bye week?

Former Duck and NFL OL Geoff Schwartz has said his review of the film doesn't show the giant mess on the OL that many people have purported (throw me in there too). I don't know anyone I've regularly read more qualified to break down OL film than Geoff (and while I like some of their stuff, that definitely includes Addicted to Quack). Sort of contributes a bit to a different narrative; but, it overall should be taken as a positive moving forward (and I can spoil the ending now, in a couple days ATQ will report huge error rates for the OL and pats on their backs about their "transfer portal OL effect". Obviously playing 3 younger OL who the coaches have barely trusted to put on the field this year was the stronger play). 🙄 From Schwartz: -Moore was routinely fooled by where the sim pressure was coming from. If he thought it was coming from the right it came from the left. Indiana was able to isolate their LBs on RBs in pass pro and it worked well. In previous games Moore/Stein adjusted protections but yesterday they did none of that. -Credit Indiana. Moore was never comfortable in the pocket even with plenty of clean pockets. Just never moved off his first read. Did not play well. -Not as many open guys as I expected. A few times but this is an issue against good zone defenses spanning a few seasons now (Rose Bowl). Indiana was dialed in. -OL was fine. -I know everyone is going to hate this but just the truth. Few individual breakdowns but 4 of the 6 sacks were on the RB/Moore. First play of the game OL didn't handle a twist + RT got beat late. Then on a designed rollout the RT got beat across his face. Plenty of clean pockets with chances for success. (I'll take that analysis over OL "error rates" which either intentionally or unintentionally are subject to confirmation bias from the grader, who is also writing the article)

One thing we have already seen take place following Franklin's firing is a string of decommitments for Penn State's 2027 class. One of those decommitments, 5-star running back Kemon Spell, happened to pick up an Oregon Ducks offer not long after announcing that he was back on the open market. Oregon Ducks offer former 5-star Penn State RB hours after James Franklin's firing

The betting odds reflect this as Oregon is currently favored by minus-15 1/2 points and has its moneyline odds set at minus-670 according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The point total for the game is set at a whopping 58 1/2, with bettors likely expecting a high scoring output from the Ducks. Oregon was covering the spread easily earlier in the season, but have had some closer calls than expected lately. They will look to get back to their dominant winning ways this week against Rutgers and fight for another trip to the playoffs. Oregon Ducks open as two-score favorites over Rutgers Scarlet Knights

We invite you to always explore the “News” on the menu bar in the header. When you click on the word “News,” you will see an index of multiple links to sports news sites for your enjoyment! From now on, except for a very few circumstances, our threads will be just one page. Advertising only appears on the first page and we want to make as much money as possible for the site. The bonus in doing this is that it will be easier for everyone to move around the thread. This Thread is for News Articles ONLY. You can always start a new thread with any of these articles for discussion.

Charles I humbly disagree with you. At some point a young qb is going to get overwhelmed. Trying to guess who is going to be successful out of the portal isn’t sustainable imho. Who remember Dakota Prukop? Hythloday at addicted to quack has been screaming since Pregnon transferred in that every team that has started three transfer linemen has seen significant drop off in their line play. Isiah World hasn’t been getting it done since Northwestern. Yes Dante had his issues, but if he had 1.5 more seconds to set his feet, or if the outside run game was just a little more consistent. We are having a much different conversation. Go back and watch the film of our tackles, especially against Penn State. It might change your perspective, it certainly changed mine. I know coach Terry can get em improved going forward. It just cost us one game. Those are the breaks. Here’s hoping the picture clears on what this team is and isn’t. I’m happy to be wrong, this is only my opinion. Go Ducks!!!

Going into last Saturday’s match-up against Indiana, the Ducks had one of the most dominant offensive lines in the country. That is no longer the case. On the very first play of the game, the Ducks gave up a sack, and the sacks kept coming. The Oregon offensive line was porous and had no answer for Indiana’s pass rush. To ... Oregon's Offensive Line Folds to Indiana

Highly agree. But fans and donors get impatient and expect the impossible these days The changing financial landscape of college football has insured hat their will never be another Alabama dynasty. Saban saw that and got out early. At Georgia, there are people beginning to wonder if Kirby Smart has lost his edge and even speculating about who would be the best fit if and when the time comes to part ways with the best coach Georgia has ever had. This is nuts, but I now believe that Kirby will tire of the sniping and be gone in another 5-6 years at most.

All credit to Indiana, but this "big" game didn't seem to elicit the same type of energy at the Whiteout game, or the game last year with Ohio State. Maybe I'm wrong, but perhaps this top ten matchup was just bigger on one side. Oregon was the proven commodity, they were the brand and the power that held the crown. I only caught a little bit of GameDay, but I heard the Oregon crowd booing the mention of Ohio State more than Indiana. The loudest boos were aimed at McAfee when he trolled the crowd and picked Indiana to win(correctly unfortunately). Perhaps I'm wrong, but maybe Indiana wasn't given the amount of respect they've earned. As long as Cignetti is there I think they will win, and he has no reason to leave. He's older than Lanning, Day, Smart, and even Dabo, so he has a long history of success. Just Google or ask him 😂.

Boise State and Gonzaga have been misled into thinking they are finally joining a conference that provides them a real chance to compete in a power league. It's a real shame the Big 12 wouldn't take Boise and the Big East couldn't take Gonzaga.

I did think it was interesting that near the end of Canzano's interview with OSU AD Scott Barnes, Canzano asked, "what can you offer a new head coaching candidate?" Barnes replied that "we are in the top quartile of resources at our level." So, perhaps, maybe, Barnes is no longer attempting to sell the new Pac as a Power 5 conference. Canzano: Oregon State AD Scott Barnes sounds off on firin...Exclusive 1-on-1 interview.

I hope Oregon doesn’t do that to Dan Lanning if he ever gets 3 losses in a row! That would just about be too much for me to handle. This win at all costs attitude is absolutely ruining the sport. I keep coming back to: IT IS A GAME! Played by kids. Every game has a winner and every game has a loser. ALWAYS! To think your team will win every game all the time is just ludicrous.