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Would Florida choose Will Stein over Jedd Fisch, who is a Florida alumnus with P4 head coaching experience? Would they hop aboard the Lane Train if Fisch is available? If Florida were to hire Fisch, would the UW be interested in Stein, and vice versa?

I think the coaches wanted him to take one more series. Against North Western I think the coaches looked at the end of that game and realized they took their foot off the gas a little too soon and allowed NW to bloody their nose a bit. Giving the back-ups reps is great but they did embarrass the final score for the Ducks. So Moore's last series may not have put any extra points up on the Beavers but it did eat clock.

Actually you brought up an interesting observation I had from the Civil War game - why was Dante still playing in Q4 when the score was already 41-7? I nearly cringed on every snap he took...

I wouldn't say Lanning's teams are playing to the opponent's level. But he tends not to run up the score when the game is in hand. He will throw in back-ups and let them run the offense or run the ball. The only reason our North Western win looks less good is because the back-ups gave up 14 points. The starters gave up 0 even though NW had some good drives but made some critical mistakes. Lanning will not leave in the starting QB to run up the score and pad their stats. Gabriel was in the game so much last year because the game needed to be managed till the conclusion. The Oregon offense was good but not great. This year the game has been put away by the 3rd quarter's conclusion and the 4th is time for the back-ups.

On Monday Penn State head coach James Franklin met with media to discuss his next opponent. Unless you live under a rock, you know Oregon heads to Penn State for a ‘Whiteout special’ that will draw eyeballs from all over the country. These two teams met last season in the Big Ten championship so this will be their first regular season game as conference opponents. Here are his top remarks from his 40-minute long press conference Monday. James Franklin on Oregon: "Tremendous Challenge, Tremendous Opportunity"

a ton of unrealistic takes. Yall want the offense to score 60 plus every game and every opponent held to 3 with no yards rushing and receiving come on now... we were 13-0 in the regular season last year without any of that happening. I dont care how good a defense is, you gonna get periods where the opposition moves the ball or scores. OR we may go 3 and out. its no biggie.

I totally disagree. Oregon has took every team played apart.

There have been 21 such white-out games dating back to 2004 (2024 had both Washington and SMU). Penn State is: 13-8 (5 of the 8 to OSU or Michigan) 9-7 vs ranked 4-1 vs unranked 3-5 vs teams ranked top ten Coach Franklin is 8-3 with 6-0 in last 6. He is 2-1 vs teams in top ten in the white-out. The white-outs are definitely games that PSU fans look forward to. And, Franklin is 6-0 in the last six.

One thought about Cignetti is that his turn around for Indiana is so impressive he will be hired elsewhere. But, will he? He doesn't look it, but he is 64. Other than Belichick and Herm Edwards, I can't remember a college coach whose first FBS level head job was older. Cignetti was 63 when he was hired by Indiana. Belichick and Edwards had been NFL head coaches. Current FBS Power 4 conference level coaches 73 – Belichick – N. Carolina 70 – Ferentz – Iowa 65 – Whittingham – Utah 65 – Fritz – Houston 64 – Cignetti – Indiana 63 – Kelly – LSU 63 – Pittman - Arkansas

My memory is short, but didn't we struggle against Idaho and Wisconsin last year? This year so far, I thought we showed some lack of effort in both the NU and OSU games, unless you wanted to call that strategy? On the flip side, we stepped up big time against tOSU last year at home... Anyway, my point is that I am confident that we will put forth our best effort this Saturday and in 2 weeks, especially if IU is in the top-10.

Saturday Tradition on Indiana's Historic Win - Saturday TraditionIndiana puts a historic beatdown on top-10 Illinois teamIndiana absolutely demolished Illinois on Saturday, turning a battle of ranked teams into a historic embarrassment.

I'm curious about who gets play time as well. I don't expect to see as much run for Limar. I don't think he does as well in tight spaces as most of the others, and PSU's DL will keep spaces tight.

With the possible exception of Iowa, I agree. Indiana at Iowa on Saturday is an under-the-radar B1G game. Unfortunately, the game will be streamed on Peacock.

This. The Big House isn't listed as a very difficult place to play despite it's size. I think the white out atmosphere is likely more exciting than intimidating to the away team. Sure it's always tough on OLine communication like any loud stadium. Also I believe the start time is to our advantage. It'll be 4:30pm to our guys while 7:30 for PSU. Their players might be looking for a cot by the 4th quarter, having not played this late in about a year. So much like the bye week issue, the home field advantage issue isn't necessarily the big advantage it would seem on the surface. It could be a liability.

I'm glad we don't have to play us at Autzen 😄 Yes, there have been some wild environments in our old conference. Fans can cause the home team to get frisky and turn what should be easy games into nightmares.

If offered, Kiffin would be off to Gainsville before you could say: Hotty Toddy. It would be Lane's 3rd SEC job. Florida has won national championships and has the resources and the homegrown high school talent to do so again. I don't see anyone without head coaching experience at the Power-4 level getting the gig. Napier moved on up from Louisiana U and hasn't done the job. The Arkansas AD, before this week's loss to Memphis, noted that the Hogs do not have the resources to be the SEC's champion in football.😧But, after losing to memphis it would be just like Arkansas to beat Notre Dame on Saturday. I think Will Stein has a much better chance of being offered a job in the Big Ten or with a Texas located B12 school, Baylor perhaps, than an SEC job.

Our schedule difficulty looked pretty easy this year, but it could very well end up being harder than 2024. Penn State, IU, USC, Iowa and UW will all likely be ranked at the end of the season, with 3 of them in the top 15.

I'll have to politely disagree with Lanning teams playing to the opponent's level. I think they do it less than just about anybody else. Especially Mario Cristobal.

Penn State's record in White Out games is 12-8. PSU has won the last five games. No wins over a top 10 opponent in the last five. With the new media deal, PSU does not always play the opponent they want to play in a White Out. 2024 saw the game vs. Ohio State as the Big Noon game. Ohio State was the WO game PSU wanted to play. Instead, the WO was against Washington. The five straight WO wins include last season's PO win against SMU. James Franklin and PSU's biggest WO win came in 2016 when the Nits defeated Ohio State 24-21. Two-loss PSU won the B1G that season, but one-loss Ohio State was chosen for the PO. Ohio State was mugged by Clemson. Penn State was beaten by USC in the Rose Bowl, 52-49, Clay Helton's SC high-water mark. PSU got what it wanted this season. A WO game vs. top 10 Oregon. James Franklin's record vs. top 10 teams is 4-20. 1-15 against top 5-ranked teams, with the win coming over Ohio State in 2016. I doubt that the WO crowd on Saturday will be louder than what OBD has experienced in Seattle and Salt Lake City before the game turned into a blowout vs. Utah. Big Ten coaches voted Beaver Stadium as the loudest in the conference. Josh Pate, among many others, not caring about giving the nod to newbie OBD, ranks Autzen No. 1.

Is Kiffin really going to leave Ole Miss? He has a pretty good thing going there. If Stein is offered the Florida job, I would imagine he would be all over that. That is a Top 10 job IMO

Arkansas is probably capable of making a surprise run at getting into the SEC title game, I probably would say they would struggle to maintain any amount of success over a long period. They have good facilities, that isn't an issue, but it seems to be difficult to recruit there. It's probably the closest to being a basketball school as anyone outside of Kentucky. When I think about Arkansas sports it's more Nolan Richardson than Houston Nutt or Petrino.

Very good points. I guess for a guy raising a family he must look at everything included. Guaranteed salary, resources, recruiting capabilities, how much freedom to build and retain staff. One of the reasons I didn't put Oklahoma State on this list is due to many of those issues. Luke Fickell had it made at Cincy, he was able to use his Ohio roots to bring in kids. He is on the hot seat at Wisconsin because he has been trying to be what Wisconsin wants him to be. It's just not a fit imo. Same thing with Scott Frost at Nebraska. He said he felt pressured to go there and tried to please everyone. Mark Helfrich tried to do things and match what Chip Kelly did. The pressure to keep Oregon at that level ultimately was too much. There are places you can win National Titles at. If you have a coach that you know can't do that , it's obvious he's not going to succeed. At Kentucky you can win right games and be great, that gets you fired at Florida. Lane Kiffin knows the ceiling is higher at Florida than Ole Miss. The leash is also much shorter, but he wants the prestige. What is the happy medium at Arkansas? Houston Nutt had some fun teams. Bobby Petrino got them to a Sugar Bowl. Can you win a title at Arkansas?

Depends on the outcome, the environment doesn’t seem as tough when you win. Hard to quantify what makes something tough, but we have no shortage of appearances in some of the toughest venues. That being said of the most cited top-10 toughest places to play (which includes Beaver stadium) we’ve actually only played at Ohio Stadium and Autzen to date. So Beaver stadium should be in the running. Two not listed in most lists that are very tough when the teams are good IMO are Martin and Husky stadium.

Fusky Stadium isnt exactly friendly to the Ducks.

This week, OBD will face a harrowing task going into white out conditions at Beaver Stadium for a prime time, Top 5 battle with Penn St. This venue should not be underestimated in a way that Ohio St. appeared to have underestimated Autzen last year. The question I have is whether this Saturday will be the toughest road environment the Ducks have ever played in? I think it could be. There is bound to be some recency bias, but here are some potential previous candidates and reasons why I don't think they reach the level of this Saturday: 1) Anything prior to the 1990's - were the Ducks ever good enough to command the attention of a frothing fanbase like a Top 5 battle warrants? Did fans froth prior to 1990's like they do today? (Just kidding - I know they did). Also, I'm looking for good Duck teams where it was clear the venue affected their play and they weren't just overmatched. 2) Any Pac-8/10/12 venue. I have to be careful here, because if I discount Pac-12 venues, it throws some shade on Autzen as well. We all know smaller stadiums can still affect games in significant ways. There have been some wildly difficult conference road games like Washington (2023), Arizona (2009, 2013), Utah (every night game), Arizona St. (every night game), Cal or USC in early 2000's, or Washington St. (2018). But do any of them rise to the level of Beaver Stadium this Saturday? 3) Michigan (2007, 2024) and Tennessee (2010) - these are two of the largest venues the Ducks have played in, but the games ended up being uncompetitive and it turned out the teams were going in different directions. 4) Nebraska (2016), Michigan St. (2015), Boise St. (2009), Oklahoma (2004) - All tough road losses. 5) "Neutral" Site Games - Auburn in the natty (2010-2011), LSU (2011), Auburn (2019), Ohio St. in the natty (2014-2015), Georgia (2022) all proved to be virtual road environments, but not quite at the level of playing in Death Valley or Athens. 6) Ohio St. (2021) - We all have to admit that Ohio St. fans were not quite awake for this game. We came in under the RADAR, took the crowd out early and earned an awesome road win. Are there any other candidates for the toughest Duck road environment ever?