dksez

Good insights. Thanks, @David Marsh. I prefer simple answers because they are often overlooked by smart people. Football is a game of inches, so what if this all comes down to five (inches), which I think is the height difference between Nix and Gabriel? I think it was maybe Maryland who showed what a difference it makes if the defensive linemen simply keep their hands up when rushing the passer, denying a shorter quarterback a clear view of anything farther downfield.

For whatever reason, Whittington (post-surgery) has seemed slow or hesitant with his first two steps. (I wonder how many TFLs he had this year.) Two workarounds to get him into open field, where his lateral shiftiness confounds tacklers: 1. Make him a favorite quick-release receiver. 2. Put the QB under center, giving NW his first two steps before he gets the hand-off.

In hindsight, OBD should have invited the Corvallis OSU down for a (G5-style payday) scrimmage as a tune-up before Christmas.

Called it. (Not in the direction I hoped, and not that I'm happy about it....)

Ducks 42-14 1 TO 3 sacks 333 passing yards

I think our quarterfinal rematch won’t be close, but I don’t know which team will win. The deciding factors will be ones that cannot be easily measured. The players seem evenly matched, so it comes down to coaching. How has Dan Lanning used these 25 days to his team’s advantage? He’s had time to tap the full breadth and depth of his carefully cultivated braintrust — what has he learned? (About his opponent, but also about his own team.) Have his analysts (and AI) found weaknesses that tOSU doesn’t even know it has? Has Will Stein devised some plays that have now been practiced 1000 times, but no one else has ever seen? Have the coaches (and Nike) found ways to replicate game speed in practice? Has Phil Knight discovered new ways to motivate young men? Will our team come out rested or rusted? As Lanning has preached from the beginning, this is all about us. It could even end up being all about him.

This was one of the most insightful articles about the Ducks I've read in years. Kudos, @David Marsh! The PAC-12 had such diverse styles of play that there was no way to dominate, except to be creative and adaptive. Meanwhile, SEC and B1G teams were rote learning, over and over, through their season. PAC teams couldn't really prepare for the playoffs until after their conference games were over! Usually, an upset or two eliminated any of our teams from consideration for the four-team playoff. Our West Coast coaches had a Sophie's Choice dilemma -- recruit to win a conference championship (with speed, brains and width), or recruit for the trench warfare to win a championship with bulk and brawn, but knowing you'll likely get tripped up during conference play? Fascinating! Suggested new slogan: "It never rains in Autzen Stadium, but opposing teams can expect to get trenched."

I've mentioned this once before on this forum, and I know it's ridiculous, impractical, inefficient, and unlikely. But Uncle Phil is running out of only two things -- recruiting advantages that money can buy and his days to enjoy the benefits he has bestowed. How could an unexpected few hundred million benefit the Eugene airport? How many direct flights could be funded with guaranteed minimums for each new airline? What would it take to build two adjacent hotels and a shared conference center? How can we make our airport a destination in its own right? We've earned our reputation as innovators and disrupters. Air travel is overdue for something entirely different. I can't help wondering what that might look like, given the minds at Nike and the resources available. (Before you castigate me, please reread my first sentence.)

I hope they have solved a recurring design problem when the "O" appeared on the sides. The chin strap would often cross the logo, making it look like a "Q". Putting the logo on the back of the helmet solved that problem, but maybe designers have found a new solution.

I have just one question about NIL funds. How are they able to keep the secrets? The offers and the money pass through many hands, and no one slips? Competing programs must have reconnaissance operations. Families are receiving competing offers, often without contracted professional agents, with teenage boys at the center of the swirl. Those boys never brag to their girlfriends or their buds? Competing programs never ask for proof of that better offer? Moms never share details in their prayer circles? Tax returns never land in inquiring laps? Regrets never recriminate? Hundreds of offers are circulating each year. Soon it will be thousands of deals done since the beginning of the NIL Age. And all we have are rumors? This is not the version of humanity I understand.

I just had a conversation with a sprinter who is here to win a spot on the Olympic team. I asked him whether Eugene deserves its reputation as Track Town USA. He's been here many times in his career and he loves Eugene, but he told me that lots of athletes hate on us "because it's hard to get here." I imagine the buzz is similar among blue chip football recruits.

This is gonna sound weird, but the real limiter might be our airport and the number of direct flights to anywhere beyond Denver and Phoenix. Uncle Phil asked Coach Belotti what he needed to succeed, and he built an indoor practice facility. If he asks the same question today, we might see a third runway and adjoining hotels with a conference center. Grow the airport, grow the market. The answer is not always on the playing field.

Hey, here's one good thing about all the bad blood caused by UO leaving home and abandoning their in-state sibling, followed by said sibling keeping the entire cookie jar, sharing it only with their nearby cousin who feels similarly aggrieved. We can go back to calling our annual rivalry game a "Civil War."

This will be a contrarian view. (At least I hope so!) I think Sedona added a "me-first" element to the team that Kelly didn't know how to assimilate. It's telling that Sabrina's employment with the Ducks was announced within days of Sedona's departure. (Look it up.) Not to put too fine a point on it, but Sabrina used her talent and determination to better her (and her teammates') lot by working within the (admittedly failed) system. Sedona called it out, in no uncertain terms! (And good for her.) These are two VERY different cultural positions -- and we can say, at least for WBB in the 21st century, they are worlds apart. I add this to the mix only to suggest that Kelly Graves may have had the fortune/misfortune or coaching the ultimate retro WBB player in Sabrina and the cutting edge of forward progress in Sedona simultaneously.

Quarterback is a uniquely central position. If a baseball pitcher could start every game, that would be close, but still not as important. The QB controls the points on the board, but also the tempo of the game -- which, in turn, influences heavily the opposing offense who is not on the field. With the advent of RPO, the quarterback is a real-time strategist -- a coach on the field. This experience cannot be replicated in practice -- only game reps count (and garbage time doesn't.) This will evolve into exactly what another poster (sorry I don't know who) posited: mid-level teams (like OSU) will become equivalent to JuCo teams -- feeders to the elite teams, where NIL and national exposure can be secured by top performers, not to mention professional draft preference. The rich will get richer. Sad but true. (Aside: Bo Nix was a best case scenario. His connection to UO coaching staff amounted to 2.5 years. He was recruited and learned under Dilly, came to Eugene with two more years of eligibility. And he's using it all the way to the end, Good Gosh bless him. That's what we should be looking for in a portal transfer -- somebody with two years of potential playing time, already familiar to Stein or Lanning, thanks to the recruiting process.) There is a way to avoid a steady diet of starting-QB-via-portal, and Kenny Dillingham is experimenting with it. Use more than one QB, depending on the situation. This gives real-time, meaningful reps to more than one player. I've said this before on this forum, but I see a Chip-Kelly-like disruption opportunity for the Ducks here. 75+% of extra points are not expected to meaningfully affect the outcome of the game -- it's gonna be a blow-out or one team is just clearly better from the start. So why not go for two in those situations, using the back-up QB who trains primarily for short-yardage situations? Those are real-time experiences with game-score consequences, even if they won't determine the final outcome. The QB-in-training would be working with the best supporting skill players, who get extra reps in short-yardage situations. The lofty goal is only 50% success, but every rep prepares them for replacing the starting QB. Be honest! Does a placekicker really benefit from all those PATs? Not as much as the next-in-line QB would from regular 2-point attempts! Plus it could make us the national darling again -- it might even get us a Sports Illustrated cover! (Better Lanning than Sanders, right?)