kirklandduck

USC could do worse. Leavitt's always been a solid coach with a good record of success, defense is always elevated when he comes on board. He's a decent recruiter, he brought in some blue chips to Oregon when he was here but if he were hired as USC then he'd probably want to hold onto Donte Williams and have him run the recruiting program. Then hire on a good OC and then USC is back on stable ground to work up from.

The depth chart just released for Call shows Benson as the #2 RB, so it might be that Cristobal is going with sort of a "thunder and lightning" setup with them as the duo.

I think part of it was the elevated expectations when they won at tOSU when they were expected to lose so there's some level of disappointment at the lackluster play lately, I know I certainly felt that. But before the season started I had them at 2 losses and a Rose Bowl win as the ceiling given the well-known limitations of AB under center and I still stick with that. They're not a CFB team but certainly good enough to win the Pac12 for the 3rd year in a row and bring back a Rose Bowl trophy. That's still a very successful season in my book.

Looking at the whole depth chart released for the Cal game also shows some other interesting tidbits: https://twitter.com/Jared_Mack7/status/1447948301337169925/photo/1 Trey Benson is listed as the #2 RB, so let's hope there we have some kind of "thunder and lighting" duo with him and Dye on the rushing offense. Linebacker groups looks much healthier, Mase and Noah are starters along with Keith Brown. Keith is getting a ton of great game time which should yield good dividends next season. Alex Forsyth is back so there should be more consistency up front this game.

Like it or not, unfortunately Dye will be the bell cow for the rest of the season. Moorhead and Mastro will need to adjust how they use him in the offense since he obviously should not run between the tackles all the time. I think they'll spread the load with the other freshman, maybe McGee and Benson along with making the running game more dynamic. If they get Dye into open space and get more creases in the line then the running offense should fly. I always thought that if Dye had been able to work in the old Kelly/Helfrich offense, he could have stats similar to Kenyon Barner.

Right?!?

Let's hope AB's been spending the bye week concentrating on passing accuracy. I don't think offensive scheme will change much because Moorhead is still out after that surgery. Playcalling will improve in the Cal game if he's back in the saddle, I don't think Jim Mastro is that great at it (at least in Moorhead's RPO scheme).

I don't hate Stanford, I respect David Shaw a ton. I do hate Pac-12 referees and their basement-quality training however.

True enough. But I think most coaches look pretty average if the QB isn't performing well. Look at LSU and Clemson, Orgeron and Sweeney look pretty ordinary right now.

I'm not surprised AB is probably still in. We all know Cristobal is risk-adverse and so would be very hesitant to turn the keys over to an inexperienced freshman, especially since there's still a ton to play for. I think if Moorhead were available then he might have been able to debate Cristobal into it but since he's out on medical leave, that's not going to happen. It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next week and a half, some stuff on the offense is definitely going to change since they need to put AB in better spots to succeed plus CJ being out for the season. Of course if they don't change enough, we might see one of the freshman QBs come in sooner rather than later....the situation being AB taking on more runs with CJ out and then getting injured himself.

True, however the situation at that time was vastly different. At that point, Oregon had already lost 3 games and had to face the realization that they were not going to win the Pac12. So they abandoned the season and switched to developing Herbert for the next season. Oregon is not in the same situation this year, they're still ranked in the top 10 with realistic chances of winning the Pac12, the Rose Bowl, and an outside chance at the CFP. I don't think the decision to swap AB for an inexperienced freshman is as cut and dry as you think.

Part of it is the lack of vertical passing from AB or the offensive scheme, the other part is that I don't see our receivers getting open consistently. None of the are really burners but some of them like Devon Williams and Troy Franklin have size, Moorhead should be tweaking his offense to take advantage of that.

I'm taking a wait and see attitude with Moorhead's offense. We saw some good things and some bad things last year but there was just so much weirdness related to the pandemic that affected the team/season, it's hard to get a bead on what sort of progress was made offensively. What I know for sure: Whomever the QB starter is needs to perform right out of the gate. OL is still lacking a lot of game experience, they need to take a leap forward this year. The Pistol has been responsible for so many killed possessions that it really has to go. I think it's an awkward scheme within the RPO at best. DL needs to show improvement after a step back last year.

No way they should have Seven shoot out of the pistol, he'd be road pizza. Design plays to put him in space and let his speed kill the defenders!

Dude is a literal mountain. Obviously a project but a lot of potential. I think for him to become effective he'll need to slim down to 320, then he'll have enough quickness along with his strength to compete.

Probably still trying to figure out COVID impact given the fluid nature of vaccine deployment.

I was going to say the same thing about sleeping on Butterfield. He's got Justin Herbert size, top 5 pro QB and a high end 4* recruit. Plus he's already had a season learning Moorhead's offense.

Awesome, for a moment I thought someone slipped something funny into my drink!

I think ISM and Sampson Niu were both expected to take up leadership roles in the LB corp but Niu opted out of the season for personal reasons. ISM obviously couldn't hold up the leadership mantle by himself in 2020, I suspect if we had both playing then things would have been visibly better.

This one is a shocker to me. I thought he should have at least gone through Spring workouts to see where he is, even with an up and down 2020 season he has the advantage of game experience in the current offensive scheme. I don't think Anthony Brown is the answer for next season, he's experienced but my impression is that his ceiling just isn't as high as the younger guys. Might as well start a younger guy to develop him more quickly than band-aiding with AB for one season. Taking a shot in the dark, I'm going to say Jay Butterfield is the lead to start in the Fall. He's had the opportunity to practice in Moorhead's offense in 2020 without the pressure of starting and he has a similar toolset as Shough. Add to that a presumed full set of Spring practices and a real pre-season plus 3 OOC games, that sets things up nicely for him. Robby Ashford could have a shot as I feel like a true dual threat QB like him is better suited for Moorhead's O but I think he was more raw than Butterfield when Oregon recruited him and I'm going to guess that's still the case. Ty Thompson has enough talent to challenge for QB1 but that being said, it's rare for a true frosh to come in at QB and perform right away. Plus in that scenario it would be virtually guaranteed that at least 1 other QB would transfer out, putting Oregon in an awkward situation.

It'll be interesting to see how the careers of both those youngsters shake out and how they compare. For me the bigger worry is that if by some chance Thompson wins the starting role, we'd probably have at least two QBs transfer out. Cale Millen has already left, I would guess Tyler Shough and one other (Anthony Brown?)....leaving the QB room very shallow behind the starter. It has potential for that Braxton Burmeister scenario that we all dread.

One other thing to remind fans about is that 2021 is Mario's 3rd recruiting class (I don't count the class he had to salvage from Taggart's desertion, he literally only had 2 weeks to work with that). 3 recruiting classes means that the 1st class is only now becoming juniors or redshirt sophomores, so all his recruits so far consist of primarily underclassmen. Food for thought.

Absolutely true, at least in the couple of bars I've been in. I have not had the chance to attend a game in Husky Stadium but when I finally do I'll be completely decked out in UO gear. My neighbor's ribbing was in good nature as he's a good guy but I had to give him something back in equal measure lol.

I'm more than happy with a top 10 ranking no matter where Oregon finishes!

Oh I was grinning all the way home! BTW I think his wife went to WSU haha