Solar

I agree with your comments. We have to remember JMU was ranked higher than UW even with consideration of opponents. It shouldn't be shocking that they could do some damage when we took our foot off the gas mentally and by having backups in the game randomly from pretty early on. We got a glimpse early in the game of what our ceiling is and what our floor is late. Our ceiling is the highest in the playoffs, but our floor is more in the Alabama and Miami floor range than the Indiana, Ohio State, and Georgia floor range. There were a few unlucky plays that had a big impact as you mentioned too. I'm more worried about us traveling across 3 time zones to play in warm South Florida. At least the players will have about a week to adjust, but still...will we ball out to our ceiling? I sure hope they replace the turf at Autzen for next year. It's pretty clear that it has excellent traction when you plant your cleats solidly, but if your foot angle is bad and you are relying on friction with the plastic blades of grass you might as well be playing on a hockey rink.

Man I think a lot of these scores are too high. Oregon wins 29-8 2 4 265

It really sucks watching two teams with identical colors. White and dark red. Even the head coaches are nearly indistinguishable.

Unbelievable. The kicker missed his first and last field goals for the year and made every other one in between. Oklahoma deserves to lose this game. Too many mistakes. I really hope Indiana wipes the floor with Bama next week.

Alabama's starting running back would be in the transfer portal at Oregon. He's crazy slow and bad vision. And the announcers are talking like he's playing with so much burst now that he's rested. And Oklahoma's passing scheme is doodoo. Half the time there is nobody on side of the field Mateer is trying to throw to.

Psychologically, the previous year is always the baseline for determining success, and we always want to do better the next time. So par for the course is losing in the quarterfinals AGAIN, and I'd be really disappointed. So success to me is winning a quarterfinalists game or better. It won't be enough to stop other fans from calling us the zeros, but I don't really care.

Mateer is finally back to 100%. The OC will adapt the play calling to that reality and Mateer wil be slinging the ball to his NFL wide receivers suddenly giving Oklahoma an offense to match their defense, making them a contender to win it all. This game is going to look like a repeat of the SEC championship with Alabama not looking like they belong on the field.

Moore is not ready to go to the NFL. He hasn't demonstrated the ability to manage the pass rush consistently, and he's playing behind one of the best OLines in the country. If he goes to the Raiders that has one of the worst OLs in the country, he'll be a disaster at best and injured at worst. I'd love for Dante to prove me wrong though, especially in the playoffs against some teams with a great pass rush like TTU, Indiana, OU, etc.

I said WIDE receivers. Agreed, Johnson is a great option as a tight end. It would sure be nice to put 3 WRs out there that are all legitimate threats, rather than have one of the 3 that Moore rarely is comfortable throwing to as a tendency defenses can scheme against. With regards to TTU, they have been phenomenal, but are the least tested team in the playoffs outside the G5 teams and has a 3 week break to get soft before getting hit by an offensive line significantly better than any they've seen to date. I do agree that if they shut down our running game like they did against BYU it's going to be really important that Dante can handle the pressure they bring and get off good passes to our receivers, or else to could be trouble. Washington shut down our run game but was poor at generating pressure on Dante, which has been their weakness. TTU like Indiana can bring solid pressure on the QB, and is probably better at stopping the run. Could be a low scoring game.

Agreed, it feels like we only have 2 wide receivers on the field since Wisconsin.

Thank you. If they are taking punt return reps that's a good sign. Should be really ready to go by TTU. Stewart is probably not going to be available this year even if we make the Natty, given that he's been rehabing for so long and is still not doing drills, let alone contact activities. That's a little disappointing, but getting Moore back on the field will be a significant improvement.

Timing on all these could be an issue if we make a deep run in the playoffs and Moore doesn't decide until later than these guys need to find their next landing spot. I'm sure Lanning will have that discussion with Moore.

Well 10 million at 8% for 40 years is $217 million, so... And like I said, he's from Detroit, he doesn't know how to spend money, and if he goes in the 2nd round he's still making millions a year that he can't figure out how to spend. He's got generational wealth coming without being a first rounder next year, or the year after that.

Benson taking over for Bryant has been the difference for punt return. If Bryant comes back, I think Benson continues to be the guy. And these days kick returners are your speediest running backs not WRs for durability reasons.

"participating" We'll what part of practice? A lot of times the media is only allowed to see warm ups and a drill or two. Still, it's a great sign, and hopefully at least 2 of the 3 will be ready to contribute at a high playoff level once by the Texas Tech game.

He's arguably the most respected coach in all of college football. He'd be a fantastic get for Michigan, if indeed he's open to being a head coach.

Thanks for the statistics on how many games each have played. Again I think Moore is aware that just like a grade schooler held back a year, he essentially did that to himself last year. He will benefit significantly from playing another 12 games next year. I don't think Thomas is a preferred QB1 next year if Dante went in the draft. Either Smith Jr is developed enough to take over or a transfer portal QB is brought in. I certainly don't see Novasad or Moga ever starting.

Like Lanning, I don't think he's after F'U amounts of money. The 5-10 million he'll have at age 22 from Oregon NIL compounded for 40 years at 8% is already an ungodly sum, major generational wealth. He from Detroit, he does even have a clue what to spend money on. He already waited one year to invest in himself getting better, which ironically also reduced the amount of games/plays he's participated in. Why would he not wait again when he knows he would benefit a lot from one more year in college playing ball? He's coming back unless he sees Mehringer as a problem/risk and we win a Natty. I don't think the former is the case, and odds on the latter are still kinda low. He's coming back.

JMU is ranked as high as USC and UW, and they realize this is a once in a program opportunity and will bring their best effort. We will have to earn the win, but any thoughts of a beauty contest are in the past! Just win and let the haters deal with their personal issues themselves.

We have the highest ceiling of any team in the playoffs with a floor that is right around our #5 seed/rank. Get your popcorn out, because we'll have to watch the games to see who and what shows up.

That's impressive that it's a B1G sweep this year, and we've played 2 of the best this season already.

Since everyone is hellbent on not getting to the final playoffs solution all at once, you have to embrace the process (started with the BCS Championship game decades ago) to get where this need to go. We're still in the process, it's just where we are at. So many people in positions of authority lacking vision and weighed down with too many conflicts of interest from the status quo, so we're gonna do this the hard way until the bitter last needed change. Last year was Oregon's turn to be shafted, this year is ND's turn and so on and so forth. Trust the process, lol it will still get us there eventually!

Ducks supposedly monitor every athletes wear to keep them below certain thresholds, so it wouldn't be too big of a leap to dial down those thresholds in the future. We do see a lot of practice injuries contact and non contact. Also there certainly are different seasons to be breaking down and to be peaking. The fact bye weeks are so needed during the season tells me in season you could get by with a lot more walkthrough practices and be fine. Out of season you need to be maximizing your breakdown and recovery consistently.

The most bizarre numbers for him are a 22 ft long jump and 45' triple jump. I'm sure he didn't exactly practice then much, but dang I hit those numbers with 12 second 100 meter speed in college. Running 10.15 you could get 22ft with a small hop. What matter is his football speed and high pointing balls which he is excellent at. 6'3 is a fantastic height. And if you look at his running form on you tube for his 100 meter dash his form is horrible. Lots of indication his elite speed and athletic ability is still very raw. He's got a lot of upside with proper training that Oregon can give him. Despite the physical development setback of being on a mission for 2 years he still comes in as a freshman and he's still in that 15 year window age 15-30 where his natural strength should continue to improve with or without training, meaning his ceiling in college is actually higher than if he hadn't gone on the mission, it's just shortening his presumed profession career. This kid is going to be a dual sport monster. I'd love to see teams have to guard sub 10.4 speed at every WR position with rocket arm QBs for the next few years.

Just because Mario plays with his food doesn't mean he can't get his stuff together and win big games. He did that many times for Oregon. Miami will be dangerous in the playoffs.