Solar

Ok, playing football in the rain when it is 36 degrees is about the most uncomfortable thing I've ever experienced, perhaps only beaten by some 10 degrees and blowing trips from my car to the office in work clothes. You still have a point. I continue to think that the diversity of environments in the PAC 12 made road games harder than other conferences. Altitude and humidity are underrated factors. It isn't just the temp. I think playing in November in AZ or Wisconsin is s probably a home field advantage wash for PNW schools. That dry AZ air in November just puts the players to sleep.

I don't know about DL being the best recruiter in the nation, but I think it is pretty definitive that U of O as an organization and alumni is the best recruiter in the country. Recruiting at such a high level with such a dearth of local talent is extraordinary. A tip of the cap all the way around and especially for Marshall Malchow who is continuing to do what he did at TAMU.

JD only succeeded at LSU by getting away from the tough PAC12 defenses to go up against the pansie SEC defenses. That's the counter argument for those that say Nix thrived at Oregon because PAC12 defenses suck. The real question for us is the B1G defenses. Are they really that superior or are their offenses inferior, or is the weather just too crappy in the back half of the season for offenses to produce? The truth is probably in the middle of all 3.

USC's own reporters say their DL is G5 level right now with little depth. They need to send out the APB to current students to find potential walk ons that could be pushed above 300 lbs with a summer of gluttony. USC should be really good this year, but they face planted on the most critical position outside of QB going into the B1G.

And remember they only count Gabriel for pennies on the dollar because he only has one year left. He was the biggest contributor available in the portal, period.

More difficult, but less risk of missing who could have won it all. So not as critical. The bye is the only thing keeping the conference championships relevant, and I think that is the only reason the byes exist. If it wasn't worth a bye you'd see starters benching themselves if coaches didn't do it first. So if they dump the bye and go to 16 teams then they should do away with the conference championships

Alright, now it's starting to feel more even with OSU. We are going to arguably have the best DL in the B1G (almost wrote PAC12 there!). Both OSU and Michigan's offensive strengths will be their running game. If we can get any kind of head start on them, they'll feel pressured to abandon the run if they only get 0-5 yards per carry. And the won't have hope of significantly wearing us down over the course of the game due to our depth. Game on.

My wish would be conference championships being eliminated, no byes, seeding would be by lottery, and every game would be a neutral site bowl game. How is that for a level playing field! Just shows how far reality is away from a fair randomized opportunity.

I am baffled by USC not being in any top 25 lists at the moment. Everyone is overreacting to the loss of Williams, and extreme skepticism of a defense turn around. The only thing that should be keeping them out of the top 10 is the OL. They should be in the top 15-20 range, but clearly they've been written off. I've seen us consistently in that 3rd-5th ranked range. Maybe a little high, but then I look at the others and I'm okay with it. Really there is a top tier of Georgia and Ohio State, then below that nobody really stands out for the next 7-10 spots.

That picture is freaking awesome.

Can leopard change it's spots? FSU doesn't count. The straw that broke the camels back was the QB injury not the poor SoS.

Interesting that they are all freshmen or RS freshmen.

I haven't seen a single mention of ducks getting signed as UDFA. Every year we have about five. We're there really none this year?

We may want cannon fodder, but with this level of upheaval coming who's in and who's out won't be dictated based on "because they were there first." Not to say that some of the valuable markets don't have cannon fodder teams. Once the have a target conference size then everything gets re-evaluated. One time relegation exercise based on historical prestige, market size and a dash of "what have you done lately." Lastly to all. I don't think fans in the stands will be a big deal going forward in determining market size. With a 40ish team league it begins to be about national viewership/brand cache as pretty much any game will be viewed coast to coast.

I agree with much if what you just said. Absolutely it makes sense. I do think we saw a lot of progress in the last 2 years with Bo. Bad Bo only showed up a few times all season (TT and CCG) in 2023. And when confident this last year he was able to throw into tight windows with consistent success. I think Bo would really benefit from the QB coach Justin had who was able to wash off all that Cristobal "everything is grind" mentality and get him to just love playing football fast.

I think: Tier 1 revamped B1G and SEC Tier 2, rest of BCS Tier 3 FCS Tier 4 D3 The only questions are which schools are in Tier 1 long term? Is Iowa's market really big enough? Is Miami's? The schools on the margins are in for a fight over the next one to five years.

I watched this YouTube video by Cam Newton that I agree with 100%. And in reality it reflected how our Offense. performed last season. And then I hear from in the know individuals that Dillon's ceiling isn't as high as Bo's. Then I think about how Dillon played in high pressure difficult situations, specifically against Texas. Perhaps the biggest difference between last year's offense and this year's offense will be that we aren't quite as efficient as we were last year against bad to decent teams, but in more difficult circumstances against the best we will play our best football. Other differences will potentially be having more plays on the ground. Running plays not out of the RPO, and more of Dillon running with the ball. Thoughts?

I'm pretty confident he is right. Hard to see on a TV screen when everyone is bigger. Bigger than what else, the down markers on the sidelines? Funny to read comments on YouTube saying "Oregon looks small, and will need to be a finesse team." Big 10 narrative eaters that haven't been pay attention for the last decade viewing things through a biased lense. Seems pretty prevalent. It's gonna be fun welcoming those B1G fans to Oregon when we destroy their favorite team at the LOS.

I was non-plussed by Tosh from day one, and wanted him gone before the end of the first season. But perhaps there is a dynamic here between him, Lanning, and Hampton where his unique strengths are maximized and his weaknesses and oversights are covered over by Lanning and Hampton's support. And with that, Tosh will grow to address his weaknesses and reach his ceiling as a coach. Maybe the best quality Tosh has is he isn't head coach material and will likely stick around in a position that fits his ceiling instead of chasing the Peter Principle.

Broncos has two things going for them to decide to jump up 20 spots to grab Troy. #1 is Bo Nix chemistry with him is worth something if you truly believe Bo will start. #2 Troy was who Bo was throwing to in the private tryout he had with the Broncos, so they had a pretty clear opportunity to see who they could be getting. It was interesting to hear that one of the things that turned Sean onto Bo was Alex Forsyth, who was Bo's center at Oregon in '22.

I couldn't catch the game live but watched it delayed, here are my notes: It was a bit jarring to how different this team is this year. The turnover of talent was much more obvious than I expected. There is serious work to do to become an efficient unit on offense, and the staff definitely has it's work cut out to select a two deep that can work cohesively as a team. I've never seen so many runs in a spring game. Usually they are minimized to prevent injuries. I think it's two things, 1 having enough expendable RBs on the roster and 2 an extra intensional focus on the run game going into the B1G, as previously mentioned by Stein at least. Worth an article by itself. Surprised by the level of violence in the play. It was violent compared to in season games let alone a spring game against your own teammates. It came from everywhere and everyone. Offense, Defense, starters, walk-ons, and even the true freshmen. It was clear last year that James has been running with bad intentions, but jeez instead of heading out of bounds he knocked Savage out cold. Kyler Kasper is legendary, I mean legend has it he has caught a pass, but I've never seen it. I'm certainly hoping that changes, that he can show up when the lights are on. Being excellent in practice isn't worth much. Bryant is an enigma, he typically seems a little lost when running routes, but as soon as the ball is in his hands, he knows exactly where he is and what to do with it. He's the best true running back in the team with his sense of spacing, feel and quickness in tight spaces; too bad he's stuck in a receivers body. Give the man some tunnel screens this year Stein. This is the most powerful DL Oregon has ever had. We have elite OL but the pocket was consistently collapsed. Bullrushes to oblivion from every position. I wasn't expecting that. Perhaps the OL were overthinking things at the snap, rather than playing nasty, but it was so consistent, hard to explain away. There was also little room to run. That didn't stop Jay Harris from being productive. He is who we wanted Dowdell to be. He is 6.2 and 215, but he runs like he is much lighter than that. His size shows up when he refuses to go down.

The biggest thing I was hoping to see from the spring game was just this, seeing Lanning's HS recruits start to shine, and they really did. Fantastic to see.

It's just a spring game as we all know (Jeff Lockie went 12 for 12 once). So many things had to be discounted. Pocket presence by all QBs was bad, and efficiency was bad, but lots of potential explanations for that. All can throw a good ball at least. It seems clear that per the order of taking the field it DJ Moore is past Novasad already on the depth chart, despite this difference of experience in this offense.

He's too skinny/weak and didn't run the gauntlet drill in a straight line are the two reasons I'm seeing. Could be the teams that were interested in him over thought it and went with a less risky pick and nobody else was really paying attention. It sounds weird but people are assumed to not be available after a certain point in the draft so if they miss that window they can fall farther than they should.

Coaching turnover will have that affect. Fits become misfits.