Solar

Absolutely Idaho was way better than we were thinking. They were physical, athletic, disciplined in their assignments, sound fundamentally, fabulously conditioned, confident and on their toes the entire game. I fully expect there to be many teams that don't play us that good this year- little bro, MSU, Illinois, Purdue, possibly Maryland and UCLA.

Last time an FCS team looked this good at Autzen was 2016. Thinking we will go 4-8 would be an overreaction. Thinking we will go 9-3 is not. The only problem here is the bar was set too high. We are wrong to think our prior chemistry of Stein, Nix, Irving, JPJ, and Franklin can be perfectly replicated. Yes we will see significant improvement as the team gels, but our ceiling is simply not at that level. Back to the subject line of this thread, I'm extremely respectful to the Vandals. And thankful to them for showing us where we are actually at. Saying they vandalized us may be the perfect metaphor for what they really did yesterday.

OL and Gabriel looked the same in the spring game. I'm not optimistic for significant improvement.

I guess this is as good as any place to post my take. Grab a cup of Joe. Let's start high level: - 3 point game against an FCS team in the 4th quarter. No major bad luck required. We were straight up outplayed for stretches of the game. - Does anybody really think we would have done any better than 3-45 against Georgia in Atlanta yesterday? Because that's where this team is at. Let's move to the things that can be fixed: - Not playing inspired football. One would think they will find better intensity against other teams. - Cleaning up procedural penalties - Bedford getting healthy - Transfers getting better with the playbook Let's move to the things that can't or won't be fixed: -Gabriel can't magically fast forward to his second year in the system though -Final season QB immobilization: Mariota, Herbert, Nix, Gabriel. NFL in sight, running the ball is no longer allowed. Thought by the QB spoken into existence by the coaches, schemed out of the playbook by the OC. Not even a hint of an option run game. Every running play will be 10 on 11 and the defense knows it. -Gabriel's pocket presence will be more Mariota than Nix. That isn't something coachable based on what I've ever seen -A team curated for the big 10, to be Rhinos. GPS readings above 20mph across the board with agility no where in sight due to massive weight. As they say factually in car racing, a 3000 lb car with 300 HP is not the same as a 2000 lb car with 200 HP. Simple physics about momentum. Does anyone really think Tez could do his thing at 200lbs? It's not the speed, its not even the acceleration, it's the rate of change in acceleration, the suddenness, the 2nd derivative for those who paid attention in calculus. That's what allows you to evade tacklers and blockers and get and stay in front of opponents you are trying to block. Impossible against FCS size dudes at our weight -Will Stein's playbook. We are in the season. Any drastic changes can't happen. We are stuck with a playbook that relies on agile blocking and defenses that are slow to react.

My Cristobal philosophy is he is a well meaning guy for the most part, and was part of turning us around, so I don't want to get too mad at him, but his Achilles heel is he is stubborn as a mule. The fact he has no inner circle to confide in is by choice and because of that, all he'll ever do is sniff success from time to time. At the end of the day he is home in Miami and irrelevant to us.

Penn State looked really good as did Tennessee. Wisconsin is poorly coached, and just not a great team. And I don't buy that it's just the first game, something is off. Clemson hasn't scored a touchdown against Georgia in 30 tries, and they finally threw in the towel in the second half. The eye test says the gap between the top 10 teams and 11-20 teams is wider than ever thanks to NIL. I thought that expanding the playoffs might help level the playing field in the top 20, but NIL cash is way more important than sticking with a team to have a special season. It is what it is.

65-3 Ducks 2 turnovers 4 sacks 438 passing yards

Google says it so it must be true.. Where's Rodney Dangerfield?

Of course they do. I feel like it's fate we'll be playing against Alabama in the playoffs within the next 2 years. And it's way too late. 2012 is when it should have happened, and now our coach has documented issues with beating Alabama's coach...

It's simple physics. Brain damage is a function of deceleration rate, and that is a function of the distance the deceleration occurs over, ie. The distance from the initial point of contact to full compression of the helmet padding against your head. The guardian caps are one way to increase that distance. I don't understand why they don't just regulate the padding damping rate and thickness between your head and the helmet shell. Drive up the shell size as needed to achieve uniform protection regardless of the size of your head. You hear about lineman getting concussions, it's probably not because of the impact speed, it's because their head is so big there is very little padding thickness under the shell. I'm just an engineer though. What do I know.

When the announcers say "Welcome to the 60th meeting of Idaho and Oregon!", everyone will be like, what the heck?

College football has tremendous turnover and no preseason. Risking the situation of being a portal heavy team playing a top 30 team in week 1 is just stupid.

It's extremely improbable to get past 4, but 5 is still eye opening to use a separate company's analytics.

I read that Idaho is the 5-7th ranked team in the FCS preseason rankings, only kind of a cupcake. I want to see efficiency on offense, and a defense that is not exploited by being out of position or not getting to the ball, especially on 3rd downs. I lastly want to see 2nd and 3rd string operate with little drop off from the starters.

I used to use bleacher report as a news aggregator, but they screwed it up. I'm not aware of any others so I'm thrilled to be able to use the forum for this while being able to comment. Keep it coming.

It was practically a home game with all the FSU fans that made the trip. This is good for them though. They don't have to worry about being disrespected as an undefeated at the end of the season now.

Apparently Big 10 has not yet released their tie breaker rules for selecting '24 conference championship participant when they have equal record. With 18 team and a broad top tier it is high probability tie breaker rules will be needed.

I'm guessing inside I do is he'll be in the 2 deep for field safety, likely the starter after a few games. I don't think he'd be listed as a freshman all American if they didn't have some Intel that they will be getting a lot of playing time. It helps Flowers that we don't have a solid experienced field safety. I'm not trying to be mean but I'm glad Steve Stevens has graduated. Bless his heart for trying, but his lack of speed has cost us many big gains and touchdowns. Almost 1 a game.

If Howard wins the Heisman it's because Chip turned him into an option running fool. No way he gets there with him arm. So inconsistent.

Pocket presence has always been a weak point compounded by poor ball protection, and his accuracy comes and goes. One would think with the current NFL willingness to run the QB that his running traits would increase his value more than in the past, so we'll see with the commanders.

Bo looks just like he did at Oregon and the announcers were absolutely gushing over him. I'm really proud of the UO QBs in the league. Honestly, can you think of any more talent and wholesome people in the NFL than Nix, Herbert, and Mariota? Such wonderful people and ambassadors for our program.

Having watched Will Howard play the RPO/option at KState, with OSU's RB talent, I would not be surprised one bit to see a near copy of the Offense Chip ran with Mariota. It makes too much sense.

Lanning is already 100 times the game manager Cristobal was. Certainly there is room for improvement in scheming for opponents instead of patronizing recruits during game weeks. However everyone that is so confident he made multiple poor decisions in the past to go for it, may actually be wrong. Given the limitations of the team (bad fg kicker and a defense that wasn't going to stop the opposing offense) his decision making was pretty reasonable. Of course now we have great fg kickers and a top shelf defense, so when he chooses to punt or kick a field goal everyone will say DL is maturing as a coach. I'll be saying, "Just shut up."

I believe it. Look, it took a few years for Riley to destroy Grinch, I expect the same for the new DC. We will see immediate significant improvement from the WOAT defense. Whether it last or not is what I'll wait to see.

Yes, rotational depth prevents injuries which gives you even less injuries by the end of the year. And as the quality of our depth increases I would expect to see rotation increase even more. Definitely more important to give QB #2, 3 experience, and minimize opportunity for Gabriel to get hurt than him winning a Heisman. Once the game is firmly in hand, get him out.