FishIceCream

I agree with Annie, and also go back to my opinion about Helf at the time: I think he was a fine coach (and still is no doubt) but struggled taking over the CEO job. I think he would have grown into it if they gave him a little more time, and would have kept FishDuck types from complaining about boring offense and pistol formation. I doubt he'd be recruiting on the level we've come to expect over the last couple years, however. In the end, I hope Graves is given time to work things out. I always scorned schools that fired their successful coaches after a bad season; hate to become known as one of those schools.

I don't think DJ Johnson needs to step up; I think he already stepped up! I like it when guys move from O to D, or D to O, and have success. And my goodness, I would not like to be a 200 lb defensive back seeing that dude bearing down on me!

It happens to the best of us haha. I figure in a general sense that the 3 point shot was put in as an answer to the "Dudleys" of the league. It spread the game out just due to the math. I think the rules sort of iteratively change over time to reflect that. I'm not enough of a student of either pro BB or college football to really point to details, but in general once things get so far out of balance that everyone complains, there will be a rule change.

Maybe only partly related, but one of my fond memories of why I never considered NBA to be real basketball was going to see a Blazers game in the late 80's, when they had Chris Dudley. I managed to get good enough seats to see clearly. One play, the ball went up, bounced off the rim, a collection of giants all tried to retrieve it, and Dudley started swinging his arms around. He made it look like a caricature of someone being off-balance and trying to stay standing, but every time his arms flailed one of the giants went flying left or right. In the end, the ball came down to him for the rebound, and I was really impressed how strong he was. But I did appreciate how this is NOT basketball as I know it!

It's one of those things that's really hard to suss out in an online forum, but I hope you are not taking this as a criticism instead of an honest observation. Don't beat up on me in public for trying to give you a straight opinion, in other words lol. I am not saying it's wrong, and like I said - it worked for me. I am still here and interacting with you. However, I do think it's a level of control over what is posted and how it's posted that is unusual. That was my my main point, in regards to people wanting to become moderators. No offense intended.

It's petty, but somehow at the same time seems like real old-time football would do it. We are all family until you bend the knee to my rival haha.

For what it's worth, in reference to my first post on this topic and your reply, your third moderator (voluntary) task - "fix posts that hurt the eyes... follow AP style..." is what I was referring to by "intrusive." Editing, hiding, or deleting posts that contain offensive language or violate the rules of decorum/topics is not what I would consider intrusive - just strict enforcement, which is a different thing. For me, it surprised me, but I adjusted and learned from it. I think most of the regular names I see posting here have done the same - if anyone just can't enjoy the forum that way, they will leave. And it is perfectly within your rights to manage the forum in the way you want to! It looks absolutely fantastic, and it really is a great place to come get your Duck fix, especially if you live out of state like I do. In the end, I would be hesitant to moderate because I had a very negative experience doing that in the past, as I am sure you can relate to from your long time doing this. Even if I did want to, I am swamped due to covid layoffs, re-schooling myself, and working "gigs" right now. Some days I barely have time to kiss the wife and check that my kids have homework. Anyway - thanks again, and if you do put the forum in storage for a while, I hope you reopen again when an avenue opens to do it.

First of all, as I think all of the readers would say, thanks for all the work you've put into the forum. I'll give my two cents, which unfortunately don't contain any miracle ideas, but at least I will be straightforward in my opinion. I think there are two issues working against you here, as I'm sure you know. You are extremely particular about not just forum 'decorum' but the content and even aesthetics of what and how people post, and you want to continue to grow the user base by constantly seeding the forum with topics if needed. Because of the first issue you are looking for nearly real-time monitoring and very intrusive moderating. I'll admit I was taken aback by how intrusive the moderating is, to be frank. That is not meant to be insulting, but just a true observation. Years ago I moderated a very busy, more contentious, and less polite forum than this one, and I have participated in many others; I have never experienced anything close to the style of moderation you prefer. Because of that fact, as you say it's not going to be a "normal" moderation job, in which a pool of volunteer mods share the duty of essentially rules enforcement, either when they notice something or when a 'bad' post is flagged for their attention by regular forum users. That is usually a fairly effective system, but it won't ensure the timeliness and level of detail that you want. I might suggest just locking the forum during hours that you can't monitor or have another moderator whom you have trained on duty, but that runs into the second issue. I am quite sure that your loyal fan base (me included) would continue to come and participate, but it will run afoul of your desire to grow the user base. On the other hand, mothballing the forum entirely would not seem to do much for growth either, so it might be something to consider. Finally, if you want people (besides yourself) to seed the forum with new posts, you might consider asking for volunteers from the regular crowd to do that, rather than moderating. This being during times when the forum is unlocked, of course, if you went that route. Probably more than two cents, but that is all I've got!

If I just look at the section about the PAC-12, I'd call it a "fluff" article which is aimed to make make many fan bases happy and stir up interest about the league. Well geeze, there are so many teams that were a game away from winning last year, it's wide open! Obviously there is not much serious analysis there! However, I think there is more than a grain of truth to the fact that it's not a done deal, and hopefully the Ducks keep that in mind and in their motivation. From what I see, it's been over a decade at this point since a team ran the table in the PAC-12. You snooze on an opponent, you lose, etc. etc. I don't care about the national opinion or recruiting rankings, I think that is still very much true. and is a good thing for the league.

My only question is if it can be LBU in addition!

Of the games I got to watch on TV, I liked what I saw last year. Especially the Pac 12 championship game. Lots of plays out of the shotgun with motion before the snap, and good clock management. Whether it's popular or not, I am of the old way of thinking - if you are not confident you can outscore everyone, then play ball control. Milk that clock! People in this forum have said that Kelly knew how to do that, but I would also point to his debacle at Wazzu showing he can get caught up in the scoring frenzy. MC seems more like a ball control guy, and there is no reason why you can't do that with a creative offense. I felt like that was what I saw in the championship game. I also saw last year's game in the Palouse, and I remember the commentator saying Shough was consistently throwing the ball just a tad behind the receivers , and was not going through the progressions before he would tuck and run. I could see what he was saying, and I think that is what led to his decline as the season progressed. If a schmuck like me can see it, so can all the highly-paid defensive coordinators in the league, and they will find ways to take advantage of it. Hopefully one of our QBs will rise to the challenge this season; I think the scheme is fine.

I remember listening to one of those games on the radio heading to the beach in the back seat of my parent's Datsun 5-10. We sounded good on the first drive, but it was all downhill from there haha. Thinking of those days gives me a 'my how the mighty have fallen' feeling. In some ways, maybe the Ducks are the Nebraska of this era. It never made much sense they were so good just looking at their population base in-state.

This seems like a good baseline prediction to me, although I wouldn't be surprised if the Ducks win one of those "predicted loss" games and get upset in one game they should win. From an education perspective dealing with rubrics, 9 regular season wins seems like "meets expectations" next year. 10+ exceeds expectations, while 8 or less "needs improvement" - or worse! As for the writer's comment about this perhaps being the "most challenging non-conference game in program history," I'd point to the '85 and '86 games at Nebraska - I think the disparity in talent was much greater then.

I say there is NO PROBLEM with you being biased towards Herbert, considering that this is the FishDuck forum haha. More power to you. How I see it is like this. Herbert is the prototypical "NFL quarterback" - 6'6" so tall enough to see over the line, 240 so big enough to withstand some hits. As we saw in his first series when he put some poor LB on the bench after a hard hit. Tua is a dynamic playmaker in the mold of Russell Wilson. Wilson - 5'11", 215; Tua 6'0" 217. Everyone would love to have another Russell Wilson, but there is a reason why he is exceptional. Not only are you playing at the very top level as a quarterback, but you are also giving up 4-6 inches of height in the game. It makes a difference! Those linemen are some tall dudes. I think Mariota has struggled due to injury and circumstance, but he does have the size and athleticism to make it work. Tua I am not so sure about. He has the "it factor" but not the size. Maybe athleticism? Not sure.

This seems very astute. I think this day and age, it's much more fluid than it used to be, and the recruits are also more strategic in planning where they go. Plus, it seems like the Ducks are still firmly in the hunt for A.J. Duffy, who incidentally was playing ball about a half-hour drive from me before he transferred to Florida. If they reel him in, that solves any transfer problems for at least one year.