MicroBurst61

Yes the current speed of play may slow down, a bit. But, with our "bigs" back and involved Oregon BB should take away the inside game for most opponents, opens up offensive fast breaks from defensive rebounds and significantly helps win the rebound battle. We won't have to rely on three pointers to pull out a game against other dominant inside post teams. But, again it comes down to chemistry and how to balance our speed with our size. Dana Altman seems to be able to strike that balance with teams that buying into his coaching. I hope to see more of that balance over the next 4-6 games. Go !

Both Colorado and Utah are two games behind the Ducks in the conference. Both will be highly motivated in sending the Ducks back home 0-2. Altman and company Cannot afford to let that happen and need a split or sweep to continue the momentum currently building up with this Young Roster. As stated above, Colorado has Always been an albatross around the necks of DA and OBD basketball. It was good to finally break through last year and hope that it continues this road trip. Utah will be more challenging, as the second game at altitude, simply because they are a better group this year than in years past as the second stop. Bring it back home and hold serve against the two apparently, very good, Arizona schools with similar motivations; then going into February we can start talking about rankings, conference championships, tourney seedings, and how high of a ceiling this Young Oregon Duck BB team, actually has. I am excited to watch how it all plays out. Go Quackers!

Rankings? For 2024 season? In football? The talking heads do understand that final staff, rosters, and position groups won't actually be known until this fall, but I guess you have to fill your "space" with something to talk about. Ok, I'll play along. B1G10 (16/17/18/?) Oregon Football is going to be different than most any season in the past PAC10/12. The conference strength will rival the SEC on a yearly basis and because of this, 2-3 loss seasons, depending upon strength of schedule, will not automatically exclude a team from a possible invite to the post season (especially when it expands to 16 teams). Fans are going to have to adjust their expectations on what a "successful" season will be. ALL of the elite teams in college football are going to experience a loss or two, especially in the age of two Super conferences, and the focus for most will be to simply get into the playoffs and make a run at the title in the last 3 games of the postseason. There will always be a few undefeated teams each year but I don't believe we will be seeing any 25-30 game win streaks anymore in college football (unless of course it be OBD!). It will be interesting, to say the least, but it should be a fun ride. With the investment into our athletic department over the last quarter century, OBD ARE and will remain a player in the new college athletic reality and should be a contender in the B1G well into the foreseeable future. Just give me another quarter century of awesome Duck Fandom; after that my biggest concern will be if I can find anything I can chew or if some machine will be doing that for me? (Reference any of ya ole dogs out there?!). As always. GO DUCKS!

Well that was clunky, especially in the first half (-18! Really, Yikes!). But as they have all year NOT lost focus, made the adjustments needed, and toughed out another conference win. Dante definitely needs to "get in the groove" but did as expected and should work inside with more confidence as he gets up to speed Cousnard continues to be the team leader and Tracy is a nice compliment to whoever has the hot hand. Shelstad continues to work his freshman magic while Rigsby seems to be all over the court..looking for opportunity. This team has some playas' and they all seem to have an unselfish streak while starting to play very well together. They seem to believe in themselves and Never quit until the final horn. Hope to see continued growth and teamwork next week during the trip to the mountain schools. This could be a very good, almost dangerous, team going into the month of February. Go Quackers!

Chemistry. Chemistry. Chemistry. Tonight's game will give a us a glimpse of the integration of a dominant post player into the smallball guard lineup that Oregon has had significant success with. California, with their seven footer, will be a good team to make that adjustment to. Don't expect Dante to see a full set of minutes, but how Oregon moves the ball through him will give a good indication of that integration. Hopefully play has been going well in practice. We need to win the boards tonight and not have a drop off in three point and free throw percentage. Look smooth winning this game and I like our chances on closing out January strong, in a tough trip to the mountain schools followed up by a home stand against the desert teams, all positioned in the top half of the conference. Let's see if those final cubes will align properly and then we will talk about February, the traditional time period that the "aligned" Altman Rubik's Cube is released upon the conference. GO!

And to add to this. Counting our First Duck Blessing of 2024. Dan Lanning proving his commitment to Oregon Football as it's long term Head Coach. He ain't going NOWHERE! One of many more to come in 2024, I'm sure. Go Ducks!

DL..practicing that most rare human quality...Consistency! What an example for his team in that aspect of meeting ones personal goals. Dan, Truly, is The MAN! 's!

And just like that, poof, the nasty lil rumours are gone! Always a good day to be a Duck.

Lanning to Bama? Anything in life is a possibility, so never say never. I fully expect Lanning to have an interview (at least a preliminary one). I myself have been interviewed for positions I was reasonably sure that I was not going to take, but the experience and exposure was a good networking and learning experience and helped refine my interviewing processes. That being said. DL is always on the lookout for an "edge" for the team he is managing, so any trips to Tuscaloosa may just be another way of DL leveraging his "spotlight" to further enhance and develop OREGON football. (Much like his appearance during Utah GameDay and last weeks Natty appearance at halftime). Personally I am very grateful that Oregon stepped up earlier last year and reworked DLs contract, including the bump on buyout money from 10 to 20 mil dollars. Even in an age of big college football money, 27+ million dollars to "poach" Lanning is an amount that few successful programs may be willing to layout for a young, promising, upward trajectory; yet still on-the-job learning and not yet championship proven Head Coach. Oh he will get there for sure but not there just yet. For whatever illogical reasons I hold on to, I am feeling fairly confident that Dan Lanning will still be coaching the Oregon Ducks long after the "noise" of the coaching carousel dies down. The "noise" will never completely go away because of the Quality of coaching personnel that Oregon is now attracting. We we lose coaches and personnel as they each pursue their own professional goals, but I always remember this axiom: "The grass is Not always greener on the other side." I hope and pray that Dan Lanning knows this also. GO DUCKS!

Very good question and I would have answered differently during the course of the season. Overall leadership, hands down, would have to go to Bo Nix. Loved watching him command and operate the offense and was a wonderful thing to behold. However my favorite overall player(s) this season would have been a darn near dead heat between Bucky (Bruiser) Irving, especially the first half of the season, and Troy (Touchdown) Franklin. Both of these players displayed "football smarts" and outstanding athletic ability. Bucky does NOT "go down" and in fact seems to relish who and how hard he will hit any potential tacklers at the end of each run. Troy can out cut, out maneuver, out run any pass defender on the fly and has an uncanny ability to win most 50/50 balls. His length and speed will be of advantage at the next level. The fact that these two outstanding players were somewhat..overlooked...in all of the end of season rankings/awards only means that some NFL team is going to pickup a diamond in the rough and I can almost guarantee we will be hearing these two names mentioned, regularly, during NFL games next year. Guess we will follow through the "How are our Pro Ducks doing" thread. Go Quackers!

I suppose it's a lot like Fantasy Football. Need a win to get in to a playoff spot and some meaningless 35 yard pass play to your opponents wide receiver in the last minute of the game, on Monday night football, causes you to lose the match by 0.75 points and derails your whole season. Soooo close, but no cigar! In those situations I'd have rather lost by 20, at least you would then know you never really had a chance...but I digress and have shared my pain. Have to resign myself to...there is always next year!

Man o man would that be a Big advantage and boost for the MBB team. I hope that the chemistry is good in practice (Practice?!) with the small ball guard lineup that has been successful thus far. Hope he can stay healthy the rest of the year. Go Ducks!

Seems about right. I'll take it as a win being tied with a one loss Fl. State. Go Ducks!

Confession is good for the soul. Now go say Ten Hail Duckies...and Sin No More!

Going to simply say this. That game reminded me of the OR/WASH game earlier in the season. Much like the Ducks on that Saturday the "dogs" kept shooting themselves in the foot. Sweet, sweet irony!

Dan Lanning. Comparing apples to oranges is always fun but as stated earlier in this post, it is subjective. (Much like opinions) Each conference, schedule, personnel in and out of a program, revenue sources, etc; create different challenges for coaching staff's each year. So comparisons are always going to be flawed. I enjoyed the coaching leadership of Brooks, Bellotti, Kelly, Helfrich, Cristobal, and now Lanning (yes, I left out Taggart cause of my opinion of him as a leader/coach). Just this list of coaches showed Oregon commitment to becoming a top tier program. All had different styles with various levels of success which was good for our program in the long haul and made it a preferred destination (dream job) for our current Head Coach. I take Lanning at his word. He is very good at appearing to "tell it like it is", and his comments and actions reflect that. From my perspective this is what I see. A young Man who LOVES the game of football to his core. Realized very early on that he would not be able to to compete as a player at an elite level (great introspection if fact); but found that he not only had a deep understanding of the nuances of the game (especially defensively) and had the same understandings and gifts of knowing human nature and how to tap into it, developing the relationships between coaches, players, fans and boosters. So Sir Dan Lanning has been building his career as a coach and has been a high acheiver in each position he has taken. I believe when this young coach started looking around at a program he could excel, as a head coach, Oregon was at the top of his lists. DL has stated on several occasions that Oregon has Everything, he and his family have been working towards. I am sure when he got the call to interview that was a high point in his life/career and obviously made enough of an impression to become our next head coach. (Would have LOVED to be a fly on the wall during THAT interview) Since his hire DL has done everything to further entrench himself as our long term head coach. Now this may be premature, because of how college football is today and who knows how the challenges of playing football in a Power Two conference is going to work out for OBD; but I believe DL, after just his SECOND season, has "bought" himself a cushion of 3 sub standard (Oregon Std?) seasons before any talk of replacing him would be considered. In fact our administration just may have captured "lightning in a bottle" with the hiring of Dan Lanning and Oregon Football might have another long term coach aka Brooks, Bellotti, or after DL bringing home that elusive "Natty ", a Saban of Alabama. YES, I do believe DL's ceiling is that high! One thing for sure. I will enjoy watching this young man develop into one of the top football minds in the sport as the Leader and HEAD Coach of OBD! GO LANNING DUCKS!

Good Post. Fun Read. I certainly could relate to the "old" references sprinkled throughout. I had reasonable concerns about replacing a most tenured OL coming into the start of last season because of experience, not physical ability. Whatever coaching took place obviously made up for lack of experience, with sound fundamentals and full understanding of individual responsibilities, plus a OL senior leader at center. So hardly a beat was missed in the transition. I expect the same, and then some, on the defensive side of the ball next year. On field defensive Leadership is not an issue, at all three defensive levels. Combine this with the DL defensive players that he has worked hard recruiting and "portalling" to Eugene, I only see our defense being even better(championship better?), even with an escalation in "trench warfare", moving into the B1G. I believe in 2024 we will finally see a more "complete" program vision that our young, defensive minded, coach is crafting in his championship football vision. One where the mantra of Next Man Up is an expectation and not just a saying. From here the view of that vision is looking extremely promising. Go! Quackers!

Yes! agree. Unentitled scrappy players are the type of players that Altman excels at aligning that "Rubik's Cube" with. It's not "grumpiness" it's frustration cause Altman knows is just a few cubes away. Besides, Id miss his game time "Mr Hyde" compared to his day to day demeanor of "Dr Jeckle".

WOW. What an awesome and smart! way to share even MORE with the fandom of OBD. While also being a very effective recruiting and PR tool for the program. I personally began anticipating and searched for these cinematics each week after the Colorado game recap dropped. Loved the whole "playing for points vs clicks" quote by Lanning and gave me/us the first "true" exposure to DL being COACH Lanning. You know. The man that all these "boys to men" want to play for and sacrifice their blood, sweat, and tears in doing so. Regarding the said cinematic rankings I would find anything hard to argue with. Again the Colorado one was my favorite until the Utah one dropped. Everything about that game week, including DL's appearance on GameDay (again giving us a glimpse of DL's "personality"), made that game more significant regarding the direction that this year's team would take. So agree that Utah Cinematic was number one. I anticipate that these will continue for the foreseeable future with a heavy emphasis on OBD's entrance and high level success moving into the B1G. If they don't happen to continue may I suggest torches and pitchforks! Go Ducks.

Thanks again Ty for your commitment and dedication. I hope you leave Oregon with your degree and take what you have learned and ball out the way we all hope you can. Just please NO revenge game against OBD in the first 12 team playoff!!!

Ducks Win 49 - 23 Turnovers OR 1 / LU 3 Sacks - Oregon 4 / LU 0 Duck Passing Yds - 299 - 20/24. Thanks to Lanning and Team for another year of very entertaining, high level, football. Truly a joy to consume. Now go out there and put the finishing touches on the season. GO QUACKERS!

B1G and SEC have gobbled up, or are gobbling up all of the media marketable teams. There are no high level market football programs currently available to "create" a new PAC-?. If it was doable, then the PAC would not have disbanded and even added a few "fringe" power5 teams. NFlite will continue to move college football to a two super conference and everyone else will be "relegated" to lesser leagues. Relegated? Hmmm, maybe in ten or so years they might adopt a similar model in college football to allow programs who invest in success to move into the super league and less so programs to delegate to the minors. Going to be an interesting decade in college/NFlite football.

I certainly anticipate it to be so. Oregon certainly appears to be situated for a long time run as a consistent top ten program. Make it so Dan.

This is an important game for Dan Lanning but by no means career defining. It is his second year as a head coach and am sure he needs to learn how to make, non playoff, games relevant in this program. Opt outs are to forever be a part of college bowl season especially with pro capable players. It is a Great time for non starter/rotation players to get significant, high level, live game, playing time. But at the penalty of timing and smooth execution. This is going to be a real test of the teams philosophy of "each week our opponent is Oregon". Liberty beating a top tier team, in a New Years Six bowl, national spotlight, to cap off the undefeated season, are all strong motivators for that team. With Oregons deeper recruiting, weekly level of competition, the standard that the program is trying to establish, this should be a entertaining, mildly competitive game that I expect Oregon to lockdown and pull away late in the third, going into the fourth quarter, regardless of Liberty's motivations. Win or (not saying!) Not Winning, I Believe that Lanning and company will learn and adapt to what went right or what went wrong. Future years are looking promising for Playoffs so the team motivations also will be different and there will be learning curves with that also. Regardless I am enjoying the continued growth and focus of this program and look forward to the game the New Years. GO DUCKS!

Florida State Univ. is in a position to have to pay near the same amount of money that OSU/WSU are receiving from the defunct PAC2. Just for that one school to enable a buy out of their "contract" and move conferences. Seems unfair and "highway robbery", but remember we just get the "readers digest" version of these settlements. Most of these obscene amounts of money we fret over is just numbers on a spreadsheet. A lot of the "value" is interpreted and Not mountains of money, piled up in a dragons lair, guarded by Smaug. (Oops, middle earth fandom is showing). In the long run OBD have made the "investment" to remain as one of the nationally relevant programs in this new college football dynamic. OBD is being paid half shares over other B1G members annually, which will equal to about the same amount of money they lost from the PAC12 coffers. But much, much, more than staying with the PAC. Over the course of the remainder of the B1G revenue share contract, Oregons annual "half-payments" will add up to just about the total amount currently awarded to OSU/WSU. OBD thought it worth it and see the "value" in shortterm "value-lost", for a much more lucrative financial future while playing with the big boys. A man, much wiser than I, stated this once to me. Our current financial systems are based primarily on perceived current and future value. Thus money is "loaned" and exchanges hands based on these perceptions. If Every Single Debt was called tomorrow, from the poorest man to the richest Corporation / Oligarchy, the Entire worlds economy would collapse, Overnight, because of the "over inflation" of said values. But, that is a discussion for another forum thread My main thought is. Goodbye and good riddance. OSU will increasingly become a "warmup game" to ready this team for the nine, or maybe soon to be ten, B1G conference games. I would have cherished a continued, Competitive, civil war; but honestly see more and more games becoming Portland St/Hawaii type beatdowns. Even to the point that OSU may, themselves, begin to wonder about the value of said game annually. I feel lucky to be a fan of the team with the consistently brighter and better future. GO DUCKS!