idontrollonshobbas

Thanks, Utah....I am back off the ledge now. I appreciate the thoughtful pushback. I can go with the narrative that the problem with the roster isn't talent, but development. Plus scheme played a role in dampening enthusiasm some I am guessing. As for recruiting rankings.....perhaps I am guilty of oversimplification. I wish there was a look-back at recruiting ranking efficiency. I have to operate off of my memory and anecdtoe. But, the number of PNW 4 and 5 star talent that has not lived up to potential that I remember is not small. Most of them beat out by the 2 and 3 star players on our roster. We know that in the past, site moderator did rankings (poorly, I might add) which colors my judgment as well. Maybe the problem with the rankings for me is scale. Not all 5 stars are alike. KT was probably worth 7 stars for example. In the 3 star category the range is huge.....a high 3 star is degrees above a low 3 star it seems. In any event, I hope you are right and the sky is the limit next year.....I thought the same thing last year too.

Plus, De Laura is going to UA now. Through the years and coaches, these are the teams that always beat us when they shouldn't: 1. Stanford. Home or Away, they love to be our lone North division loss. 2. WSU: see above. 3. Away in the Desert late in the season: whether UA or the Fork, they play like the Steelers when we come to town. Often includes a starting QB season-ending injury as well. I usually reject mono-causal explanations, but this board convinced me that CMC was a game day weakness most Saturdays. Goofy scheme, rigid play-calling, poor clock management. Injuries clearly played a role, but you have to expect attrition every season.....so roster management may be a piece of the problem in 2021? I frankly wonder about the "talent composition score" or whatever it is that the recruiting sites tout as the holy grail of championship team construction. Sure, the past NC's have had stacked rosters. But, those sites hype recruiting for subscriptions. They get more excited about recruiting than the games half of the time. I think the ratings are less accurate the further down the list of top guys you go. Maybe the top 100 are pretty easy to spot and the Blue Bloods take 95% of them. But, I feel that ranking recruits number 101-500 is pure mysticism that the sites posit as rocket science. For example, I will take any southern 2-star over a 4-star West Coast recruit. I think especially OR and WA recruits are overrated. So, did the Ducks underperform this year because of Mario, AB, injuries or was the roster talent overrated? To predict an 11-1 season next year indicates to me that one thinks the problem was mostly MC. While I have come around to his deficiencies as a coach, I wonder if his recruiting prowess was, in part, a fallacy of the rankings and chasing top 10 classes rather than proper evaluation? If so, Lanning has even more work to do than better schemes, game plans and clock management. He has to maximize a roster that may have a lot of bloat on it. Plus, he has to overcome the monkey on our backs of that list above...the teams that slay dreams. I thought 11-1 was possible this season. Not so sure I have that confidence going into 2022, despite Darren's convincing arguments. If I am betting the ranch (it would have to be with a gun to my head), I say the O/U wins is 8. Definite losses: Georgia, Utah. Possible losses: BYU, Stanford (always), WSU, UA, OSU

The 3rd and 23 play was a microcosm of the Charger defense all year. They need to shore up the spine of that defense.

Bowerman and The Men of Oregon is a great read if you haven't already picked it up!

I am guessing that the bottomless pit of Husky hatred that triggers the bile ducts of this Duck fan may be a generational thing. Happy's post about the Apple Cup mirrors Duck fan experience with the Buttsniffer fans in the same era. Those 20th Century leghumper fans were the epitome of graceless cads. There will never be enough Schadenfreude at the doog downfall for me. But if I were a guy who was an undergrad in this Century I might be wondering what the fuss is about. After all we have owned their hidebound haunches since Wheaton scored. I suggest a 100-level first-year course in Duck football history that is mandatory for all incoming students. It could include some video clips from some oldtimers recounting the dark days of Husky humiliation: the urine bags, the filling of Autzen stadium, the RV's lining I5 adorned with purple and gold bunting. The night on the town in Eugene after another beatdown with chanting and fight songs echoing off the buttes..... I couldn't teach it though without some serious PTSD therapy. The father of my Lady Friend in those days was a Husky alum with one of those RV's......and I had to wait on their table at OES after the game.

I always feel that Washington recruits are overrated. Aaron Fentress on Talkin' Ducks this week basically stated that recruiting rankings are garbage.....that SEC 4 stars are not the same thing as Pac-12 4 stars. Back in the day, the Dawgman.com moderator evaluated the King County talent and all of them were 4 and 5 stars. Cody Bruns was that camel's final straw.

Speaking for me, I am still somewhat stuck in the mindset of the buttoned-down NCAA era with constant focus on avoiding sanctions, honoring commitments between amateur student-athletes and athletic departments, the bowl system and trying to win with an innovative system to compete with the blue bloods. The future (present?) is pay-for-play, free agency (portal), brand promotion (facilities/social media), talent acquisition (recruiting) coaching (strategic management) and distribution (conference alignment, media contracts). I read you as advocating for a balls-out blitzkrieg approach to the new reality. Makes perfect sense and I agree that it represents the Ducks best course for survival. Yet it leaves me nostalgic for what was. On the other hand, I am too old for 9pm kickoffs and commuting from Portland. So, onward into the breach young Ducklings, call forth the Ducks of war. I'll wheeze and cheer from my man cave. At least until the final season of Better Call Saul finally airs.

The Forum of Decorum.....home of the dreadless threads.

My freshman year was 1983. The Toilet Bowl was my first season-ender. So, my perspective is based on that era and the PAC-10. My goals each year: 1. Beat OSU 2. Beat Washington....the rest is gravy. The gravy: 1. Win Pac-12 North 2. Win Pac-12 Championship 3. Go to Rose Bowl 4. Win Rose Bowl 5. Play for the Title 6. Win the Title It seems, given the modern era, the Rose Bowl will lose its luster. For oldish farts like me, that takes a chuck of the enthusiasm away. At least, the MC tractor-pull football gameplan has left the HDC. So, I got that going for me....which is nice.

We have 8 scholly receivers if I count correctly. Teams want about 10? That leaves 2 spots or so. Could be more or less depending on: 1. Wilhoite: don't think he was with the team all year? As long as he is enrolled he keeps his scholly. Maybe a medical redshirt if long-term injured? 2. Delgado: played some early. Don't believe he was on bowl travel squad. No injury report I have seen. 3. Tevin Jeannis: walk-on who has suited and played. Regularly practices. Does he possibly get a scholly. I assume a new staff will ask these questions.

Wilhoite and Delgado..... Has anyone ever seen either one? I'm kinda serious. At the Alamo Bowl it was all hands on deck....were either one of them there? Are they taking classes?

AP courses are not what they used to be. K-12 education is more about daycare than teaching. Grade inflation is the name of the game. Its the participation trophy approach to education.....everyone is entitled to pass. Oh, and it's getting worse.

Kamikaze and 30Duck make excellent points here about the passivity of Pac-12 presidents towards football. Other conference Presidents support football as a sport unto itself and a cultural institution that brings attention, students, boosters and donors to their schools. I get the feeling that the Pac-12 Presidents "tolerate" football because of its revenue generation and Title IX benefits that pay for women's sports. In that paradigm, just having the team is enough....competing and winning are secondary. At Oregon it should be different. Imagine the UO without the Knights' investments in both athletics and academia. I am not certain that it is different though....it seems the faculty have as much sway as the AD's department.

I am beginning to think that the college Presidents are a bigger problem than the Commish.

I believe 1980's era Chicago Bears DL Dan Hampton was known as Danimal. I say we go with Coach Dantastic

I don't know if we played the wrong receivers all year, or called the wrong plays, or decided that fast TD drives were not tough-guy enough, or what...... A mind boggler.

Truly, the Czar of the Telestrater.....

I wish the team was at full strength for the Alamo Bowl. I think Moorehead stuck around to show us all what the offense would have looked like without the Cristobal millstone around its neck. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the full deck of cards on hand to play with against the Sooners.

When it comes to recruiting with NIL it seems the old days of NCAA "oversight" and "amateur status" have gone the way of the Dodo......so, why not embrace the dark ways of the before times. Maybe Slick Rick was just ahead of his time?

Thanks for letting me know.....I have no pride of ownership of anything I post so feel free to modify as needed

Tomlin lets Klemm leave early to take Oregon job and this will be important for recruiting high school players and those in the portal. Pittsburgh Steelers OL Coach Adrian Klemm Leaving Immediately to Take Job with Oregon Ducks by Brooke Pryor of ESPN

5 years from now, which program has more wins, Oregon or Miami? Oregon 65%-35%

That rug really tied the room together.......

Charles, I have been a lurker for a long time...always enjoy the site a lot. Just posted again tho.....

I like to look at the level playing field record. Prior to the 1996 scholarship limits, program could stockpile talaent a la the NY Yankees. But, with equal 85 scholly rosters, the record is UO 18 - UW 6. That's damn near Globetrotters vs. Generals level domination.