WTD25

Nicely done Indiana! Almost nothing better than seeing tosu lose. Cignetti reminds me of Mike Leach. Very entertaining to listen to.

Indiana! Let’s go!!! Take down tOSU

Darn!! - Time for this OBD Forum topic to disappear to the depths.

Seeing these "hostage" tactics are bit disheartening . . . but that's the way it is for the time being. Not sure why every Top 5/10 player doesn't simply "not sign", and say they're "weighing their options". A flood of teams will rush in with their actual highest and best offer.

What a line up of teams going after him. Didn't know LSU was involved, but Kiffin still wants a say.

Henry announced for Ohio State. Oregon has the No. 3 ranked receiver in the nation along with the No. 15th best receiver in the US signed in this class. Plus we add Brandon Bair, one of the fastest players in America to the team this fall as well as he returns from a two-year mission. So next year we have Evan Stewart, Dak, McClellan, and a ton of talented freshmen. We are in GREAT shape at receiver... Evan Stewart

I’ll go with my usual OC request: An under-the-radar, up-and-coming phenom that Dan Lanning has identified first.

Thanks @Darren Perkins for the article. Re: your comment about the conference championship needing to go . . . I stumbled across this yesterday. I thought it was intriguing:

@AnotherOD

Each column is a comparison against itself, with green (good), yellow/orange (middle), and red (bad/worst). But as you noted, those colors are relative to each other, and not necessarily "good" or "bad" in general. Your example could go the other way as well. If rushing yards per game was 101, 100, and 99, then the 101 would be highlighted green for "good". That said, what I wanted to presented was to see how Stein's offenses did relative to each other. I'll present the full data table in my next post that compares all coaches back to 2007, or so. That will give a better indicator of actual "good, middle, bad".

Theoretically, the DC is Dan Lanning, so I’m not too worried about this. I’ll definitely miss his recruiting prowess.

That’s a good observation. Experience/time in the system definitely impacting things.

Stein's offense statistics. ** Data below includes both conference and non-conference games: ** Data below includes only conference games: Some might say, "But let's not count the two bad weather games." I disagree with excluding these games, but for fun, if I only count conference games and exclude the Wisconsin/Iowa games, the average "Off. Points per Game" is 31.8 ppg. Still less than prior year. I'll not make any conclusions, but welcome the OBD Forum's comments.

Excellent full post, but I have to give an "amen" to this statement. I also hope for an external hire. Don't want a watered down version of Stein's offense.

Good luck, but BE GONE!! I don’t like him pulling double duty; cut ties and move on. I want my OC to be all in during a college football playoff run.

I believe the offense is more than a little off. A bit troubling if we’re hoping to make a run in the playoff. Season offensive stats coming soon and the trends are not good. Only one Sadiq drop was really bad, the other one I remember was a terrible throw way behind him. I don’t fault him for that one.

This is my main concern. I don’t want a massive playoff to devalue the regular season. Saturdays in the fall are sacred to me, and I want to keep it that way. In a 24 team playoff, does the Texas vs TA&M game even matter? I imagine teams in TA&M’s position doing load management and resting players at the end of the year. 24 is too much IMO, but if they expanded to 16 and stopped, I think that would still work in providing the week in, week out excitement.

Dan Lanning pre game speech: "Understand something. Why are you wearing black? You're going to a Trojan funeral." I've always liked the black uniforms, but after that statement, I like them even more.

Yeah, that was a dumb question. I don't blame him for being salty. Having a good year and now out of the playoffs with the loss. I agree with Josh Pate's take on the USC / Riley situation: "I totally understand if USC fans are frustrated and want him gone. He's made wholesale changes this year that are right for the program, but are changes that should have happened 3 years ago. That said, those changes will finally have payoff next year and the year after. If you don't want to wait 2-3 more years, I get it, but if you do, you might finally see USC where they ought to be." ** quotations above don't mean word for word, but basically what Pate said. With USC's #1 2026 recruiting class--I know it's ranked that high because of sheer volume--but that's where you have to start to build depth, and that could set USC on track. My preference is not to poke the USC bear. All they need is a Mari Cristbal or Lanning-type recruiter to make recruiting life difficult for the Ducks. That said, my sign would have said, "Extend Lincoln Riley, or re-hire Clay Helton!"

@David Marsh I liked your thought about how this was a classic P12 matchup with high powered offenses that the defenses won't be able to fully shut down. Had a similar thought during the game, that it felt like the Chip Kelly era matchups where I would root really hard for a 2 TD lead before relaxing a little bit. You knew the opponent would score some, but with a 2 TD lead, that put pressure on the other team to change their approach, and you knew the Ducks would keep scoring.

Oregon is favored by 6.5 against UW, while they were favored over USC by a range of 9.5 to 12.5. I'm kind of surprised by that. I would have pegged USC as better than UW. Perhaps the UW homefield is narrowing the gap between Oregon? I also don't like facing a very mobile QB. Hope the Ducks can finally get 90%+ healthy for this one.

That was a stressful game to watch, but overall good considering we were down 3 LTs, the C, and our 3 top WRs. If Oregon can get fully healthy, I love their upside. USC OC / Passing Game Cord. Strategy: “Throw the ball up and the refs will throw the flag . . . every time.” I know Sadiq gets a lot of love, and deserves it, but I’m really liking TE #9 Johnson. While Sadiq is an athletic freak of nature, Johnson is a monster that can run.

RUN THE BALL!!!

No thanks. I don’t want to give USC the dignity.

I’m nervous about this one. USC is going to be a heavy lift for the Ducks. OBD has struggled against teams with high-powered passing attacks. Hoping Dan Lanning has them prepared. Go Ducks!