David Marsh

I'd also argue that there is no way to truly balance schedules because you don't know the strength of any of the given teams from year to year. I'm sure many in the B1G schedule office thought that USC was going to cause more of a problem to B1G blue bloods than Oregon. Also... no one saw Indiana's rise when the teams were sorted for who plays who years ago. If you were putting the team slates together back in 2022 with the match-ups you would be absolutely shocked to find out that Oregon and Indiana both were power houses and both had a B1G Championship. And that Penn State imploded so badly that they fired Franklin, because Penn State has had a pretty manageable schedule from year to year, especially if you assume that Oregon and Indiana weren't supposed to be fighting for the top spot in the conference.

Still might take a few years... After all they play in the best conference and now they have to play an additional game they'll need to be ranked even higher! (Insert sarcasm)

Probably not. We're the is outsiders still in year three. We can get the awful schedules and I think Lanning embraces that. I don't think it's a good thing but I think Lanning is going to spin it into one. Just pumping some sunshine is all.

Yeah I noticed that. Though in truth I think Lanning doesn't do great with bye weeks. His messaging is fantastic on a week to week basis and he seems to kinda like the grind and bloodied up mentally that goes with the week to week. We lost focus real bad in the bye week before Indiana. So though not great... It is certainly something that I don't think bothers Lanning so much.

USC game 4 has the makings to be something special. USC has a new DC and a bunch of freshman that they are hoping to build around. Meanwhile Oregon should have a lean mean veteran led machine. But it's USC so their offense will be good and we'll be at their house which is always fun to send their fans walking out early. Gotta beat that traffic!

A couple will get slotted in pretty early. Most won't until a week or two before the game itself. Butt here are always a few marque games in the first half of the season that get some early scheduled time slots. I think Oregon v Penn State had a time slot pretty quickly. Michigan and Ohio State will be at noon. That sort of thing.

Portland, OR is fine... But we can tell there is a big winter storm because the gorge winds from the east are cold which means the continental weather systems are COLD. But I'm happy to not be in the massive winter onslaught.

They need to change up their scheduling but that can't happen until the next contract. Big noon is a cool time slot to fill a premier game but outside of that other major games get split between CBS and NBC. Which don't put college football on all day like ESPN/ABC. Also Fox Sports 1 was supposed to give some competition to ESPN but it doesn't. Same thing with CBS sports. So those aren't helping the viewership cause. Furthermore, some fans get real picky about commentators. I seriously reading other forums complain about the commentators is funny because they hate everyone for one dumb reason or another. Then at the end of the day the South is just more heavily invested into football culture. Another thought... Probably doesn't help that the football viewer base on the West coast is now pretty fragmented. I know we aren't a power house of viewers over here but with all this conference realignment I still find myself not caring about almost all other B1G match ups that don't concern the Ducks. Seriously I only watched a couple of other B1G games all year. In the Pac I would watch other teams play but I'm not connected to the B1G yet and I know I'm not alone.

Two fold problems on the pass protection. World and Harkey just got wrecked by speed in multiple games. Though they were pretty good run blockers. Gabriel (and Nix) could just read a defense so fast and could get the ball out so fast that they could avoid the pass rush. Moore isn't that fast (yet) and when he is that fast it's usually a predetermined pass and less reading the defense. As a result this years line has had to protect a lot longer which will lead to more pressures.

There will be one addition. Transfer from Yale. But I think development in the OL takes time and sometimes those timelines don't match up with need. However, keep in mind that Oregon have been finalists for the Joe Moore best O line award for the past three years. So they're still doing something right. However I'd say this seasons line was a step down from the previous two. Harkey and World just weren't as refined at tackle.

The Duck's eyes look a bit crazed in this ai picture. No way a Photoshop by Oregon itself makes the Duck look that demented.

Sounds like the staff likes the guys they have. I don't feel I understand how linebackers are supposed to work in Lanning's system but they seem to need to be able to do everything. Which requires an athletic freak which is difficult to get. I kinda feel they may need to rework what linebackers are supposed to do and maybe even simplify the role. But I say this feeling inadequate to really answer. But I also feel most people don't exactly know what linebackers are supposed to do in Lanning's defense.

I don't think there will be much change at all... I think there is a greater chance at refinement. But I do think there needs to be some change to get over that last hurtle.

The stars aligned for sure... He got lucky he didn't lose any critical players he didn't have a backup for. And it helps to have senior laidin team that isn't suspectable to transfer portal because they're out of eligibility. That and his coordinators aren't going anywhere. Oregon got burned back by the portal killing depth, bad timing on injuries, and coaches focus was divided. Too many things to go wrong... Not going to say we would have won if everything was perfect but all those together just broke the program.

I think some of that comes with experience. Remember we had / have a quarterback who has started less than 20 games! He's grown but we all know how many open receivers he missed and just didn't even see. Get Moore seeing the field better and that will help finish some of those drives. Seeing the field requires two things.. good offensive line protection and experience. Then on the runningback side of things we are returning TWO incredible runningbacks who were freshman! Seriously... Jordon Davison and Dierre Hill were amazing runningbacks this year and they were freshman. Just wait to see what they can do in year two when they have continued to grow into their bodies and have a deeper knowledge of the game. Not having Davison and Whittington in that last game really did hurt our chances because if he carried the ball I think he would have sustained a few of those drives. Harris was just too big of a step down. I'm by no means saying we win if we have both... but I think the game looks very different. Also Davison is a BEAST pass protector.