David Marsh

The loudest and most obnoxious voices on many football forums (Ducks or otherwise) don't know as much about football as they think they do. I remember when I first started posting on FishDuck (before the forum when we just had conversations under the articles) that I was always cautious in making any comments because I didn't feel like I knew as much as others. I mean, I still know that I know nothing (thanks Socrates) but I am fine being corrected when I get something wrong. I have a friend and colleague in the social studies department who is the offensive line and offensive coordinator for the school's football team. I took him with me to the Montana State game and he at least was kind enough to say that I know more than pretty much everyone around us screaming for deep balls. So I'll take that. Now I'm writing a weekly article and some of them are good and I think have valuable insights. You probably know more than you think you do and the loudest voices tend to know less than they believe they do as well. Your insights Woundedknees are always welcome.

We still have coaches on a pretty short leash. Helfrich wasn't given the anywhere near the same amount of wiggle room Bellotti got. Cristobal brought in highly ranked classes which bought him some room and he got a freebe from the 2020 season. Yes we won the Pac-12 but if that was a full season I think we would have been. Quite disappointed at the level we were with the 2021 season. Cristobal does just good enough to bring hope.. Lanning has done a fantastic job in all parts of the program. But I think Oregon fans are only two under performing seasons away from calling for his head. Fan bases have absolutely zero patience and ADs feel a lot of pressure especially from boosters. If Uncle Phil is happy then Lanning is safe more than anything. He'd be one of the people to pay the buyout if it ever comes to that. With all that said... I really really really hope it never comes to that. I'm just being realistic as looking at some other Duck forums out there are calling for coaches to be fired after a couple bad performances. Our fan base is really not too different than that of LSU, Penn State or Florida. Just FishDuck is a nice little corner of the fan base. Remember... My posting privileges have been banned elsewhere for posting a FishDuck article that a few angry fans didn't like.

There are some great shots of just how rainy it was at Autzen. As always most cameras don't always do it justice but they got some good shots of it.

Frankly... Yeah it would suck to see Indiana win it all in year two of their coaching change. Oregon has been toiling to get the pieces put together to make a run at it for decades and hasn't gotten it done yet. Indiana as an institution has not done that, they made one great hire which is at times all it takes. I think Ohio State will probably prove too much for them when they meet in the B1G championship. I don't see either team losing two games and missing out on that game at this point. I think Oregon can only sneak in at this point if Ohio State drops a game and Oregon wins a tie breaker against them as Indiana owns the direct tie breaker on us. I don't feel confident Oregon makes much of a run in the playoff this year but I also feel there is an extra gear or two just waiting to be found for this time. If they can unlock that then the Ducks absolutely could do it. I think we are seeing Indiana at full form and they've been at full form all year. I wouldn't be surprised if we meet Indiana against this year and beat them.

Honestly one of my favorite sights in all of college football is the Civil War when Oregon and Oregon State both wear their home colors. The color rush is spectacular and something about it always brought to life the rivalry game. This year... not so much. Also... I had to go back and do a quick head count of how many times we wore black this year (and it's too much)... so here is our color pallet this year to date. v Montana State - Green and yellow v Oklahoma State - All Green @ Northwestern - White and yellow v Oregon State - Black and White (Uncle Phil Unis) @ Penn State - White and black v Indiana - Black with Green @ Rutgers - All white v Wisconsin - Black with tie dye green Right now we have 5 games in a ROW without a school color being the MAIN color in our uniforms. School color has been a highlight color or non-exsistent. I think that is why everyone is feeling kinda done with the black at this point. Too many weeks in a row for sure.

They did that in 2016... And well against UC Davis they left a lot to be desired.

That's a vision element to a runningback that is really tough to each. Some runningbacks just have it. Bucky Irving was a monster at this and I wrote an article looking at some of his great vision plays (pun intended!). https://fishduck.com/2023/09/does-oregon-have-two-players-running-for-heisman/ I also feel Jordon Davison is pretty good with his vision and patence where he knows how a play is going to develop from a blocking standpoint and can hit those gaps. Whittington has better vision on the edges and in space and when it comes to any between the tackles running he just seems to go in a straight line. I felt like CJ Verdell had much the same running style where he is going straight and following the block and if that block didn't materialize he is going right into the back of his lineman. Davison and Hill have a ton of great vision and both have made plays by making the right cuts on a developing blocks. Just can't really teach vision.

Or just burn them.

The crazy thing is that we only have ONE loss! We are still in the playoff running. Win out and we're in, it's as simple as that. Also... I would be thrilled with the six seed. It puts us on the opposite side of the bracket from Ohio State and we get a home game at Autzen and a favorable match up in round two. I'd take the six seed over the five seed. I'm not afraid of Ohio State but I don't think we are ready for them at this time and delaying that match up would be best for our post season goals. So much of the anger right now is that Oregon is not winning by enough at times. Sure, we laid an egg against Indiana but its an opportunity to grow. Bama got demolished by Florida State and FSU doesn't look that good anymore so keep that in mind. We are all striving for perfection but perfection will never be attained.

James had some speed that could get him around the edge faster than the linebackers could fill the gap and he was paired with offensive linemen who were built for speed to seal those edges off to make a lane for him. He was also working in an offense that most defenses didn't know how to effectively defend yet. Now most defenses know how to defend against these outside runs and zone reads better. Wisconsin and Indiana defended the edges well early on and actually had the tackles on their heels. But it was up the gut that Davison found success and forced Wisconsin to adjust by not just recklessly attacking the edges because if they did that then Davison was going to rip off too many yards up the middle. This did open up some runs for Whittington along the edges later in the game. I love LaMichael James and what he did for the program but I'm not sure he would be as effective today as he was back then.

Only problem with that is they set up every game's uniform in the spring and early summer to ensure they have enough equipment. Though I will say that I am absolutely tired of the black uniforms and the white and the white and black. I am so ready for some green and yellow. It feels like there has been a general lack of green and yellow this year.

This is absolutely the case! Davison forces the other team to back off its edges and gives our tackles time to settle-down. World and Harkey are good but not great, we are certainly missing the Connerly and Cornelius combo of years past. But if both have time to settle they are both significantly better. The middle of our line is where it's strongest with Poncho and Pregnon opening up solid run lanes. I don't know if there is a way to fix our offensive line pass protection from the tackle spot besides running the ball up the gut and hitting the opposing team in the nose.

I can see shoes on my phone!

I'll add this... I have been critical of Whittington in the past. I can probably go through and dig up all the articles I have promoted runningbacks over Whittington. Last year I know I was saying Whittington needed to become a receiver instead. The funny thing is that whenever I make an article like we seem to get a great game out of Whittington. Almost like he is trying to prove me wrong. Whittington is a good Runningback but he is not an elite back. He lacks the size of Davison and that size and physicality makes yards. Davison has a level of physical running that outstrips Jordan James from last year to be honest and I think he is a bit faster as well. Davison is a truly special back and he can be a tone setter for this team if they let him and this team needs him to be that tone setter. Iowa is up next, after a bye, and Iowa has had good defenses and if the Ducks want to get some early points on the board they are going to need to let Davison get some early carries and gain some solid yards to set up Moore and the receivers. It's an added bonus that Davison is also a fantastic blocker which is part of his size advantage. At best I have seen Whittington delay good linebackers at worst he gets thrown aside and doesn't impede them at all. I have seen Davison destroy linebackers as both a pass protection blocker and a run blocker.

True. But... and it's a big one. How many Lannings and Cignettis are out there waiting for their opportunities to be found? There are some for sure. The reality is that all those programs aren't in search of a new head coach but a new head coach and program manager. The expectations have never been higher and the job has never been more difficult in terms of all the moving pieces. A head coach now has take care of: all the duties of head coach for game day, recruit, be in contact and work with NIL programs, recruit their own team, and soon will probably be in on negotiating salaries for players. Oh and they're expected to have their program in contention to make the playoff right away. There is no patience anymore. We are about to witness the biggest coaching carousel ever and many programs will hire a WORSE coach than the one they just fired.

Something is off for sure. I have my own theory of how to fix some things but I'll save that for my Monday article. I do think it comes down in part to the offensive line and not pairing early game plays with getting the offensive line settled. The line did better as the game wore on and leant on the lien's strengths. Pass protection is certainly a worry especially at the tackle position as both tackles were retting worked early on against Wisconsin. They were consistently out worked against Indiana and struggled at times against Penn State, though against Penn the refs really didn't throw many flags where they have been more flag happy in the other two games. I want to see the coaches work on some strategies to settle the offense early on in the game. That might also include rolling Moore out of the pocket more, he did a lot of it against Penn State to avoid their good edge rushers. (Yes, Penn State still has good edge rushers who are getting drafted).

Absolutely. Need time for the vertical passing route to develop AND time for Moore to see it. Against teams with good defensive lines we are seeing Moore's eyes get dragged down and he isn't looking at the deeper routes. Establishing the run will force the defense to back off a little bit and give the vertical passing game time.

Those are rare... The last one I can think of was Caleb Williams. He basically played without an offensive line. However, he couldn't win the conference so there's that.

Sadly I think he may have stuck with the ground game because they had a backup qb in there. It worked but they need to use the run to open up the pass more.

Cignetti is always going for style points. The Indiana stat is what it is in part to running up the score. They are still a good team and beat us so I am not trying to throw shade at them but they are absolutely running up the score on their opponents.

Thank you Mike for making me feel better. I usually find myself to be one of the sunshine pumpers and right now I am finding I have quite a bit of continued frustration. More on that on Monday. But still it's nice to have a positive take on everything.

https://fishduck.com/2025/08/oregons-top-five-new-rivalries-in-the-b1g/ I was already alluding to how Oregon v Wisconsin has a potential Rivalry written all over it. When the Ducks play the Badgers it has tended to be a close ans brutal game. This game was brutal but despite the score it wasn't all that close after the first quarter.

The offense NEEDS to run through them.

I hope I'm wrong but I'm feeling it right now that we are looking at a loss. Ducks just not playing with any passion on offens right now.

Ok.. I'm going to start bad mouthing Whittington again... Because for whatever reason he seems to do better to prove me wrong.