David Marsh

They have both changed the nature of recruiting at Oregon. I put a link to one of my previous articles that was from the Cristobal era that touches a bit more on the subject. https://fishduck.com/2020/09/scott-frost-was-absolutely-right-about-recruiting-to-oregon/ But I would say the family atmosphere Lanning has created is appealing to recruits. Along with recruits seeing there is a path towards their end goals like the NFL if they are coachable. The social media games has changed greatly and the number of scholarships offers has changed dramatically as well from how Oregon recruits. In the Bellotti, Kelly and Helfrich era Oregon typically offered less than 100 scholarships. It was a rare and highly sought after get but that was also paired with their overall lack of official visits and the difficulty to get recruits on campus. Under Cristobal and Lanning Oregon gives out excess of 200 offers now (most are verbal) to varying degrees of interest. With more official visits they can get more recruits on campus and build those relationships. I honestly don't remember where these numbers originally came from for scholarship offers and I haven't been able to find them again but they are rattling around my head. As I couldn't find those data points I didn't include them in the article. But this is a forum post so my standards a bit lower. Thank you for reading, is there anything I missed you feel should be included?

I've thought about those series and I love them. I think they are one part recruiting tool and two parts fan service. I'm sure it's nice for a player to get a behind the scenes peak in the early recruitment process but I'm sure outside of that they get a way better look at what's going on for with the program and how it functions. But for fans those videos are an amazing peak into the program. I think those videos are also part of the reason why as fans we accept Lanning's general refusal to answer a lot of questions at media events. We know we'll get something special, though edited, later. Though I also wouldn't underestimate the power of those videos to get recruiting going for the Ducks.

Absolutely, the fact that Lanning isn't leaving gives recruits the peace of mind knowing that he is highly likely to be there for their entire career. Just think of all the other coaches since Bellotti at Oregon, only one other coach gave players that feeling they were going to be there for their entire college career, Mark Helfrich. Now, in the end it wasn't up to him as he was fired but if it was a decision up to him he wasn't leaving. Lanning isn't leaving. If he wasn't leaving for Bama he isn't leaving for any other program. Recruits know that and the way he recruits is also worth noting, again ran out of space, but he has a full staff recruiting method. Sure, the "primary" recruiter is often the position coach but the reality is that he uses the whole staff to recruit each recruit. There is a reason why Oregon lost BOTH coordinators in Will Stein and Tosh Lupoi and lost ZERO recruits. Are recruits disappointed, probably, but they are invested in the entire program and the staff and not on just one recruiter. Contrast that with the Ohio State and the Chris Henry Jr. saga where Oregon almost managed to flip a recruit who has been committed to Ohio State for years all because the recruitment opened up in the loss of their wide receiver's coach and offensive coordinator. If Oregon was willing to spend a considerable amount of additional NIL funds they probably could have pulled off the flip.

Oregon was one of the first teams to really embrace the new GM model for sure and that's been a huge benefit to recruiting. But a normal article is typically a max of 1000 words this one is closer to 1.6k and Charles is good enough to let me write longer stuff from tike to time but I ran out of room. But you are absolutely correct the addition of Malchow has been huge for the program. We don't see his work but is work is on display every single day. I probably should have added a section about players reaching the NFL as well. Right now Oregon has three starting QBs in the NFL in Herbert, Nix and Mariota. Gabriel har some starts this season and I know he was injured but I have honestly lost track of his status at the moment but I know he didn't start last last weekend. And that's just the quarterbacks there are loads of other Ruck ambassadors in the league as models for the aspirations of future Ducks.

Apparently all the talk about Raiola to Oregon right now is fro Raiola and his agent. For him Oregon could be a great landing spot because of the magic Lanning has done with quarterbacks to rehab their careers. But if we are going for a transfer it will either be someone plug and play, closer to a Dillon Gabriel and Bo Nix or a Dante Moore type which is a sit a year and develop. I kinda doubt Raiola wants to sit a year and he is too raw of a talent to be a plug and play. Gabriel was proven and Nix needed a system, athletes, and coaches around him to elevate his potential.

When there is a slow news cycle? Probably not... But the off season is fast approaching and we'll soon all be hungry for things to talk about.

Another factor to think about ... If Oregon wins the national championship I think Moore is gone. If we don't then I think that's when he has to make a decision.

What has also become quite interesting is how College Coaches and NFL Coaches don't really overlap anymore. If you want to be an NFL coach now you work your way up the ranks through the NFL, and that might mean you coach a position at college for a while but you move up into the NFL the first chance you get to start moving up the NFL ranks. College coaches are pretty much the same, just circling around colleges and moving up the ranks. Sure there are exceptions... Tosh Lupoi was a position coach in the NFL become he made his return to college at Oregon but to get to the NFL he arguably took himself down a rank from DC (at Bama though he may have already been demoted, his time as DC at Bama wasn't great) to position coach. Then there are the catastrophic failures to make the jump. We all know the Urban Myer failure taking over the Jags after being one of the best college coaches. And now Bill Belichick is underwater at North Carolina and he is considered one of the best coaches in the NFL of all time. Both leagues are the same sport but they might as well not be because they have shockingly little interaction in terms of talent pool. I'm not saying Lanning wouldn't be successful in the NFL but he seems built for college football.

It doesn't hurtbdor Washington that Boise State lost basically ALL their offense in Jeanty. BSU has had a fine year in the MW but nothing too outstanding for them. Their record isn't what it was last year for sure.

You're correct ther is no guarantee if success in the NFL. But he can prepare the best he can and that's his decision to make. Has he learned everything he realistically can from college ball or not? I'm not answering the question just posing it. I would like for him to come back for another year personally but I also don't have a day in the matter.

I'm sure the NIL will come in and get close enough. The bigger question is that does Dante feel like there is still just to learn and grow from college ball? I think his current NFL evaluation is on his potential. He has a lot of potential. But if he feels like he can develop mentally and in his leadership with another year of college ball then he'll come back. Because if his potential doesn't catch up fast enough for the NFL he'll flame out real fast. Another year of college probably solidifies his NFL career for the long run.

For the Community lovers out there!

Kinda my biggest reason for not wanting the NFL in Portland. The Ducks and lesser so the Beavs are THE teams in Oregon. Sure there are the Blazers but they chronically mismanaged and they are basketball so it doesn't have the same pull as the NFL.

I hope this is thr start of an em-BEAR-issment of riches for next year's class. I am aware that joke is un-BEAR-able and I should feel bad.

I have faith the coordinator hires are solid. Especially Hampton... Mehringer will get a chance to prove himself. It will be interesting to see who Lanning hires to fill some of the holes now left by promotions. In the past couple of cycles Lanning has done a mix of internal and external hires. Samples was outside for running backs where as Michalowski and Wadood were internal promotions. Showing willingness to promote from within is a powerful recruiting tool for any staff positions.

Bowl games have been increasingly on life support since the 4 team playoff. 2017 really started seeing players sit out of bowl games for the draft and by 2021 players started sitting out NY6 on playoff games... Ohio State v Utah in the Rose Bowl was a big one. It was only a matter of time before whole teams started sitting out.

And the winner this year will probably be Indiana. It's their year for a lot of things but I firmly believe it's our year for a national championship right now.

Interesting stat I saw that before the injuries to Moore and Bryant his snap count per game was going down. Basically he was losing his hold on his position in the lineup. With the injuries he stepped up in a big way. He absolutely needs the ball thrown his way more. One of my observations from game one was that he was sneaky in that he ran a good route and was a reliable receiver. More recently his speed is flashing and he is getting even more dangerous. Get him some touches and force the defense to guard everyone. I bet they can't.

Mendoza probably wins the Heisman... I'm fine with that. As long as we block them from a national championship I am even more fine with it.

I mean the SEC probably got one more team into the playoff because they only play 8 conference games. Just think... if USC did NOT play Oregon they would be right in the thick of the discussion whether they are in or out but that loss to Oregon was the kiss of death to them. You could say the same thing about Michigan if they didn't play USC this year. They lost an OOC game to Oklahoma and then they will play Ohio State every year no matter what... but what if USC wasn't on their schedule? That's two losses and right in the thick of the discussion. The B1G having 9 conference games this year has eliminated one of our teams from the playoff potentially... well probably not because Michigan and USC haven't looked THAT good.

There is a portion of their fanbase who firmly believe they will hold Oregon to under 100 yards rushing, Texas Tech only gives up around 65 yards rushing per game. But TTU hasn't played an offensive line anything like what Oregon has and the old narrative that Oregon has small linemen is not true anymore. For Washington to slow our run game down they had to stack the box and challenge Dante Moore to beat them with his arm... and he did that without Dakorian Moore and Gary Bryant... what happens when they come back?

The reality is that championship games need to go away and that weekend should just be play in games... put some of those teams against each other and see who is actually worthy of those final spots.

I mean that was one of the biggest reasons to take on a bowl game was the added practice time. But now with the transfer portal I don't know if programs see that as worth while. You're not prepping next year's team because you might lose your best players to the portal and not have them on the team at all and some of the pieces on next year's team won't be added until the portal opens.

The payout generally goes to the conference for bowl game participation. I don't know how much each team gets for conference participation. I'm pretty sure a team showing up and playing costs less than $500,000. This is meant to hurt because participating in bowl games is for the good of the conference. It does highlight the end of season December chaos has never been greater and the emphasis on playoff or bust has never been higher.

Ooof... Chip it's a sign that you should just retire when you're looking at WSU. Or go do TV for a few years.