21 minutes ago, Darren Perkins said:

And, embellishing in the title a little with a word like "bust" to hopefully draw interest? No, not me! 😛😉

Oh I've been there!

And... yeah a loss to Texas Tech would really suck.

I always find the idea of _______ or bust to be an interesting mentality. The season is a book and each game is its own little chapter in that book. If Oregon wins the National Championship this year that makes this an INCREDIBLE year and you put that book on the shelf as a part of a longer Oregon Football history.

But if we fail to reach the title game or a semi final game or whatever was this season just a waste? Personally, I have enjoyed the journey so far this year (minus the one bump) and I am excited to see how it all ends, though I would personally love to see it end on a win and there is only one way that happens.

Maybe I just don't get on the "bust" mentality. I want a national title as much as any other Duck fan but I know that each season brings its own story and I'm here for that.

34 minutes ago, Washington Waddler said:

Imagine red zone passing downs with Gatlin Bair heading for one corner of the end zone and Kendre Harrison the other.

And Jordon Davison lined up in the backfield and Dak Moore just on the field as well.

Though in truth I think Johnson will be a bigger threat next year than Harrison just because he'll be more polished.

But the future is absolutely bright at Oregon.

I'm not surprised. He's pretty good and works hard... But pretty good doesn't get you on the field with the Ducks.

He got knocked out of the rotation this year by freshman and transfers.

He got back in rotation because of injuries.

And next year he'll probably be out of the rotation by some up and coming redshirts and true freshman.

All the power to him in finding a place to play. He's been a benefit to the Ducks for sure and stepped up when his number was called.

24 minutes ago, Desert Duck said:

Before I scrolled down and saw the uniforms, I said to myself, "Let me guess, lots of black."

Wow... what a great surprise. These unis look awesome.

Not going to lie ... I was kinda expecting black.

Green and yellow? Yes please!

Quite probably the only time we wear home uniforms this post season so I'll take the green and yellow where I can get it!

21 minutes ago, TheRunningDuck said:

The number one in the article is recruiting. I don't think the article goes far enough. What I noticed with Mario and more so with Lanning is every new coach hired seems to be known for recruiting. Almost without exception and most are young and energetic. Good at their positions also, but great recruiters.

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?

6 minutes ago, PittDuck said:

Excellent article David, thank you!

One thing I didn’t see mentioned was Oregon’s videography group. While they may not have been factors in building the juggernaut I believe they have a lot to do with maintaining and even improving the recruiting prowess of OBD.

The DUCKS VS THEM series. The Under Construction series on the Ducks YouTube Chanel this year and the That Team Out West series from last year are off the charts as far a a recruiting tool. Today’s recruits absolutely eat that stuff up!

Again, thank you for the thought producing article about OBD recruiting!

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.

1 hour ago, woundedknees said:

One of the significant things we see with Lanning is he doesn't seem to periodically flirt with other programs in the manner that even Coach Belloti did.

So far, each time the question of leaving OBD arises, Lanning doesn't deflect the question or make bad jokes, like Chip Kelly did.

He looks EVERYONE straight in the eye, and talks about promises, family, and how DAMN GREEN the grass is in Eugene, Oregon.

CDL appears to be cut from a much finer grade of raw material than most college football followers have witnessed.

I believe players, coaches, and others respect that.

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.

55 minutes ago, OregonDucks said:

I would also add the hiring of Chief of Staff/GM Marshall Malchow, who served in a similar capacity at Texas A+M, Georgia and Alabama.

Lanning understands that building a championship-caliber team today goes far beyond the football field. “This isn’t the same college football it was ten years ago,” Lanning recently told reporters. “You’ve got to build an organization, not just a team. And that means having the right people in the building.”

https://www.lexsportnews.com/2025/07/14/dan-lanning-talks-gm-model-nil-and-building-a-powerhouse-at-oregon/

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.

4 hours ago, OregonDucks said:

“My next goal on there was ‘Head coach, 35.’ I wanted to be a head coach, and I thought that was really important to me. Well, I became the head coach of Oregon at 35. The next goal on there is NFL coach,” Lanning shared, before dropping a major truth bomb. “That ain’t on my goal board no more. It’s off my board, and it’ll never be up there again.”

“When I took this job [at Oregon], I made a promise to my kids that they’re going to graduate from the same high school, middle school. Those things are way more important to me than getting the opportunity to coach in the NFL. I used to have that dream; that’s not a dream of mine anymore. I truly believe this will be my last job,” Lanning concluded.

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.

1 hour ago, Charles Fischer said:

I wish people would give a score when they post for everyone else...

24-3 Washington at half, as the Huskies look MUCH more talented than Boise State in the trenches, and also with the skill people. Run blocking against the Broncos is much easier than against Oregon, and Husky receivers are getting open easily compared to a few weeks ago vs. OBD.

Washington defenders are overwhelming BSU at times, and the talent difference was quite a surprise to me. Damn...Fisch is going to have NINE wins in just his second year? Pretty impressive considering the tire-fire he got handled to him...

Put Some Ears on Him and He

Kinda Looks Like a RAT?

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.

1 hour ago, OregonDucks said:

There is no guarantee that he’ll have success in the NFL, even if he used all of his eligibility though.

As much as I’d like, as a Ducks fan, to see him return next year, $40-50 million is a lot to turn down and potentially risk.

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!

1 hour ago, Washington Waddler said:

In regards to Husky whining and complaints about NIL/portal funding of Oregon football, the Seattle sports scene reminds me of LA, or any other mega city where the victory hungry spot light siphons off support and interest to whoever is doing better.

Case in point: at Husky Stadium, I saw numerous purple puppy farm fans wearing Mariner and Seahawks hats or jerseys, and in some cases, both.

As in LA, the $$ is there. It just has no loyalty.

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.

45 minutes ago, EastBayDuckDad said:

Yes, this may be the harbinger of the death of traditional bowl games.

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.

1 hour ago, VegasDuck said:

Benson to me is the #1 WR. TD vs Indiana, Clutch catch vs Iowa, TD vs UW and a punt return vs USC. He needs the ball thrown his way more often.

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.