David Marsh

I feel it should be. I also feel Lanning may have learned a lesson here as well. BYU wasn't quite out of it when TT came in. It was a bit early to put the back up in. Make sure the opponent is dead and buried before the starters come out.

It also feels like BYU is getting tired and Oregon is just going at them and challenging them.

Nix is playing the hero today but he is not playing hero ball. He is taking what is given to him and the rest of the Oregon team is helping to give him a lot today!

That 4th and one call felt like Lanning was playing to WIN! It had some risk but it was calculated and the play came with a twist. That was a great and gutsy call.

Looks like we are using the pistol... Sometimes... Just like how it is supposed to be used.

I want to see Oregon's talent to show out. We have the talent advantage and I want that to be clear in the final score. I also feel like we shouldn't have a Cristobal era type win where we just win by one score and a last minute defensive stand to win the game. I want to see Lanning play to win this game and Oregon win by at least two scores. I know that is easier said than done but we have the talent and I want to see it work and Oregon's culture take hold.

Well if Cristobal beat Jimbo I wouldn't be too surprised. But I would also expect Cristobal to drop a game or two that were surefire wins. Remember we did beat Ohio State but had a bunch of close calls in games that should have been blow outs.

I appreciate what Cristobal did for Oregon but at the same time I am glad he is gone. I'm also glad that Miami payed US 8 million dollars in the process. Let's Be Thankful For the Coaches Who Have Left Oregon FISHDUCK.COM In the last five years Oregon has seen two head coaches leave for their dream jobs. Willie Taggart didn't even finish coaching the...

This uniforms feels more appropriate for a black out than just black. Its close to black but still green.

Adams is certainly the poster child in many ways for a successful transfer quarterback. It is a shame he was injured because if he played the full season healthy I do believe Oregon would have made the playoff that year and he would have gotten an invite to the Heisman ceremony, winning it is a different story but he would have gotten an invite. None of the other transfer quarterbacks Oregon has brought in have been anywhere near as electrifying and good. Adams was really something special and I am sad we only had in for part of a season.

The pressure to play Herbert was magnified by the coaches burning his redshirt at the end of the firs game of the year. I think with the new redshirt rules (well newish) where players can four games and still redshirt has given coaches more flexibility. We saw more of Thompson last year than we would have with the old rule, the coaches would have had him redshirt. We just need to see those quarterbacks develop. I would love to see Thompson take over as starter but I also know as a fan I don't know if I am patient enough to wait a year for him to figure it out.

Mariota and Herbert had that sort of thing going for them as well. Neither were vocal leaders in their time at Oregon. I think for Thompson he needs to feel more comfortable in the offense. He looked like he had a grasp of it but not the same level of control that Nix has of the offense.

Gotta love how South Dakota is Stanford territory.

I suspect there is an element here of how they practice. Who is the most consistent at practice and who puts in the most effort at practice matter to coaches and coaches will often reward them with earlier minutes and more minutes. I also don't get a sense that there is a particular single role for any runningback, I think they excel in different parts of the game. I think if Irving and manage to catch the ball out of the backfield he will be deadly. But so far I haven't seen any runningback being pigeon holed into one role. Basically we don't have a Cyrus Habibi-Likio who just came on for short yardage downs and was super predictable as to what he we going to do because his role was run in a straight line and get the 1-3 yards. The 4 runningbacks who have played in both games have been asked to do it all, though success if a different story.

Rotation can be very good and I think they might settle with something more like 4 RBs instead of 5. I think the only reason we saw a 5th last Saturday was because it was garbage time and they were throwing in a walk-on as a reward for hard work. I would like them to take on the sort of "hot hand" mantra of whoever is hot needs to stay in. But also rotating out runningbacks means we get fresh legs and that can exhaust a defense. Eastern Washington was completely exhausted for having to be on the field for so long. I don't see an expanded runningback rotation being the same detriment as the multiple quarterbacks, which I am entirely opposed to. The goal is to get as many as of the best players on the field and if there are a bunch of runningbacks who are good enough why shouldn't they see the field? They all have a slightly different skill set. Irving is a thumper, Cardwell has good size and vision and can catch the ball out of the backfield nicely, Dollars is smaller than Cardwell but is also a solid receiver out of the backfield and Whittington seems to hit the hole hard, kind of like Travis Dye if I'm honest. Oregon has had a 3 runningback rotation in the past, most notably with James, Barner and De'Anthony Thomas all at once. Thomas didn't see as many carries in 2011 as the other two but he could break a game wide open with his ability and his fresher legs. I don't see anyone as a DAT on this roster right now but being able to throw someone fresh in against a tired defense could certainly break a game open. The only downside is that we probably won't have a 1k yard rusher this year at this rate.

I'm waiting for a yellow out night game. It looks incredible at night.

I have for the most part liked Canzano's work, not always agreed with him but he usually does a good job laying out his arguments. I do find his new project has created some incredibly good work.

Oregon State does look like they are taking some solid steps forward this year. They took out Boise State and Fresno State in the first two games of the year and in previous years they would have certainly dropped one if not both of those games. So I get being high on OS. Oregon has to prove themselves and that starts in earnest this weekend so we'll see if that changes. In truth I don't read much from O-live anymore since they put up the pay wall. I find the other sub sites are better for sports news.

Thankfully the coaches have a week. Also... BYU doesn't have Georgia sized offensive and defensive lines. Granted, BYU does tend to have older players because many go on their two year mission before attending school so they are just older. I feel players are now buying into the Lanning program... or should I say progrum ... and they should see some accelerated growth.

Recruiting is brutal. I think like many coaches who have left coaching it is from recruiting alone. I'm sure he would still be coaching if all he had to do was coach.

Big difference we saw this week from last week was that the secondary was playing a whole lot more man defense. They still got burned a few times but they didn't give up nearly as much underneath. Against Georgia the Ducks were in zone and I think the design was to try and keep Georgia from going over the top. Their offense last year was all about a running game and taking some deeper shots. They changed that plan entirely against Oregon and it worked. However, Georgia had to score by getting into the red zone as Oregon didn't give them much of an opportunity to go right over their heads. Still an awful loss. Another thing that was different against EWU was that the defensive line was always playing on the EWU side of the LoS. And that caused the Eastern Washington QB to throw a few balls that were rushed and off target. Now BYU is going to have better players than Eastern Washington but they are also not going to have a Georgia sized offensive line to contend with. I think the coaches are going to have Oregon focused on their weaknesses. In a way I feel like Oregon did to Eastern Washington like what Georgia did to us. Eastern Washington was beat super bad and they looked awful but at the same time we know they aren't an FCS basement dweller, they are a strong FCS program but Oregon made them look like a basement dweller. Just like what Georgia did to us. We are just going to have to play some more games to get a real sense of what this Duck team is made of, all we have now is two data points and they are extremes.

With the transfer portal there is a very good chance that we won't see something like 2016 again, in 2016 Oregon started 5 Redshirt freshman and they took a beating at times. Though that class served as the basis for Cristobal's success, even when he seemed to squander the talent. Oregon will be shopping the transfer portal for offensive linemen. Now, getting them all to play together as a unit will absolutely be a struggle but that is becoming more and more of the norm due to the transfer portal.

BOTH Frost and Kelly have approached Helfrich with interest in hiring him. He said no to both of them. At this point I get the feeling Helfrich is happy with his millions and spending time with his family and pursuing other things in life. I know he has appeared as an analyst a few times for a variety of games. The demands of the college game these days are more intense than ever and I don't know if Helfrich wants it bad enough for those stresses. Let's be completely honest here... if Helfrich wanted to return to the college game any Group of Five program and many Power Five programs would jump at the opportunity. His record at Oregon was 37-16. That is a solid winning record. And for the record his recruiting was not outside the norm for Oregon at the time. A Defense of Helfrich's Recruiting Legacy FISHDUCK.COM Mark Helfrich is generally considered the worst recruiter in modern Oregon football history. He is a coach who oversaw some of... That staff of veteran coaches did get caught out by the new social media recruiting trends which hurt them. But I also get the sense that Helfrich does not want to dive back into the college game because of the recruiting aspect. That alone eats up the majority of coaches' time and back to my earlier point, I think he really likes having time to spend with his family and that outweighs his desire to return to coaching.

Cardwell actually reminds me a lot of Tyner, when Tyner was healthy. Decent size but is shifty and can have a good burst of speed.

Dollars and Cardwell can do a lot.. neither are bruisers though, though Cardwell is built more for it than Dollars. Irving did have the most rush yards against EWU. He is really a traditional back of just handing him the ball. I has not been good at catching the ball when thrown the ball right at him. But he has the power. Whittington is interesting... He has had some very good plays and he can squeeze through some holes. He also had a few nice cuts. I feel Whittington and Dollars are similar in their function and Cardwell and Irving are similar in their potential usues. However, Cardwell is potentially more versatile as he has much much better hands. Irving is a thumper though and sometimes you just need to punish the opposition. Anyone else notice how many more stiffarms are being used overall?