David Marsh

If this is how our corners play it would be a vast improvement over the past couple of years where our secondary plays in a squishy zone that doesn't give up much over the top but gives up almost everything underneath. I can't wait for some man coverage. I'll say this from what I know about our roster. We have a good amount of potential talent. But under Cristobal I don't think we ever saw that talent realized. So we will wall have to see just what they are capable of but I think they are going to be aggressive.

Leach never won a pac-12 championship and only a couple bowl games. I wouldn't call him unstoppable. In that four year span of Washington state beating Oregon it comes at a pretty big low point for Oregon. 2015 - Vernon Adams is injured and if Oregon could have passed the ball it would have been a win. Freeman had a big game, but Oregon was one dimensional. 2016 - the 2106 defense was horrid... Enough said there. 2017 - No Herbert, can't pass the ball so another run heavy game that can't hang in a shoot out. 2018 - this one was just bad. Oregon wasn't prepared to play.

I mean things have changed a bit... and USC is on the upswing but they still haven't fixed some of their major problems. This was written February of 2021 but I still feel it is a bit relevant. USC Football Is NOT Oregon's Equal FISHDUCK.COM Oregon and USC seem primed to be the top two schools in the Pac-12. Both have top ten recruiting classes for the 2021 recruiting... USC fans are just loving the idea they have killed Oregon by going to the B1G. Granted, that is a pretty sad and pathetic way to defeat a rival. But what else is new with the University of Spoiled Children?

And I feel Kiko Alonso should probably make that list. I love Troy Dye... But I feel Alonso probably has the edge on him.

I think it all comes down to what the B1G wants out of their additions. If they want a school with athletics programs that can compete, then Oregon is the pick. Oregon invests in sports at a high level and when it comes to the two big revenue generators, football and men's basketball, Oregon is able to compete. Oregon proved they can compete by taking out Ohio State in their own house. If they want a program that is there to get their butt kicked in a regular basis take Washington.

And I'm also sure they would have participated in that 1990 shared national championship they are so proud of.

Someone needed to be there to lose. So good on them for that.

the Eugene NIL Club does say that they are giving about 80% to players via their website. I'm not an expert with all the various organization and business classifications. But I am sure there is some level of transparency that will be involved with SOME of them but not all. But without any sense of accountability it is risky to give to these organizations.

Under Cristobal that seemed to happen a bit too often. I can't really blame him for that. Under Lanning I really feel the Ducks will come out firing on all cylinders from the get go. I really want to see the end of Oregon playing down to their opponents. Both Cal and Stanford should lose by 3 scores or more this year to Oregon. As they should have last year but didn't.

NIL is Name, Image, Likeness where players are able to get paid for the use there in. And boosters are able to create organizations right now that pay players for the use of their NIL which is how they pay players. Tennessee's 2023 QB recruit is getting paid 8mil for going there and Miami's 2023 QB is getting paid around 9. This is from information that is made public as none of it is required to be at this point. I fully agree we need coaches with integrity. And coaches are under current rules not allowed to pay players at all. But boosters are allowed to pay players through NIL contracts. So it is riddled with loopholes right now and all of it is problematic.

Last year was actually the most watchable offense of the Cristobal era. The run game was more interesting and at times it felt like the offense was about to explode. But Cristobal held Moorhead back from letting that happen. But yeah last year's offense was still pretty boring. Let's go Dillingham! Points please!

I think we may be surprised how long Lanning sticks around. As long as the money is competitive enough and he has the program he built, he may stay for quite awhile. The Changing Face of Loyalty in CFB Coaching FISHDUCK.COM Loyalty for aspiring top-tier programs is dead in College Football. The desire for loyalty is commendable and... If Lanning has the program he wants and he is competing at the highest levels why would he leave? Well... Let's assume NIL is sorted out soon-ish because having boosters who will buy the recruits for you would be a reason. But let's assume that that's fixed by the time Lanning has to decide.

He really really needed another year of college ball to put together a full season.

The funny thing is that Uncle Phil isn't going all in on the recruiting side of NIL. He has done a lot to create a sustainable program for curry players but he isn't toss around the millions like other programs are for one recruit. He is paying some for recruits but Oregon is not a recruiting NIL heavyweight at this time, even though Knight could do so if he wanted to. And for the record I'm not saying he should or shouldn't. NIL is super problematic. But tube in tomorrow for an article about one of the new additions to NIL which is highly problematic.

No one knows their program like its die hard fans. That includes the vast majority of journalists, even some who cover your team. We all know far more about Oregon and what Oregon is capable of that any national journalist and especially more than the vast majority of Georgia fans. In turn all I really know about Georgia is what I've read here or heard from national journalists. The big difference is that Georgia gets a ton more press than we do and they just won a national championship so that gives us more information to work off of. Additionally, we got a ton of information about Georgia as a program because we hired Dan Lanning and every story about him includes Georgia. So I do think Georgia's fan are underestimating the Ducks. But they also don't know what our ducks can do.

So I have watched the Miami spring game highlights... In short for those who are interested... the linemen are still being forced to block in the same way. The offense is basically the offense we saw last year but with more pistol. So not the worst Cristobal offense but still predictable and boring to watch. What I find is more interesting was how soft the defense played with his FOURTH defensive coordinator. Its bend but don't break and it has a soft underbelly, in that there are lots of underneath throws that are easy because they aren't being pressured. So... looks like Cristobal has wasted some of the best defensive talent Oregon has had as well.

Runningbaxk felt lazy to me. Yes, Freeman has the most yards in Oregon history but he also played 4 years and in year four Taggart didn't have a QB for a good half the season so he just fed Freeman the ball. Not knocking it but it's the way it was. La'Mike No. 1 period. He did more in three years than anyone else. Yes there is also the argument of James being in the right place in the right time as the Kelly hurry-up offense helped James out a lot... But I'm still going with my previous argument.

Additionally the regular season is cheapened again every so slightly. With the end game for the B1G being around 20 teams there will be a semi final and final for the championship game from what I have read over the past few months. A mini playoff for the conference championship. Personally I want conferences small enough that everyone can play everyone or almost everyone in a year. Or at least be able to play every team in the conference every other year.

I feel if you look at the Cristobal era you will find 1-2 well coached and well schemed games. 1-2 absolute head scratchers of bad coaching that result in losses that should have been wins. And the rest where Oregon wins but generally plays down to the level of their competition. Beating Ohio State was perhaps the best coaching jobs of the Cristobal era. But in reality Oregon probably should have won by at least 14.

Helfrich hired the wrong DC in Hoke. Helfrich gets a bye for hiring Pellum and that not working out because promoting from within was the Oregon way. That's how things worked back then, promote from within whenever possible. There just wasn't any patience for Helfrich anymore at that point.

Two years of a I'll conceived use of the pistol. Again, the pistol in itself isn't a bad formation, lots of big time teams use it. It's usually a sometimes formation and not used the way Cristobal used it. Cristobal used it as a spread version of the i-formation which it isn't. But it is worse than the i-formation when trying to use it for the same job... Power run the a-gaps. The poor offensive line had to hold up longer and run block longer. And against a defense that knew if Oregon was in the pistol formation there was a 99% chance that runningback was coming to the a-gaps so every defense just crashed those gaps or looped around the offensive line and got the runner. It wasn't hard to figure out. I figured it out rather quickly and I'm not a football coach or anything near a coach. The thing is... That in 2016 I do remember Helfrich saying that this was an entire redshirt freshman line and that 2016 was going to be a bit rough for them as they needed to learn. 2016 was rough but mostly on defense. The offense wasn't quite as good but they also didn't have the ball all that often and halfway through the season Herbert was the first freshman to start at QB in like 30 years at Oregon, don't quote me on that stat but it was a very long time. I have been meaning to watch highlights of the Miami spring game to see what Cristobal is doing there in terms of running formations. But what is sure is that through poor scheme and the desire to put physical the other team he wasted some of the best talent Oregon has ever had..

I think this probably depends on the state. I don't think the state of Oregon is going to attract much NIL for high schoolers. Just not a whole lot of football talent. Texas though ... Yeah the state of Texas could see loads of NIL for high school.

Accountability is fine. One of the few tidbits of information that comes out of fall camp has been how Lanning was wanted to practice in more of the heat of the day but to compensate for that choice he has a cooling tent set up on the field. Then half way through practice not only is everyone told to cool down and get water but they are handing out popsicles. I know that seems insignificant and maybe a little gimmicky... but that isn't unreasonable tough it out culture. Practicing in the heat has been explained as something that they may have to do during the season and not by choice so learning how to push through adversity. But pushing through adversity shouldn't come with a serious detriment to health and ensuring the players get to cool off and keep hydrated is important. I get the feeling with this staff if someone vomits, and thus losing a lot of water, that that player gets to break, get checked out and rehyrdate before getting back on with practice. Remember... a player lost to injury, or severe dehydration or illness, is a player who cannot practice. Or at the very least will not be able to practice and learn in a way that you want them to. Lanning and co are all pretty young and I don't get the sense they are going to go with some of this old school mentality. The science is there to show it works and I am sure there is plenty of science out there that says it doesn't.

Biggest downside is that because of 2020 being the year of crazy Penei opted out. So we all missed out on a two Sewell team. Additionally... Some of the crazy things that have happened. The Sewell family has 3 pac-12 championships. Penei, Noah, and Nephi. And Penei and the eldest of the Sewell brothers, Gabriel Jr, played against each other in 2019. Then obviously Penei played against Nephi in 2019 and Noah and Nephi played against each other last year. The only two Sewell's who did not share a field with one of their brothers is Penei and Noah because of COVID and Penei opting out of the season. He was drafted top 10 so can't say I blame him... Still would have been cool.

There was a tweet awhile ago that listed projected starting line ups and total star ratings for those projected starters. Oregon was right up there with the likes of Georgia, Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State. As always the question always comes down to depth. Because those starters won't be on the field for the entire game. I do feel that Oregon has more depth than ever before. So I think there is certainly a fighting chance against Georgia. Going to need some luck and creativity to get there though.