David Marsh

I will say I am thankful for all the editors Charles as brought on board at FishDuck. They are a pleasure to work with and make my writing look much better. Most places don't bother with editing, besides spell check that doesn't catch everything. I see typos even in bigger publications like 247sports and even Oregon Live all the time. This is the age of getting something out fast for the clicks rather than something out that is good and polished.

Looks like there will be a breast cancer awareness pink thing going this year again. I know there was a uniform that was not rolled out last year because it was a home color jersey for the pac-12 championship game or bowl game and in both Oregon wore white. So there is another possibile surprise there. Otherwise the jerseys look the same as last year. Even the pink one is the same look as last year but with some hints of pink. I'd assume there may even be a black version of it as well.

Oregon does have TWO starting quarterbacks in the NFL right now. Herbert is pretty much a lock for stardom if he continues has he has. Mariota has all the skills if the right fit is there. Here's hoping for those two quarterbacks staying in the NFL for years to come. And maybe adding a third to the mix... Nix? Thompson? Moore?

Those Utah losses were the cause of two things. One Oregon was super injured by that part of the year. I think one stat was basically like there was only two games that had the same defensive starters and that was it due to injuries. And two... Poor coaching. Simply put Utah was the only team during the regular season that figured out how to beat Oregon and execute it. Sell out to stop the run and provide enough secondary coverage. Brown then panics and plays hero ball... Which is a massive failure for the team. Basically... What Utah did was challenge Cristobal on his single minded run the ball mentality and challenged him to pass the ball. Cristobal responded by trying to run the ball harder up the gut and it didn't work. I feel confident that Lanning isn't that single minded and has a much much better plan in place. The Utah games were an embarrassment but it wasn't because of the players but the scheme and game plan they were forced to commit to. Well... Maybe Browns inability to see and pass across the middle didn't help... But still. Coaches need to put their players in position to succeed not fulfill some single minded idea of toughness.

What is really amazing is how FEW injuries there are in total. Like two and both players are close to full go. Last year there were injuries heading into camp and then they kept piling up. It makes you wonder about the strength and conditioning program.

Nothing exciting for day one but it never is... It's just good to have football starting up again.

This is how I treat the Oregon State Beavers. I have some good work colleagues who are Beaver fans and I'll flip the channel to see how the beavers are doing. I tell my Beaver friends every year that I want the Beavers to win 11-12 games. They must lose to the Ducks but otherwise I'm happy with them winning. Unlike the Huskies ... Who must always lose 12 games if possible.

SDSU is all but a lock for expansion... And I feel this is regardless of whether or not the PAC is able to retain UCLA, though that is a long shot but I do feel the powers at be are going to squeeze them pretty hard. SDSU isn't as big as UCLA or USC but will be a decent addition and over time I do feel like they will probably help elevate and establish a bigger and better market. Beyond SDSU ... Oklahoma State is probably the next best option but getting them would be very difficult. They are looking at the opportunity to be a big fish in the pond and if they think they have a big enough pond to be comfortable in then they are not moving. Next options would probably be UNLV or Nevada, it's weird that so much for the PAC goes on in Vegas and there isn't even a PAC team in the state. Neither really offer much in terms of sporting value right now but being in a better conference will elevate them over time. The media market is kind of meh but we really don't have a whole lot of great options. Colorado State and Utah State I think could be interesting options. Neither are as good as their big brothers in Colorado and Utah respectfully but at the same time it does feel like in a way throwing those two distance PAC schools a bone. This would allow Utah and Colorado to have another couple games in the season that are rather local and not require much traveling. BYU would probably be a better option but overall BYU has always been a school that likes to dictate terms and they aren't always a team player. There are a couple reasons why they only recently decided to rejoin a conference. 1 ease of scheduling and 2 the big-12 is desperate enough that they were probably happy to give BYU some reasonable terms. Right now the PAC needs team players.

Even the LOI doesn't seem to matter too much any more. More and more players are actually getting out of the LOI for any number of reasons. That and the transfer portal has kind of made them obsolete.

Gotta have fun in the game. Yes, college football is a job for the players. Let's not start on the competition debate... This is a job and has always been a job. But this job should be fun. Not ever job is fun, but when work is actually fun, everything about that job is better, including performance. It's good to see Lanning bringing back the fun. I don't think this roster would have lasted under Cristobal. It will be interesting to see what happens in Miami. Not just this year but the next three. He seemed to have brought in top talent and then sucked the life out of it.

It would be hilarious if UCLA comes back into the gold and leaves USC trying to figure out what they should do. Part of me thinks USC has the arrogance to believe they can be the sole West coast member of the B1G and they can still come out on top. The other part of me thinks they'll come groveling back. I think if UCLA stays in the PAC, then USC is going to embarrass themselves in some way.

This should read... "The B1G interest in Pac-12 schools has coolee.... For Now" This isn't over. Just the current phase is over.

And here's hoping that Mariota plays within a system that enables him to play to his full potential with his skill set. He is not your typical plug-n-play quarterback for the NFL. (Herbert really is actually) And for MM to succeed he needs to be able to use his legs and get in space.

These articles are usually fun because you get some candid points. The ones in Cal and Oregon State are both good. The points on Oregon scream of "we know nothing about the program right now and this is what we've read." So not much on what other coaches think about Oregon. We know much of the pac-12 hated the Cristobal era in terms of recruiting and they questioned his coaching ability... That's a shocker. But they know nothing about Lanning.

As for a time frame I'm thinking we are looking at around 5-10 years. Conference realignment is on going no matter what anyone says, including the leaders of the conferences themselves. NIL is still very new and there is a whole lot more that will develop. It's just accelerating at a crazy rate right now.

Another much needed commitment. Need some offensive linemen but I'm not blaming the coaches on that front. NIL is rough.

From the sound of it Nix hasn't had much stability around him for his college football career. A decent freshman start... Not great but decent. Sophomore year was a new OC. Junior year was a new HC and OC and a different offensive philosophy, one he wasn't recruited for. Yes... Other quarterbacks can deal with changes around them better than others. Herbert managed to have a good Oregon career dispite an uninspired offense (and three different offenses!) And three different head coaches. But I'd say Herbert is the exception not the rule and oddly enough I do feel that instability has helped his NFL career as he is very adaptable. However, I would say Nix chose Oregon because he knows the schei, or at least knew the basics. Had a relationship with Dillingham. And knew he could grow on his knowledge rather than have to learn everything from scratch. Not saying Nix is going to be great or even good this year, but I think this could be his best year of college ball.

I have thought about writing an article about the obsession with recruiting these days amongst the Oregon fan base but I never like how it looks... Cristobal changed everything about how recruiting is done at Oregon and what is possible. All of Oregon's recruiting history before Cristobal was about finding those diamonds in the rough. Arguably the two best quarterbacks to ever play at Oregon were three stars, Mariota and Herbert. We have such a long history of taking players with potential and turning them into super stars. Now recruiting rankings do matter... You look any of the national champions in the last couple of decades and they all meet the requirements of the blue chip ratio. . But I do feel in the age of the transfer portal and NIL, finding those hidden gems will become all the more important because those are the players you can "get on the cheap" with old school recruiting methods of relationship building. Recruiting is Still More Important Than the Transfer Portal FISHDUCK.COM The acquisition of talent is the lifeblood of every college athletic program. There is no denying that... I look forward to the start of the season and those Saturday games in which every single one feels like an absolute treat.

I think a major problem today in recruiting is that the education is not being sold as part of the college package. What is being sold is the NIL money, a path to the NFL, the coaches and facilities, and then the education. Then beyond that.. if you're not getting what you think you deserve then hop on in the transfer portal and you'll get it... Only the vast majority of those who enter the transfer portal are not taken anywhere and they lose their scholarships at their current universities. So I do agree in that many student athletes are failing to get an education is on them but I do feel the system around them is telling them something very different.

Football? I was under the impression that we gave up football for pure recruiting all the time. Sometimes I think all the fan base cares about, especially on the pay sites, is recruiting. I for one am ready for the off-season to be over so we can watch the Dan Lanning era.

This one I think depends completely on the money.

And I think this is true of a good portion of the fan base on the whole. Every year I have students ask me what my NFL team is as it is blatantly apparent in a Duck fan (I have an Oregon flag on my classroom wall). I always say which team has the most Ducks on it but I don't actually actively watch the NFL. I find the NFL boring. Now I will watch Mariota v Herbert this year because that will be a game worth watching.

I think so... But I kind of like to think of it more akin to the FBS national championship and the FCS national championship. Though hopefully with more eyeballs on it. It would be first be seen as something lesser ... But I think eventually it becomes something different as they wouldn't be equal but different. When it comes to the FCS tournament there is a very real aspect that FCS schools and their fans actually like it more than the FBS model. You could make a strong argument that North Dakota could compete at the FBS level and I think they could with some growing pains. But North Dakota doesn't want to be apart of the FBS and they like where they are at. I saw North Dakota mentioned in a conference expansion thing recently and I doubt they'd even be interested. They like being the big fish in their pond. I think the traditionalist drive will be something a bit similar... They don't need to be the big fish but it would be nice if they weren't just considered feeder fish for the Ohio state's and Alabama's.

Not sure we have room in the runningback room for another scholarship player. We have Irving and he can be a thumper. He isn't as big but he runs hard enough for it.

I do feel that is where this is going. Originally this was one very long article that started to explore the two parallel leagues. But I cut out that part and I am saving it for a future article. However, even the older and more traditional model is going to have to change. Whether that is a reduction in the amount of team activity and practice hours or just having some form of universal compensation. The traditional model as is is not going to work but what we have now is also disheartening for anyone that isn't in the top NIL group of teams.