David Marsh

Well in the era of the transfer portal it isn't entirely over even when they have inked their letter of intent and are on campus. So flipping is a real possibility... For anyone at any time.

I think the coaches like some of the potential. I believe I read somewhere that Gill has been doing pretty good this summer at several camps. I think the size and physical parts are things coaches like that they really can't teach. In terms of technique and an understanding of scheme... That is stuff that can be worked on. He doesn't strike me as a day one contributor, at least not now, but he could grow into something greater.

I'm also not sure how much summer time weather plays a role into recruiting. Oregon is known for rain and some cooler weather so the heat, and non humid heat at that, shouldn't really make players apprehensive about what it's like to live in Oregon. Beyond that all the indoor facilities for football now make is so that even when the weather is bad, even from excessive heat, they can still practice comfortably.

At least it is a dry heat.... I'll take 98 degrees and dry over 90 degrees and humid.

So many husky tears... But my tears are those of laughter.

I do feel Butterfield has a better chance of starting some day over Thompson. Just from a physicality stand point Butterfield is a bigger guy whole Thompson still looks like he has a lot of filling out to do. At this point ... I think Nix starts this year. Butterfield gets next year and maybe the year after. Then Moore, assuming of course Oregon lands Moore. Thompson feels like he was recruited for an offense that doesn't exist at Oregon anymore. In much the same way like how Butterfield felt like he was recruited for an offense that didnt exsist when he reached Oregon. That is the biggest problem with coaching turnover. Some layers just don't translate to the new scheme.

I wasn't aware that unlv has moved up in terms of their academics. It does open the door to them being more viable. Nevada University is interesting. I guess the only real answer to my question of where does the PAC expand into ... Nevada and that does feel great. Thanks for your post and great additional information on the two Nevada prospects NJDuck.

I think Nevada is the state that is probably the best to expand into but the teams in Nevada just aren't good. As for San Diego... I feel that problably doesn't do much to expand revenue for the pac on the whole. The big California teams are already in the PAC and the bigger problem is that California is a pro sports state over college sports. As for Hawaii.... Again another potentially natural expansion but Hawaii is really far away and is expensive to get there. The university of Hawaii keeps going back and forth on their economic viability of their football team because of the travel costs. I also think Hawaii is kinda built into the pac-12 media bubble already with so many players going to PAC schools out of high school.

I think this is a mentality that has really changed over the years. Historically speaking, holding onto in-state talent was important because that helped build the fan base and keep the university tied to the community. Additionally it was all about cost... Recruiting a local kid is cheaper than recruiting a kid from Florida. It still is a bit cheaper as driving is still cheaper than flying. But on the flip side... Recruiting at a high level is all about going national and the internet and other tech has made that easier than ever to recruit the entire country. But fans do still like seeing the local talent stay home. Whether or not they actually watch high school football.

I do believe that the Pac-12 is the most competitive conference. Doesn't produce national champions and I'm not saying the best conference. But I do think it is the most competitive... Anything can happen in the PAC. Well almost anything.

I do think the PAC should have one (ONE!) game that is in that late time slot weekly because Pac-12 After dark has been one of the few minor successes lately where does hard east coast fans will stay up to watch a game especially in ab uncontested time slot without other competition. But anymore than just the one game hurts the brand more than helps it.

I know it hasn't been mentioned here but usually it comes up in these sort of conversations and I didn't go into it in my article. BYU was also not an option for expansion. BYU has its own institutional rules about when they will play games, basically they won't play on Sundays, which might not be a big deal for football but conference alignment is about all sports and not just football. And there are some other things too that BYU isn't a team player about which is why they have been independent for so long. The Pac-12 does want team players from all their institutions. BYU got a chance to dictate terms to a desperate big-12 and took it. In some ways I think Notre Dame will probably only fully join a conference if they get to dictate their own terms as well. I haven't been able to find when the first time would be for a school to leave the conference, probably around when the media rights re-up. It will be interesting to see if Colorado starts to explore a return to the big-12. Utah I think is happy enough in the PAC for the time being. Then Nevada University also isn't really a great option for expansion due to the same media market issues as other mentioned schools but they are probably the most natural extension as the pac-12 is hosting more and more conference championships in Las Vegas.

Recruiting is a long game... MC has been recruiting this kid for years. Again, if you see the other forum thread here, Oregon offered a 7th grader, more than anything else that just signals that Oregon is interested in being in contact about the future. The coaching staff is really diving into their own existing relationships with recruits. It is really hard to make some of these relationships quickly. I would also like to say it isn't over yet and there are still 6 months to go before the early signing period. So we never know what could happen in the meantime.

The alliance stuff in truth didn't really do much but damped SEC aggression in taking more control over the sport. The SEC has destroyed the big-12 and the alliance talk was really no more than a warning for the SEC to back down from any notion of doing it to other conferences. Will it continue to work... Who knows. I also don't think that any schools in the big-12 would want to join the pac-12. Stay tuned for my article on FishDuck tomorrow. You may disagree but that's just fine too.

After the spring game add Chase Cota to that list. He made some big plays. Oregon's recieving corp had so much potential.

This is one of those USC hype so they get first place... Throw Utah some respect so give them second. Then let's diss Oregon because it is trendy to disrespect Oregon this time of year so they get no. 5. Either that or they forgot Cristobal isn't our head coach any more.

Really hoping everything comes together for MM here. It would be incredible for Oregon and us all to have two Duck great qbs in the NFL at the same time.

Cristobal didn't have a terribly good track record for football players academics. It will be interesting to see if Lanning improves things on that front. I would also imagine with so much turnover and players bolting for the transfer portal when things get rough that there academic standards may get worse. Why buy into doing well academically when you're looking at jumping ship the first chance you get ... Let alone the potential problems with NIL.

This is completely reasonable. Moorhead was an incredible hire but wasted in his ability. More and more we have seen and heard that Cristobal restrained his coordinators and in particular the offense. Due to the 2020 mess we really didn't see the Moorhead offense take shape until 2021. But I think there were two factors why Moorhead left... 1. Health wise I think there is an appeal of going to a quieter school with less strenuous recruiting needs and .. 2. Get away from Cristobal because Cristobal's offensive restraints were hurting Moorhead's reputation. Lanning wants a high powered offense and he hired someone who wants to give him just that. Lanning is going to enable Dillingham to score points and not handcuff him in the process. We all were so much more engerized as a fan base after the spring game seeing what this offense could become. I think Oregon averages close to 40 points per game this year, compared to the sub 35 of the previous years. This will get Oregon to around 10 wins easy but I think it probably gets them to 11 regular season wins.

It's just purple. Purple and anything cause madness.

I would say more than just practice team. These are project players. They aren't ready for game day yet but that doesn't mean they won't develop into contributers. Ryan Walk went from walk on to starter. Now, I would agree that most of these players coming in as walk-ons will probably only be practice players with their highlight being the spring game. However, this is some very savy recruiting work by taking these local kids in as PWO than not at all. It still means they are building connections and relationships with local Oregon high schools and coaches. Oregon doesn't produce enough top tier talent fit enough for Oregon's needs but when it does, that talent needs to come to Oregon.

This will also be the first time the Huskies play at Oregon since 2018!!!!! Even though Husky fans say otherwise they forfeited the game against Oregon in 2020 when they couldn't field a team.

I find 9-3 for Oregon to be a low bar. The roster is strong on paper and with the amount of inuries and poor scheming Oregon managed 10-4 (10 regular season wins). I think beating Georgia is a long shot but not impossible so let's give Oregon the L for that one. Otherwise I can see Oregon lose one more game on the schedule but maybe not 2. BYU will be a major pain but they have to come to Oregon to play and by that point Oregon will be a hardened team that understands Lanning's vision. Utah could also be tough, it's never an easy game, but that's a late season game and if the injury bug hasn't hit Oregon too badly I do think they can out scheme the problems last year. I will say it again... Utah was the only team that understood and could stop Oregon last year (not counting Stanford they had too much ref help and other circumstances). Utah knew that they sell out to stop the run and challenge Brown to pass the ball while overwhelming the offensive line they will force him to make mistakes. Brown also too frequently stated to play hero ball when behind which would lead to more mistakes. Oregon under the Cristobal era struggled to play from behind both on the scoreboard and behind schedule on the series of downs. This new staff is just better at xs and os and even with Nix, who has his own issues, he can at least stretch the field. Simply put this Oregon team is not going to be vulnerable to the same way last year's team was. I'm going super optimistic... Oregon 11-1 regular season.

Verdell needed a year where he wasn't sidelined from injuries constantly. I do feel part of that was the Cristobal scheme of running headlong into defenders.

Oregon's o-line is loaded with potential. I think as fans we love hearing these things but the lackluster results of the past few years seem to give me a bit of pause. Scheme hasn't helped the offensive line during the Cristobal era. The pistol was aweful. Last year Moorhead ditched the pistol and that helped quite a bit. But after getting thumped by Utah twice it still doesn't bode well for confidence. A major component of those losses was Brown and his inability to throw even short passes across the middle, but still. Though back to the potential of this offensive line. With the right development this line can be scary. I just don't think they were getting that development with the previous staff.