David Marsh

If Lanning is the next Saban then he will build his program into his vision. Lanning will have the program he wants and that builds loyalty between him and his institution... Hopefully Oregon. Saban is one of the highest paid coaches in all of college football (if not the highest) but if say LSU or Auburn or even Oregon came knocking at his door with more money, I would find it unlikely he would leave Bama, he has built his program in his vision. Why start over? That's what Oregon has to do with Lanning if he is the next great head coach.

There could have been more at play than just money for a merger. Schools or organizations losing some of their autonomy is always a big factor in these sorts of things. Money is the driving force behind all of this right now but it is not the only thing being used in decision making. If it was purely about the money then there would be only two conferences... Fox and ESPN.... It feels like it is trending that way but it's not there just yet.

Now we wait to see what comes out of ESPN and the ACC. The sky isn't falling just yet... There are still plenty of moves to be made. If the ESPN talks die then yes... The sky is falling at that point.

This time of year it is more fun for fans to see if we are "winning" the recruiting wars rather than the alternative of nothing as we wait for the season to start. I know for some fans they like the recruiting wars side of things more than the actual games. I for one cannot wait for fall camp to start. I am ready to see what our current players can do on the field.

By 247 standards Oregon is at 2 5-stars I think I placed the over under at 3.5 for this year.

The problem is that I (the fan) knows everything and I'm telling the coaches what to do as I see it. Now... It's not my fault that the coaches and players can't hear me through the TV and that they don't have a time machine so they can get the useful information beforehand.

Cristobal built relationships and you can tell why his players love him and why it was his players who elevated him to head coach at Oregon. His short comings we're not on the relationship side of things when it comes to football.

Transfers have been around for some time now and it's never been a guarantee that they'll win the job. I mean in 2016, sorry to bring up that dreadful year, Prukop came in and was replaced by Herbert as a starter half way through the season. The transfer portal is the new reality that it must be used every year to some extent. Though I do feel like this year the use has shifted towards depth rather than find a new crop of starters. Yes, some will start but a good coaching staff will develop their younger players at the same time to build tomorrow's program. The real difficulty comes in getting those highly valued recruits enough play time that they see their futures and don't bolt to the transfer portal. As for the quarterback situation... We'll have to see how it turns out. I completely understand why this coaching staff went and got Nix... There was no established starter on the roster and Nix, even with his flaws, is a known entity where Thompson and Butterfield were complete unknowns for a staff that needed to move fast. I loved the days where the next superstar was waiting on the bench... But that doesn't happen much anymore and if it does, it's more often not in a program that recruits at a high level.

That was an era with a very special set of circumstances. The scheme revolutionized college football and the tempo destroyed teams. Chip caught lightning in a bottle and once everyone figured it out just having athletes who could execute it was no longer enough. Now you need a high powered offense and a strong defense and the top athletes to counter every other team trying to do the same. That is ... Until the next major revolutionary idea for the sport and it all gets turned on its head again.

I'm super excited to see Flowe play. The small taste we have had ... 1 game special teams, 1 mostly full game and a spring game... Have shown his potential and it's high. But yeah ... Even if he stays healthy and has a good year I think it would be bad for him to leave for the draft. The injuries are too high of questions for most teams to want to use a draft pick on him. He's probably be taken as a free agent or very late pick. He needs to stay healthy, ball out, and he patient. Lanning and co won't let him down if he does what needs to be done.

Once you have multiple generations that don't know why such-and-such U matter and we're a power they have lost the blue blood status. Miami has really lost that status. However, in both Nebraska's and Miami's cases they hired coaches who remind them all of when they were relevant.

That basically sums up Tom Brady.

no... but the game has changed completely. You can really see the Pac's decline is mirrored by our lack of playoff berths. Larry did a lot to help make things worse too by not getting a good flow of money into the conference which hindered on field results. Getting to the playoff = revenue And how many teams in the pac can do that?

If the current criteria of making the playoffs remains... Basically be a power five team that goes undefeated or with one loss and a conference championship... Oregon will do fine with a weaker conference. I think the rear comes I'd this criteria changes. Even in a finished no la schools PAC the PAC is still way way way way better off than G5 conferences. Remember Boise State and the mountain west only makes about 4mil odd media rights annually. The fear comes from being in limbo between the super conferences and the G5s.

Agreed... USC has only won the south twice since it became the pac-12 and the conference once. UCLA has only won the south twice and never won the conference. You can move one of those division wins to USC if you like as USC was disqualified from post season activities in 2011. But still... The la schools have not been anywhere near dominant and they have been barely relevant.

The answer is yes... But a better answer is yes because the scheme will create more opportunity for explosion plays. Hard to have too many big time deep ball plays when your QB only throws bubble screens. Hard to have many big chunk yardage run plays when you want to force all the runs right into the a-gap and the big defensive lineman.

It was before Smart was the head coach and before Georgia really changed their scheduling policy with a new athletic director but Georgia did back out of playing Oregon previously, which is why Oregon got to schedule Bowling Green or some other uneventful opponent. Texas A&M also backed out of a home and home agreement using the conference realignment clause in the contract as they joined the SEC and decided they really didn't want to play Oregon anymore. I'm not taking a shot at anyone currently at Georgia or it's fanbase, who have no influence on the schedule, I'm just making a point that on the whole the SEC doesn't like to travel outside of their footprint. Atlanta Georgia is hardly a neutral site of a "neutral site game" but I'm happy Oregon will have a chance to play Georgia in a big time non-conference game.

And they didn't even talk to their classics department about any of their naming procedures. The Coliseum is Roman and their mascot dresses as a Roman. And rides a horse out into the field. Now the Trojans were bronze age so they certainly would not have dressed anything like a Roman and the bronze age is ore cavalry so they should be coming in on a chariot instead of a horse. Now if you read your Aenid by Virgil you may say... But didn't the Romans claim they were eventually founded by some of the refugees if Troy? Well ... Yes ... Sorta... But they still wouldn't have looked roman. Oh... And one more thing ... Troy was sacked and burned to the ground all because the prince of Troy stole another kings girl. So I guess that part feels more USC like because that feels like something they would do ...

We kinda had that in 2020... Washington forfeited to Oregon, as they couldn't field a team due to COVID protocols though it wasn't called a forfeit. And then we beat up USC. We made BOTH absolutely miserable. One of the finest moments under Cristobal.

I would say it is generally similar.... Though I think we'd all be happy to see Washington go 0-12 regardless of how it makes the PAC look. Otherwise I'd say there is a general "back the PAC" mentality... Or at least there used to be before the LA schools stabbed the whole conference in the back. Now I just want everyone, including Washington, to beat the crap out of those LA schools. As for Oregon State I tell all my beaver friends that I want them to go 11-1 and I genuinely mean it. They have to lose to Oregon but they can beat everyone else. Washington though... I'll only root for them if it helps Oregon. And even then i still want them to suffer in the process. My wife went to UW ... Thankfully she doesn't care about football or our marriage never would have worked.

I expect USC to have a few embarrassing losses next year from "teams that wish they were USC" because of USCs betrayal. "Back the PAC " meant something at some point.. however loosely.

I agree. I do think we may see a stratification and division one football split into two. One being a focus on football and maybe basketball, though the g-league is becoming a way for players to jump from high school to the NBA without college. This league would have teams really detach from the schools and be semi pro. The other league and focus would be on the more traditional student athlete side of things. Now where would Oregon want to fall if this divide comes... That's tough to say. A big part of me would love to see Oregon be a more traditional model of student athletes but that would come with not playing against the best of the best because a school like Alabama would want happily detach football from the school side of things as long as that team still bares it's name.

I don't think it will effect football too badly... At least not at first. I think it will start to hurt their recruiting and their holding onto good players after a year or two in other sports. Even professional athletes say that the travel can be grueling, especially on a series of away games. And professionals don't have homework or classes they have to maintain their work on in order to stay eligible. Yes.... College sports is look more and more like professional sports but they still have to fulfill the student element of student athlete. I think we could see a major drop off of interest in the LA schools when some of their sports see players defect because it's just not worth the travel. It's also not like that travel comes with a lot of fun either... It's a business trip. I think the Midwest schools on the other hand will love having an away game or two in LA, especially in the middle of winter and that would be a benefit for them.

I wouldn't want Oregon to join the SEC to be honest. It's the B1G or something else. The SEC also would loath having to play any games in Autzen. They already don't like signing home-and-home games.

I would rather keep the PAC. This conference is one of the oldest if not the oldest in the country, party due to our isolation. Oregon and Oregon State are both founding members of the PAC or the earlier names of it. College football is all about tradition and though the new trend is to ditch it for the money I would rather keep a few things. I don't believe everything is sacred in the college football world but rivalries matter and rivalries don't form overnight but take years to form. I would say it has taken the last decade of playing Utah for there to be a rivalry building between Oregon and Utah. Oregon and USC hate each other for loads of reasons... By the way their fans are hilarious as they would like nothing more than to never play Oregon again. I would like to stay more local for conference games ... I wouldn't mind a few outside our traditional footprint but I know things are changing and what I care about most is that Oregon football survives.