David Marsh

At the moment I would say it is completely fair to say Utah is the team to beat. I'm usually wearing my green and yellow tinted glasses, especially this time of year and I think the reasonable prediction is for Utah to win it. I think Utah will beat USC this year and I think USC drops probably two games on conference play this year. One to Utah and one to someone else... My gut says UCLA or Oregon State (I'm not joking on OSU, this year's game is in Corvallis and those Beavers are hometown heroes under Smith). I do think Oregon has a very good shot at the Pac-12 championship. I think Planning is going to have some strong schemes on both sides of the ball and Oregon is arguably the most talented team in the PAC. If this coaching staff can get their players playing at a high level the PAC is theirs for the taking. Lanning is a first year head coach so if you're a national pundit then absolutely go with Utah, they have the continuity. But... I think Oregon is going to beat Utah in Autzen and then turn around and beat them again in Vegas this year as payback for last year.

Again... Biggest problem the entire defensive line ran into last year was that the defense gave up underneath routes all day long for easy outs. So even if the passrush broke through the QB would just dump the ball off for a handful of easy yards and not get hit. The Lanning defense is going to set a lot of these guys loose!

The PAC is heading in the right direction. I think Oregon would have managed to hire Lanning and company regardless of the rest of the pac-12, as Oregon just had that sort of brand. Lanning was fairly under the radar and was not a splashy hire but so far looks like a perfect hire ... But that's Oregon. Now... I think new Pac-12 leadership.has probably helped USC greatly and indirectly helped play a role in the hiring of Riley. USC needs splashy hires and even though USC is a traditional power house it has been a very long time since they have actually been a power house. Upping the conference brand and making football more of a priority has probably helped USC and help bring in Riley, at least indirectly and subconsciously. This last off-season has probably seen the the PAC make some of the biggest gains out of any of the power five conferences. Still have quite a ways to go ... We only haven't been to the playoff in a while even though Oregon has more playoff wins than the big-12 and Notre Dame combined. Additionally, the last time the PAC won a ny6 bowl game was the 2020 Rose Bowl and that was only by one point against the No. 2 B1G team so that isn't great. I do think the 2022 season is going to be bigger for the PAC.

I think they did at first... But the hardest problem for ANG coach is maintaining that culture from year to year. For Helton I think 2020 was the season where he needed to restore trust within the program and prove to them that he could coach them to greatness. What they got was beat by Oregon in the pac-12 championship game during a COVID year. The culture was on life support in 2020, and probably only saved because of a shortened season, but by 2021 it was dead. Helfrich had the same problem at Oregon. He couldn't maintain the culture and 2016 was the end of the line as Oregon was awful. I actually do believe that Cristobal's culture was about to take a nosedive in the next year or two. It just felt like players were no longer buying in of what he was selling, just look at the lack of motivation they played with at times last year. From the sound of some of the Oklahoma articles out there maybe Riley was having a similar issue at Oklahoma and he saw the writing on the wall and left before things got bad on the field. The reality is that many coaches, and mangers of other professions, sometimes need to move on as they become stale and can breathe new life into themselves a program by just being new.

Fun but in need of a sequel as it ends at 2012. So pre MM Heisman win.

It all depends... I would say Lanning is pretty casual and relaxed when talking to the media, by comparison Cristobal and Kelly certainly are not. However, you also get a sense that in terms of how the program is run and what the culture looks like under Lanning that it is regulated and focused in it's desired outcomes and expectations.

The big thing also is that even though we are a few years out from the Petersen era it still has an even longer lasting effect due to the 2020 COVID year where everyone had an extra year of eligibility. A lot of Washington players stayed and a good few are still around because of that extra time. It has preserved some talent that would have otherwise moved on. However, with that said it is still impressive in a way home "good" Washington's recruiting rankings still are because they have seen a pretty big exodus the past year or two. Stanford has also been hit pretty hard with talent leaving due to the transfer portal. I have said it multiple times but I'll say it again... Stanford's policy of not allowing their student athletes to just roll into a master's program after they get their bachelor's degree leads to a lot of talent leaving when they still have eligibility. Additionally, as any transfer has to apply and be accepted they really can't make any use of the transfer portal. Oregon has a ton of potential firepower and I believe had a blue chip ratio high enough to win big right now. Let's see what these coaches can do this year.

I think Chip Kelly during his Oregon years is probably the last great head coach who could win through xs and os rather than raw recruits ... But they still had some amazing players that changed Oregon for the better. We can all make the argument that Oregon should have beat Auburn in 2010 because of the way that game was called.

Makes Riley the perfect for for USC if that's the case. They have been supremely casual culturally there for as long as I can remember.

He wasn't utilized in this role enough if you ask me. Furthermore... if Oregon used Sewell more in this way it may have opened up KT to be more effective as well. Defense is all about giving the opposing offense too many things to deal with and Oregon's defense last year made things too easy too often for opposing offenses.

At that point I do think there is a real conversation about whether or not there is a culture match between recruit and program.

I know it sounds silly... But think of how subtle something like the house these coaches live in tells their recruits? Lanning is showing family and something relatable in terms of home and family life. Not many football recruit out there come from crazy rich backgrounds. Lanning still makes far more money than any of us... But it doesn't mean he has to flaunt it. Even if he does get a bigger house a Eugene mansion is still a far cry from an LA or Miami mansion.

Fans were frustrated with Brown. I know I was, and it was made much worse by the restrained play calling and offensive style. I think Miami fans are going to be frustrated at times in the coming years.

Well... We had Justin Herbert and there were times in 2018 and 2019 that it felt like we didn't air the ball out anywhere near enough. Then last year with Brown Oregon fans booed Brown and Cristobal and wanted Thompson on the field. I am not convinced Thompson would have been better but there was a strong desire by Oregon fans to air the ball out and that was ignored.

This is where we start to see those scholarships and wiggle room open up for Oregon. I know a few people were questioning how we could take another defensive lineman from the portal with our current scholarship numbers and well ... Here we are another transfer. Just have to wait and see if the coaches look to get another db or not.

I think Cristobal might feel more free than he did at Oregon. We got a super bizzar and boring offense because I think he felt trapped or compelled to keep a spread offense... Or more to the point keep something that on the surface looks like a spread offense. This is how we got stuck with the plodding pistol. It was a way to using the shotgun but still try and create a power run game. It failed. What Cristobal really wants is something that uses the QB under center and is pure old school ball control. It can work still ... But it's going to need a far better defense than what Oregon has put on the field the last two years. I don't think Cristobal is going to see results that are any better than what he had at Oregon. At Oregon he had a team primed to return to being the heavyweight in the conference and he still managed to lose the pac-12 championship this last year even though he won two in a row. Miami will probably tolorate his plodding offensive style where Oregon fans really did not... But I doubt he'll do any better. Especially since Clemson is getting ready to make a comeback.

A very interesting idea and one that I think the biggest programs would certainly agree with. Programs that is that have the budgets to hire more staff members. So for Oregon this would work out pretty well but for other programs this could be another the rich get richer situations. Can Oregon state truly afford to hire more staff members? I personally like the idea... Though I could see some hurtles in terms of fairness to all programs. Though on the fairness front I do think the transfer portal windows would create greater fairness.

Dan Lanning had a great comment after the spring game when asked about unlimited official visits, not the same thing I know but it's related, in saying that basically he wants to see his family and having regulations in place enables some semblance of work life balance. (I am paraphrasing here as i don't remember the quote word for word) Transfer Portal windows would create some sanity in the coaching world. I know it is difficult to have too much sympathy for jobs that pay multi millions but more than anything I think we as fans want to see rules and regulations around what is a chaotic system right now. Windows would also put some emphasis on the student part of student athlete which has been lacking lately. Make them finish classes where they are at and focus on the education part rather than just go school shopping what feels like all the time.

Whatever the status of Tom Snee is will really determine our punting situation. We should have 2 ideally but Tom Snee may still be with the team. He may not .. but we will have to wait and find out. Either way I am sure Lanning and co are looking for additional punters and kickers. As most are walk on status anyways.

Explosive plays are also super important in being able to keep drives alive. I like how it was brought up in the article that the team with the most exosion plays wins and being able to get explosion plays on a regular basis can offset a pesky penalty. Do we all remember how many darn false starts Oregon had during the kelly-helfrich era? TONS! But they usually didn't slow the offense down too much because what's five more yards when you rip off an explosion play? Last year we saw on full display how having an slow and plodding run heavy offense works. If Oregon suffered a penalty or any meaningful setback the drive would pretty assuredly die. It was boring and frustrating to watch.

Hmmm.... If that were the case then we should have won bigger under Mario Cristobal. Cristobal Has Spoiled Fans By Winning the Off-Season FISHDUCK.COM Mario Cristobal will be Oregon's head coach in 2022. The only way this doesn't happen is if he opts to leave... But... We didn't win big last season. The off-season really is a whole life t busier than it was even 10 years ago with constant news of recruiting and now the transfer portal and NIL. Though I would like to play some games before we just give USC the pac-12 championship trophy. I think USC is going to be a good team but we have to wait and see how good.

Scott Frost was absolutely right about the difficulties in recruiting to Eugene. But the mentality of recruiting to Eugene has completely changed under Cristobal and Lanning. Scott Frost Was Absolutely Right About Recruiting to Oregon FISHDUCK.COM Oregon is hot on the recruiting trail right now. Just last week, Oregon landed 2022 recruit Andre Dollar... Things have changed a lot but it still requires far more work than what Frost put into his time at Oregon. Also... The Helfrich years weren't really outside the norm in terms of historical Oregon recruiting. He had some good classes but nothing like what we have seen with Cristobal and now Lanning. 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... But I will say this... Recruiting never stops and it does feel like coaches need to always be recruiting their own teams to keep their players.

I KNOW other Oregon sites are reading this one... About a year ago I wrote an article about how Oregon had failed to recruit the state of Washington. Some of the random comments I came across on other sites about that article were kinda funny... Basically claimed I wasn't a real Oregon fan and didn't know what I was talking about. Oregon Has Failed to Recruit the State of Washington FISHDUCK.COM When J.T. Tuimoloau, a five-star recruit out of the state of Washington, announced Oregon as one of his... A few days to a week later I see similar articles show up on those sites. Then the comments were more about generous. There is a group out there that really hates FishDuck but that's fine... More fun for us.

That's pretty aggressive but he was going for the ball. Definitely a foul and maybe worth some bonus shots as a flagrant 1 or a technical or something. But not really an ejection.

More goes into getting solid separation than just raw speed. Raw speed helps but also need solid route running and a excellent knowledge of the playbook to know where the qb is expecting you to be. Now... here's the real question... why hasn't Oregon been able to get receivers to get separation on a regular basis since Matt Lubick was the receivers coach?