David Marsh

He was away during the spring for personal reasons. In not surprised he has entered the transfer portal. It also makes sense why Oregon is pursuing another defensive lineman through the portal. Lanning knows what he wants and needs to run his defense. Williams may not fit the bill.

Can't blame a walk on for looking for. A chance at a scholarship elsewhere. Doesn't mean he actually leaves Oregon because he might not get a scholarship offer from any program. But I did talk about this issue awhile back and I'll just link my article. Kickers, punters and longsnappers play a key role on special teams but they often don't have scholarships. Kickers Deserve Scholarships, Too FISHDUCK.COM Most of the focus in football is placed on the star power positions like quarterbacks, running backs...

I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. The offer could be something like come as a walk on and earn a scholarship... Or throw some NIL money in there to make a walk on effectively a scholarship. I would be more surprised if it was as anothr scholarship player. Oregon doesn't have that many scholarships to work with right now. Especially since it sounds like they might be after some more defensive linemen.

It does feel like 6 is too many. Even though we didn't see too much of a run offense during the spring game I do think this indicates two things. 1. Oregon is going to have a run heavy offense. 2. The coaches don't feel too comfortable with the current depth.

I think it is/was difficult for many to swallow the perception of the compensation package, especially with all the other NCAA rules surrounding money to student athletes.... couldn't sell their autographs, couldn't make any use of their NIL to promote themselves on their own, and all the other rules involved. I do think that the College education and the full ride they received is an incredibly good deal but the flip side of that too is that how many student athletes could truly pursue their desired majors? I know as just a regular student that I had plenty of work to do just to keep up with classes and that wasn't with the student athlete additional workload. The other side of things too is that student athletes today (I'm still using the term even though it is up for debate) have a COMPLETELY different set of expectations and sports work load than student athletes even ten years ago. No only are there the team meetings and practices, that are regulated by NCAA rules and there is a set cap on the number of hours per week athletes can engage in and that really makes up the season itself... but then there are the vast amount of hours that are more "optional". The voluntary workouts, the off-season workouts, the player led practices, film study and whatever else you can think of. It is what it is... and I think we are in the early stages of the great transformation of college sports for better or worse. It has been trending this way for some time now as the workload and expectations of student athletes and coaches have changed so have the desires of student athletes. I don't have any real answers but as we all know this is a complicated problem and I think we can ALL agree that the current state of NIL and the transfer portal is NOT the solution.

From a numbers stand point I agree... but in terms of body type this is an insurance measure more than anything else. Right now Oregon has on scholarship... Byron Cardwell, Sean Dollars and Noah Whittington Dollars and Whittington are smaller backs that thrive in space but I don't think either is really considered an every down back and neither is a "thumper" either. Cardwell is a bigger back who fits more of the every down bigger back. So with that said right now Oregon is really one good injury away at runningback from having the season put in jeopardy. Adding another back means there is some depth.

McKinley and Wright a bit... though I don't know if sorry is the right word. More disappointed for them that they didn't get drafted. As for Williams... not in the slightest. He was held off the field multiple games this last season because of not following team rules by the sound of it and not giving it his all in practice. He has talent but he can't seem to get out of his own way. I think all needed another year of college ball to be honest. Though I guess McKinley was Oregon's best shot at being drafted besides KT.

Helfrich 11-2 I know he often gets overlooked but I'll be honest I have a soft spot for Helfrich.

I think every defensive player who entered the draft early should have stayed for another year at Oregon. KT went in the top 5 so he is fine and there is not much another good season would have improved his stock but not by a ton considering there were only four players taken ahead of him. Everyone else should have stayed a year because in Lanning's scheme they would IMPROVE their stock.

Oregon has been able to make some big gains with in state 3 star recruits as walk ons. They have managed to pick up a few out of state ones as well but getting 3 stars as walk-ons is pretty big. They are project players who may become significant pieces on the team but not instant impact players.

I do think the PAC is getting it's act together. It's not as fast as we all want but these things can't be that fast. There are a lot of pieces that have timers on them that can't be addressed until it is time, looking at you media rights. The PAC does have a lot of talent but the PAC has also lost loads of talent as recruits to the east coast. Better on field results and better recruiting will lead to better media rights which will be more money and it will be a positive cycle from there hopefully. Oregon and USC have both made some big coaching improvements. Utah is a strong program as well. Need Washington to be a bit less crap but not too good either, good enough to at least not lose to FCS programs at least.

Roster tampering goes on all the time but it is getting more and more blatant.

There was some evidence that could not be used in the court case in Oregon because it comes from out of state accounts... Namely Florida... I think those accounts have created a pattern that it's not worth holding onto a strength and conditioning coach who has a track record of hospitalizing athletes.

I can't read what is on his pocket square. At first I thought it was a Snickers candy bar but upon closer inspection that does not appear to be the case. It looks like Snickers though... And I'm sure that's what he will be doing when all his doubters eat their own words.

Technically a team can't really just cut him entirely... I mean they can remove him from the team effectively but if he is on scholarship this isn't really a cause to revoke that scholarship. Though he can be removed from the team but would still be on scholarship. Now... let him leave and transfer would be the easiest thing to do here... but that also calls the bluff. Does he really think he will have to transfer? That is the big debate these days.

Doesn't that make it 3 years in a row where Oregon produces a top 10 NFL draft pick? Herbert, Sewell and Thibodeux. I suppose that in itself is an achievement of Cristobal's. It will help his recruiting at Maimi and all these top draft picks will continue to elevate the Oregon program that he left. I suppose I can live with that.

First off... Have you seen how many times I link to my own articles? I'm a complete egomaniac! All these position group rankings this time of year are really only based off rather little evidence but most importantly it does give us something to talk about or at least think about. Especially with the mixed groups at the spring game I find it very difficult to gauge too much about the team on the whole besides some rather obvious stuff. As for KT... I think oddly enough the best gauge of his potential is looking at his freshman year, as strange as that sounds. That year he had the best overall defense around him and it allowed him the time and space to execute at a higher level than following years. If he stayed an extra year I think he would be an absolute terror in Lanning's system.

I love that last one with Thomas returning a punt for a TD that he really had no business returning. It just showed off his entire skill set and what made him so unique. Also... the play where he beat the WSU defender who was running in front of him is priceless... Seven McGee's first play of the Spring Game had him trying his best De'Anthony moves but couldn't quite pull it off.

From the sound of it this is a case where the coach, in this case Altman, might be pushing a player out the door into the portal.

Yep! Unless a player violates the scholarship contract/agreement they sign then they are guaranteed the scholarship for the duration. Cristobal showed a lot of players the door unofficially. I am sure that is happening still in the Lanning era as well but at this point I am sure Lanning and co are assessing what they have more than anything else. Now that spring is over they might be nudging some towards the door.

And the sacks were touch sacks which seem to create a greater loss of yards than real sacks because the player is dead where the QB is standing. Often a quarterback would take a small hit and run or throw the ball away or something other than just being down. What I liked the most is that some of those run plays went for good yards and it didn't feel like raw luck there a defender missed a tackle but the run was designed to spring the runningback free.

College Football’s Plan to Fix Signing Class Problems WWW.SI.COM The transfer portal is creating roster issues across the sport. This is not shocking to anyone at this point but because of the transfer portal some teams are losing more players than they can replace because of the 25 player per year signing limit. I talked about some of these problems months ago. It is hitting some teams harder than others, unsurprisingly teams that are not terribly good but recruit well are suffering the most. Transfer Portal Will Be a Disaster For Student-Athletes FISHDUCK.COM College football is more complicated than ever, especially when it comes to recruiting and the transfer portal... Right now the current policy is a lose-lose for everyone. Players are finding themselves without scholarships and institutions to play at when they enter the transfer portal as over 10% of all scholarship college football players enter it per year and most never find a new home. Then there are programs finding themselves with holes they can't fill because they have lost players and don't have enough yearly scholarships to fill them. This does need to be fixed. It's sad it has taken this long for the powers at be to recognize there is a problem, though no surprising.

I know it was never KTs plan to play more than 3 years at college but just think of what he could do in Lanning's defense? A year in Lanning's defense makes him basically a guaranteed No. 1 pick, unless there is a big time quarterback, at the very least an easy No. 2 no questions asked.

I worked pretty hard trying to find the article from years and years ago but failed. But I do remember Marcus Mariota throwing loads of picks at times during practice at Oregon. He was always pushing his limits, how small of a window can he throw through, how deep can he throw it? All those things that made him a better player come game day because he also proved he makes good decisions with the football. And practice should absolutely be fun... Anyone who has been on any sports team at any level knows you spend way more time practicing than you do playing in an actual game. Better make practice fun or why play at all?

In my original draft I had a whole lot more Mario Cristobal comparisons... And decided to cut them because we are in the Dan Lanning era now and it is wonderful, and I say that with only a spring game available. In the off-season I usually get football hungry and I go through YouTube looking for some old games to watch, or at least watch some good highlights. This is an observation of my own behavior from the past several years of doing this... I will watch games from the Kelly and Helfrich eras and maybe some from the Bellotti era as well but usually the quality of those games is really bad in terms of the recording available. What I have found is that I usually don't watch any games from the Cristobal era not because there aren't some good wins, looking at the Ohio State game, but they are usually just boring games. I mean I love that Oregon won the 2019-20 Rose Bowl but that is NOT a fun game to rewatch, winning by 1 point in a slugfest is not as much fun as watching Oregon destroy Jamis Winston's Florida State team in the 2014-15 Rose Bowl. The Cristobal era had a fun off season but a pretty boring and aweful regular season in terms of fan enjoyment. 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 the product in the field on Saturday's Spring Game was lots of fun to see. It was also a little telling listening to the Rich Brooks interview just how unwelcome alumni and old coaches have been around the program under the previous regime of coaches. It felt like a major home coming both for the offense and for fan favorite faces.