David Marsh

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.

Not only that.. but he is actually shushing us... We are not allowed to talk.

We got a few of those as well. I want to say 2 kickers and a punter.

As many have already said as walk-ons they don't count towards the 85 scholarships. I imagine part of the reason for this many walk-on QBs is for the practice squad (again said by others) but I suspect that each QB has some different skills and will allow the practice teams to emulate different offenses more effectively. Then there is always the chance that one of these QBs has some talent that might just need some development that might be crazy good. Though I suspect this is a move to make a better scout team. When it comes to the scout team this year Oregon does have a bit of a problem. Typically the 3rd and 4th string quarterbacks take on scout team duties. However, Oregon only has 3 scholarship quarterbacks right now and I don't think there is much of an intention at the moment to sideline any one of them to the scout team yet. Additionally... I think if any of the scholarship QBs are assigned to the scout team they will probably be in the transfer portal the next day. This is probably a move to keep the scholarship quarterbacks happy and engaged as well.

I watch Pate's stuff from time to time ... I'll be honest, he is knowledgeable about the SEC, a good chunk of the ACC and Big-12, Ohio State and that's about it. He occasionally talks about the PAC but it is rare. Even when he does a run down of how X effects the power five he seems to just talk about what I said was in his wheel house and he typically doesn't even mention the PAC-12. I'm not sure if Oregon would have seen an outright decline this year under Cristobal, but we would have at least seen the plateau. 2019 was the high point.

Spring games we always tough to determine. What's the pass rush going to look like with starters? How will the starting secondary work together? On top of all of that... The offense started out hot and then cooked way down as the defense took control of the game. Now imagine we have a hot firing offense out the gate and the defense follows up with a few stops. 14-0 creates one crazy mental dynamic for opposing teams to deal with. This is what made so many Kelly -Helfrich teams so deadly. If a team is playing in a hole they will get more desperate. The more desperate, the more mistakes and that leads to more Oregon points. I'll reserve judgement at this time to wait for the first game. And though that I'd logical that is not fully in the spirit of the off-season.

Possibly... But I kinda doubt it. That coach is gone... Gone for 5 years now. But I wouldn't be surprised if the insurance does start going up in general for all programs.

The talent is certainly there. I'm just looking for scheme to match the talent. Don't let the opposing team have a massive underneath cushion to play with... Make the opposing quarterback throw through small windows. I think we'll see a big jump in play this year.

Certainly needed after the Brenner lawsuit. Oregon walked away from that rather unscathed financially. However, it did expose one of the biggest potential problems at any program, the strength and conditioning program. Players spend the most time with these coaches and negligence or ineptitude can cause real damage to athletes' lives. Get a qualifications requirement and that doesn't solve the risk outright but it would help make the higher ups sleep easier, not that I particularly care how they sleep... But it would at least help protect student athletes. This really is the time right now that the NCAA, or at least conferences, need to be adding more rules, not less.

That is big and good news. Often when a player leaves school even temporarily, it often means they aren't coming back. Snee was solid on the whole. Place kicking and kick off has been weak. So Lewis should be nervous with the kicking additions.

I think some of the big time recruits haven't been used to their full potential. Hard to unlock some top tier wide receiver talent when the quarterback can't throw the ball down the field. Hard for someone like Kayvon Thibodeux to get a bunch of sacks when the underneath routes are always open for a quick pass before the pressure gets home. I do feel scheme has held all of Oregon's talent back. Get those players in position to make plays and they will make plays.

I know she had a slow professional start due to injuries but it is great seeing her come back from those.

I know coaches wouldn't like it at all... Though I do believe that Oregon would be one of the few schools that would potentially benefit from unlimited official visits, as Oregon has the resources to put towards recruiting that most other schools do not. I do think that recruiting has gotten completely out of control and is continuing to get out of control.

Utah is also going to find themselves squeezed next year. Oregon is going to be better. Oregon's offense and defense will be better and they will get a whole lot more out of it's roster. And USC is going to be better. I still don't think USC is going to be great but they are going to be trending in the wrong direction for Utah.