David Marsh

If this moves forward you can see Oregon leaving and maybe Washington.

In fairness... There weren't a whole lot of home run hitters on the wide receiver side of things for Herbert to throw to. I do agree in that the scheme was underwhelming but there wasn't much firepower on the roster either. One of the crazy things is that every wide receiver that verbslled under Taggart decommitted. I think Oregon signed obe or two that year and they haven't planned out... Definitely some misses.

The shadow of Cristobal will fade from the northwest and I think this will really be the only recruiting class (besides last year's) where Oregon and Miami battle it out this extensively for recruits from the northwest. It is all about relationships and connections. Remember these are cultivated for several years. So Cristobal has already put the work in on some of these recruits and it will pay out for him. Not always though as we saw him unable to hold onto Iuli and Connerly.

And Wayne doesn't look too likely at this point with his love to Florida. But still... I'm feeling 2-4 possible 5 stars that sign with Oregon.

This would be probably the only way is buy into more expansion to be honest. I do feel the expanded conference has ruined some of the rivalries. A Failed Fan Experience: Pac-12 Expansion Diminishes Rivalries FISHDUCK.COM Take a moment and think of this year's conference schedule and pick out the top three games you want to...

I'd probably move DJ Johnson up a spot or two.... I know it may seem nitpicky and petty but the man is a beast and a completely selfless player. Personally I think he could have a season better than anything KT put together the past three years, especially in this new and improved defense.

Short answer... Yes. Longer answer.... Yeesssss. First off the scheme is going to be better because Dillingham is going to be allowed to do his job. It has become all too clear that MC tied his OC's hands and forced up the gut runs. We all bemoan the pistol as a "bad" formation but the truth is that it was used wrong and the most effective use of the pistol we find from other teams is using it as a change up to attack different parts of a defense... Not just a lazy attempt at making a "spread" offense with a power game. It always struck me that what Cristobal wanted was a Stanfordian smash mouth lots of i-formation runs that uses the quarterback under center. However, that is not Oregon and I am sure there was pressure to keep a spread offense so we got a lazy and terrible pistol. Because all you need for a spread offense is the quarterback in the shotgun, or at least not under center right? (Yes, that is some sarcasm...) Another major factor is defense. Fir some reason Cristobal only had one, maybe two, good years of defense. 2019 being the high water mark, which also corrilates with his peak offensive production. I wrote an article a while back going over how Dillingham's ambitious 80 plays per game can work. 80 Plays Per Game is More Than an Offensive Goal FISHDUCK.COM Back on National Signing Day in early February, Offensive Coordinator Kenny Dillingham said that his... I do feel Lanning's defense will support the Dillingham offense. The Dillingham offense will also get players into space to make plays. It also doesn't hurt that whoever the quarterback will be that they will be an improvement over Brown. Especially with a scheme that can stretch the field.

I think for many of the blue chip recruits they are playing the NIL market a bit more. Some schools are willing to get into bidding wars early... Tennessee and Miami being two rather public cases with their 8mil+ quarterbacks. Other schools, and I think Oregon is one of them, are opting to build relationships and offer some NIL early but avoid any bidding wars, at least until the end of the process where NIL is potentially less of a factor, note less but certainly not a non factor. We saw Oregon swoop in and build a relationship with Connerly and then do some negotiating on NIL towards the very end of his recruitment.

Maybe the coaches... But that fan base is in firm denial. They think everyone wants to go to UW and are simply being bribed not to go. They are adorably delusional.

The Wayne news isn't great but it looks like a strong relationship has been built and let's hope that carries us through. Also it could be that after a year in Florida he just wants to leave and come home to the PNW.

Extra twist I saw with Wayne... He is going to IMG Academy for his senior year. IMG is located in Florida so that complicates matters as you-know-who who was recruiting him for the past few years is also in Florida. I'm hoping that Oregon can lock him on soon.

Washington would rather have our recruiting class right now. They have more commits in number but we have more four stars. In the end the blue chip ratio is what matters the most and that is the ratio that looks at the whole roster.

We have that big Nebraska transfer on campus now. He will need some work and some polish but he'll get some work in. Also I don't think we are national title contenders this year... Playoff... Yes, but not the whole thing just yet.

3 on this list is good for Oregon as it is the most from any one school I think. I was a substitute teacher for Kirkland when he was at Jesuit, not that he'd remember, and he was a big dude back then. Pitty he went to Washington but I think his dad went there too.

Right now I'm feeling that Oregon could land 4-5 5-star recruits. Moore, Young, and Wayne all feel well within Oregon's grasp right now. Uiagalelei also feels like an absolutely real possibility. David Hicks feels like a possibility but maybe a bit longer of a shot. Then there is a lot of talk that Dicky might earn himself a 5th star. I'm sure I'm also missing some other potential names. But even if we just get half of these guys it would be a major haul.

I think that's a big reason here too ... Oregon is a lot of people's second team. They'll watch Oregon and consider themselves a fan, even if they don't have a strong connection other than... Oregon is cool ... Which it is. I think this forum gives us a little taste of that as we have people from all over who would consider themselves Oregon fans even if it's not their primary team.

Makes pac-12 expansion a risky business. Again it is about growing the pie so everyone gets a bigger slice rather than just adding more slices. I do think USC is missing a generation of fans with USC having been "bad" for the better part of a decade. USC bad is most teams average, Oregon State would kill to have swapped records with them over the last ten years but USC hasn't won many fans over, especially kids.

Alabama is the evil empire at this point. Oregon is the chippy (pun in intended) upstart that had the cool uniforms and cool offense. That has at a few points scared the eveil empire. And with Dad Lanning (not a typo he gives off serious dad vibes) leading the way, it really does feel like Oregon is going to challenge the blue bloods once again.

Though I would think it would be nice to have the PAC absorb the big-12 I sorta doubt that is going to happen. Though doing a big move and adding basically a whole other conference would in some ways make more sense because it would enable the georgaphy to work better for scheduling and a good chunk of games. I wrote about how the Pac-12 is geographically isolated last week. Here's the article for those who haven't read it. If you disagree with my assessment I take no offense and would love the conversation. The Pac-12 is Geographically Isolated From the Rest of the College... FISHDUCK.COM Recently in a John Canzano Mailbag article, he was asked whether or not the Pac-12 should consider... Enjoy.

Came across this... Yeah Cristobal paid big for his QB.

What I absolutely love in all these pictures is that Dan Lanning is always looking like a goofy dad. Everyone else can be serious and cool... But not Lanning. He has a big grin on his face and isn't hiding the face that he is having a blast and doesn't care. . Can we just call him Dad Lanning?

I think MC is an average game day coach. There are some nice wins to his name from his time at Oregon and when he was with FIU he had some good wins there as well when he was the head coach. He will have some success at Miami... but unless he learns how to get out of his own way and let his coaches really coach... a National Championship is not in the cards.

Oops.. typo on my part there. I do recall typing PSU but it autocorrected to OSU.

I said effectively the exact same thing with Joe Moorhead. I was convinced that Moorhead would want a power five job again and needed to keep his reputation as a strong offensive mind in tact. Now, Moorhead did improve the MC offense but it never seemed to get close to the offense that Moorhead created at OSU.

He'll enjoy the Miami sun and handing the ball off to a RB who gains 2-3 yards after running into a defensive lineman. It's all good... by the sound of it we will get Moore so no tears here.