David Marsh

Having the physical traits is important for starters and that alone will be a major factor. I loved playing basketball in middle school and high school... Never was that good at it... And I was often one of the taller players on my team so I played forward and sometimes center. Which was fine for me back then. But at 6 foot I am far too short to ever have been considered for any high level team unless I was going to play guard and even then I wasn't that fast or even good at playing guard. So the physical measurables are a must have to start with. Troy Dye was a beast at Oregon but he was a bit undersized to be a linebacker but he did work hard and did make the leap to bekng drafted. Vernon Adams was an incredible deep ball throwing quarterback. He worked very hard but he really couldn't overcome some of the physical measurables to get him in the door at the NFL. I don't think the injuries helped ... But he could really play. Measurables don't guarantee success but they are a starting point that most don't even have so it is easy to separate. It also leads to some crazy star inflation for some players... Just having those psyicial attributes make them better than those try play against at high school which does not build the needed work ethic for the next level.

Absolutely those flagrant late hits should actually be punished to a greater degree than they are... Incedental targeting is nothing compared to an actual flagrant late hit.

Sensors would be the biggest game changer. A senor itself might not tell the full story but if a strong enough impact is detected then just pulling the players off the field would do a lot for player safety.

I believe Oregon does have a program built around NIL and how it works and how to not just lose all that money. The forward thinking schools have programs in place to train athletes... We will just have to see if it works.

I do think an appeals system is good and a super super minor step in the right direction with the new proposed rule changes. I think an appeals system would fit right into my proposed rule as well. If we are looking at that much incidental contact in a short period of time though that player does need to be checked out for head injury regardless. Also... Absolutely agree about offensive players lowering their heads and changing contact. I know there were a couple targeting calls that did not stand this year because of it and I was trying to remember what games those were in to try and snag some screenshots but I couldn't find them. I think the Bridges picture is decent... He was low and staying low and the offensive players helmet dipped and resulted in some contact but in no means malicious.

Rules will come... Even if that results in the entire system breaking down entirely and we get a lesser NFL that only has school affiliation in name alone. You have mentioned these scinarios before. College football of the past is dead. Right now is the wild west of what will be the new era but it is also too unstable to live in its current form. You have stated how you are bring driven off by the sport ... You are not alone there. This is still a big business but what if interest starts to trend downward? We have already seen declining attendance numbers at stadiums, even more COVID. What will "college football" look like a few years down the road... No one knows and if they think they know they are lying. But again... What currently exists is not sustainable and is not brining new fans in but driving fans away. That's not a sustainable long term business model.

Well outside of that rescheduled game due to COVID... But that isn't scheduled until 2030 something I think.

This is actually a very good thing to happen or potentially good anyways. A player sitting out spring ball because he is not getting paid enough to his liking is going to accelerate this whole NIL insanity... Now I know what some of you are thinking that that would be a bad thing... Well bad for the short run yes... But the lonn run is pulling NIL into line with something that is reasonable. Right now there is a whole lot of money flying around because it can... But once there is a large enough number of players who don't give a good return on investment the money flow is going to slow. A player refusing to literally play ball because of not enough money is going to drive some investers away. I feel someone is going to probably pay this kid but that will drive other investers away as they see this sort of behavior rewarded. NIL will get rules and be tempered at some point... But when that happens all comes down to just how crazy and insane it has to get first... So this is just accelerating the process so maybe we see some rule changes at some point sooner. Other thing to think about ... Scholarships are contracts... We may see some of those rules get tightened up first concerning opting out of practices.

With houses that big I always wonder what people actually do with all that space. I know there are rooms in my 2 bath 3 bedroom house that I rarely use.

And finding those Casey Mathews type players will become even more important as these are the players who will perform at a high level.

I don't feel the third question needs to be answered or even should be answered by the end of Spring. Ty Thompson or Bo Nix or Jay Butterfield... we need to see all of them get a nice chunk of snaps but who wins the starting position can wait until a couple weeks into Fall Camp as far as I'm concerned. Let them play, learn and improve and then let them show it all over again during fall camp. This isn't to say a starter shouldn't be chosen until the end of fall camp but the first week or two into fall camp still having a lively competition isn't a bad place to be.

More Oregon Duck hate... just let KT get on a team with a decent defensive coordinator and turn him loose. KT at Oregon did need a decent supporting class around him to be successful. In his freshman year when Oregon had a strong secondary which allowed the pass rush to get home KT was able to wreck games. But in both 2020 and 2021 when the secondary at Oregon gave a massive cushion the pass rush struggled to get to the quarterback on a regular basis because there was always an outlet. Defensive player evaluations are difficult to get a real sense of each player because if all 11 players are doing their jobs at a high level then every player looks better. If there is a weak link then even the strongest players struggle to make an impact. KT disappeared in the games against Utah this last year because the other defensive linemen on Oregon's roster couldn't get enough push to put regular pressure on the quarterback which meant Utah really could put more blockers on KT. Also Utah regularly used 3 TEs against Oregon that really negated the Oregon pass rush. Then add that with Oregon's leaky secondary and that gets you a scenario where KT disappears from the game. I'm really looking forward to Lanning's defense this year.

It's interesting that they have chosen to make the spring game the second to last practice of the spring game. It makes a lot of sense because they can review the film and then take the time in practice to really address some of the things that come up.

If this was Cristobal's staff it would be a more than valid question as to whether or not Oregon will show up and play up to their potential. Now, we haven't seen Lanning coach a game yet but I am hoping that he will have the Ducks ready to go and playing with energy. This whole coaching staff seems to have that level of energy that can be transmitted to players. Sometimes coaches need to bring the energy first. Additionally... playing at WSU in September or October is WAY better than Novemeber. So that is a help for Oregon.

With a Lanning defense and a talent gap, I feel Oregon can use those advantages to keep Washington State down.

I still find the Stanford loss wrong... I have never been quite so angry by an Oregon loss. At least not for quite a long time. I really can't wait to see Lanning and company shut Stanford down as Oregon will have a better roster and hopefully now coaches that can use that roster to their full abilities.

I'm pretty sure people can suffer from Carp-pull-tunnel from fishing too much. It's amazing how Herbert managed to dodge those injuries.

The team is just not geling and that really has to do with the players. The best teams in any sport are player led, not coach led. This Oregon team needs players to hold each other accountable and to build those bonds amongst themselves. At this point in the year that has either happened or it hasn't and there really isn't a whole lot that any coach can do about it at this stage. The culture will need to be reassurted by the coaches in the off season and players will need those build their bonds in the off season. Unless the players want it now and then we will see what they can do.

In the past I would have said that games ending in ties would not be satisfying... and I still kinda feel that way. But after sooooooo many Oregon games were delayed or shuffled to some backwater ESPN channel this last year so that the previous game can finish their multiple overtimes... Yeah.... I feel ties would be just fine. The biggest problem with a tie that I can see is that the "tie breaker" game between teams that tied a game for a conference championship with equal records don't have a real way to determine who should represent their division. But the brokenness of Conference Championships based on a divisional break down is also dumb and is another discussion.

Being able to appeal is a move in the right direction... But it doesn't solve the biggest problems with the targeting rule during the game. What about accidental helmet to helmet contact? What about offensive players lowering their heads and effectively initiating helmt to helmet with a defensive player who can't change their angle in time? Both of those could certainly be appealed and overturned... But outside of the immediate contact and concussion concern, which should be looking at ALL players involved in the contact ... It really just continues to punish defensive accidental contact. Better than nothing but won't solve the problems with the rule.

That's a pretty brutal injury that really derailed his entire season. I wish him luck at the NFL level.

It's interesting that Cristobal is still pursuing NW kids. Recruiting nationally for Oregon is a must and Oregon needs to go into Miami's backyard to pick up a kid or two there whenever they can... But it's kind of odd that Cristobal is trying to pull talent across the country the other way. Yes, Miami is still a national brand and yes there is probably an existing relationship because Cristobal and co have probably been recruiting Wayne for at least a year or two... So right now I suppose it's not too unexpected to see Maimi recruiting out west still and this is a high potential player, so much so that Bama is after him too... But it will be interesting to see how long we feel a constant Miami recruiting presence out here.

The pistol isn't a bad formation... but it is not an every down straight ahead no deviation formation. It needs to be utilized in a varied way that is not predictable. The use of the pistol here gives me hope of it being used correctly. Lots of teams use the pistol as apart of their overall scheme ... Cristobal wanted to use it like an I-Formation and it didn't work... but that was mostly because it wasn't being used correctly.

Well that's a big aspect of it... The other way to reach that number is to have a really bad defense. I just wanted to point out with the article how that actual 80 plays per game number has only been reached once at Oregon and according to the stats it came with a pretty good defensive year.

Ok... personally I find it somewhat funny that I went to Oregon for my under grad and then for my Masters in Teaching I went to Concordia.... which is now going to be an Oregon campus... I guess things come full circle in that regard.