David Marsh

The foghorn is great ... It.has an ominous feel to it... Like impending doom for the other team. Bettet than a siren which is just loud and obnoxious.

I mean we saw first hand how the Willie Lyles incident at Oregonay have only been seen as a "slap on the worst" but a reduction in offical visits really did hurt Oregon's recruiting in th Helfrich years. Even now with some of the best recruiters in the country say that they need to get kids in campus to stand a chance. Then we have the USC Reggie Bush sanctions that demolished their program. Between the sanctions and Carol leaving USC that really was the kiss of death to the program. USC hasn't recovered from that blow...

On his thoughts about pac-12 coaches having an intense back and forth and "sparing" if you will... I think Lanning v Riley is where all eyes will be in that regard. I think Lanning is going to crush some USC fans when his defense keeps Riley's offense in check and Dillingham's offense is too much for USC to handle. So I think we are looking at the early stages already of an intense coaching rivalry in the PAC. There is already a rivalry brewing between the two in terms of recruiting, just wait until they play each other. I do think the fans will make a bigger deal out of it than the coaches but still.

NIL is pretty much all under the table or can be anyways. So how is anyone to actually know unless we see tax returns or something of the like.

I think Cristobal deserves to be on the list due to his recruiting ability and though we feel he has underperformed at Oregon, he did win a rose bowl and a couple conference championships. I think Riley is a bit high. I don't think he warrants a top 5 position on that list, top 10 sure I suppose.

If I were Camden Lewis I would be pretty intimidated by all these specialists coming in to compete. This has been a weakness of the program for too long and it is good to see the kicking side really getting the attention it deserves both in recruits and in practice.

I was wondering the exact same thing... Could it be a jab at Jimbo for losing BADLY to Oregon in 2014-15 in the Rose Bowl? There was a big article about the downfall of FSU and though FSU was on some shaky ground for 2014 they still had an undefeated season. Undefeated that is until they played Oregon. After they played and lost badly to Oregon it looks like the entire FSU program came off the rails and fell to pieces. It wasn't Oregon's doing per se.. but Oregon exposed some deep problems in Jimbo's culture that were so bad that he opted to leave than try and fix that mess.

I wouldn't be surprised if Tom Snee isn't returning to the program as they picked up two punters.

He probably will be... He just had to have entered the portal before the deadline which he probably did as this fonveyhas been going on for ages.

Funny how you should mention that Charles... In one of my earliest articles at FishDuck I talked about this very thing. A Failed Fan Experience: the Pac-12 Championship Anticlimax FISHDUCK.COM The expansion of the Pac-12 conference has not been to the benefit of fans. In my previous... I do disagree with the analysis that it should have been Washington v USC in 2020 but that is a whole different story due to COVID and Washington skipping Oregon because they couldn't play but that's another story. And here it is! The 2020 Pac-12 Championship is a Sham FISHDUCK.COM 2020 has not been a good year for Pac-12 football, and has become a major disappointment for Oregon... Regardless, I am looking forward to a real championship between the top two teams in the PAC regardless of division.

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.