David Marsh

I feel the name of this thread should say... "ALWAYS say Dye!" If there is one thing any of the coaches should have learned this season is that you just need to feed Dye the ball.

Yeah... I had a moment tonight when I saw a few names on the backs of jersies and said, " Who is ________????" And if I don't know who blank is they are pretty deep on the depth chart. Not saying I know all the players but I'm a bit of a fanatic so I know a lot more than the casual fan.

The receivers were very impressive tonight. All of them are going to be absolutely killer next year. Just need that QB.

I do wonder what Moorhead would have done with Herbert. . Though right now I am so tired of a bend but don't break defense. I had higher hopes for DeRuyter but I feel pretty unimpressed by his defense this year. There were a lot of injuries on defense so I can let some things slide but the secondary gave up so much room all the time which made underneath passes all too easy. The agressiveness from the front seven also rarely got home to really put any pressure on the QB. KT would play pretty hard but most offenses worked just as hard to keep him multi teamed and out of the play. I just want to see both sides of the ball play better... Both sides are very talented but neither really stood out this year for the most part.

OU is starting to play defense the way that is guaranteed to beat Brown... Sell out to stop the run and challenge Brown to throw it... He will fail at passing and job is done.

Can Brown not throw the ball at receiver's feet? I know at this point being annoyed and and angry with Brown shouldn't be a surprise or a thing.... But it is still super frustrating to watch.

Lanning has his work cut out for him to fix these red zone penalties.

One observation so far is the offense is playing with more tempo than they have all year for the most part.

I'd have it ready.... Because I seriously doubt it is going to happen. But if it does happen have that beer ready to celebrate.

Didn't take too long for Brown to throw an interception. Yes... The ball could have been caught and bounced off the hands of the receiver but he was also like triple covered and the pass was behind. Looking forward to better QB passing next year.

I dislike it... But I mean what are you (or anyone in power more importantly) really going to do about it? UCLA can't play and the trophy has a date on it... So might as well reward the team that managed to be ready to actually play and give them the trophy.

Though the biggest question really comes down to... Oregon's run game v Oklahoma's run defense... With brown Oregon is one dimensional or at least close to it. Oregon has won pretty much every game this year by saying we are going to run the ball and then challenging anyone to stop us. Really only Utah had managed to do so and they sold out to stop the run and dared Brown to pass ... Turns out Brown couldn't pass. Yes... The Stanford game was a loss but that one still has some weird things that don't concern the run game formula.

I have come to question this season if the strength and conditioning at Oregon has been over the top under Feld. There have been a lot of major injuries which seem like more freak injuries that may or may not have their roots in over working in terms of strength and conditioning... But we have also been plagued with more mild injuries that could have certainly been influenced by over work. I am hoping this new guys can do something to keep the injury bug to a minimum.

In truth I felt the ducks were playing their best when MC needed to be kept off the field. If you're not a big xs and os HC you need to really bring the passion for the game. MC was at his best when he did that... Now... Look at the utah games... He was really emotionally out of it for both of those games. He was not bringing the fire for the team to feed off of.

Josh Pate on Late Kick Live did a whole thing about fixing bowl season and part of his proposal was to pay players. I personally don't agree with it all but I do think that it is at the very least worth a watch and a listen. More than anything else I think the best way to get plays to opt into bowl games isn't just money but really highlighting any NFL scouts at the game. This may not influence some decisions like KT's because everyone knows what he can do already... But there are a lot of players who are opting out now because they are in that limbo zone of will or won't they be drafted and the risk of injury may push them over into the not drafted... But maybe the risk is worth it if is is possible to elevate one's draft stock enough to get into the drafted category.

They still have two playoff teams which more and more means more than any of the other bowl games. Pre playoff this would be a bigger deal than it is now sadly.

Just think of his influence beyond the broadcasting and commentary. Most kids today only know Madden because of the video game that bares his name. It is pretty remarkable that he has continued to have such a large cultural impact even when he has stepped out of the spotlight.

Brown is an average quarterback... He is often ranked right in the middle of the entire NCAA for passing efficiency. Now that is not good enough for Oregon and what we expect out of our offense and quarterback. It is good enough for most teams though and it is amazing to see just how well we did this season with a completely average, middle of the pack quarterback.

Ohio State has a bunch of star players opting out of the Rose Bowl.... the ROSE BOWL! I was understanding why players would opt out of lower level bowl games but the freaking Grand-daddy of them all? NY6 games used to be a huge deal... now its playoff or nothing.

I would say the most fundamental mistake that Helfrich made (more than the DC hires) was giving up coaching qbs himself. Frost did a decent job with already good to great quarterbacks. Frost failed to get any of the new freshmen ready for game time. Herbert had a different QB coach entirely in David Yost for his freshman year.

I can get behind this statement more.

Not at practice could also mean something like they are stuck at home because the players all had a chance to go home for a while but there have been a TON of cancelled flights so maybe they are just stuck. Just a guess... I know they were supposed to get themselves back to Eugene and from Eugene they were to take a charter flight to San Antonio... But maybe some couldn't get to Eugene in the first place.

I respectfully disagree with this... It has appeared by so many fans and I feel it usually comes with a more surface comparison rather than a deeper dive into the two. Helfrich was an ok recruiter and we usually bash him more on this front because of his misses than his hits. In this four recruiting classes (I used 247 sports because I was having issues getting the class ranks from rivals) under Helfrich the classes were 19, 21, 16, 27. Under Kelly it was 30, 12, 12, 14 ... So a drop off but in truth Helfrich was doing what Kelly was (minus Willie Lyles) and with some minor but impactful sanctions. Helfrich did promote Pellum to DC but this was also fully inline with the Oregon way and continuity at the time. It failed but not as bad as the Hoke hire failed. Lake inherited a good recruiting class and then bombed the following classes. He promoted from within against the advisement of others. Lake at Washington was a massive failure. Helfrich was a mostly successful coach at Oregon and at any other program or even at Oregon a decade earlier he would still be employed as the HC. Just my little rant about the comparison. I could probably write a whole article on it. Oh and Helfrich did put Mariota in position to win a Heisman and he did make a playoff appearance and won a rose bowl. If you had to pick between the two Helfrich over Lake all day everyday and without a second thought.

I was saying it during the offseasons when Lake was making those hires he was making the wrong hires for the wrong reasons. He opted to go with who was safe (or at least felt safe) rather than a risk. Donovan was a huge risk but to Lake apparently his only requirement was NFL guy and that's what he wanted and what felt safe. Granted it feels like all Lake wanted was NFL guys and felt that would be enough to do the recruiting work for him. I didn't know how many times he was rejected though. Say what you will about Cristobal, he certainly has his own major flaws, but he knew he needed solid recruiters and he was thorough in the hiring process. Lanning also feels like he knows exactly what he wants in the hiring process and is moving at decent pace. Not as fast as fans would like but getting the right hire is more important than the fast hire. Speaking of hirings... Isn't it interesting from an institutional level the mentality of both the Oregon and Washington schools. Washington choose a safe option, or relatively safe in Kelan DeBoer and Oregon chose to take a bigger risk with arguably a much higher reward on Dan Lanning. Oregon is playing to win and win big. Washington is playing to not lose. Completely different mentalities between the programs.

I would say that under MC Oregon really didn't have the fully united factor that binds teams together through adversity. Actually with the 2020 season and covid and the opt outs I feel the culture took a very negative dive with the program. Not only losing a final season from some very strong veteran guys like Holland, Gram, Breeze and Penei Sewell... But in their opting out they sort of signaled an individual first vibe. I do think any signal like that was unintentional simply because the Pac-12 was so woeful in determining whether there would be a season or not ... But for the past two years I think a United team vibe has been missing from the Ducks. Maybe lack of a strong quarterback and consistency of leadership with all the freshman has contributed as well. But when the ducks really needed to rally together... Looking at the Utah games... They completely and utterly failed this year. Maybe Cristoabl leaving was the epidome of "me before we" and that ignited the players and remaining the coaches to bond together. Utah has certainly come together as a team this year with the deaths of two of their players. They had something to unite them an leaders who stepped forward to lead. Oregon has really been lacking in that department. Here's hoping for a surprise in the Alomo Bowl.