David Marsh

But... Are they a FishDuck member? This is after all where the real hardcore fans come to discuss the ducks.

Not sure how much more he could have done honestly. He was not allowed to contact recruits on behalf of Oregon until last Monday when he was officially hired. Lanning also couldn't have been officially hired before Monday because there is an Oregon law for any state job that the job must be posted for a week before hiring can take place... And Monday was exactly a week. Then once Lanning was hired the recruiting dead period had already started. A recruiting dead period means no visits onto campus and no in home visits and basically any in-person visits are prohibited. However, phone calls and zoom calls are permitted. There has been a lot of fuss made about Lanning not being on campus... But in truth it's irrelevant because he can use a phone to call recruits from anywhere. Georgia is going to play in the playoff and that gives Lanning a unique opportunity to get some more playoff experience which is something we as fans WANT our head coach to have. I am sure he is spending every non- Georgia waking moment of the day recruiting... Whether that is players or future staff members. And even if he was solely in Eugene there is only so much he could have done anyways and for the current recruiting class there really isn't anything more he could have done besides sell something that isn't him or the program he wants and we don't want that from our new HC anyways.

Loads of potential... really looking forward to seeing what he puts on the field next season for Oregon. I know the FSU numbers suck... but FSU has been an awful program since 2016 when Jimbo Fisher fled FSU for Texas A&M while leaving FSU on fire.. Then Willie Taggart added some gasoline to that fire while finding new ways to break it... and only now is FSU finally heading in the right direction. So I'm willing to give Dillingham the benefit of the doubt here.

I think this is the case with many programs... However, not every program is has the goal of reaching the playoff. Hell, most programs don't even have the goal of winning their conference these days. Let's take a look at our Beaver friends ... This is the first year they have made a Bowl game since 2013! The goal for the Oregon State program right now is get to a bowl game. Jonathan Smith has done that! The second goal is win a bowl game... we will find out how that goes this year. The third goal is repeat the first two goals. The fourth goal is to start making a play for the Conference Championship. The goals at Oregon are completely different than those at Oregon State. We were angry at losing a Pac-12 Championship. Beaver fans would have been sad to lose but they wouldn't have come close to the anger Duck fans felt with that loss. The standards at Oregon are different... as Duck fans our tollorance for Cristobal was starting to wear thin this year with the results and we are currently 10-3. Double digit win seasons are difficult to achieve and as Duck fans we are angry about that because we know this team could do better and should do better. It makes complete sense why someone like Justin Wilcox might not want this Oregon job. It might be his dream job... but stepping into the HC job at Oregon comes with expectations of making a conference championship game NEXT year. Jonathan Smith at Oregon State has a ton of love and loyalty from the fans and university... the Lanning Honeymoon is now, but how long is that going to last? I'm not arguing against Oregon's standards... just trying to put some perspective on those standards.

How about a QB who can pass a ball more than 3 yards down the field?

The basis of the argument is... It took Smart 12 years to get a big time head coaching job and Lanning is getting one after a much much shorter time period and needs more time to learn... also implies that Oregon has zero talent is not setting Lanning up for success. An interesting take and Lanning will probably have to learn some hard lessons next year. However, every single coach learns hard lessons when they become a head coach. Smart doesn't have things all figured out... I mean he did lose really badly to Alabama and Georgia's offense is based around their defense dominating. Maybe Lanning has already learned that lesson which is why in hiring Dillingham he is hiring the guy who was the OC when Auburn put up 48 points against Saban in 2019. It's a risk... but I think it is a risk that Lanning and Oregon are willing to take. Lanning doesn't seem like a typical coach from just listening to him speak and reading about his coaching story. He seems like he is a fast learner... perhaps faster than Smart... and delaying the Head Coaching opportunity for him might not help him develop much more, or at least not allow him to develop and grow much faster.

I guess I'm still not fully sure what a football chief of staff is... Also why haven't we had one? Have we had one and I just didn't know?

Not enough of his work is on tape for review at this point. Scouts might look at him and think he is worth at best a very late draft pick.... More likely he is a free agent ... Or not signed at all. He just doesn't have a whole life t of game footage. Now, yes, he has had a poor QB this last year and he did have some nice games last year. But I go back to my previous point ... There isn't enough tape of him that shows consistently of play and his full range of abilities. Also... As mentioned being benched for sub-par work ethic by MC does help his case at all.

What made them so deviating is the lack of a consistently explosive offense. We had more false starts in the Kelly-Helfrich era and they rarely hurt the scoreboard... Let alone were game changing. The offense either needs to avoid all false starts to stay on schedule .. or have a scheme that allows for some big chunk yards to make the occasional false start irrelevant.

Third-and-long not being converted by the opposing team. Really don't want to see a 3rd-and -13 be converted for a first down on a shockingly regular basis.

I don't think there can be much of a back-up plan... besides having a list of potential replacement candidates ahead of time. I mean I guess if there is someone on the staff that is the heir apparent then that is the back-up plan of sorts... Brooks > Bellotti > Kelly > Helfrich ... Taggart > Cristobal But that back-up plan only has value if there is a long line of institutional loyalty... which there really isn't... any pretty much every program now. By the way... shameless self promotion time... Might be worth reading my article on FishDuck tomorrow concerning coaches and loyalty.

So far it hasn't been a crazy big number but it is growing every year. The transfer portal is going to be a disaster for players.

And as we have seen with Lanning's contract... he isn't getting paid that 7million... at least not yet.

I also heard the pay Oregon offered Wilcox was rather low... it was a deal meant to be refused but would appease the pro-Wilcox boosters. Also the Oregon pressure cooker is such that someone like Wilcox might not want that level of pressure. Oregon has become a brutal program with its expectations.

The last three games can be brutal... but at least it is a home run at the end with the only away of those last three being Oregon State which isn't a huge journey. Granted... playing OSU at OSU is going to be a lot more difficult.

In video games as a kid I would never punt and I would only do onside kicks... It was amusing for a video game.. and I can see how it could be successful in high school. However, we live in the age of offense now so depending on the defense to make stops with poor field position can't be relied upon... as well as the offense converting all 4th downs and special teams recovering all onside kicks will not happen. At high school... a good offense can mitigate these problems... but college, not so much.

Chakes to answer your question in the article about the last time Oregon ran the wild cat ... I think it was 2015 when VA was out injured there was some funny wild cat stuff Oregon did with Addison. Or at least some weird enough stuff that had fans at the time wanting Addison as the QB over Lockie. I could be wrong but that's what is coming up in my brain this morning. Thanks for the article... Looking forward to an offense that is designed to score points more than burn clock.

That would be awesome ... But I kinda doubt anyone would go for it. But maybe he has an Oregon O on his lapel for an interview???

Gie the record Verdell was a Campbell recruit. He stuck with Oregon after all the coaching changes.

Well... I don't know who I even favor. In truth I'm not even that interested in this bowl game. The only thing I am finding remotely interested in is what does the Oregon offense look like with out Cristobal... does it look the same or do we see something with some significant tweaks? I don't think we see anything too different from the regular season because there isn't a ton of practice time between now and the game so it will only be small things they install. But still... will it look different? I do think we are going to see a whole lot of players from both team not giving two craps about the game though. It is going to be a boring game.

DJ James is in the portal. I don't think he has landed anywhere yet.

Anything with some tempo would make me a happy camper. One if my many annoyances with the MC offenses is how everyone is lined up. The clock ticks down to 15-10 and then everyone looks to the side line... Play change and snap the ball. Yes... There are times to milk the clock but I do actually want to watch some football please. It would also be nice to condition our players a bit more to be able to handle the tempo game. I swear some of those annoying time outs used were to give players a rest. That is ok from time to time... But it felt like there was at least one to two of those resting time outs per game.

The NCAA might get involved in this... and I know what you are thinking... but wait the NCAA really doesn't get involved in anything until it is super old news. But... the NCAA was opposed to allowing players to get any money in any way shape or form... they might be feeling upset and left out of this one and feeling like they lack control over a situation they might actually care about.

I think Verdell's draft stock is gone with his injuries... His only hope for the draft is to play next year and avoid getting injuries ... Before this year he sat out the second half of a lot of games dur to monitor dings during the game. Not good for NFL teams. Dye is awkward size wise for the NFL.... He isn't really big enough to be a running back and he may not be fast enough to play the slot... I have always found he lacked that extra gear on a long run to get him into the end zone. He always seemed to be caught from behind.

Seven McGee has opted to transfer out of Oregon. This puts transfers post-Cristobal at 2 for Oregon. What I find interesting for McGee is... does this tell us anything about Dye and Verdell's intentions to stay with the program for one more season? I could see McGee opting to stay as the No. 2 running-back behind Cardwell... but not the No. 4 potentially behind Verdell, Dye and Cardwell.