David Marsh

Tuesday is the big day next week for ducks fans because that's the day he is full time at Oregon. Next week we get to really see what Lanning has in store for us. So far we have really just seen the set up for the Lanning era... Some initial hires some small recruiting and roster preservation and a couple pick-ups from the portal. Next week is full power Lanning. It is very exciting to say the least.

Verdell always seemed to look for contact when running up the middle. I have felt that the vision of the running backs has been lacking where they just run straight and into whoever is there rather than try to bounce to the outside or make a different cut to get into space. Cardwell has so far shown more patience and better vision which I look forward to seeing him develop.

I think that Mullens low balled Wilcox to force Wilcox into saying no. Wilcox was not given the same offer Lanning was given considering Wilcox has actually been a a head coach where Lanning has not.

I think this staff can absolutely pull in the best classes Oregon has ever seen. I also feel the emphasis made on big time recruiters is vital. You can recruit to Oregon but let's remind everyone that that doesn't mean it's easy to recruit to Oregon. Cristobal proved it could be done... But that staff worked their collective butts off to do it. Oregon can't afford to have coaches who take little interest in recruiting or aren't great recruiters because getting the talent to even show up for a visit can be a challenge. Let's put it this way... Lots of programs that sit in recruiting hotbeds get loafs of unofficial visits from top recruits. They show up on their own dime and get to look around and meet the staff and what not. Oregon gets some but that usually comes at the minimum cost of a plane ticket and the expenses attached. USC, Bama, Georgia, Texas and others have recruits just drive in and stay the day and leave at minimal expense. That's hard to compete with... Oregon needs to get recruits to campus and official visits do help hit there is a limited number of thosr. And at the end of the day, it's hard to beat those unofficial visits.

Not too surprising... Miami is an old school blue blood and Cristobal is a hot commodity from his last few years of recruiting at Oregon and "turning around a downtrodden program". Cristobal when promoted to ahC at Oregon was only considered like a B and a lazy hire for Oregon at the time. Miami is also east coast which helps boost their appeal. USC is well... USC so of course they get a big grade for the Riley hire because they needed to go major splash. As for Oregon... We are an interesting backwater program out west. We have some flash and are sometimes interesting but we aren't seen as much. We hire a up and coming DC as a first time head coach.. it's seen as an inability to hire anyone of substance. Right now this is a beauty contest. These grades really don't matter... The grades that matter from pundits (it any really do) are the ones in a year or two from now where they grade how good the hire actually was... I think Oregon scores a big win at that point.

I tend to find this sort of thing entertaining out of a case study of a program. At least for me it is so much fun to observe football as a sort of rise and fall of "empires". This probably comes out of my day job which is a social studies teacher ... but still looking at these sort of situations is fun in the short term and the long term. Also the Huskies totally hate us just as much as we hate them. The dynamic is a bit different than the Oregon State hate of Oregon where we don't feel anywhere near the same hatred towards them as they do for us. The feeling is mutual between Oregon and Washington and until the day comes that Oregon leads the series, I don't see that changing.

I don't see this being an issue for next year of maybe the next two years... But this year's class could create an issue later. But the proliferation of the transfer portal changes everything and allows teams to fill immediate needs with non-freshmen. Also... This class wasn't going to be a monster class like the previous three... Not enough scholarships.

Ok... this feels familiar... oh wait this EXACT same thing happened when Taggart left and Cristobal became the HC. We lost ALL of the receiver commits. I'm not implying anything by this and I think it is purely coincidental but it is kinda funny how in the last two coaches leaving that it has resulted in the loss of all our receiver commits. Also... I think this means we don't have any commits from Texas anymore. Kinda a shame, but not at all surprising. Going to have to build that Texas to Eugene pipeline under Lanning.

Ok... I did write about Oregon's failure to recruit the state of Washington last summer right after JTT decided to go to Ohio State instead. I just feel the need to do a little victory lap while also shamelessly show off.

Maintenance and equipment managers are a small price to pay, literally, for improvements on safety technology and allowing football to remain as a sport. So much money in football already and schools are on the hook for athlete's medical bills for a period of time after they leave the school so this is something that if it works and works well would be a great financial decision and a great health decision. That is a great combo for everyone.

Definately need another DB or two... we have some youth that should emerge and grow... but the loss of McKinnley and Wright REALLY hurts.

One receiver from the portal would be good... I don't think we have the scholarships for more than one. The youth is there and is emerging and will become a major strength for Oregon's offense. Though depth may be a concern but there are some receivers who were buried in the depth chart last year but should emerge this year with the departure of Johnson, Redd and Williams.

This will be a good recruiting staff and I expect some nice pick ups in the coming weeks but I just want to remind people that Oregon really doesn't have that many scholarships to work with right now. Last I checked out of our 85 scholarships like 31 we're sophomores. We aren't losing many players this year either so don't expect a top 10 class, barring a ton of 5 star recruits. I would also like to say that recruiting is based on relationships so next year's class will be strong... But don't expect recruits to flip to Oregon because of these hires. They only have a month to build relationships with perspective recruits where their opposition may have been working in these relationships for years. With all that said.... Really looking forward to seeing this recruiting staff work!

Good chance this kid gets to 4 stat level at some point... But more importantly, Lanning knows these relationships are built early and he can't wait for the stars to come in, just recruit because he knows the talent is there.

Seems odd but I would imagine the responsibilities of an analyst are less than those of a coach. Also getting into the P5 ranks with potentially the prospect of getting an on-field position at Oregon at some point?

We've had a few transfers announced already and no one is heading to Miami to date. Pittman was never going to follow Cristobal so lets not even count that one. Jayson Jones went to Auburn, not Miami. DJ James is still in the transfer portal I believe but if Miami was his destination wouldn't he have already declared it if he was even offered a spot by MC? Robby Ashford could end up at Miami but apparently Miami has some decent QB options and lets get real... would he really want to go to Miami to be in a Cristobal inspired offense? He's already seen what it does and he may be a decent fit for it but in truth I see Ashford ending up at a FCS school or a G5 school. I don't see a P5 team picking him up at this point because there are more proven options. We haven't seen anyone else leap into the portal yet. Not saying it wouldn't happen but I doubt we see many leave to follow MC or BMac to Miami. If anyone was going to follow either to Miami I would have expected them to have transferred by now.

There is a difference in playing the season to conclusion and skipping a random one off game. The season is still a body of work and character is still on display. Giving up on your college team that can't make the playoff isn't a good look for when said player is in the NFL and their NFL team isn't going to make the playoff. I would be a top team problem if anything because that's where the biggest stars will be. A middle tier player trying to get recognition at say an Oregon State level school needs all the film and eyeballs possible to get to the next level. Then the biggest thing to change opt outs at any level is for someone's draft stock to take a direct hit due to opting out of a game. Once that happens the opt outs are over. As it stands the NFL doesn't care about players opting out of bowl games. However, I am sure they will care if players opt out partially through a season. As it stands the way to opt out mid season is the transfer portal... And that does come at the cost of a season and potential exposure. We will just have to wait and see where this all goes...

Doesn't mean they were bad football players... I have a friend who is an amazing point guard but height wise he is just under 6 foot and in high school and early college he was in the 5'4 range. Too short to be considered a player for anything but a rec team but he had a skill set better than anyone on a high school team. Just lacked the physical size needed. I get the feeling that many of these coaches are more in this vein than the previous staff that did have NFL talent on it. I look forward to seeing what they can do with our players.

I think Thompson for sure stays... Butterfield I give a 50-50 coin flip as to if he stays or goes. Ashford was just too far down the depth chart and I just don't see him climbing ahead of Thompson, Butterfield, and Nix. Best of luck to him and I sincerely hope he finds a home. As for Oregon's scholarship situation this is a better place for the coaches because we have been hovering very close to the max of 85 for some time now. There are positions that need depth added to them and as long as we don't lose another QB the QB room is in a decent spot still.

It is a difficult dance to achieve... Clemson has also been a model of coaching consistency and a program that had achieved the highest level of college football... They lost two pillars of their continuity this year losing both their long time OC and DC. I think there is a balance to be had... Find the right hires to get them into the program and grow them from within but also never shutdown outside hires. Hiring from without beings in new ideas and new ways of doing things. If Bellotti didn't hire Chip Kelly from outside of the program, the history of Oregon would be a lot less interesting. In the same vein promoting from within was the Oregon way for a long time to keep that continuity and build the program. Helfrich in hiring Pellum did nothing wrong, he did the Oregon thing, he hired from within. On that promotion he gets a bye because he did the Oregon thing, promote the long time internal guy to replace the longtime DC. Helfrich failed on his hire from outside the program in Hoke and that really did him in. With Cristobal there was probably too much movement in coaches and not enough continuity. Yes, Bama can pull that stuff off but then again working at Bama I'd Nick Saban's Coaching Rehabilitation Center... He gets the best and brightest in the industry because he can relaunch their coaching career after 3-4 years (in some cases less time). Cristobal didn't keep a coordinator longer than two seasons... And even if he had stayed that trend was continuing. Arroyo 2 years then onto Moorhead for 2 years then... Whoever next... I guess we will get a chance go see who Oregon's next OC would be in the coming weeks when he makes the hire at Miami. Same goes for DC... 1 year Leavitt ... 2 years Arroyo... 1 year DeRuyter (only because TDR isn't following to Miami). There is a happy medium where coaches and players get to develop their guys and build their system. I think Lanning will have a solid defense and can weather a bit of defensive coaching turnover because the defense will be his scheme. Cristobal never had his own scheme on either side of the ball... Only his physicality philosophy. Schemes were somewhat stunted in their growth by this philosophy at times. If the offense is good under Dillingham I think we have Dilly around for a good 4 years... Dilly is 31 right now so if he mirrors Lanning and gets a good HC job at 35 that's four years at Oregon... If not longer. There are other coaches with a bit less experience and notoriety so they might be around longer ... And there are some who might only want to settle in and be good position coaches rather than move up the ranks. So who knows how long some of these coaches will be around.

It was a good farewell message. I mean we all knew he was leaving and he certainly told Lanning he was leaving but Feld did a good job keeping the twitter drama out of it all.

Two years more of eligibility if he wants it. He took two years off for a mission and then he got some bonus years due to injury. He has more years of eligibility than Cam McCormick.

Not just deep balls but passes over the middle of the field as well. Oregon may not have beaten the Utes with a better QB but it would have gone from a one sided beatdown I to a shootout and given Oregon a fighting chance. In both games the Oregon defense was woefully depleted and the offense had lost all starting WRs. But our young receivers have spent much of the past four games running pretty open. Just need to get them the ball.

Good recruiting alone basically made the Cristobal era a success. We had some players develop well but I would say many more have yet to reach their full potential with some who were just so naturally talented they just needed a little help to develop... see Penei Sewell and Noah Sewell on that front. I'd argue that KT is a far cry away from what he is fully capable of, I feel a good NFL coach will push him to his next level, not unlike Herbert. You have to have good players to create the floor of the program... from there the coaching takes over and elevates that raw talent into something magnificent. We have the good players and the floor of the program and that floor is pretty darn high ... now is the time we develop and continue recruit to to raise that floor.

Absolutely the talent is there ... The biggest concern is depth at this point. I don't expect Oregon to lead the country in defense this next year ... I don't expect a top 5 defines in truth but I do annicipate a top 15 defense. The offense is another story... Lots of talent... No sure fire starter at QB and Dillingham has a good and interesting resume but this is really going to be his first chance of shaping his own offense and offensive vision. In previous stops he has had an offensive minded HC who directed and Dillingham executed. Also... I too can't wait for the spring game.