David Marsh

Super happy you brought this up Haywardduck. This didn't make the final cut of my article but official visits do have a major impact on a programs ability to land recruits and even just bringing some recruits to campus who might only be thinking of Oregon as another hat in the table can be a game changer. Of course the staff doesn't want Oregon to just be a fun place to visit and not land anyone but they also use some of their official visits on long shots. Get those kids on campus, even if it doesn't seem likely they will come to Oregon. KT was really one of those kids. He didn't take Oregon seriously until he visited, and it didn't hurt that it was for the Washington game. I will probably do a deeper dive into this at a later date as I find the Helfrich era so interesting... But we often forget the impact of the Chip Kelly and Willie Lyles fiasco. (By the way... No one named Willie has turned out to be a good thing for Oregon). One of the sanctions put on Oregon was a yearly reduction of official visits from 56 to 37. This had a huge impact on recruiting as Oregon couldn't afford to use official visits on long shot recruits. They needed to use those visits on recruits who were actually considering Oregon. Overall Helfrich did recruit effectively within the norm for Oregon recruiting standards of the time, especially considering the sanctions. More on those in a future article. A Defense of Helfrich's Recruiting Legacy FISHDUCK.COM Mark Helfrich is generally considered the worst recruiter in modern Oregon football history. He is a coach who... Recruiting is a mess of interconnected elements.

At this point the boosters providing the nil deal so lock the athlete into getting the money only if they stay and play at their school. Obviously schools can't lock students in with contracts but boosters with nil can.

Probably not that young ... We would probably see a lot of scholarships "recycled" through the transfer portal. This could be a very good thing because the biggest problem with the transfer portal right now is that there are a lot of student athletes entering it and very few find a new home. Transfer Portal Will Be a Disaster For Student-Athletes FISHDUCK.COM College football is more complicated than ever, especially when it comes to recruiting and the transfer portal...

I'm on hold with my bank right now... I would absolutely appreciate the Oregon fight song appearing at some point. Sadly this wait is more then 5 minutes. But at least you got me humming the Oregon fight song now.

To be blunt... No Oregon shouldn't at this time be paying top dollar for a QB recruit. Too many of them don't amount to anything and it would cost the program too much. I usually take the side of better to recruit and develop and dive into the transfer portal... But if you are going to have to pay in the millions for a quality QB might as well shop the transfer portal for a known quantity. Sure you might only get a year or two out of them but the likelihood of them being good is also higher. I say Oregon should keep taking a swing at the top recruits but don't break the bank for them. Find some hungry 3 stars that have gone under the radar... Especially with all these bidding wars right now. The other thing I would like to mention about Oregon's nil is that they have really seemed reluctant to get into bidding wars over recruits, at least this early in the cycle. Probably later in the cycle they'll start to bid but right now getting ina bidding war will only serve to increase the price.

Exactly... There are two schools of thought on uniforms. The traditional, which are typically just the blue bloods, or the more innovative... Oregon always tops the lists if the person making the list likes the innovation. Oregon usually makes the list but is low on the list if the person values tradition more. Maybe some might change their toon a little when Oregon wins a national championship. Also... Recruits love Oregon's uniforms so that matters more.

Baylor caused Williams plenty of problems lasr year and Oklahoma State. Also Iowa State only lost by one score. I'd say all three of those schools have the best defenses in the big-12 and Oklahoma went 1-2 against them. I know the pac-12 has it's problems... But I think Cal, Stanford and Utah and even Washington State could put up some pretty stingy resistance to USC. Probably UCLA as well. And those are only the schools USC plays this year. I think Oregon will have the best defense in the conference next year. And... I'll be honest... Washington will probably have a decent to good defense. Lake wasn't fired because of the defense. It was an offense that played like a defense and poor recruiting and locker room management. Oregon and Washington are not on USCs schedule this upcoming year. Also... I'd be careful if Arizona next year. That team had an aweful record but they played damn hard and never gave up. They are going to be scrappy next year and dangerous if you sleep on them. This isn't to say they will be good... Just better than everyone probably thinks.

Well I heard back in 2014 that the Oregon offensive line was banned from most of the Eugene area's all you can eat buffets. I'm sure that is still true.

I think Nix is a bit low on that list. I think the team around him can be the best he has ever had and if that is the case then he can be in the Heisman waiting room level. Also... This notion that the Heisman can be won by any standout player is a load of crap. The Heisman requires a good team surrounding that player to allow them to shine and more and more it requires a solid defense. I think Williams will have some offensive players around him to get him in the conversation but I don't think he'll have the defense to book him a ticket to New York. Nix has the skill players around him (or hopefully does we will have to wait and see) and he has a better chance at the defense to elevate his play to the upper tiers of play. We will just have to wait and find out. Let's just say that Oklahoma is in a better place roster wise than USC is and pretending they are equal is just not true.

This is another the rich get richer thing. The schools with the biggest recruiting budgets can bring in more visitors. Now... For Oregon this would probably be a benefit even though the coaches probably wouldn't see it that way with less time off. But a program like Oregon state would probably not see much of a benefit from unlimited official visits because they probably can't financially sustain a great deal of more official visits. The biggest losers in all of this... Low tier division one schools and FCS schools.

I don't play fantasy football... Generally speaking I know next to nothing about the NFL that isn't Duck related. But last year I gave those who did okay a bad time all the time for not having Justin Herbert as their QB when they could have. Sure ... They said they were fine wih their picks but they knew I was right.

But are they Huskies anymore after they transfered? I know at Oregon we have a saying of "once a Duck always a Duck" (which is starting to feel a bit more hallow with the transfer portal but that's another conversation) But I'm pretty sure a transferring Husky is just "was never a real Husky" or just a traitor. That fanbase disowns their own so quickly that I don't think they are Huskies anymore when they leave ... Or were ever Huskies to begin with according to their fanbase. So I don't think a Husky gets smarter... Because they were never a Husky to begin with. There were a ________ in Husky clothing.

I absolutely love how the Husky fanbase (at least via the quotes provided) still thinks Oregon is going to be as poorly coached as they were in the field last year. We have ditched the prevent offense for something that will score loads of points and we will have a brutal hard hitting defense. That in addition to all of our talent that is on that roster. Sorry Huskies... You may have upgraded from Jimmy Lake but the Ducks upgraded perhaps even more. I do think if Cristobal was still HC at Oregon then some of the Washington comments would sound more true... Instead of just outlandish and hilarious.

Well the problem with the game name at this point is that it hasn't been given an official replacement name. So I'll call it the civil war still because I don't have an alternative. In person I might say "the game formally known as the civil war" but that gets to be way too many words real fast. Calling it anything else doesn't have any context for other fans. You know ... The whole reason why words have meaning so we all know what we are talking about. So for now calling it the civil war is what it is... Just waiting for it to have a new name which at this rate may never happen it feels like. Though I'd be fine calling it "the yearly beaver butt kicking"

I like it... But I like it only once a season.

I remember seeing this video at some point. That second play covered would have been an easy scoop and score for Oregon.

If either Thompson or Butterfield we're outright beating Nix in partactice, as in really leaving little doubt who qb1 was, then I'd say start them. But if it is just close then I'd say Nix has the edge with expirence.

I have thought about this and I think that he might have gotten an additional season but on a very short leash. It would have shown that, yes, Oregon can recruit a quarterback and get results on the field. If Helfrich were to get another year then it would have come with the firing of Hoke and some oversight in the DC hiring process. Probably get Wilcox at that point or something like that. I'll have to think some more on this and maybe write an article on it later.

I only watched the Championship Game last year because Dan Lanning was coaching otherwise I wouldn't have had any interest. The SEC thinks of themselves as the minior league for the NFL and in many ways they are but so is the rest of College Football. If they broke off on their own they would still make money but probably not see much more growth than they are currently seeing, and might actually see a decline in their revenue. After all how relevant would Alabama if they were contained only in the SEC fish bowl?

Or Dyer was down... Or any of the other messed up calls in the 2010-11 championship game against Auburn. But those weren't Pac-12 refs.

Exactly! That is the key to winning big is depth... Well and luck. I don't think lsu would have won their last championship if Burrow was hurt. Bama keeps on winning because injuries rarely doom their seasons.

Another big one can be 2013 when Marcus Mariota had a partial mcl tear from a cheap shot when playing against UCLA. MM stays healthy Oregon goes undefeated that year and probably faces FSU in the national championship game.

Sorry to bring up that memory it always pains me as well. And yes our starting center was lost as well in the first half that made everything worse.

Dennis Dixon will always be the biggest "what if" for Oregon football and a missed opportunity. Though in truth I didn't follow Oregon football back then... Though oddly enough I do still remember where I was when he suffered his season ending injury. I find that Adams and the 2015 season really just sat at such a cross roads. For program history... That is another article for another time that has been brewing in my mind as that year is so fascinating.

I think the spring game shows off quite a bit of receiver skill being coached up. Players are getting open or just making plays in traffic. Spring games are always dubious but I think the receivers love him and I think we will see some impressive results.