David Marsh

I know I'm probably in the minority here but I usually find Walton quite entertaining... Not from an informational point of view but from the reactions whoever his commentator is during the game. Usually the other commentator just can't deal with it and either tried to redirect him and make him more focused or just gives up. However, this is usually only amusing while the Ducks are winning... Otherwise he is super annoying.

The last scary receiver Oregon had really was Dillon Mitchel and that was because he was paired with Herbert. 2019 there wasn't much of a fear factor receiver wise... I think we had a couple guys who could scare a defense last year but Oregon really lacked the quarterback who could get the ball down the distance. Though there were some creative plays with Dye coming out of the backfield that did create some interesting match-ups. Here's hoping Oregon has the quarterback who can really stretch the field in 2021.

As to the run game component... We haven't had a big time runningback in the mold.of a Freeman, Barner, or James for the past three years. Verdell just doesn't have the same ability. Verdell always seems to look for contact rather than make a cut away from contact. He doesn't really make any cuts at all... He goes off like a bullet and rams into anything in his way. Which would work great if he was a couple inches taller and about 20 pounds heavier... That way he'd demolish whoever he ran into... But instead it just becomes a cloud of dust and a few yards. Granted... Verdell is very good at falling forward so if he typically can pick up a couple yards... But it isn't pretty. Additionally... The pistol... Need I say more on that?

I'll be honest I'm not sold on USC... Though they have one of the most favorable schedules in the pac-12 south. They get Oregon State and Washington State... Both teams can be a handful and potentially dangerous. However, neither have the caliber of talent that Oregon or Washington have and don't pose the same risk. I think Utah or ASU may have the better teams as they attack using more balanced attacks. USC and their air raid will make them tough but beatable with agressive defenses. Last year it took a miracle last minute for USC to beat ASU and then they played Utah who were sidelined for 3 weeks and put them away fairly easily. We will just have to wait and find out.

I think Cristobal is looking for potentially a few project players as well that have all the physical assets needed but need to be refined. Oregon is in a great place right now with offensive linemen. The 2020 Offensive line really needs to be more cohesive in 2021 but that will come with time, the one thing they were woefully short of last year, especially with FIVE new starters. With that said... there will be a few spots opening up in the 2022 season as there will be some who graduate and move on. Though there will be plenty of options for replacements between those who are in the second string right now and 2021 incoming Freshman who will be red-shirted this season but potentially ready to go in 2022. This will really allow Oregon to take a physical monster who needs some work like Percy Lewis and develop him as a player. He may not see the field till his 2rd year (Red-shirt Sophomore?) but Oregon can afford to wait and develop him because of our offensive line depth. THIS is a fantastic sign. We all love seeing Freshman get right on the field in year one, especially if they are four and five-stars, and over the past couple of years Oregon has played a lot of Freshman. Though in reality we want to see a lot of these players red-shirt and develop for a year or so before they get on the field. A whole lot of development can happen in a red shirt year. So we might not see Lewis take the field for a year or two... but when he does with his size and with Oregon's offensive line training... he will be trouble for a lot of teams.

I think it is possible... and it is March so I feel I can sunshine pump a little bit. At this moment there are so many unknowns. I think the defense is going to be good to potentially great with DeRuyter's scheme. I also think the offense will have enough time to actually learn the scheme and gel as a unit, which never seemed to fully happen at any point last year. The offense had individuals step up from game-to-game but never really a whole team. Though the question as to whether or not a Pac-12 one-loss team will get into the playoff... I think it really comes down to style points and what the Big-12 looks like. Barring major upsets we can reasonably pencil in Clemson, the SEC Champion (probably Alabama), and Ohio State. The fourth spot is up for grabs between the Big-12 Champion, the Pac-12 Champion and Notre Dame. If Oregon loses to Ohio State but its not a horrific loss and Oregon wins the conference with some style... then I think Oregon can grab a playoff spot over a 1-loss Big-12 team. For now... I think I will just live in my optimistic bubble and wait for spring ball to start.

RatherBe thanks for the correction and information. I either read something somewhere that was incorrect or misinterpreted it. Thanks for the in-depth information.

You can't make Washington happy no matter what their schedule is... they could play 12 home games and have Oregon after a double bye week and they'd still complain about something. There seems something completely wrong with Washington's fan-base and their delusion is unmatched. I think a lot of that is also built around the journalists that cover them too. All their stuff is an echo chamber that perpetually pumps sunshine to the point that they don't actually see the sun! They don't know their program and I'll be honest Washington has a TON of advantages they could leverage to their advantage, they are just being underutilized. When it comes to recruiting it is a pretty common response when Washington loses out on a recruit that their fan-base decries "We didn't want that guy anyways" and sometimes they start bashing recruits that didn't commit to their school. I just wonder if that ever puts off perspective recruits. I'm not saying Oregon's fan base is perfect (but we know we are)... and there are some forums out there that do a whole lot of sunshine pumping but the fan-base doesn't go insane with delusion the same way that the Washington fans do. I guess as an Oregon fan I do get a bit of joy out of watching the Washington fan base foam at the mouth at really non-issues.

Monster is an understatement... he IS an offensive line onto himself.

Absolutely... I do feel that the defense was in a much better form in the last two and a half games of last season. I feel confident that DeRuyter is going to have our defensive unit functioning at a high level early on in the season. I also feel we could have our offense functioning at a higher level at the start of the season as Moorhead is going to have a FULL off-season to install his offense. He will need to ensure his starting quarterback is able to run the entire offensive playbook effectively. whether that is Brown, Butterfield, Thompson or Ashford.

I just want Mariota to play and show off his skills! Which also means I want him to play for a team that wont let him get sacked multiple times a game.

I think they are still in discussions about that... neutral site would be best for BOTH schools financially at this point. Right now Oregon gets paid by Ohio State to come to OSU but as OSU does not come to Oregon they will not get paid by Oregon. A neutral site game will re balance the payments in some way.

Looking at the entire schedule... Oregon is the better team in all those match-ups independently (excluding Ohio State). Now the coaching staff needs to ensure the team is up to the task of playing every single week. I think the team will look much improved this year with a full Fourth Quarter conditioning program AND Spring ball. There are two weaknesses that need to be addressed the way I see it... there are more that need improvement but these two are critical. 1. Need a starting quarterback. 2. Need a run game that churns up yards. This may need a young runningback displacing Verdell from the rotation and Dye moving into a swiss army knife role where he is deployed all over the field... like he kind of was through out last season.

Quick Pick Predictions... OREGON FOOTBALL 2021 SCHEDULE Sept. 4: vs. Fresno State W Sept. 11: at Ohio State L - I really want to give Oregon the W here and I do think Oregon has a good chance... just can't at this time. Sept. 18: vs. Stony Brook W Sept. 25: vs. Arizona W Oct. 2: at Stanford W Oct. 9: BYE Oct. 15 (Fri.): vs. California W - REVENGE! Oct. 23: at UCLA W - Honestly... I think Oregon could lose this one... but I want to live with some Green colored glasses right now and see a playoff berth! Oct. 30: vs. Colorado W Nov. 6: at Washington W - I feel really good about this one at the moment... the talent gap is widening.. the coaching gap is widening ... and players are going to want it! Nov. 13: vs. Washington State W Nov. 20: at Utah W - Utah has some nice pieces but I think Oregon will be the more veteran and better team. Nov. 27: vs. Oregon State W - REVENGE! Pac-12 Championship Game: Oregon v USC - Oregon Wins! Oregon wins its 3rd consecutive Pac-12 Championship and gets a playoff berth!

Some of the inspiration for this article came from the divergent hiring plans of Oregon and Washington. Right now Oregon is making some if the biggest moves and splashiest hires. Over the past two years they have brought in names with significant weight: Moorhead, McClendon, DeRuyter, and Yates all have coached at positions higher than the jobs they have at Oregon. We also expect them to have a significant impact on the program and bring something to Oregon that Oregon didn't previously have. Meanwhile our hated neighbor to the North, Washington lost their venerated defensive coordinator. Their response was to promote from within, in this case it was someone who had some expirence with the defensive coordinator job. Then to fill their open position coaching job they hired an analyst. Two jobs two internal hires, no new blood and ideas. Obviously at some point every program is going to have to make a hire from without. Washington hired a new analyst. I do think Cristobal wants and values new ideas flowing into the program. His reluctance to promote from within is a sign that he wants expirence filling the voids. Though there is also a sense that Cristobal believes that coaches should move on and expirence and learn from other programs. Staying in one place will limit their growth as coaches. Though keeping coaches around longer than two years is a must going forward. The turnover at Oregon has been a bit too much. Players need the consistency more than anything else.

I would say some long term assistant coaches will be Mirabal and Salave'a at this time. Both received three year contract extensions and seem happy in their roles. I would also say that DeRuyter has the possibility of hanging around for quite a while. He's been a head coach but that was a while ago now and he hasn't gone out to pursue another head coaching job. He could certainly get a head coaching job at a group of five school if he wanted it, though he does seem content at Defensive Coordinator. I think I read somewhere that his wife has connections to Eugene as well which could play a role at keeping him at Oregon for a longer time. I doubt Moorhead will be at Oregon longer than another couple of years.. unless his family really likes Eugene in which case anything is possible. To date his family has only experienced Eugene during a pandemic. Though Moorhead does strike me as someone who would like another shot as a head coach at some point in the near future. Cristobal has done some internal title promotions over the past few years. Most recently Mirabal has the title of assistant head coach (a title that Salave'a has had in the past) and Wilson just received the title of co-defensive coordinator as well (this was a title that Heyward held for a season or two in the past).

Alabama tends to go through coaches pretty regularly and that hasn't slowed them down. Though they do have their ups and downs and the past few years with Sark at OC has been an offensive explosion for them that has produced more than when Kiffin was the OC, and Kiffin did a pretty good job at Alabama. Clemson is a bit odd as they have really held onto their coaching staff with relatively little turnover. The Oregon of old focused almost exclusively on internal hires and that really did help build Oregon into a national brand. I would say Helfrich failed in his defensive hires more than his offensive hires. Promoting from within was the Oregon way so I really can't fault Helfrich for promoting Frost, Lubick and Pellum which all came with mixed results. It was the external hires that were even worse for Helfrich than the Pellum internal promotion.

Something good to listen to for the dry period before spring practices start up. Thanks Charles.

Jonathan Smith should be higher on that list. Simply put he is doing a lot with the little he has to work with and every years seems to be an improvement. It will take time to get Oregon State back to where it was before Riley left but with Smith in charge they will get there. Herm Edwards should be a bit lower as there is still a whole lot of hype around him. ASU recruiting has basically matched where it was when Graham was head coach and they are winning about as much as well. Jimmy Lake is too high also... Should be below Smith. Washington may have "won the North" but they didn't play the deciding game for the north against Oregon. Also Washington avoided any away games last year. Traveling is one of the hardest things to do in college football and Lake simply hasn't done it yet. Cristobal is currently the coach to beat and let's hope it stays that way.

And I do solidly believe that in the 4th quarter if you're up you should burn that clock... Though maybe don't worry so much about burning the clock at the start of the 3rd quarter. I guess that is really where I have a problem is that in the 3rd quarter we really start to see the the offense slow down and be less effective on the whole.

Just two members of the Saban Coaching Rehabilitation Club... of which our own Mario Cristobal is a proud member of as well.

Some were literal toss ups!

Yes... It certainly feels that way though in 2021 if qb is sorted out it also looks like the rest of the piecesay finally be in place.... I would say a power runningback as the other piece needed though hopefully some youngsters have something to say about that. Also... I laughed so hard when I saw USC on that list needing a runningback. Might help if they actually use the ones they have correctly. Sorry... I seem to have an irrational desire to dump on the Trojans right now.

Best of luck to him, I do with him the best.

This year the scheme was the same as last year. Big difference for Scott was that he dropped at least 20 pounds over the summer. Scott had lost weight over his years at Oregon but in 2019 he was at a fantastic playing weight. He had enough bulk to plug holes and be a force, while not so heavy that he had some good quickness off the line. This year it really felt like he had more quickness but a lot less bulk and was just countered. I think he'll stick in the NFL if he goes to a team that helps him gain some weight and deploys him properly.