David Marsh

I'd say no to both. Cristobal does have a sense of loyalty. He refused to interview for the Miami job when it came open the first time while at Oregon. Yeah, he ran for the job the second time but it's his dream job. He has the program going the way he wants and I would be shocked if he ditched it for Bama. And as for Sark... At this time I think Texas might be more talented than Bama. He has the donors and all the NIL he could ever want. He's built his program so why start over? What makes the Bama job so good is that it has the resources but does does every other major program. What's the difference between Bama and Texas right now? Only the expectation to be as good as Nick Saban at Bama. I'm not sure Nick Saban could meet their standards anymore. The field has flattened out at the top.

Other thoughts... I think LSU is too high they get a lot of credit for beating Clemson but I think Clemson was overrated as it was as well. Miami and Notre Dame both have lots of talent and are certainly top 15 teams but not so sure on top 10. Granted... I don't think there are many true top 10 teams right now. We are still quite early in the whole process.

Personally, I don't think there is a clear No.1 just yet. There might not be a clear NO.1 for the entire season. Though I suppose Ohio State has the best win at the moment. We don't know how good or bad Ohio State and Texas are at this point but we do know they have talent. Oregon looked great and they played what looks like a good team in Montana State, however, they are not an FBS school though I am sure they could beat any of the FBS bottom feeders. We saw a MSU team that was pretty disciplined and well coached on the field but was greatly out classed in terms of talent. Oregon feels like a top 5 team but frankly it doesn't matter. Give all this enough time and it will work itself out.

I loved the effort out of Dakorian Moore but I think Malik Benson probably takes it. He was quiet and doesn't have the hype around him but he was darn effective. Defensively it's difficult to pick anyone as the whole unit was so effective that they just got the job done. Thanks Alex for also not taking the easy pick of Dante Moore (or any QB) because that is the easiest place to say player of the week.

Here's hoping we break our record 10 sacks last year by getting at least 11!

I'm sure it will be. It makes the defense have to prepare for that look and at the very least it would be a nice short yardage formation. Even though I know they ran it for the first play of the game. Of the team can handle it the more formations the better. I'm kinda expecting the offense to look more like 2023 than 2024 because Moore has been in the system for a full year at this point.

Based on last year and this year so far it is a short yardage formation. It's only designed to pick up 3ish yards at the most. It's less about clogging the running lanes and more about creating windows via timing. My article I wrote about it last year looked at it's use against UCLA. But when they used it in that game they put Cornelius and Connerly side by side on the right side of the formation. Both were NFL draft picks. The blocking scheme between those two was rather complex and then the additional blockers coming off the delay from the snap as they were the ones standing next to the QB and the RB being lined up directly behind. It has lots of potential but the timing and precision of the blocks has to be just right or it gets disrupted.

Watching the Huskies play Colorado State a bit last night felt like the commentary was over the top. Sounded like I was watching a top 10 match up. But then you realize that Colorado State (soon to be Pac-12 member) is playing and the fact that the Husky offensive line was getting wrecked makes the whole thing kinda laughable.

They can... Only if they WANT it more. Right?

Jackson had some injuries during camp I remember seeing somewhere. Probably held out for the game to ensure he heals up properly and is ready to go when conference play arrives.

I think this game was more about making sure the offense did a lot of the basics right. There are a lot of new and young faces and making sure that Donate Moore is doing what he's supposed to do and ensuring that Dakorian Moore is on the same page is a big deal moving forward. Last year the offense was out of sync badly at times during the first two games. The coaching staff has already said they tried to do too much in those opening games. Just because a play was done in practice a few times doesn't mean it's ready for game day. I fully expect to see this offense evolve in the coming weeks. It will look significantly different once Oregon State comes to town (game 4).

Right now I think Oregon destroys that Husky offensive line.

Scholarship rosters are getting increased and walk one are getting more or less eliminated. But even with that change I don't think it'd help Nebraska because this benefits the best recruiters on college football because they can take bigger classes. Nebraska will need to reinvent themselves if they really want to come back.

The outdoors stuff is attractive to some recruits but not all. Eugene has a small to.medium town vibe depending on time of year. Feels very different in the summer from the winter. Also feels very different from the UO part and the non-college parts. Portland is two hours away which might matter for some to have a large-ish city close. But the biggest thing Oregon has for recruits is it's a destination for football. You're going to get the best facilities and the cutting edge equipment, some of which the pros don't even have access to. Lanning is recruiting players who are coming to Oregon for the football first and foremost. Football is the destination and anything else is a bonus. Is Nebraska making themselves a football destination or just a legacy stop? That might be the difference maker.

I got my yellow Oregon shirt ready! My eldest daughter (3) was like "Dad your shirt... It's yellow" I usually wear a green Oregon shirt.

Most fans tend to criticize Stein in his lack of downfield passing and pretty much just call him a short route check down guy. The reality is that his bread and butter is the short routes where he gains the advantage in alignments and presnap reads. It's ruthlessly efficient. It's going to get yards and move the ball down the field and find the end zone. What more do you want from an offense? It scores lots of points on a regular basis. The chemistry didn't seem to be there last year for deep shots for whatever reason. The previous year the Nix to Franklin connection was gold. I'm feeling the 2025 team is going to be more explosive offensively.

I'm sure Boise is currently scrambling to see if they can schedule Oregon on their schedule as soon as possible right now. Whenever they play us in the early season they have a good season.

I think the coaching staff and the athletic department needs to be able to answer one question when it comes to recruiting.... "Why Nebraska?" and they can't answer that question by pointing to anything they've done but what they are currently doing. Their win last night over a Big 12 team was rather embarrassing as I think Cincinnati would like that deep shot that ended the game back. They didn't need to take that shot, they were gifted 10 yards and there was still plenty of time on the clock to take a couple more chunk plays. Yes, they were lacking timeouts but they were in their field goal kicker's range and they just needed to improve their odds. Nebraska should have won that game by double digits but they won by 3. You can't build a national title winning team without the best recruits and Nebraska isn't doing that. They aren't going to be bad, they'll be a dangerous B1G team, but until they can answer the "why Nebraska" question for recruits I think they'll continue to struggle.

Nebraska and Cincinnati are close 6-3Neb with less than 3 in the half. Looks like Nebraska is going to pull away soon. Just better line play.

Let's get this party started! Boise State doesn't look so hot this year. Getting boat raced by USF.

Last year Points Per Game were down. We averaged around 35 points per game where the previous year we were around 40. I believe we were also down in passing yards per game as well. And I'm not entirely sold on the notion that the B1G is a better defensive conference than the Pac-12 was. The top end is absolutely elite and better but the rest of the conference I feel is equal or below the Pac-12. Utah and Stanford fielded some pretty brutal defenses in the Pac-12. So much of the B1G is built on a reputation that was set by the top.

That and if Moore does well enough to make the leap to the draft after the season Novosad has that starting spot pretty much locked.

If Moore balls out 2024 would be the first year since 2012 where Oregon had a legit back up. Hoping we have a solid backup this season. It's been a long time since we've had a good 2nd QB.

Well I was going to shamelessly plug my own article but you beat me to it. But on the opposite side of the ball is going to be the offensive line and run game combo. To put it bluntly the run game wasn't good enough last year. It's numbers were down from 2023 and the offensive numbers on the whole were down from 2023. I want to see a more productive run game for starters. With that said ... I'll shamelessly plug a different article. https://fishduck.com/2025/01/rebuilding-oregons-offense-for-2025-running-back/

I don't have much sympathy for Fox and other corporate entities refusing to negotiate in good faith. Fox and ESPN did opt to kill the Pac-12 to suit their own interests. https://fishduck.com/2023/08/how-fox-and-espn-dismantled-the-pac-12/ There was definitely something suspicious about the way the Pac-12 died. And I completely concede that the conference was mismanaged as well but there was still some fishy stuff going on.