David Marsh

Looking at his resume and even that of DeRuyter it is difficult to get a full grasp of their recruiting chops. What program you're with will determine who you can recruit for the most part. To put it simply... Boise State will never be in play for any five star kids. Whereas Alabama can be a viable landing spot for EVERY five-star out there. Arizona and Cal are both Pac-12 programs but neither contend for the top talent on any regular basis. Those programs need to show the ability to play at a higher level before they can recruit at a higher level. Oregon is in an odd position because Oregon bottomed out only four years ago but that was a minor blip on recruits radar. Where Cal, or Arizona haven't really been relevant for some time. Arizona has actually been relevant more recently as they won the Pac-12 South in 2014. I do look forward to seeing what these two can do recruiting wise with the resources and prestige at Oregon AND Mario Cristobal backing them up.

It does make me laugh that Oregon is kinda outright just raiding Cal's staff at this point if Oregon does hire Yates. We took all the coaches we wanted from WSU so on to Cal now!

The most concerning thing here I think is that both athletes are freshman. There is something in the current culture at WSU where this is permissable behavior (unless caught). These aren't Leach's players these are Rolovich's recruits.

Texas has been down for as long as USC at this point and it has been a major factor in keeping the pac-12 from a full scale recruiting disaster. Yes, the pac-12 has had lots of problems but a Texas able to recruit at the highest levels does threaten a greater talent drain from the pac-12. Sark is looking like a great hire for Texas but that may have some major repercussions for the PAC.

My money is on Butterfield winning the starting job right now. Even with a much reduced season and practice time, he has been working on the Moorhead system longer and he has a pretty high ceiling which can propell him past Brown. Butterfield had complete control over the No. 2 spot last spring and then Brown joined the team later and bumped Butterfield to No. 3. With Shough's departure Butterfield is back in the No. 2 spot behind Brown but with a full spring and fall I wouldn't be surprised if he jumps Brown at some point before the season starts. Thompson will redshirt and grow. Digesting the college game is pretty tough, especially at quarterback. Herbert was highly unusual that he saw the field as a freshman and even more unusual that he won the starting job halfway through the season. Moreover, Herbert won the starting job in 2016 because his redshirt was already burned and the Duck's season was already dead due to a poor defense so there was nothing to lose. Give Thompson the time he needs to develop and he will produce big time for Oregon.

Losing out on a big name in 2022 would hurt.... However, Oregon is in a great position at the moment where the need isn't as dire as other programs because Oregon has so many young quarterbacks. The quarterback battle this off season may very well determine the starter for the next three to four years for the program. So any recruit this year may end up transferring anyways. With that said losing a big name would hurt the recruiting stature of Oregon slightly. Though on the flip side as so many states have had no or a limited football season there are a lot of potential good to great quarterbacks out there who didn't get to play their junior years. So they may be unranked or a three star recruit but could bloom into a four or five star if given the opportunities their senior years. Certainly something to watch but at this point I'm not too worried.

For a brief period of time in the last five years when Oregon was down Washington had the most wind... But otherwise... You have to go back more than 45 years for Oregon to be over taken???

Much better shade of green for the pinned posts. The minty green just didn't have the Oregon feel to it.

Should be true yes ... But I don't eat nachos during Oregon v arizona anymore because Oregon always seemed to lose when I did that.

Remember a couple years ago when washington was the top ranked Pac-12 team and Oregon beat them in the tourney? And then made it to the elite 8 while washington was bounced out of the dance early. Ohhh that was fun.

I would like to point out how many Nebraska N's are on this map... And there isn't an N on Nebraska itself. There is also a Utah U on this map... But it isn't on Utah.

Put a "DC" after that Washington please... The only Washington Mariota should ever play for.

The fumble I'm honestly not sure if it was an actual fumble. It feels like the refs were very quick to call it a fumble and then there weren't any good camera angles to give any difinitive evidence to over turn... Though it does look (with fan bias) than he was down before the ball came out. I do say let them play it out and see who comes out on top. I do believe that at this point Oregon does need a passer first and a runner second. Oregon must stretch the field vertically and the run game will be just fine. I found so many of the problems from the offensive collapse this season came when the quarterback forced a run rather than stayed patient for a pass.

I doubt MC would have told Shough to look elsewhere but he does preach competition. And there are workouts going on right now and players have probably started meeting up on their own to practice among themselves. It sounded like Butterfield was coming along quite well last year working with the threes. Thompson is working out with the team and is probably practicing with some receivers... Both have stronger arms than Shough and if they have the accuracy thosr two will be in contention for some real playing time. Brown's ceiling isnt as high as Butterfield or Thompson's but he has expirence and if he can make a good show of it he can win it. Shough isn't in a great position to win the job and his confidence took a serious hit at the end of the season. Odds are Shough wasn't going to win the job.

I was sure we would see another quarterback transfer out sometime soon. My prediction was no one was going to transfer out of the program until after Spring at the earliest though leaving now would allow Shough to potentially transfer somewhere in time for spring practice. Best of luck to him, I don't envy any quarterback who has to follow one of the all time greats at Oregon, Justin Herbert.

Beat me to it... This is an earthquake within the program. Not inherently bad but it does set the stage for an even more competitive Quarterback competition in the Spring and Fall.

Rivals Top 5 Offensive Line classes of 2021 Oregon and Notre Dame are both tied at No. 5. Though Oregon is the clear cut best in the West.

Additional Notes... 2021 Position Breakdown and which school "won" recruiting this year. (Using Rivals) Offense Offensive Line: Oregon Quarterback: Oregon (USC recruited 2 quarterbacks but only one is on the field at any one time and Oregon has the best individual prospect) Wide Receivers: Oregon Tight Ends: Oregon (but USC is pretty close here) Runningbacks: Oregon (both have 4-star runningbacks but Oregon has also has the wildcard of Seven McGee) With the addition of Donte Williams to the USC staff the defensive side of the ball is a bit more of a mixed bag between the two schools. Defense Defensive Back: USC? (USC has 5 four-stars and Oregon has 4 four-stars, more of a numbers game here) Linebacker: USC? (USC has 2 four-stars and Oregon has 1 four-star and 2 three-stars though Oregon has two really underrated three stars... so tie maybe?) Defensive Line: USC (USC has Korey Foreman which wins this position... if Oregon lands JTT then this might be a tie) USC basically straight lost the recruiting war with Oregon on offense though on defense it looks pretty close with maybe a slight edge to USC. Most importantly the USC losing the recruting battle to Oregon at receiver and tight end expose the problem with USC's desire to go Air Raid. The wild card is where are those athletes placed in terms of being the final tie breaker in some of these recruiting positions battles and I will be honest I don't know those athletes well enough to project exactly where they will be placed. USC is going to be interesting to watch... but I do expect Oregon to be No. 1 in the conference and USC to be No. 2.

Mariota is a unique talent and he is not a plug and play player (unless your offense is the Kelly-Helfrich offense). In the Raiders-Chargers game this year the offense was molded to fit Mariota better and Mariota was able to keep some drives alive with his legs. Mariota played pretty good in that game on the whole and looked like a real force out there to deal with. He was, however, let down by the Raiders defense that was destroyed by Herbert (good on Herbert). If New England was willing to build their program around Mariota, and New England is looking at a bit of a rebuild, then it would be a good trade. If they are looking for a savior that they can just plug into the quarterback position and solve their problems... Mariota is not the player for that.

Both... he was pretty darn good up through the first half of the Cal game... then something happened and he fell to pieces in the second half of Cal and beyond. the Oregon State loss was not the fault of the offense but the defense. Yes, Shough threw a couple bad interceptions but the defense's inability to stop the run was what killed Oregon that game. Against Cal the defense did its job keeping Cal to 21 points but it was Shough and the offense's inability to score that resulted in defeat. On the whole Shough wasn't so bad... he was just REALLY bad down the stretch.

When this offense got rolling this last year there were really very few 3rd downs. A highly efficient and deadly offense when it had momentum.

I can see that happening. A more cohesive defense will allow him to really bet set free as he can focus more on his job... which is destroy the quarterback.

Experience is invaluable but it isn't the end-all-be-all. We saw in 2016 Prukop (a senior transfer) was beaten out by Herbert half way through the season, though there could probably be an argument made that Herbert should have just started game one. I think Shough practices well and I think his potential ceiling is significantly higher than Brown's. Something happened in the second half of the Cal game that made Shough regress dramatically. I am not saying that Shough was all conference before that game but Shough was putting up good numbers and Oregon's offense had scored over 30 Points-per-game up until the Cal game. Shough had some freshman mistakes and some turnovers that are cringe worthy but he still finished the season with one of the better quarterback ratings in the conference. Getting a future quarterback that invaluable experience is super important because it is very difficult to have a team live off transfer quarterbacks. Oklahoma has done pretty well but in 2020 they had to finally turn over the offense to a Freshman. LSU had an incredible one-hit-wonder in Burrow but last season they had to turn to their roster and they settled on a freshman with potential in the end (I think... in truth I kinda lost track of who was the quarterback at LSU after awhile). I'm not trying to defend the decisions made by the coaches, in the end I personally really hate it when a team runs two quarterbacks. It can be gimmicky and it can work in small amounts, as we saw in the Pac-12 Championship game as USC was completely unprepared for Brown. Though on the whole I find it creates more chaos than actual production. I do agree that I think Thompson or even Butterfield may take over this off season and become the starter next year. It is possible Shough gets himself back on track. Though I feel in College experience matters but it comes with a caveat as overall athletic potential and ability and beat experience. Brown will have a chance to win the starting job this year though is he athletic enough to beat some of these big time youngsters? and by the way... I wrote an article about this last theme last summer... Graduate Quarterbacks: Saviors or Usurpers give it a read if you have the chance!

... He will have yet another nondescript season at Washington.

True.. but at this point he is OLD ... for a professional football player. He doesn't even have youth on his side at this point.