David Marsh

Oregon, Oregon, Oregon, Eugene .... where's the debate in that one? Though in all honesty... how can Oregon lose the best uniforms and best helmets... that is objectively impossible.

Need some real leg power for kick offs. Lewis just doesn't have the leg strength to get that ball deep enough. Top tier teams don't allow for kick returns as they put that ball out the back of the end zone. Kattleman has done a fine job taking over place kicking and has some pretty good accuracy and range on him. Snee has been fine at punts... mostly because I can't think of any negatives with any regularity from Snee. Though kick offs have been dreadful. Good to see Cristobal and co addressing the kicking game.

If that happens... that will send a huge shockwave through the College football world. Oregon landing KT was a small rumbling but Oregon landing top tier talent from time to time is bound to happen. Look no farther than Oregon landing DAT before KT. Oregon landing Flowe was a pretty big deal as well. But if Oregon lands JTT that is Oregon landing some of the best five-star recruits for three years in a row.

The Don Pellum example is an interesting one... It didn't work out well in the end for Oregon but the hire itself wasn't really a problem. The Pellum hire was a promotion from within which really was the Oregon way at the time... Promoting from within was what Oregon did and it's long tenured staff had a lot to show for the success of that method. The Pellum hire didn't work out but the idea was to maintain the Alioti style defense that was working for Oregon. It is also worth mentioning that the 2014 Pellum defense did get Oregon to the national championship game with only one loss. It was a bend but don't break system that was really good at taking the ball away but it had some major flaws. The wheels came off in 2015 and as much as anything else it coincided with a depleted roster on defense that only got worse the following year. At that point the coaching really wasn't developing the limited talent they had. Promoting from within may or may not work for washington but the dependence of promoting from within is signalling some potentially deep problems. And as a Duck I'm happy to watch the Huskies struggle.

No way to avoid that... though the new redshirt rule really does help as new players can earn their way on the field their freshman years. Then the higher quality players the more of them might opt to leave after three years. Which does open up space for youth to get more playing time. In terms of runningbacks there is an interesting problem... Verdell has the most experience, and has at times shown some true skill. However, he doesn't really have the size to be an NFL runningback, nor does he have the durability. This has put a bit of a bottleneck on the runningback position, though the competition will still be intense.

Our new DC has made his first media appearance. Worth a watch here!

Promoting from within isn't inherently a problem. It allows for a team to preserve the scheme and relationships and development of players to fit that scheme. It can be a very good thing. However, what I find interesting is that with the promotion of one coach to DC they moved an analyst into a position coach role. Again, not inherently a problem... BUT Washington is inviting stagnation into the program. New blood brings new ideas and new ways of doing things. Filling all these openings from within means that only a defensive analysis position would bring an outside hire.. and if it doesn't someone lower down the ranks becomes an outside hire. Overall... Washington isn't gaining anything new in terms of defensive scheme and innovations and isn't gaining anything new on the recruiting front. All good things for Oregon. As for Oregon... I do expect Cristobal to hire a safeties coach who is an ace recruiter to balance out the coaching staff as he brought in a strong X's and O's guy as DC.

So UW has hired a new DC and Jimmy Lake has opted for an internal hire. This would also appear to come with some significant moving of personnel around. (Read right here) This actually looks great for Oregon as I seriously doubt this staff reshuffle is going to be an upgrade for Washington. Hiring from within can be a good thing... but this looks more like a lack of confidence on Lake's part and an unwillingness to let anyone touch his defense. We will see if that holds true next year but this on the whole smells like a downgrade for Washington... and I LOVE THIS HIRE!

The linebackers really lacked leadership last season. Isaac Slade-Matautia and Sewell led the team in the tackles so but ISM didn't really seem to lead the linebackers like Dye. Sewell is a freshman and grew a ton over the season but it is usually a bad sign if you need to rely on a freshman as a leader of the defense. Please note.. Troy Dye was the leader of the defense in 2016 and we all know how that year turned out, even though it was some incredible growth for Dye and made him one of the Oregon career greats. Sewell was often in the backfield this last season but he missed soooo many tackles. He has the speed and the power to be a huge play stopper he just needs to square his shoulders better and line up his tackle instead of landing a glancing blow. Would Henry To'o To'o save the Oregon defense? Not sure our defense is in that bad of shape to be honest, it wasn't a pretty season defensively but that was mostly due to how youth heavy the roster was. A year of growth and expirence goes a long way. He would however, be a MAJOR asset for the team and one that Oregon would be thankful to land.

Sometimes I wonder about that... sometimes I think he was just thinking on another level than the defenders by doing the completely unexpected and making it work. No matter what he was certainly one of the most fun players to watch. VA: "I'm going to throw this ball into the back of the end zone... someone will catch it" Defenders: "He's running backwards and in circles... get him!" Ball is thrown to the back of the end zone is caught by potentially TWO defenders. VA: "That worked out well" Defenders: "What the **** just happened? How?"

Top 5 is nice but as it has been pointed out repeatedly ... there is much different between 3-7 this year. The top 2 of Bama and Ohio State are significantly ahead but what is really important to a program is being top 10. Top 10 indicates there is enough top tier talent to compete at the highest levels. What you do with that talent is the next question.

Well... yes and no... remember that the freshman are those who have a full year of experience... so really because of 2020 it is a bit more deceptive. KT is a junior (in school anyways) but is considered a sophomore because of 2020's wacky season and 2020 not counting towards eligibility. So Oregon may be considered the youngest team in the country again (not sure just conjecture at the moment) but there are a LOT of players with some real experience now.

Modern Pac-12 refs... absolutely possible!

Remember the Oregon v ASU triple overtime extravaganza? Adams did make every throw on the field... some of which were blind where he just threw it up and an Oregon receiver came down with it. 2015, the lone season with Adams is one of those seasons where if he wasn't injured it could have been something special. The defense was bad but Adams made that offense terrifying.

A run game and a real offensive line. USC may be bringing in a great class in 2021 (though one that has a general lack of quality offensive lineman as Oregon got them all) they still have their dud of a 2020 recruiting class that is going to be on their roster for years to come. USC does have a good quarterback and some quality receivers and potentially a good secondary on defense. But USC just is really going to struggle if they are only airborne and can't protect Slovis.

Mariota on a zone read with Freeman. Mariota keeps the ball and makes a run for it... If things look bad he flips the ball out to Freeman and ... Wait... We've basically seen this before... In 2014 against Michigan State. So yeah do that... It will work just fine...

Absolutely... The ACC is Clemson. Everyone else is fighting for scraps. FSU had a few good teams early in the decade with a BCD championship in 2013 but Oregon actually played a significant role in FSUs downfall in the 2014 Rose Bowl route. The Big-12 is Oklahoma for the most part ... Maybe Sark taking over at Texas can get that program going again but hard to say as Texas has already consumed the last two coaches tray were considered rising stars in their own right. Honestly... I'm in the camp that if the pac-12 can start to fix their money problems then the PAC will be back. The PAC is still leagues ahead of any group of five conference in terms of money.

A power five team... Even a bad one... Is usually better than a decent to good fcs team. So having to play a 9 conference game season does make it just a bit more difficult to run the table. The PAC is also pretty odd in how flat it is... More so than any other conference any team can beat anyone else on any given week. Even the basement dwellers have teeth to steal a few games. It is imperative that Cristobal prepares his team every week to win and he cannot afford to drop games to unranked opponents... Or ranked opponents for that matter. There is a reason why pac-12 after dark is so much fun... Because the conference itself is wild. If you ignore the playoff stuff and just think which conference is the most fun to watch... It's the PAC. That said... The conference does need to prove themselves and win more out of conference games. 2021 is going to be a big show up and show out year for the PAC.

It's worth mentioning that though players like P Sewell, KT, N Sewell, and Flowe have all come to Oregon the ONE thing currently missing in Cristobal's pitch to the top tier linemen is proving to them they get to go to the nfl at a high draft pick. The offensive linemen taken in the draft last year were all pretty much recruited by Helfrich and taggart .... And none have been taken terribly early in the draft. Sewell being drafted inside the top ten would be HUGE for Oregon recruiting. If Sewell is taken in the top three even better.

I would like to say that for the record I think David Sweeney is a huge jerk and I think Cristobal is a far more humble and kind human being. They both share some interesting parallels in their careers.

Cristobal has been selling competition at Oregon as well. One of the things that Oregon is able to sell recruits is to give them the opportunity to be part of something special to bring tre first national championship home for Oregon. Most of Saban's pitch was completely expected... Basically come to Bama and get a chance to play for a national championship and a better chance to play at the next level. That is a really really tough pitch to beat.

Well... Washington in 2019 had a player lying face down in their end zone for a kick return... Does that count? They were penalized for it too.

The decline of the pac-12 really started after 2016... So it is a really recent affair on the whole. Basically it lines up with Washington's rise to power and Oregon and Stanford's fall from power. I'm tempted to look more into this with an article at some point this off season.

The more I hear about DeRuyter the more I think he might need some training from Cristobal in terms of becoming an ace recruiter but he has the personality for it. He also has the exact personally that fits with the culture that Cristobal is promoting.

People get wrapped up by the stars... More stars and more recruits with lots of stars. It's winning the the recruitment battle. More stars mean better recruits and that's what most fans just get stuck reading. I completely get there is a ton of nuance in evaluation... I do wish there were variations in the rankings but stuck with an arbitrary star system for now. I follow recruiting but I'm not a die hard... I could name some of the headliners but I couldn't name the entire class. I really appreciate your analysis Chico because it.is fun and readable. I usually skip over the scout recruit analysis because they all sound the same.