David Marsh

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.

I would agree... Perhaps power runner isn't the right word. He did run between the tackles quite effectively though on the whole. Verdell runs with power but lacks the size considering how he seems to seek out contact. Barner ran with power but used his agility to bounce and slip tackles. Regardless.... Barner gave Mariota a very solid run game to help take some of the pressure off him during his freshman year starting.

I would say in past years he was a people mover... This year not so much. He was also beat out for a starting spot in the last two games. He lost too much weight and as a result he wasn't a force on the defensive line but instead a linemen easily handled. If he was a people mover our run defense wouldn't have been so dreadful this last year. Too many holes opened up and forced a young defense to make a lot more tackles in space for rushing plays than acceptable.

I think a significant piece of the puzzle here will be the run game. Whoever the quarterback ends up being, will need to be complimented with a solid run game. Verdell and Dye are both going to see the field but neither are big enough to batter down the opposing defensive line. Will Benson or Cardwell get significant snaps with their size to keep the defensive line in check? If the run game can counter constant defensive pressure then that will open up the passing game and give the quarterback more time to do their job. In terms of raw athleticism Thompson is the better athlete though he lacks experience, this has been said a million times. What the run game can provide might give him the nod over Brown because Thompson will have the TIME he will need to grow. Going back into some recent examples of how a strong run games allows for young quarterbacks to succeed we can look at Marcus Mariota becoming the starting quarterback as a redshirt freshman in 2012. Kenjon Barner was the starting runningback and Barner's power running ability allowed Mariota to play to his strengths, and we will just let the rest of Mariota's career speak for itself. Herbert did have the potential for a strong running game as a true freshman with Freeman being the starting back. However, Freeman had some minor injuries in 2016. Furthermore, that was the year of the redshirt Freshman offensive line. In 2021 the quarterback is going to have a pretty good offensive line and some experienced runningbacks. Though the question will be can the combination of the offensive line and those runningbacks make enough of a run game so that the quarterback can settle into the game without constant fear of having to run for their life. If we were to try and pinpoint Shough's collapse this last year it really came when he didn't settle into the passing game and he got too anxious and would not look to extend the passing play but become a full time runner. This really came at a point in the season where the offensive line struggled more and the run game was not consistently effective.

Herbert and Royce for a couple years... Not terribly successful years but the program was undergoing quite a revamping. 2016 saw Freeman dinged up and 2017 saw Herbert dinged up. And... The ability to run out he clock by handing it off is great as you said with converting the third downs... Though at that pace Oregon would also be looking at adding more points on the board by punching it into the end zone. Though I will give MC and co props for the offense being able to opporate at varying tempos. One of the big problems in the Kelly-Helfrich eras was that the team could opporate at break neck speed but really struggled when the tempo slowed. We haven't seen as much of that issue the past few years... Granted I would love to see Oregon play with a faster tempo sometimes. A strong offense offers a double edged sword... One edge scores the points (duh) while the other forces the opposite offense to match those points... And often that leads to mistakes and turnovers. I want to see that style of play take over at Oregon again. We were pretty close in 2019 to achieving this but the offense wasn't quite deadly enough.

It's goes with the offensive stuff... But killer instinct. MC is pretty happy burning clock as a strategy in the second half when up. Though what has made Oregon teams great in the past decade is the killer instinct of pushing the advantage and putting up major points and leaving no doubt who won the game and putting the opponents away. Games get a bit too close for comfort in the fourth quarter sometimes and it would be nice not just burning clock but burning down the score board with POINTS! Also if Oregon can put up enough points by the fourth quarter then the second or even third strinn guys can get a look on the field for some live reps.