David Marsh

That's the system I was I thinking of ... I think that's aweful in a game that is a shootout. If it is a defensive struggle then I guess that's fine but if the game is a no defense shootout then it really sucks.

Can you imagine the headache for the cfp if games ended in ties? Lol

What's the NFL format now? I haven't payed any attention to the NFL besides the occasional Herbert highlight.

I like it better than the NFL format... The NFL format punishes the team that loses the coin flip when it's a shootout. Granted my biggest complaint with college football overtime is that it eats into the next game big time. Which usually isn't a problem unless it's an Oregon game.

I'm fine with a 12 playoff with power 5 champions in ... It makes winning the championship matter even more. Right now it is just win and you're in but losing 2 is a season ending death sentence for cfp aspirations. But clawing back and winning a championship gives hope and opportunities. It gives a bid, it doesn't give anything else than that.

A second loss would be better ... But the other thing when it comes to losses is when you lose. A loss early in the season is more forgivable than a loss this late in the year.

Also... Arizona is coming alive against Utah. Need Utah to be ranked so we can beat them. But zona has a whole lot of life in them with their win last week.

Baylor is about to take out Oklahoma... This is huge for Oregon. It doesn't eliminate Oklahoma from the cfp running but it does secure Oregon's spot if they win out.

The big thing we all need to remember here is that Leach is NOT the coach at WSU. They do actually run the ball. Does that make them an easy team? No... But it makes them a less weird team. Leach and the air raid offense is designed to be a bit gimmicky. If you have lots of time to prep for it, it has been shut down... See most of Leach's bowl game performances. However, on a short prep schedule it is very difficult to prep for a team that throws it 80 times a game. This WSU team isn't playing that way. Again... Won't be easy but their scheme is something a bit easier for Oregon to deal with. My fear level is a 7 or 10 right now ... It would be a 10 if this was a Mike Leach team.

I give Flowe 2 years... He needs to stay on the field for effectively a whole season and put up some good numbers. He won't have much draft stock otherwise and the evals will come in and he would be very disappointed where he ends up. Most players, especially non-qbs, need two years of stats and show growth.

The article is really working hard to polish the turd that is Washington. The only problem is no matter how much you polish that turd... It's still a turd. Any coach who signs up at Washington has all the pressure of the USC job but without the resources... Then to make matter worse the pressure will be on from day one to beat Oregon because of the rivalry. USC doesn't have that pressure attached to it ... Especially if divisions stick around for another year of two where USC has a better chance to miss Oregon all together. None of the big names outside the PAC are going to move to Washington. Especially if they aren't considering USC with the USC geography and resources.

I have updated the article to reflect that. That was a mistake in my personal editing of the article.

I'm not so sure about that just yet. Both left for programs that are College Football Playoff programs. Oregon hasn't returned to the playoff yet. Which makes this year so important. If Oregon gets into the playoff then that will be a huge recruiting boom. Looking competitive or winning a semi-final game would be even better... so Oregon MUST avoid Georgia at this time. Top recruits want to go to the playoff... and right now no one in the Pac-12 is offering that.. until Cristobal breaks through.

A reminder of who WSU has played. USC - L Utah - L Cal - W OSU - W Stanford - W ASU - W Oregon State has been good at home but dubious when away this season. ASU can be good but hasn't looked that good this year on the whole. They have beaten up a few decent teams but are far from being a good team. I'm not saying I am sleeping on WSU... but there is a lot of hype for this WSU team when they have really drawn one of the easier Pac-12 schedules in the conference. And... WSU still has Arizona on the schedule.

Freeman wore 21 as well... it is a good number. So no pressure on Cardwell.

You mean the purple one? Nawwww.. they're just bad. Stanford can safely say they do not recruit against Oregon on a regular basis. Washington cannot say the same thing. They often go head-to-head with Oregon and just lose. Oregon and Stanford RARELY show up recruiting the same players. Just think of how many times you have seen Oregon and Stanford logos on a recruits Top # list?

Stanford is in a tougher situation than Cal I'd say. The fans are meh but occasionally have expectations. Then Stanford has stricter enrollment requirements and to make matters more difficult they aren't allowing any athletes to enroll into grad programs unless they apply and earn that spot independently of the program. Now I'm not saying that is a good or bad thing for Stanford academics but that does mean that once players graduate with their undergrad there is nothing to keep them around and they enter the transfer portal of the NFL isn't their move. Also means grad transfers are out of the question. Stanford also can't make much use from the transfer portal due to the academic side of things. In the end Stanford is definitely one of the biggest losers from the transfer portal... Can't use it and only lose players to it. Shaw probably has till his contract runs out or he moves on. No one is going to want that job that is better than him at this point. If you fire a coach in this day and age you better know what you want in a replacement.

The Conference can't hold on to the 5-stars in our own footprint for starters. Oregon has managed to grab a few and USC has managed to hold onto a few... but otherwise all of them are leaving and going east. If we only held onto our own 5-stars it would be a huge improvement. Makings Oregon making the playoff this year even more important. At least at that point 5-stars may stay in the conference and just head to Eugene instead. Better for the Ducks and the conference at that point.

Neither team is playing for the conference championship. So they can use that weekend to play their game reasonably. It would be a different story if one team was on the verge of making the conference championship game but needed an extra win to get them across the threshold.

2 perminant opponents would still be reasonable. Oregon state and Washington for Oregon. Scramble the rest that is still 6 rotating games a year.

The defense is making some nice improvements and stopping some of the problems that have plagued us this year. I think making Jeffrey Bassa the starting linebacker was brilliant for a couple reasons... 1. He is smart and has taken to the position well and can attack down hill and take on runningbacks. 2. He is normally a safety which means he understands coverage better than some of the other linebackers. We need that coverage. The underneath coverage against Washington was pretty decent this last week. There were a couple drops due to the weather but those short passes would normally be the easy ones to catch and burn the Ducks with underneath the coverage. Maybe the Ducks are figuring out the defense? Also... just wait to see this Oregon offensive line and run game take on the Washington State defense. I have a feeling WSU's defensive front seven won't be as equal a match as they have been against the other teams they have played to date. Especially when his O-line is really starting to click. Am I being too confident? Probably... but I need to project it for myself or else I'll worry all week.

Sometimes... but we have quite a few freak injuries that have sidelined players this year too. Often the worst injuries are non-contact injuries that don't inherently have anything to do with technique. KT's injury this year could be considered a contact injury of sorts he was knocked down but it was more the way he fell than the fact that he fell. His ankle wasn't targeted or hit, he just was knocked down and he fell funny. In some regards that was just a non-contact falling funny ankle injury. Flowe hurt his foot in the start of the season. I don't know how he did it but I would guess it was another non-contact injury as he didn't seem to get knocked down in a way that hurt his foot. I would say this is all just incredible bad luck this year and it is a miracle we have survived as long as we have the way we have. In part it is why I can forgive some of the less-than-dominant wins because we still have wins with this many injuries.

In large part due to the stupid expansion rules that dictated that California schools have to play each other every single year. Idealy we wouldn't even play 9 conference games and that change is coming but for now we can't worry too much about that for this year. We were stuck playing Utah or Arizona State this year for that last game and we drew Utah. As California schools must play each other every year that limits the cross over games they play. Oregon got UCLA this year and then as we are in the North we got Cal and Stanford but we can't get USC because we can only draw one of the two LA schools from the south in any given year. Where we could draw both Arizona schools or the Utah-Colorado combo. The design was to "be nice" to the conference and ensure no one had to get beaten up by the LA schools twice in one year, unless you are Cal and Stanford. But the reality is that USC is an easy game that we never could have drawn this year with UCLA on the schedule. Looking forward to the year there are no divisions in the Pac-12 ... George K has said it is coming and I am looking forward to it.. along with 8 conference games. Stop this cannibalization please!

I do like how Brown is getting himself out there as a leading blocker for the runningback in plays like this. He isn't going full blocker that could put him in harms way of getting hurt but he is making things a bit more difficult on the defense by just being in the way. It could also set up for some fun trickery in future games.

Hayward probably... Aliotti ... No... he is very happy on Pac-12 Network right now and even after the networks gets an eventual rework he is a keeper. He is a great personality there and knows what he is talking about. For Aliotti I am sure he would love to come back and work on the scheming side of things and maybe even the position coaching side of things but the one thing I am sure he does NOT want to do anymore is recruit. Recruiting is a ton of work and exhausting but is also the lifeblood of a program.