David Marsh

I would also like to reiterate that because Taggart and Cristobal left, it resulted in Oregon getting paid instead of having to pay to get rid of them. Isn't that reason enough to thank them? Also how many more years did anyone really want to watch a Cristobal offense?

That's fair... I know this will be my last article probably that talks directly about either of those coaches for a long time at the very least.

I truly believe there will be an actual competition this off season. Nix was brought in as a safety net... Lanning and Dillingham may have some tape to look at and study over time on the freshmen qbs for Oregon but that takes time. Nix is a known quantity for both coaches... Dillingham for having coached him and Lanning for having studied film on Nix to prep for Auburn. The risk for their first season at Oregon is too high for them to put full trust in players they have little knowledge on.

Though not a freshman but Crocker has started to look like he is putting things together a bit as well. I don't think he is going to be inline to start but we need reserves just as badly.

I'd say year two to be more generous... USC has a lot of good pieces but just as many bad ones still. The transfer portal will help alleviate some of these problems and do so quickly but even with the transfer portal and Williams, I think USC is two years away from being a contender for the CFP. For the Pac-12... decent chance of that though.

Oregon definitely played with a bit more tempo. The play was called and executed... A whole lot less time of players set... Clock winds down to about 10 seconds... New play call... Change play... Snap the ball inside 5 seconds.

I know Cardwell has a ways to go but I still really love his potential. In an ideal world I think he would have redshirted but this Oregon team somehow managed to win 10 games with half the roster injured at some point or another. I think with a passing game that can open up the run game we see better things out of Cardwell. And Dollars flashed some major potential last year... Sadly he sat out all this year with injuries.

AB had some nice games ... But I won't be sad to see him go either. I am looking forward to seeing the spring game and what the QB room shapes up to be in the process. The defense turned out to be the bigger problem last night ... But that's what happens when your team plays players you've never heard of... The defense has really struggled all year with consistency but that's a topic for another thread.

It will be an interesting hire... Certainly a few of the names released today as targets are super young and don't have much of a reputation to go with them. Not inherently a bad thing at all... But not flashy and not big names. However, what Lanning could be doing here is bringing in some young coaches who could very well become lifers at Oregon. Not every coach wants to be a coordinator or head coach.... So there is a chance a few of these guys being brought in just want to be position coaches at a good school for a long time.

I can see why ISM left the Ducks... But holy crap how much better this team would have been if he stayed?! Oregon lost all linebacking depth over the course of the season. ISM left basically out of fear of playing time... If he had stayed he would have had more playing time than he would have known what to do with. All hindsight though...

I feel the name of this thread should say... "ALWAYS say Dye!" If there is one thing any of the coaches should have learned this season is that you just need to feed Dye the ball.

Yeah... I had a moment tonight when I saw a few names on the backs of jersies and said, " Who is ________????" And if I don't know who blank is they are pretty deep on the depth chart. Not saying I know all the players but I'm a bit of a fanatic so I know a lot more than the casual fan.

The receivers were very impressive tonight. All of them are going to be absolutely killer next year. Just need that QB.

I do wonder what Moorhead would have done with Herbert. . Though right now I am so tired of a bend but don't break defense. I had higher hopes for DeRuyter but I feel pretty unimpressed by his defense this year. There were a lot of injuries on defense so I can let some things slide but the secondary gave up so much room all the time which made underneath passes all too easy. The agressiveness from the front seven also rarely got home to really put any pressure on the QB. KT would play pretty hard but most offenses worked just as hard to keep him multi teamed and out of the play. I just want to see both sides of the ball play better... Both sides are very talented but neither really stood out this year for the most part.

OU is starting to play defense the way that is guaranteed to beat Brown... Sell out to stop the run and challenge Brown to throw it... He will fail at passing and job is done.

Can Brown not throw the ball at receiver's feet? I know at this point being annoyed and and angry with Brown shouldn't be a surprise or a thing.... But it is still super frustrating to watch.

Lanning has his work cut out for him to fix these red zone penalties.

One observation so far is the offense is playing with more tempo than they have all year for the most part.

I'd have it ready.... Because I seriously doubt it is going to happen. But if it does happen have that beer ready to celebrate.

Didn't take too long for Brown to throw an interception. Yes... The ball could have been caught and bounced off the hands of the receiver but he was also like triple covered and the pass was behind. Looking forward to better QB passing next year.

I dislike it... But I mean what are you (or anyone in power more importantly) really going to do about it? UCLA can't play and the trophy has a date on it... So might as well reward the team that managed to be ready to actually play and give them the trophy.

Though the biggest question really comes down to... Oregon's run game v Oklahoma's run defense... With brown Oregon is one dimensional or at least close to it. Oregon has won pretty much every game this year by saying we are going to run the ball and then challenging anyone to stop us. Really only Utah had managed to do so and they sold out to stop the run and dared Brown to pass ... Turns out Brown couldn't pass. Yes... The Stanford game was a loss but that one still has some weird things that don't concern the run game formula.

I have come to question this season if the strength and conditioning at Oregon has been over the top under Feld. There have been a lot of major injuries which seem like more freak injuries that may or may not have their roots in over working in terms of strength and conditioning... But we have also been plagued with more mild injuries that could have certainly been influenced by over work. I am hoping this new guys can do something to keep the injury bug to a minimum.

In truth I felt the ducks were playing their best when MC needed to be kept off the field. If you're not a big xs and os HC you need to really bring the passion for the game. MC was at his best when he did that... Now... Look at the utah games... He was really emotionally out of it for both of those games. He was not bringing the fire for the team to feed off of.

Josh Pate on Late Kick Live did a whole thing about fixing bowl season and part of his proposal was to pay players. I personally don't agree with it all but I do think that it is at the very least worth a watch and a listen. More than anything else I think the best way to get plays to opt into bowl games isn't just money but really highlighting any NFL scouts at the game. This may not influence some decisions like KT's because everyone knows what he can do already... But there are a lot of players who are opting out now because they are in that limbo zone of will or won't they be drafted and the risk of injury may push them over into the not drafted... But maybe the risk is worth it if is is possible to elevate one's draft stock enough to get into the drafted category.