David Marsh

Probably are... But we can break this curse with a wine which I still feel is possible.

Well the supply and demand curves need to be split into two sets... Because for top end talent the demand has NEVER been higher. We are seeing QBs going for 5 mil or something bonkers right now. So the price for the best talent is just going up and is at the highest its ever been. Partly because it's been proven that teams that can acquire the best transfers can potentially be instant CFP candidates... Texas Tech here. Meanwhile... the other side of the talent pool is probably reaching the lowest cost its ever going to be because there is so much supply and the demand for it will be filled mostly by low tier teams that can only afford scholarships at best. Definately a sign of how College Football is diverging into the haves and the feeder schools.

And I'd venture to say most won't find a new home.

Though I think it would be fun to use Beottcher in that way I think keeping him as fresh as possible is going to be key for the defense.

And how much as USC, Washington and UCLA made for the conference combined? My guess... is no where near that number. I don't know the bowl game payouts but it isn't 14 million that's for sure.

It shouldn't be B1G refs the goal of non-conference affliated refs is to take the bias out of the the officiating. However, I would say in this scenario there is still potential bias because these are officiating crews who work in the conference and they probably have their preferences. The reality is that there should be centralized officiating and it should be organized all across the sport in that the NCAA (for lack of another entity) should manage the officiating and training and not the conferences. With that said.... I know every conference grades out their officiating crews to determine which are the best and worse. I'd imagine here that only a crew that had the highest scores get this job appointment for the playoff.

Hill has been asked to pass protection from what I remember watching. If he's not taking a hand off he's running a route. Whittington has done some pass protection but frankly he's awful at it. Harris has done some pass protection and maybe he's still with the team. Limar has done a decent job at pass protection early in the season before he was hurt but the report says he's out and probably due to him entering the portal... Which Harris has done as well so not sure what is going on there. I read on another site that Brayden Platt (inside linebacker) has been taking some reps at runningback. Probably as a linebacker he isn't afraid of contact and can pass block... And he's big so for some basic runs between the tackles he can probably get the job done.... I hope!

Only Davison is a major loss at this point. If Whittington runs like he did against Iowa and Minnesota I don't have as many concerns. But he needs to run mean.

This is the last Covid shirt year I believe... and apparently Indiana has a lot of the few players remaining in their 5th and 6th years. Michigan and Washington both benefited greatly from the Covid shirt in 2023 as they had rosters heavily laden with 5th and 6th years as well.

I like these uniforms.... and if this is the uniform redemption tour so be it!

Few other thoughts I will add. No one saw Oregon shutting out Texas Tech. NO ONE! Sure the offense struggled and maybe Texas Tech's offense was a bit over rated but was it shut out bad? That sounds insane but it happened. Alabama is a good team, but there are lots of good teams. A good team is a team that wins more than half their games. Alabama is not a great team and probably not worthy of a playoff spot. They were one-dimensional where they had poor offensive line play and no run game to speak of. Their defense was ok. With Simpson going down in the first half they became no-dimensional. I think every other team in the round of 8 could have beaten Alabama.

I would love to see the play start that way but you put Dierre Hill in motion going the other way after the snap. Anyone in charge of covering him gets wrapped up in the chaos of the shift and then then QB turns around and throws a lateral pass backwards to him. Loads of risk involved with that and could still backfire in if the reverse runner is covered but I hate limiting the play like that on a 4th down especially.

I believe the other thing at play here is that PI is a non reviewable call. That means it can't be reviewed if it happens to be overturned but it also means that if the play is reviewed it cannot be added. If there isn't a flag at the end of the play there won't be one. I don't think I'd like it if it was a reviewable call to be honest because it would slow down the game if they could call these after the play.

THIS! Some day we'll get the officiating benefit but not until we have won 5 titles.

I would also love to see more 13 personnel, 1 running back and 3 tight ends. Put the tight ends in line and motion them out and create mismatches and nightmares or keep them in line for some power running. We did some of this this season and it makes the other team struggle. I don't think Indiana has enough players who can cover them AND line up against the run. And that's the point.

I think in the second half against TT Lanning was adamant about the run game and burning clock and the offense slowed down a bit. In the same game I feel some of the play calling was at times too aggressive or not aggressive enough. Strange I know... But that 4th and goal play where everyone rolled out to the right was awful... We did something similar on 4th down against Washington in 2023 and it didn't work... It's aggressive but it also puts all the defenders in one half of the field and based on the flow the offense willingly gives up the other half of the field.... It failed both times by the way. The insistence on running the ball and not using the pass to open up the run a bit more was a bit frustrating. I also don't think Whittington is the right runningback if you need to get a defense to back off. I know one sack from Moore Whittington was in pass protection and then ran out of the backfield as a receiver... Probably designed that way but he didn't get his head around for even a potential pass before Moore was sacked. Davison is a brusier of a runner and a brutal blocker. I feel we'll need him on Friday.

Oregon was coming off a bye and I do think there was some lost focus in that week. Indiana was also coming off a bye but Cignetti is older and a more expirenced head coach and based on the Rose Bowl as well was able to keep his team more focused. Also his team is mostly composed of juniors and seniors which is a huge help for the focus side of things. In short Cignetti's team was far better prepared. Lanning I feel has done better with some bye weeks but on the whole I think that is one area he needs to improve upon. Last year the first bye came a week before playing game 4 against UCLA, who weren't good. Then the very last week before the final game against Washington was the next bye and we'll Washington wasn't all that good either. Then the next bye was a long one before the Rose Bowl and I don't need to get into that. Lanning does a fantastic job getting his team ready on a week to week basis and at times keep his team going when they are tired and beaten up.the Wisconsin game last season is a fantastic example, it was the last game before that bye before Washington, and you could tell that team was exhausted. But Lanning kept them going. So I'm hoping the fast turnaround before the next playoff game will have a far more focused Ducks team. Even the time between first and second round was almost 2 weeks which doesn't play into Lanning's hand as well.

Now... Can Oregon scheme it up to take advantage of it all? I think there is a good chance at it all. But we get to live in Indiana's shadow hopefully until late Friday night when we throw them down.

That and I think Saban retiring has been key as well. Saban didn't like how NIL was changing the game and left as it was his right to do so I'm not throwing shade on him for that. But Saban really inflated the SEC because Bama was just so darn good under him. The narrative was simple... We have Bama and Bama wins championships so any team that beats Bama is also super good. The way Bama and those 21 and 22 Georgia teams were able to build their rosters can't happen anymore to the same extent. They'll need to adapt and so far Smart is in a strange position because he has still been successful but he is 0-2 in the new playoff format while winning two conference titles.

Absolutely.... The narrative right now feels like a "why bother playing them, just roll over an accept defeat" I'm hoping Dan Lanning has something cooked up for this game.

Experience is the only thing that counters raw talent. Let's hope that our roster has enough experience to overcome their experience now.

I found this to be pretty interesting for those interested on this topic.

I really really want Oregon and Lanning to win the Peach Bowl and get a shot at the Natty. I'm fighting the pessimism right now.

This isn't entirely new... College football is the unofficial lower league for the NFL and the NFL treats it as such. QB development doesn't really happen in the NFL anymore and instead they are looking for ready made talent. I remember ten years ago an article complaining about how many spread QBs are in college and how that didn't mesh with what the league was looking for. The reality is that CFB and the NFL are two different metas in terms of how the game is played. I don't think any college teams anymore have the talent to fully execute an NFL style of offense and defense because the talent required isn't condensed on any one roster. The NFL has ALL the athletic freaks from CFB and as a result the worst NFL team has more freakish athletic talent than even that 2022 Georgia team that was freaky good. Dante Moore is not ready by NFL standards to be a starting QB unless they want to develop him but that's not realistic. The Ducks are also not an NFL roster. It's one of the reasons why trying to predict the best NFL talent from college is so difficult and how players who seem good but not great in college may rise to NFL super stars. Anyways... Rant over.

Indiana is a unicorn as they have defied all established logic. They were given a gift in a game between either Alabama or Oklahoma as both are awful in different ways and they pulled Bama. I'm not sure if Simpson in the second half would have made a difference for the Bama offense because of how bad that offensive line is and their lack of run game but it didnt hurt to make sure it was a lopsided score. Oregon's offensive line needs to deflect that pass rush and establish a run game at around 4-5 yards per carry to win. Oddly enough in the previous game Davison was averaging about 5 yards per carry. I think in the second half against TT Lanning wanted to get the run game going more and focused more on it. Abandoning the run against Indiana was one of the things that lost that game. There were others but feeding Davison will be key.