David Marsh

The whole system of Oregon athletics is working great right now. I'd say basketball might need some coaching changes in the near-ish future if things don't improve for men's and women's basketball. But hard to argue with results when Oregon led the B1G in conference championships in year one by a wide margin.

Much needed after the string of losses.

If you're desperate for some football still and on the west coast. You by default meet one of those criteria Charles!

The new Pac is the best of the old mountain West which absolutely means they will all consume each other regularly. Probably fun for viewers (if you actually want to watch those teams) but not great for their playoff prospects for sure.

It sounded like the NIL offer was greater from TAMU than Oregon on this one. He apparently is a life long Ducks fan but Oregon wasn't going to match the offer from what I've read. But this might be one we wait and see on come December.

I think it might be a short term strategy as well ... But for an additional reason. I think it might be a better use of resources until NIL deals for prep recruits calm down. This cycle some of the "sleeping giants" have woken up and discovered they do have money and can buy recruits and as a result we are seeing some outrageous prices. And the recruits themselves are all big shots in their relatively small fish ponds and many think they are worth more than they actually are. All this makes for a highly unstable recruiting environment at the high school level. Whereas, the portal is relatively more stable ... In an odd way because there are some rules and regulations around the portal and the portal window is so short. The bidding wars are short, intense and resolved in about a month. Whereas the high school recruits get YEARS to haggle. But I also agree that a portal heavy recruitment strategy has so far failed which is why Oregon has always done a hybrid but this year it feels like there is a greater need to rely on the portal than years past.

What does that even mean? Boise State had some shocking major bowl wins but they were never a contender for a national championship and will probably never be.

Only to those who don't understand how to maintain a stable roster. Oregon rarely loses any players to the portal they want. The NIL money is going to the roster and to the players who stay and produce. Much of the Oregon model seems to be come to Oregon and you'll get a fair deal. You'll develop and if you're good enough you'll get paid more and be ready for the NFL. Not a great pitch for those who want to be paid NOW. Which is what USC and others are using. However, USC did lose by far their best offensive lineman to the portal (to Oregon). So they obviously aren't doing a good job maintaining their roster. They lost other prices of their production as well. One thing has remained true even in the portal and NIL era. The rosters with the oldest players who have developed in the program the longest are still the ones winning the national titles. Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia, Georgia are the last four... All had senior heavy rosters who were in the program for a long time. Sure there were some important transfers but they supplemented the team and were often veterans themselves. USC can bring in all the No. 1 classes they want but they won't win anything if they can't develop and hold onto them.

Oregon State can be a feeder program for the Ducks. I'm cool with that. I'm not saying Stars are everything, but Oregon is really recruiting at the absolute top end of things right now. Wheaton the younger just isn't on that list. And frankly I'm not sure Wheaton the elder would have made the cut for this staff. But without Wheaton the elder we wouldn't have this staff today.

Yes... He who shall not be named does use the portal in a way that differs greatly from Oregon. The portal in bulk approach that Kiffin at Ole Miss kinda uses as well. I would say the portal bulk approach is there because they are searching for overlooked diamonds in the portal. There are some absolutely... Benson was fantastic at FSU but didn't emerge at Oregon. But Lanning has something that few teams do... The ability to pick the top talent from the portal and land them consistently. Often taking the BEST players from other teams and treating them like feeder schools. We don't know how all this NIL stuff is going to playout in the near future as the House Settlement is still proceeding. But what's clear is that Oregon isn't going to overspend on high school recruits when they can dominate the portal.

Couple other things of note... I wrote this article a couple weeks ago so things have changed slightly or just proven my point the more. Brandon Arrington jr (a highly sought after CB in the 2026 cycle) is considered a TAMU lean because their offer on the table is so much larger than what Oregon is willing to pay. Some school's NIL program is still using blunt force (aka just outbid everyone) to recruit. Oregon hasn't and isn't playing that game. But as we saw with Dante Moore ... That doesn't mean we can't catch some of these players on the rebound. What if they don't have the season they dreamed of at their chosen school? They might be coming to Oregon after all.

This one is a weird one... Because frankly it doesn't matter if NCAA basketball moves to quarters. Everyone else uses quarters and they create natural breaks in the games. It is also a guaranteed commercial break for broadcasting companies which is what they want. It is the same reason why the NCAA adopted the 2 minute timeout in football. So going to quarters really wouldn't change the game. But it just feels kinda wrong.

Lyons is the QB you're probably thinking of there and if Oregon lands him he'll really be more a part of next year's class than this year's. This isn't to say that Oregon should pursue and land him. However, unless Oregon goes after two QBs this cycle, they probably will effectively be without a new QB for the 2025 cycle.

I think it was a given this was going to happen at some point. But I think they needed to wait a (minimum?) of 10 years before they could do it. I want to say LaMachael James was about 10 years removed from his time at Oregon before he was inDUCKted into the Oregon all of fame as well. Regardless, this is a big honor and well deserved for Mariota. I still love going back and watching those games, he ran that offense so beautifully.

Fantasy football is an interesting one... because I agree without it the NFL would definitely take a hit. However, fantasy football has some other things going for it other than a strictly betting perspective. There is often a social component where leagues are built around friends and there may or may not be any money on the line at all. Some people do bet on it aggressively but that isn't always the case. It can be a game within the game. For many the joy comes from just playing the fantasy football game as it combines with their love of football by default. I would get into fantasy football if I cared about the NFL but I rarely watch any NFL games. Fantasy football isn't unlike people filling out march madness brackets. Sure, there could be money on the line but often time it is for fun and I guess bragging rights. Betting can be a thing without money, people do it all the time, but to me sports betting IS about money and sports betting culture IS about money. Though I will say there is an element of sports betting that has always been a part of sports culture (or mostly about sports culture) and that is the pre-game lines. We all love looking at who is favored and by how much. What we do with that information varies wildly from person to person.

I don't like betting... especially when I don't have any say in the outcome. But I am an obsessive Ducks fan. This is the case where big moneyed interests are pushing a narrative that makes them more money. You can't really blame a lot of sports casting and content creators that take their money for advertising as that keeps their businesses and passion projects alive. But we can absolutely push back on the notion that gambling is a must to be a sports fan. Being a sports fan is fun onto itself. People were still sports fans before sports betting became largely legal throughout the country.

Hey... Alabama put numbers ON the helmets and names on the BACKS! That's just downright crazy by traditionalist standards. PSU stopped with the stripe down the middle and I think even when they did that the designers were like "I think this is a little much, better not put player names on the back."

Patience... Crazy enough Oregon probably doesn't need a prep QB this recruiting cycle. Moore will be around for one or two seasons. If Moore leaves after this year Novosad is probably next up. Moga and Smith are both promising and we'll have a fuller picture as to whether they stick around or not after the season. But I'd bet that one is guaranteed to stick around as they'll likely be in play for a backup spot. And then Oregon can always get someone from the portal if needed.

No. 9??? Well that's a minority opinion for sure. They are welcome to it... But as we all know they're wrong. For many in the B1G, tradition outweighs everything else. Maryland is pretty low on their list and they are similar to Oregon on their more recent approach to uniforms... Though less successful. I love how Oregon isn't anti tradition but so much of the Oregon tradition now is innovation and ever changing.

Going to throw out a crazy thing here... In 2014 Bralon Addison suffered an injury in the spring that knocked him out for the season and he was our most experienced returning receiver that year. But a couple redshirt freshman came in and made a massive impact along with a freshman. Devon Allen and Charles Nelson both had pretty good years, though Allen would be injured in the Rose Bowl, Darrin Carrington did pretty darn good too, though he sat out the national championship game due to failing a drug test. The Ducks moved Byron Marshall to receiver and he had the best year of all. And to top it all off Mariota won the Heisman. So inexperience is not everything but I think we'd all rather have Stewart in the lineup but I'm confident this staff will a solution.

Looking at some of the softball and baseball rules complaints I've seen from Ducks fans in both of those tournaments we as a fanbase would have absolutely been pissed off if the tables were turned. Though this is one of the mose instances with fringe rule in a fringe context that was so brilliant that every single coach int eh country studied what Lanning did to either use it or counter it after the game. I don't think it would have been a problem in the future. However, I guess I was more bent out of shape how the rule was initially changed mid season because a blue blood complained enough. It should have waited for the off season for a rule change. But I also love how Lanning has had an impact on the game already.

I was writing an article as I was thinking about this exact same thing.... I still might finish it ... but I do think Oregon is ahead of everyone. I also think there is a very real factor that some of the other college football powers are playing massive catch-up. What USC is doing right now is not current NIL practices or even future NIL practices, USC is seriously doing exactly the same thing that Texas A&M was doing in 2022. Throwing money at all the five stars and thinking that is how you build a roster with NIL money. USC is going to land a great class at this rate but is the locker room going adjust to this influx of money in a positive way or is it going to be a TAMU repeat where it implodes? Oregon is built around sustainability and Oregon doesn't have recruiting geography on their side. I'll probably still write that article ... I have more thoughts on this as well.

Absolutely. And Lanning and Co have pulled the best out of the portal repeatedly. There aren't many quality linemen who enter the portal but Oregon has taken the lion's share of them since the portal era started. Getting high schoolers to Oregon is always going to be difficult. We lose to distance, mom, and the girlfriend far more often than we win. So we gotta use the portal. Lanning has shown that he can take a transfer player and elevate their draft stock. Nix is case and point. He went from undrafted to a first round pick. Gabriel went from probably undrafted to a 3rd round pick. With his height disadvantage! Come to Oregon and get elevated and further developed.

I am sure we'll probably get one Peacock game... but I think realistically the only game that might get the Peacock treatment is Rutgers. We could dodge it but I don't think that is going to happen. I suppose the Oregon State game might be put on Peacock but as that one is a rivalry game it will probably avoid it.

The Stemming penalty was just super frustrating these past few years. I get that it's not fair for a defense to be yelling out directions that sound like the quarterback to throw off the other team and cause a false start... but the defense gets to communicate. Nothing in the rule book says that the defense must operate in complete silence. Giving the defense clear words that are theirs also means the offense can't yell weird stuff to try and throw them off. Clarity makes the best rules.