David Marsh

He took a sack on the first drive of this game that was clearly his fault... He lingered in the pocket for WAY too long and got hit.

A bigger factor has been the end of Saban's career for increased parity. There was a time where Saban monopolized all the top talent and there were few teams that could contest Bama. Dabo did a good job of it for a while... but his refusal to interact with the portal has left Clemson playing from behind in terms of talent. Smart and Georgia has contested Bama for high school talent and done a good job grabbing a few pieces in the portal. Ohio State and Ryan Day haven't broken through even though they've been bringing in top recruits for years. Michigan and Washington reached the championship game last year because of their 5th and 6th year heavy rosters not because they've out recruited anyone on a year to year basis. There has been a lot more parity in the past few years because Saban was losing his iron grip over college football. NIL help loosen his grip as other teams were able to emerge as top talent contenders but more than that we've seen strong recruiters show up at Ole Miss (Kiffin) and Texas (Sark) and Oregon (Cristobal and then Lanning). Even without NIL they would start peeling talent away from Bama but NIL has certainly made it a lot easier.

Also... This video is a pretty good breakdown of what might be going on at Oregon.

I think this is really a case where teams can have so many transfers that they need more adjustment time. Ole Miss apparently isn't entirely put together. Oregon is putting it together but we aren't quite there yet. Colorado has played one game against a Power 2 team and got wrecked by Nebraska. And they are continuing to live of miracles as their team is really only a few players. Moving forward into year 4 and 5 of the Lanning era will be interesting to watch as I would assume (and hope) the transfers become a bit fewer and we see more of his recruits emerge as major contributors. Remember... Georgia and Alabama (at least under Saban) don't recruit 5 stars to start as Freshman. They recruit 5 stars to become the backbone of the team in year two or three.

Interesting line here... "Alexander is most-interested in: the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Michigan Wolverines, Oklahoma Sooners, Texas Longhorns and Oregon, according to a report from Blue Bloods Bias. " He was already with Georgia... I doubt Smart wants him back. It's unlikely Lanning wants him either.

In 2022 Lanning worked pretty hard to keep the roster intact. A lot of layers opted to quit on the team once the season got rolling though. Seven McGee comes to mind.

I forgot about Travis Dye for the article! I think that's telling in itself. His brother Troy Dye is a legend to us ... And Travis had some good overall rushing numbers for the Ducks as well. But we tend to forget him at times because he left.

I was here for four years as a HC... As long as Kelly and Helfrich. Kelly moved on to the NFL so we tend to think more kindly if that move than Cristobal moving to his alma mater. Helfrich was fired. Some fans still hate him but I have a soft spot for Helfrich. He was really the last of the old guard of Duck coaches. I count him as a forever Duck. In large part because he also hasn't had a HC job after Oregon, he could certainly have had one if he wanted it ... He had a solid winning record and one much better than say Clay Helton who got a new job right after being fired from USC.

I doubt we see game day all that often under the current set of contracts. ESPN is shut out of broadcasting B1G games. So if they do a game day at a B1G school they are promoting a game they can't carry and don't have any additional broadcasting rights to.

Apparently Sacramento State is interested... They have an FCS football team I believe. So there's the 8th potentially for football. Which would give them probably like a C- for football... But maybe a C+ for basketball.

If this alliance thing happens it will blow everything up and if any of the proposed super league stuff comes to fruition everything else will blow up as well. The truth is cancelling some of these scheduled games will require some payouts and I doubt Oregon, or any other p2 team, would be on the hook entirely on their own for these fees. The pace of change is accelerating and the money involved is going to be bonkers. Certainly more than enough to cover many of these canceled games.

I personally won't throw too many stones... the Ducks looked bad early on and are putting it together now. Winning is all that matters and teams are allowed to have bad weeks if they keep that loss column at zero.

But Michigan should dominate the line of scrimmage... And that might shake up the stats. Washington hasn't been tested by a ranked team yet... And they have two losses. I'll probably end up being wrong.

You know there is something Michigan has a big advantage in. When they hold up their hands in an M they are boths supporting their team and dissing the Huskies at the same time with an upside-down W. I just checked the betting line and Washington by 2.5??? That seems like a stretch. Michigan is one dimensional sure... But I think they'll beat the Huskies.

Probably not... These are the better G6 teams out there in one conference which should result in a bit better end of season prospects for multiple teams. So the payouts of make a CFP, major bowl games, or thr mens basketball tournament should be more frequent and that money coming from multiple sources. So BSU will probably make more as others will help pull more of their weight more. But I don't think it would be a major jump but it will probably be smoother more reliable income for them. As a down year won't hurt them as bad. Media deal will also probably be slightly higher.

So... Not football. Unless Zaga suddenly got a football team I didn't know about. So they still need one more football school.

The reality is that they are really highly variable middling Power team. On their bad years they are at the bottom of the conference. In their good years they are coming in at 3rd or 4th. They don't compete for the top of a power conference. In a G6 conference they'll sit at the upper end. The past few years both OSU and WSU have been in the upper middle of the Pac-12. If they were in the Pac-12 this year I think the Beavs would be upper middle and the Cougs lower middle. This year there are some real stinkers of former Pac-12 teams. But so much of OSU and WSU's yearly prospects are out of their control. This year the Civil War was noncompetitive because they played a mostly healthy Oregon team. If they played a badly injured Oregon team then they would stand a chance. But they have no say in how dinged up the Ducks are going into the game. The Cougs played a Washington team completely void of talent after last year's team left. Granted they played last year's team darn close in the Apple Cup as well. If both were in the B1G they would be lower middle to middle yearly. They wouldn't crack to top echelon of the conference but they'd cause problems for many. I mean the Beavers did beat the bottom of the B1G in Purdue this year and if they played UCLA I'd bet they'd beat them too. I do think they'll have a whole lot more fun in the G6 than they do in the Power conferences though.

I actually think that once the shock and initial dispair of not being in a power conference wears off I do think OSU will be happier. It was originally one of the departing lines in my recent article. I cut it because it didn't fit... But I do believe the Beavs and their fans will be happier being at the top of a conference. After all it's more fun being the big fish... Even if it's a smaller pond. It's also why I highly doubt North Dakota will leave the FCS for the FBS. Is the Civil War Rivalry Dead? | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM A rivalry is a special thing in any sport. They are a mixture of love and hate: love for one’s team and loathing for... As to do the Beavers regret scheduling Oregon? Absolutely they do. This may be their worst loss of the season. I think they'll probably lose to Boise State but it probably won't be as bad as their loss to the Ducks.

Not the first time we have had this issue where Stewart is running open but Gabriel gets tunnel visioned on Tez or Holden. We're all waiting for Stewart to get his big break out game. But for that to happen he needs to get the ball thrown his way more.

And if Oregon can beat Michigan State by a similar margin or greater.. then we'll know we're in business.

I do think some of the angst is really stemming from looking at teams like Ohio State and Georgia and Bama and seeing how they are dispatching opponents without too much difficulty and then looking at our Ducks struggle when they should be the same caliber of team is hard to swallow. Those are also teams with National Championship aspirations and they are taking care of business whereas it feels like the Ducks have struggled to get this far. With that said... I think we have a good test in Michigan State this Friday. No, they are not a world beating Michigan State team but they are a conference opponent and not sitting at the bottom of the conference like UCLA. This is a great game for Oregon to put together four quarters of play and then turn around and take on the challenge of Ohio State. Ohio State has looked fine and they have taken care of business so far but they don't feel super dominant in doing so even though the score board shows they are dominant.

I said the same thing to myself that the interception was actually worse than just taking over on downs. However there is something that the interception brought that less tangible than field position by far more important. A major moral boost. The third quarter sucked for the Ducks. And the interception was a nice sign of the Ducks defense standing up and taking the ball away. Yes, taking over on downs is the same result as an interception (plus a few yards) but this had some extra juice in it. So I can live with it even though just knocking the ball down would have been better in terms of a ball position on the field.

And according to my power rankings... They'd still be close to the bottom.

Loved that play design. Sucked everything in the went right over the top.

It's a grass field and there were a lot of grass stains on those white jerseys. I had a friend years ago when I was at UO who made an observation that the Ducks did more poorly in games where they played on grass instead of turf. I don't think it holds as true today as it did back then. But playing in grass is very different.