David Marsh

Caleb Williams hid a lot of the Trojan's offensive line problems. If he had a good defense they would have made the playoff one of those years. Miller Moss isn't a bad quarterback, but he isn't Williams. He can't hide the problems of USC's offensive line and they don't seem to have the world beaters at receiver this year either. The USC run game this year actually looks better than it has for the past couple of years. But this USC team is frankly built for the Big 12. They would probably be No. 2 or 3 in the Pac-12 this year in truth. They might get edged out by Colorado only because I think Sanders is a better QB than Moss and that game would be a shootout.

But there is a mindset that is stuck in that style of play. Washington State saw they weren't winning any games so they went out and hired Mike Leach and his air raid offense. Sure he had runningbacks on his roster but they got just enough carries to be dangerous but more often they were just another pass catcher. Washington State under Leach weren't always good but they certainly had some good seasons and they were always interesting. They were also always good for stealing a game or two away from a top team in any given year. How do you stop that kind of air raid offense? It's certainly possible and if given enough time to prepare very doable. Leach lost a lot of bowl games and some of them badly because his opposition could take weeks to prepare. Washington State also never won any conference championships or went to any major bowl games under Leach. In the end if given time any good team was going to beat him. However, if you're a team struggling to get top recruits and you just want to be good and bowl eligible most years then adopting the air raid or other off-meta offense can certainly do that. Teams lost to Washington State because they couldn't adequately prepare in a week, and even if they did they were often in some dog fights of games. The B1G meta (excluding the newbies) just doesn't have really any of these strange teams outside of Ohio State.

In truth I'm feeling a bit more nervous about this game than any of the others, outside BSU and Ohio State. Michigan is in wounded animal mode and are desperate for a good win. They are also starting to figure things out a bit. They are like Illinois but without a quarterback. But if they start getting that QB picture together they are a much better version of Illinois.

The reality is that it isn't really about player safety but safety theater. There are some hits that are dangerous but aren't targeting. There are some targeting hits that are so minor and incidental that they should be a foul. The problem is always about the written rules and trying not to leave too much up to refs making a call on the field. They have to make enough of those as it is and they're not hitting them at a perfect rate already. If we want to take player safety seriously when a big hit happens with helmet to helmet contact both players need to be removed from the field and be checked out by a third party. Intent is something that should be evaluated. Lowering the helmet and launching is obviously bad form and should be targeting. A defender trying to get low to make a tackle on a shorter runner who makes a quick movement and there so happens to be helmet to helmet contact shouldn't be a foul. Though if the hit is hard enough the players should be looked at. Helmet sensors should be a part of every teams equipment to measure impacts. A third party should be in charge of watch those sensors and pulling players off the field if they trigger. I'm not saying a coach doesn't care about his players or the medical personnel don't care, they absolutely do, but you don't want there to be any questions about why a player wasn't pulled to be looked at. Football is a dangerous game and there is no way to take he danger out of it. But there are ways to insert safety into the game. Agree or not these are the sort of real steps needed to actually address safety.

The bad tackling was our hang over... If that's the case and we still pitch a shutout, I think we can all live with that.

They kinda do this for all teams right now. I think we just hear it more with Oregon because we know our team. Last year I became exhausted of the Bo and Tez story. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool story, but that seemed to be the only story the announcers ever told. I think the transfer stuff is kinda interesting for the first 3-4 games of the year. After that it gets old real fast. We're 8 games in now... They're Ducks. I mean Nikko Reed has been with us for two years now and they still say he's a transfer for Colorado.

Root OSU... the obvious reason is that it eliminates an undefeated team from the conference championship race. It would suck to be the number 1 or 2 team and be potentially left out of our conference championship game. Granted... just making the playoff is all that matters. A team that has to play in the first round that didn't play in a conference championship game has to play just as many games as a team with a first round bye.

Next level mind game? Are they not showing something right now as they suspect they may need to use it in a rematch later this year? It's possible. It did feel they were one man short of getting home for some big sacks. However, if Burch is back in the line up for a rematch I think Oregon has a party in the OSU backfield.

I think that's Finny who is from Maryland.

Personally, I'm fine with something like targeting that can impact the availability of a player for the next game. However, I do feel that should be something just fine automatically at the end of the week. But for Ohio State's complaint about Oregon and Lanning's 12 man penalty... That one was pathetic. That has no impact on a future game. I'm also fine with coaches submitting a play and penalty for review to get a breakdown of why the flag was thrown. That is a learning experience and a chance for growth. It would also just be nice if the behind the scenes stuff concerning officiating reviews was more public. All refs get reviewed after every game and graded and it would be nice to see that data. No one is expecting a perfectly called game but it'd be nice to know if a game was normal or not.

It would also simplify the B1G championship race. The nightmare scinario is what happens if there are three undefeated B1G teams? I think Oregon could be the highest ranked AND miss out on the championship game oddly enough. Oregons one point win over Ohio State could come back to haunt us theoretically. However, i feel Ohio State may split Penn State and Indiana and not drop both.

I think it might be a little worse. But the reality is that everyone thinks the refs are out to get them and I am pretty sure almost every fan base thinks that their conference's refs are the worst. I know Pac-12 refs aren't perfect but to be honest a lot of the griping we are seeing about Big Ten refs and their no calls are things that we'd expect Pac-12 refs to be flag happy about. The Big Ten refs are absolutely fine (for the most part) with a lot of receiver-defender battles and hand fighting. In many ways they tend to favor the defender in that conflict. Whereas, the Pac-12 refs were always favoring the receiver, I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a Pac-12 ref throw a flag for offensive pass interference. I mean I remember the OPI in the 2020 Rose Bowl game but those oddly enough weren't Pac-12 refs. What we need is a centralized authority on refs that covers ALL of college football.

So far it doesn't look like Lanning and Oregon are the next Coaching Rebahiliation Center. Lanning has kinda gone the other direction in terms of coaching hires, going young and up-and-coming. Lupoi is an interesting one because if he wanted to at this point have a head coaching job somewhere he absolutely could have had one. Probably not Power 2 but somewhere would have taken a shot on him. I think Cal would have in their last head coaching search to be perfectly honest. For them taking Lupoi and where he was on the Saban coaching tree would be really appealing and he's an alum over going the Justin Wilcox route. But Lupoi hasn't shown any interest in a head coaching job. I think he's a continuity guy who will be at Oregon for as long as he or Lanning want him to be here. He's been here for three years at DC, that's longer than ANY of Mario Critobal's coordinators at either Oregon or Miami. And Lupoi isn't alone as there have been many other assistant coaches at Oregon for the three years of the Lanning administration. I'm sure a few of the younger guys have some head coaching aspirations so there'll be coaching movement at some point for sure, but I don't see Lanning filling spots with former head coaches at this point but younger guys.

If he wins the Natty it would be "a great honor"... Without the championship ring he'll consider it a "so what" for sure.

Him going nuts on the subject was also playing within the rules. They couldn't undo the win but if you put 12 or more players in the field on purpose that is an unsportsmanlike penalty. Again, can't undo the win... But if he said more than he did I could see something from the B1G office come down on him. He was certainly playing with the line.

So I'm told there was a top 20 game in Eugene last weekend. But the game I watched didn't look anything like a top 20 game... I've seen Illinois in some other games this year and they didn't look THAt bad but the Ducks made them look like an early season OOC game.

Looks like he is already doing that. Oregon has gone 3-4 deep in the last two games in terms of runningbacks.

And Georgia. The SEC is in absolute chaos in terms of the contenders for the CCG. B1G and ACC aren't far behind. In short Super Conferences are kinda dumb.

I'm starting to think going east isn't as big of a problem for teams as going west is. Going east teams are playing earlier in the day or the same time. 12:30 PST start time against Michigan is only 3:30 local time. Not that big of a deal for us. But when Michigan State came to town with a 6pm start time... that's a 9pm start time for an east coaster. That's when they are used to a game wrapping up, not starting. I also think it is easier to train for an earlier game in the day rather than a later one. There are already plenty of early starts when it comes to weight training, practice, and meetings. Not many practices start at night.

Big Ten Network... Oh ... ok... I guess. Beats Peacock by a mile.

I don't think we worked out the kinks in the first game. I think that first game screamed... You have kinks and bad ones! And we didn't work them out until the second half against BSU and we still shot ourselves in the foot repeatedly that game. But hey, we survived.

I want to say give it to Dan Lanning. But ... But I doubt it. It feels more like the narrative is that Lanning is meeting expectations where this award goes to exceeding them. I'd say Cignetti is a front runner for sure. However, he doesn't have a ranked win yet so I think for him to secure it he'll need one and only Ohio State is left for that most likely. Otherwise I think the Vandy HC is a good candidate. Taking down Bama, giving a massive scare to Texas and just turning that program around from SEC free win into a scary place to play. But it'll probably go to TAMU's HC. I can't remember his name either. Because.. SEC team with a better record.

We've already stolen one recruit out of their backyard, Trey McNutt, that has them pretty upset. Though I'm sure we'll be going after more.

I have a coworker who so a Beaver fan and we usually have some good conversations about college football in general. He's not a Duck fan but doesn't hate on the Ducks, at least in front of me. And I do the same when I'm around him about the Beavers. So apparently the Beavers have been absolutely blasted by injuries this year. Something like 17 players in their two deep have been out with injuries. I'll take his word on it that it's true. But if that's the case then having a new head coach, a style of play which is highly disciplined with a heavy run game built to milk the clock and a defense designed to stop the opponent... That leaves a team that is a low powered offense that is built to win low scoring games... With now just a team with a low powered offense and no defense.. This year it looks like everything is going wrong for them. But the reality is that they are a G5 program and going up against P4 programs is only going to get tougher. Sure, they'll have some good years but as long as they have a game against Oregon in their schedule... They can probably just fill that one in as an L.

I liked him in 2018 and 2019. In those two seasons he seems to be a bit more open with the media and a bit less abrasive. He talked about injuries and seems kinda likable. Notice 2018 the program was on the ascent and in 2019 was a pretty good year for him. Then after that it went down hill real fast. Now he seems to be feeding off the Miami of old and infusing it into the program with the arrogance. Again... Let's see what happens when he plays a ranked team that will eventually happen even if it is the ACC championship or a playoff game.