David Marsh

Most fans tend to criticize Stein in his lack of downfield passing and pretty much just call him a short route check down guy. The reality is that his bread and butter is the short routes where he gains the advantage in alignments and presnap reads. It's ruthlessly efficient. It's going to get yards and move the ball down the field and find the end zone. What more do you want from an offense? It scores lots of points on a regular basis. The chemistry didn't seem to be there last year for deep shots for whatever reason. The previous year the Nix to Franklin connection was gold. I'm feeling the 2025 team is going to be more explosive offensively.

I'm sure Boise is currently scrambling to see if they can schedule Oregon on their schedule as soon as possible right now. Whenever they play us in the early season they have a good season.

I think the coaching staff and the athletic department needs to be able to answer one question when it comes to recruiting.... "Why Nebraska?" and they can't answer that question by pointing to anything they've done but what they are currently doing. Their win last night over a Big 12 team was rather embarrassing as I think Cincinnati would like that deep shot that ended the game back. They didn't need to take that shot, they were gifted 10 yards and there was still plenty of time on the clock to take a couple more chunk plays. Yes, they were lacking timeouts but they were in their field goal kicker's range and they just needed to improve their odds. Nebraska should have won that game by double digits but they won by 3. You can't build a national title winning team without the best recruits and Nebraska isn't doing that. They aren't going to be bad, they'll be a dangerous B1G team, but until they can answer the "why Nebraska" question for recruits I think they'll continue to struggle.

Nebraska and Cincinnati are close 6-3Neb with less than 3 in the half. Looks like Nebraska is going to pull away soon. Just better line play.

Let's get this party started! Boise State doesn't look so hot this year. Getting boat raced by USF.

Last year Points Per Game were down. We averaged around 35 points per game where the previous year we were around 40. I believe we were also down in passing yards per game as well. And I'm not entirely sold on the notion that the B1G is a better defensive conference than the Pac-12 was. The top end is absolutely elite and better but the rest of the conference I feel is equal or below the Pac-12. Utah and Stanford fielded some pretty brutal defenses in the Pac-12. So much of the B1G is built on a reputation that was set by the top.

That and if Moore does well enough to make the leap to the draft after the season Novosad has that starting spot pretty much locked.

If Moore balls out 2024 would be the first year since 2012 where Oregon had a legit back up. Hoping we have a solid backup this season. It's been a long time since we've had a good 2nd QB.

Well I was going to shamelessly plug my own article but you beat me to it. But on the opposite side of the ball is going to be the offensive line and run game combo. To put it bluntly the run game wasn't good enough last year. It's numbers were down from 2023 and the offensive numbers on the whole were down from 2023. I want to see a more productive run game for starters. With that said ... I'll shamelessly plug a different article. https://fishduck.com/2025/01/rebuilding-oregons-offense-for-2025-running-back/

I don't have much sympathy for Fox and other corporate entities refusing to negotiate in good faith. Fox and ESPN did opt to kill the Pac-12 to suit their own interests. https://fishduck.com/2023/08/how-fox-and-espn-dismantled-the-pac-12/ There was definitely something suspicious about the way the Pac-12 died. And I completely concede that the conference was mismanaged as well but there was still some fishy stuff going on.

It was apparently down to Cristobal and Leavitt for the HC after Taggart left. Glad we got MC.

Sounds like his daughter's are in high school. I don't see Fisch doing so badly he'll be fired this year. And I doubt Zona had the money to pay him what he's worth. Guess I'm not really seeing the scenario he goes back to Zona. But I love that it makes Husky fans nervous. I can live with that.

There aren't many of them... But there is ONE that we cannot ignore, Ohio State. Many will argue that Ohio State has a pretty balanced attack which is pretty true as well but they have elite receivers and usually quarterback talent that can destroy secondaries. Then the playoff itself will have plenty of elite receivers that we'll have to defend to reach the natty.

Stanford was a power from 2008-2016 Harbaugh and Shaw were darn good making them relevant. They could have said they'd take a media cut and earn their way to full membership. But that would require an honest evaluation of their own programs which didn't happen. If they were honest with themselves about their worth they would have joined the Mountain West by now instead of trying to rebuild a conference. They have some creative options if they were honest with themselves but they have insisted on making all the worst decisions. Stay independent and use that pac-12 cash to invest into football. Get some high potential coaches and show they are serious in football. That would help get the NIL collectives rolling and then do everything in their power to make good bowl games or the playoff (though unlikely). Instead the Beaver's hired Bray, Smith's DC, and didn't have any real depth in the roster and the whole thing fell apart. Could they have gotten anyone better? Maybe but that promotion seemed to happen so fast they didn't seem to care to try. Would any serious coach actually want to take the OSU job? Not with the way they were running the program and it's lack of support and no conference. But maybe.... Maybe they could have held onto Smith with a realistic major bonus and a well laidout plan for the future. Because the program Smith built at OSU would dominate the MW conference and would have been in the conversation of being one of those G5 teams that could potentially get a playoff spot. They probably wouldn't have gotten it still... But the narrative around the program is COMPLETELY different at that point. So maybe they can make a crazy deal with the Big 12 or ACC. But instead they went the route of keeping all the Pac-12 money and stabbing the MW in the back. Now in the New Pac-12 they aren't going to be the dominant team. That goes to Boise State. OSU might not even be the second or third best team either. They will be in the middle of a crap conference of their own making. That's lack of vision and a failure. That's on OSU's administration. My comments that they should have tried to get into the Big 12 isn't to say the Big 12 would take them as they were.... They weren't that desirable. The Bug 12 would be adding two mediocre teams to their already mediocre conference that's a non-starter, there's no value there. But it's my observation that OSU (and WSU) didn't even seem to try. They stayed their mediocre course and said "this is fine" and they get the bed they made. They had a strange opportunity to take a large chunk of money that had fallen in their laps (rightly or unrightly) and have made all the worst decisions as to what to do with it.

Cal has been floundering for the better part of the last twenty years. They don't invest in football (NIL aside) and that's what they get. It's hard to get a real gage of how good Justin Wilcox actually is as a coach when he doesn't have any support from his university and alumni base. As for Stanford.... David Shaw got out at the right time. Like Cal they don't have the money being infused into the program, especially since they give a real Ivy League vibe where they'd rather not have scholarship sports entirely. They can use the portal, they can't remain student athletes who want to graduate and then get a master's degree, they can't get grad transfers... They are stuck and unlike Cal I don't even see how an infusion of money from donors would even help them. Oregon State and Washington State should have leveraged everything in their power to join the Big 12. Even if it was about cutting a deal with former Pac-12 members to let the conference dissolve but levage some of that money into a safety net for the two schools that didn't have a landing place. They didn't do that and then pillaged the only conference that helped them out, the Mountain West. They destroyed any sympathy they had from being left out of the death of the pac-12. The reality is they had leverage to get themselves into the Big 12 or ACC. They could have said... Hey former members we need a conference and you want at least some of your money from the Pac-12. Let us have some extra money and land somewhere and you'll all get something. Don't agree then we'll stay independent with a Pac-12 badge and you'll get nothing. Reverse merger with the MW wouldn't have been bad but that didn't happen. Instead pillaging the MW to remake a slightly better version of it looks pathetic. They made their bed and there will be no sympathy for their struggles and the failures. They choose the worse option repeatedly.

Outside of quarterback... Line play players are the most expensive. This shouldn't be a surprise because you can't teach size and the best ones have it. Secondary players are pretty high up there too which isn't too surprising. Though what isn't surprising based on the NFL but is a bit for college is that runningbacks tend to make less than wide receivers. The NFL runningback just isn't as prestigious as it used to be but in college there are some runningbacks that are the team's offense.

It's the cost of being in the B1G. Love it or hate it ... It's the cost we have to pay. We were never going to be given any benefits for being on the west coast. I think we were all thinking there would be an extended eaat-west division to lower travel but that didn't happen. Frankly I like how we play every team in a two year cycle. But the Ducks must travel a lot. Not so bad for football but the other sports have it harder.

Lanning doesn't really have a motto or slogan. He will adopt something as a theme for a period of time and then move onto a new theme. This came across every week with the Ducks vs Them videos. Against Michigan it was all about thumbs down no mercy. Against Ohio State it was "your jabs are good enough" and just keep fighting. Against Wisconsin it was make your opponent's house your own. Against Washington it was all about taking the bat (metaphorically speaking) to a rival. He is an absolute master of motivation and finding a theme to keying his players into it. Chip Kelly and "Win the Day" was awesome and great but Lanning does an incredible job by using these themes for short bursts and not letting players let the words become background noise, which happens to everyone.

I don't trust the word alliance in a college football context.

Going to be rough to keep them off the field. I think it's going to be tough to keep any of our backs off the field for that matter. If they don't see the field too much this season they'll have a clear path to lots of play next year as there will be several graduations.

Lots of sneaky talent on the Ducks. Well... not sneaky as it was all highly recruited. But it feels like everyone is sleeping on it. I think we might see the best defense of the Lanning era this year and I think the offense kicks it back up to the 2023 year's production levels. Yes, last year was a down year for Lanning and this offense, sure we went 13-1 overall but the offense only scored more than 40 three games (less than 5 for sure) and we averaged around 35. Looking for that number to go up to around 40 again this year.

I'm fine with it. They can eat their crown later when we take home another B1G trophy and make a legitimate playoff run this year.

So much if the Lanning culture is about competition. I agree that barring injury it's Moore's job. He probably knows it as well. But Lanning won't crown him starting QB, even after he starts a game. Lanning wants him to earn it every single day and week.

Announcement will come game day. Lanning doesn't share this type of stuff normally.

I struggle to take seriously a list that has USC as both overrated and underrated.