David Marsh

Jon, you're just giving me so many places to link my past articles. It’s Time to Take a Deep Breath - Oregon is Going to Be Fine |... FISHDUCK.COM We are back in the midst of conference realignment with Colorado bolting for a home in the Big-12 and... This was when there was still hope the PAC might survive and Oregon was considering staying for the rebuild. Oregon has some big time donors that are never going to let Oregon fall behind and you're right it's not just Knight. It wasn't Knight who gave Lanning his big contract raise but the Ballmers. They were also the ones who bought the new Portland campus for UO as well.

This quote has me confused and I read it like 15 times. "It’s clear that Harmon thought long and hard about his decision. Some might speculate that Oregon increased the value of the bag at the last moment, and that USC wasn’t willing to pay as much. Maybe that’s true, but we don’t know that. We can say that Harmon weighed his choice and didn’t make it quickly or easily. This obviously means Eric Henderson and USC offered something compelling, something worth considering. NFL-level development mattered in all of this. It might simply not have been the first — or only — factor." In particular the last sentence.... Are they saying that USC was going to provide better NFL development than Oregon? Because of that's what they're saying than that is some major arrogance. Especially when you look at the record of Riley and his defenses. And Riley still has his past defenses hanging around his coaching reputation even though he vowed to make defense come first. He hasn't shown he has done that yet. Meanwhile, Lanning is has shown he is a great defensive mind and has the track record.

And they are late to this game of realization that USC is not Oregon's equal. This article I wrote was ages ago back when Cristobal was still Oregon's head coach and I think Lanning has only pressed the advantage that was created by those who came before him. USC Football Is NOT Oregon’s Equal | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM Oregon and USC seem primed to be the top two schools in the Pac-12. Both have top ten recruiting classes... Sure NIL helps but the reality is that USC should have way more cash for this if they had alumni who cared. And I think the reality there is that the USC alumni believe they are entitled to the recruiting wins and having an eternally natty ready roster. And that's not the reality. USC fans are just as entitled as ever and that could be an advantage for us.

Just to share that article with others who might be interested. It’s Time for a Real Spring Game | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM The Spring Game is just a glorified scrimmage. It’s something all fans know, but we still get excited about the prospect of seeing new Oregon players show off…

Those are 3rd party contracts and cannot be influenced by anyone in the NCAA or any university. Though this could be addressed in two ways. 1. Short term and fastest way is that the bowl games payout NIL money to all those who participate as the bowl game gets use the players NIL to promote the bowl game. You could even make this more interesting by the bowl game paying out each team a base and then giving the winner more. Some prize money might incetivize some to play instead of sitting out. This is the carrot. 2. The stick of trying to restrict money for players who opt not to play cannot happen yet. It feels imminent that colleges will begin to pay their players directly and at that point colleges would probably have something set up regulating pay in their contracts. Something like players receiver X for being active participants. You shouldn't punish the kid who doesn't see the field because they aren't good enough but they do everything asked of them. And a player opting out of a bowl game would exclude them from receiving pay for that period.

These better be some pretty cool uniforms... They've been hyping the roll out more than I can remember for previous uniforms. It feels we have been overdue for some cool new uniforms for awhile now. The last two were meh.

Absolutely massive and mind blowing and big this is. He probably takes the starting spot or worst case slides in as 1B. The Ducks have loads of talent at nose tackle it feels like now. This has the makings of an amazing year.

And or the abolishment of conference championship games. Championships should go one of two ways. 1. Regular season champ based on record but this has the problem that conferences are so big now that this won't always give a satisfying result and may result in two conference champions if two teams don't play but have the same record. 2. Build the conference championship games into the actual playoff format. It would make for some unique bracket formats but could be interesting.

I'm hoping this is the case. It's be nice to not have too much red in the stadium that game.

The amount of talent brought in makes it easy to forget some of the big additions. Great to hear that Gray is going to be a monster for us. As for the rest of the freshman... It's always surprising to see who pops in the spring. But many more freshies will surge come fall camp when they get a lot more development time under them.

I'm ok with auto bids for the playoff ... Not with seeding. Should the Big 12 champion get an auto bid? Sure. Should that team get first round bye just because they are the Big 12 champ? No. The B1G and SEC going to dominate this format for better or worse. This current format is designed to appease as many parties possible. It does increase access to the playoff but the reality is that access does not create true contenders. Just because the Big 12 has a bye doesn't mean they'll sniff at the championship.

For tv watching I like 7pm games with kids. They're in bed not long after kickoff so the game gets my undivided attention. At some point I'll probably end up going to a game with my daughters and I'll probably not want a 7pm kick off for that.

If he sticks around at MSU this time around I think Jonathan Smith gets the recruiter of the portal award. Talk about recruiting your own roster. Still hoping for the Ducks and Lanning to land a big NT though!

Nix's first year at Oregon he ran a lot! He had the most rushing touchdowns and the third most rush yards, more than James that year. If they want to run it with the QB more we do have the depth at QB I feel to do it. Fear of Nox getting hurt I think played a major role in last year's decision for Nix to run less. Beyond that... I feel Gabriel might have an x factor Nix doesn't have but I'm not sure what that is at this point. The narrative of Nix being an exclusive short range passer is completely wrong as he did take more deep shots than the pundits give him credit for.

This will really solidify a hierarchy in college football we all know is there but it hasn't taken full control yet. Tier 1: B1G and SEC Tier 2: Big 12 and ACC Tier 3: everyone else This isn't a surprise to us right now but I'd the tier 1 schools can pay their players directly alot more than anyone else then the illusion of power 5(4) is completely gone. Right now a lot of people are still holding onto the illusion that just because the tier 2 schools have guaranteed seats in the playoff that they have a legitimate chance of winning it. The ACC stands a chance with Clemson (if they get their act together) and FSU but both are eyeballing an exit. The Big 12 is dillisional thinking they have a shot as I don't think a single school in the Big 12 meets the blue chip ratio.

One or two late games would still be nice. Night games have something special about them. But being constantly relegated to late night isn't pleasant. Even if Oregon gets some late night games the coverage of them the following day would be much greater in the B1G with the B1G network.

He had an impact early in the season but the truth is that the linebacker depth has come a long way since the start of last year. Last year it was Bassa and Boettcher to start the year, a surprise to both Charles and myself while at the PSU game. But once Jacobs was healthy Boettcher was outright replaced. He was a solid special teams contributor which will be missed. The football team just had too much talent and those youngsters are starting to develop into major contributors now.

To be honest I liked the vast majority of the commentators at the pac-12 network. The production level for games was also decent, better than the late night broadcasts on ESPN but not as good as the prime time games. The pac-12 commentators were certainly better than the last game of the night commentators on FS1 and ESPN who didn't seem to know anything about West coast football all. The problem with the network was it's distribution and therefore access. Which generated all the financial woes for the conference and fan frustrations. I'd also say the network seemed to lack some of the daily content like the B1G network has but that's something that could have been fixed with more money through better distribution. In the end the biggest failure of the network was the fact that few people could access it easily.

In 2021 when Oregon was at Ohio State we had a 9am kick off that day. That was pre-kids for me and I found that an acceptable start time. Now I have 2 kids and I'm up before 9 anyways. So 9am kickoff is fine with me. I'm one of those people who likes earlier in the day kick offs or later in the evening kickoffs. That way I have most of the middle of my day to do things. Granted I usually consume Duck football via the TV and I don't go to many games.

The depth right now and the size at Oregon is just bonkers. This is a team that is ready to take a big step this year. Last year we ran out of depth at corner and that cost us two games and those were two games we needed. Lanning is working hard to ensure that doesn't happen again.

Just think how INSANE this would be a decade ago losing two 4 star recruits to transfer because they're not in the two deep.

In 2007 we lost Dixon, his backup, and we're on our 3rd string then. And I believe he was the last left handed QB to play for the Ducks until Gabriel. Also... Just to reopen this wound. Remember in 2014 how Ohio State lost their starting QB before the season. And then lost their back-up (but effectively the starter for the season) and they played a 3rd string QB who won them the B1G and National Championship! That's the kind of depth needed sometimes. I think we finally have something like that at Oregon.

I contemplated this issue a while ago. Back then I determined 3 scholarship quarterbacks was about the limit and that has for the most part proven true. But Lanning is surprising me big time with how he he managed to not only get the best QB from the portal, Gabriel, but also the second best QB from the portal in Moore. And still held onto Novosad on the roster and Moga still signed. We did lose Thompson and a prep recruit flipped (forgot his name) but overall incredible by this staff to have this much talent. How Many Quarterbacks Can One Team Sustain? | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM Just how many scholarship quarterbacks can a college football roster sustain? This is the big...

I think he could handle head coaching if he wanted it. But I don't think he wants it. If he wanted it, he would have had an opportunity somewhere.

They'll also need a crash course on how to pronounce Oregon. It's Or-i-gun Not Or-E-Gone Easy coasters usually get it wrong.