David Marsh

It seems to go in waves. Oregon had a good few games where penalties weren't that high and then we get some games where we get loads. It just needs to be more consistent.

This was ASU v Washington. This lack of a flag meant that the next play was a bad pass on a 4th down and was Washington's pick 6 which won them the game. This lack of flag absolutely lost ASU the game.

Also... Remember this apparently ISN'T holding or pass interference!

I think there is also some stuff that is getting flag that shouldn't be. There does seem to be a greater willingness to flag bigger guys when they play against smaller guys and we've had a lot of that this year. Also a lot of ticky tacky non sense at times against the ducks. I mean we had a complete phantom PI call on a fourth down last week. The defender did absolutely nothing wrong and was making a play on the ball and wasn't holding but was flagged. That penalty wouldn't have been called in a other conference. I think there is a little bit of SEC coaching physicality going on at Oregon that results in Pac-12 refs throwing flags that shouldn't be in any other conference. Now stuff like false starts need to be cleaned up those are universal in how bad they are. Holding on the offensive line can be cleaned up a bit but the problem is I keep seeing defensive linemen get away with holds and at a certain point it's difficult not to get in a grappling match. This is something like big v small and the small guy gets away with it where the big guy doesn't. I didn't play basketball at any significant level beyond recreational and at just about 6ft I would go against guys 6.5ish at times, my team was really really short, and I could get away with a ton against those bigger guys. Same holds true at higher levels where smaller guys can get away with more. Why doesn't this seem to happen in the SEV or Big Ten? It does... But those linemen tend to be a bit bigger even if they aren't the 4 or 5 star guys. Less kitty is taken in them I suppose. And/or the refs are just better trained.

Helfrich isn't coming back to coaching. He had his dream job and he reached the highest point in his career in 2014 and he is never going back to that height. He has plenty of money and doesn't need to work but he does seem to enjoy doing some commentary. I think he likes not recruiting players, which is what coaches spend by far the most time doing, and I think he likes spending time with his family. Personally, I'd be shocked if he returned to coaching. I believe there was a story from a year or two back that Kelly was looking for a new OC and Helfrich turned him down outright. Scott Frost... He's a maybe though.

I guess it is how do you want to define a blue blood. It's one of those funny things that for many or most of them most people are in agreement but we don't know why. Texas... Blue blood Alabama... Blue blood Ohio State... Blue blood Oregon... Not a blue blood But is the fridge cases where it gets weird. I would say money is certainly a factor. Having won national championships at any point would be a factor. Needing more than one national championship is also important. I would say Nebraska was at one point a blue blood. Are they still a blue blood? Is USC?

Knew we were due for egg shell one more game this year. Hoping we get new uniforms soon. Getting tired of this look at the moment. Then again ... Supposedly after the 2021 season if Oregon was the home team for the pac-12 champ game there was supposed to be a new uniform roll out. That didn't happen that game and I don't think we've seen the new uniforms to date either. So maybe with a successful end of season???

Lesser blue blood then? The money is certainly there at TAMU. They have the resources to make a big splash in the college football world but they just haven't gotten the hire right. If they get the right coach they could be sitting at the top of the SEC and even making runs at the national championship. They have all the resources needed.

When they don't have the boosters to enable them to keep up with the rest of the blue bloods. There is a reason why the TAMU job is covered... It's got massive resources behind it. I'd say they're a blue blood program even though they haven't won anything significant for quite some time. Same goes for Texas and USC and any other traditional blue blood that's been down. If they have the money and the history they're a blue blood. Oregon is new money but we don't have the football history yet.

During the game I heard Pleasasnt's name called during the two point conversion attempt for the Trojans. Pleasant is a FAST corner from the 2023 recruiting class for the Ducks. He has mostly been on the scouting team this year but I have a feeling he is going to burst onto the scene in the next few games. Against the Trojans Oregon really had to dive into their depth at corner back. Kyree Jackson and Jahlil Florence both went out with injuries, though they look like they are returning soon, and Donte Manning and Trikweze Bridges came in as the next two up. Manning left the game, supposedly with a minor injury as well and Niko Reed took his spot down the stretch. Bridges appeared healthy but was relentless picked on by Caleb Williams and arguably USC's best receiver in Brenden Rice, though it did look like Rice got away with some offensive pass interference as he pushed Bridges out of the way while the ball was in the air, but still. But Bridges didn't seem injured and the Ducks were hurting down the stretch of this game to ensure USC didn't manage to make a game of it late. USC needed a two point conversion at some point to get in striking distance and they went for it. What was really surprising in all this was that for this two point conversion attempt the Ducks put true freshman Rodrick Pleasant on Rice. The pass wasn't great and it was incomplete but Pleasant kept up with Rice and was position well enough to ensure he couldn't make a play on that ball. Even if that ball was caught Rice wasn't going to have an easy time getting to the end zone. Not perfect coverage but good enough here. But talk about faith in a true freshman here putting Pleasant on the Trojan's best receiver at this point in the game. In all Pleasant only played three snaps. But one little tidbit of information I came across today from the practice reports out there is that Pleasant is practicing in his Ducks jersey and NOT the scout team jersey. Could this mean that Lanning, Lupoi and Hampton are all gearing Pleasant up to take over the second string spot from Bridges? One thing is for certain, Oregon is going to need some lock-down corners in a probable rematch against Washington. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Jackson and Florence with limited reps this week against ASU to ensure they rest up and heal up. So will we see more of Pleasant on Saturday? Just putting this out there for everyone to keep an eye out for him to see what happens. Oregon has more depth than anyone in the conference and that's the X-factor come November. In past years if Oregon had lost that many corners against this USC team that could have spelled last minute upset but they hung in there and won it.

Now... get those penalties under control gentlemen! Granted... I do think there may have been some shenanigans with USC's defensive front. USC was penalized once for giving off disconcerting verbal signals that could make the offensive line jump. And lets be honest here a team doesn't get that penalty if it happens only once in a game, they get that penalty if they keep showing signs of a similar behavior. I wouldn't be surprised if it was USC's defense yelling out signals that sound like Nix is calling to hike the ball. There were just way too many unusual false starts against USC. Yeah, the Ducks have a problem with false starts at times but that was way more than normal.

And incentives if he wins the conference, makes the playoff, wins a major bowl game (of which a CFP semi final counts) and another bonus if he wins a national championship. He gets a bonuses for appearing in those games and another for winning them!

Or he has a driver. So much of recruiting is done on a phone these days. Not so much the phone phone but the mobile computer we call a phone.

That's a whole other article... Oregon's win was a major part of Jimbo's downfall. The Ducks pulled the curtain back on the FSU opportation and started to unravel the culture there. And Jimbo jumped ship and shocker ... Didn't transform TAMU because he didn't truly change the culture there either.

I know we've heard coaches say they're not leaving before... But Lanning went above and beyond with his statement of saying he's not leaving. He has always come across as an honest guy and has always been open, about anything other than football practice that is, so I'd say he's not going anywhere and telling the truth.

I feel this game will look more like the game Washington played against Utah in honesty. Close throughout, sure Washington shutout the Utes in the second half but they didn't secure a win until the very end of it all. The beavers are going to fight hard. Washington has little depth and it's been showing as the season progresses. Oregon really punched them in the mouth and they haven't recovered from it fully. November is so though to keep the team healthy. We saw Nix reduce his running against USC. Probably in part because he didn't need to run it and because it's probably about preserving his body as well.

This article can also apply to TAMU. It was mostly written by the time Jimbo Fisher was fired but I wasn't going back to make it bloated, especially when we don't have much of a relationship with TAMU as Duck fans. This will also probably be the case for Bama once Saban leaves. Georgia had this problem for decades until they hired Kirby Smart and most importantly stuck with him for a few bad years (by their standard) and let him work. I love watching Trojan fans squirm these days. They'll be a good program but probably not great until Riley figures our defense... Or more probable he leaves for the NFL and the start the process all over again.

In fairness ... We don't actually know how interested TAMU is in Lanning. It's all the media lists that Lanning is on that is creating the speculation.

Here's the other thing about stability that any coach taking that TAMU job should think about. They just fired Jumbo and are going to pay him his full contract of nearly 80 mil. It doesn't matter what they pay you if they don't think you're getting the job done you're gone. Granted... Because of Jimbo's contract I think they held onto him a season or two longer than they probably wanted. I don't think they are going to make that mistake in their next contract. If you go to TAMU there is a good chance you're leaving but not on your terms.

The alignment of that nose guard being right over JPJ was probably enough that there was not forward motion possible to drive the pile. I would say at the very least the player being offside was the factor that stopped that play. If it was any other player being offside I'd agree and say we were bailed out due to a penalty but in this case the location of the offside absolutely affected the outcome of the play. I do think that we were probably half a yard too far from that play being a safe go ahead though, it works well if its 1 yard or less and we needed 2 so it felt a little far. Then again... I've seen Nix get 3-4 on a QB sneak with the right push. Then we used the Jumbo formation against Cal twice at the goal line and both were successful touchdowns. However, we should absolutely start mixing it up a bit. Some variations we have seen before with the jumbo package can be seen in my article below. Oregon Football is The Embodiment of Modern Physicality FISHDUCK.COM As Oregon fans, we heard all about physicality from former HC Mario Cristobal over the last four years. Cristobal is gone now... We absolutely need to see more variation in this package because it is getting too predictable. However, that predictability opens up everything else that can come out of this package as well. I personally love it when a TE sneaks behind the defense and Nix just tosses him the ball for an easy TD/conversion.

Or the refs calling PI on a blatant case of PI on a husky defender holding so much jersey it's stretched out and should have been an easy flag for even a newbie ref. That gets called there is no pick 6 and ASU probably hangs on to win. Huskies are a lucky team. They're good... But they are undefeated through luck right now. I have a feeling that luck is about to wear out.

Ouch... But Avalos was a Petersen Boise guy. He went to BSU during the Petersen years so he was a legacy in that regard. He never strucj me as someone who was hired because of his MC connection.

Only reason we got Bo was because of Dillingham and their relationship. I don't think we would have gotten a shot at Nix otherwise. Stein was all about keeping the offense and molding it around Nix which is why Nix stayed... Along with a shot at bigger and better things. He's here and wanted to stay another year and is probably getting paid well for it as well.

I think if he doesn't shut it down if asked a direct question, which he'll probably get tomorrow during his weekly press conference, it could be a problem. At this point I'm sure he's already shut it down internally with his team during the Sunday meetings.

Miami was the ONLY program Mario was leaving Oregon for... I don't see TAMU at that status of dream job for Oregon. Also .. I'd like to note that Miami came up before in 2018 and MC turned it down at that point.