David Marsh

I think Graves has had enough time to get this team rolling again and it has continued to be a disappointment. When players consistently transfer to other programs and do better that is a good sign that the program is flopping. He brought in too much high quality talent for the results to be this bad. \ Personally, I believe it is time for a change.

I saw that too... But it would be another signing day so there would be three. I don't hate the idea but with the coaching carousel what it is these days it feels like a mess waiting to happen.

Forward, back, eliminated... It doesn't really matter because it doesn't work where it is currently. December is broken right now in college football and early signing day is part of the problem. December Is Too Busy and Bowl Season Suffers | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM College Football has changed so much in the past decade. In the early 2010s, the value of bowl games was...

The thing is to me the automatic bids really only work with a smaller field. If the playoff field was like... six or eight then winning the conference would be a HUGE deal. It is significant under the 12 team format because of the potential of getting a bye but that's about it. With a small field getting a conference championship is signficant because its a mini-bracket of its own or it should act like one. We didn't need both Michigan and Iowa in the playoff because they already played each other and we saw the outcome of that game. By extention we had Georgia v Bama and we know the outcome of that game and don't need to re-see it. Granted, we still got some SEC only National Championship games in this 4 team playoff so it turns out that a Conference Championship game was just a hoop to jump through. Additionally... even getting the bye in the current 12 team playoff format is less significant because teams had to play that conference championship game. They aren't being spared a game in the grand scheme of things because the teams at the lower end of the bracket didn't play in a conference championship game or they did and lost and are being punished for it by still having to play another game. With a larger playoff field Conference Championship games become more and more pointless. It's time for them to go away because they don't mean anything. Or if the playoff becomes B1G v SEC then just built the bracket with a B1G and SEC bracket like the NFL does and get a champion that way. Right now though they are pointless and many conference champions have been left out along the way for non-conference champions in the playoff. So dump the game already.

What always gets me is how the best teams tend to rank as having easier schedules tend to be the better teams... sometimes because their schedules are actually pretty easy, see Michigan last year but also by being a better team there are more "easy wins" because of teams that you're supposed to beat. Oregon should be Maryland so that becomes a hard game for Maryland but it doesn't count as a difficult game for us, it isn't the easiest game either. But in terms of scheduling Oregon was dealt a pretty difficult hand... none of the other west coast schools have Michigan and Ohio State in the same year cycle. Penn State gets 3/4 of the west coast schools next year which will be fun for them and next year Oregon plays Penn State as their lone west coast school. Our odd year cycle (2025) is certainly more challenging than our even year cycle (2026). Hopefully moving Mullens can start to build an OOC schedule to create a solid balance between the two years.

Alex Mirabal is probably the only one in his inner circle. Can't think of anyone else who has been that consistent around him.

And as to the question about what are the peaks and vallys for Mario Cristobal. I brought this up a few years ago. Cristobal Has Spoiled Fans By Winning the Off-Season | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM Mario Cristobal will be Oregon’s head coach in 2022. The only way this doesn’t happen is if he opts to leave for another program, which is highly unlikely. He creates so much hope in the off season by recruiting well and changing up his coaching staff that he just gives out Hope-ium. It's super addictive and I know I was suckered in multiple times over the Cristobal era. The offense was bad under Arroyo but he just brought in an offensive guru in Moorehead so it has to be better the next season... it was better but not up to the standard of the talent. Well... maybe Cristobal needed his guys... he recruited well and so many of them just under-preformed under Cristobal. Tyler Shough wasn't going to be the next Mariota or Herbert but he could have been so much more for Oregon. Glad we have Lanning now.

I love the statement / question. Paraphrasing... "Is this management stuff going to impact in a negative way Cristobal's development as an in-game coach?" The short answer is... No. Because Cristobal isn't going to change! Most of his in-game problems aren't anything new and if he actually focused on his in-game management he would have fixed these problems years ago.

The playoff, transfer portal and opt outs are killing the bowl season, outside of playoff games. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing a drastic reduction in bowl games because they aren't drawing as much attention with all the rest of the off season shenanigans.

Marketshare! that's about it... Only reason why Rutgers and Maryland were brought into the B1G as well.

They still want out! I saw a quote just a day or two ago that Oregon State's President is still trying to find a "Power Conference" to join and if that doesn't work they'll rebuild the Pac-12. Which also implies that even he doesn't consider the Pac-12 (2) to be a Power Conference any longer. I think they only way they get out of G5 hell is if they get themselves to the playoff in a legitimate fashion and not through farce that the Pac-12 should have an auto-bid. Reach the playoff enough times and a Power Conference will take notice and might be interested.

We've learned a lot about the current nature of the off season this year. Coaching changes need to happen early ... Which works fine for bad programs that can be proactive in their hiring process. Less good for programs that have coaches leave by choice. Alabama, Washington, Arizona, and now UCLA have all had to make hires when the coaching carousel has basically ended. They made their own mini carousel but the the ride was over when Chip opted to leave. No one was going to leave their established head coaching job for UCLA at this late in the process. UCLA was forced to hire a first time head coach... Or pull someone out of retirement but they're too big of a rebuild right now to be interesting to most, especially after the recruiting season for the 2024 class was over. Either this hire will work out well enough for them... Or he's a space filler for a year or two. But the funny thing is that UCLA is probably missing Jim Mora right now.

Not going to lie... I had high hopes he was going to save the conference. But that didn't come to pass and we are where we are now.

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. However... today they can be my friend. For tomorrow they shall too be my enemy.

I'm sure he'll be recruiting still. No top team recruits itself and no top team can afford to have a member of staff not be an active recruiter. But I'm sure part of Chip's arrangement is that he'd be doing less recruiting. I'm also sure that he'll only be at OSU for a couple years regardless as he'll use it as a place to leverage his credentials for an NFL OC position.

As time goes by I don't think Tosh wants to be a HC. He would have had opportunities until now to dip his toe in.the HCing waters but he hasn't done so. Not saying he'll never go for it but there are a lot of people out there who don't want the big chair and that's completely fair. I mean Chip gave up being a HC to "downgrade" to OC on his own accord. I can't even think of the last time something like that happened.

Benefit Washington only because they aren't anywhere near scholarship cap and they need bodies. But that isn't exactly a lot of actually quality talent to pick from.

Probably not that big of a deal in truth. Every member of these committees have loyalties to come program out there and in those situations they recuse themselves. I know Mullens was the head of the CFP for a year or two in there and he would leave the room if/when Oregon was being talked about. If someone one these committees shows anti-insert team here bias they are not all powerful and can't block a school on their own. Remember that any undefeated or one loss team is basically guaranteed to get into the new playoff. It's the 2-loss teams that are difficult to judge. The recipe to get into the playoff is still straightforward... don't lose.

Doesn't change the need to recruit.... Though it does be one a talking point. Time to shut up the Huskies Lanning!

I think the NBA has always been more lax on defense than say college ball. However, right now when scores regularly soar above a hundred shows how little defense is even being attempted. In the early 2000's scoring a hundred points in a game wasn't uncommon but it was unusual. And maybe I just feel that the flow of basketball just isn't as entertaining as football, in particular college football. Basketball has a lot of back and forth but it doesn't feel like any particular possession matters too much until you're in a close game with under two minutes to play. In the end I don't really hate the NBA, I'm just disappointed with the product and find the product uninteresting these days.

Not Long that's for sure... they're the next to go under. The ACC Is Next on the Chopping Block for Conference Realignment |... FISHDUCK.COM Last year I wrote an article about the Coming College Football Schism where there will be two conferences that are composed... At that point there will be a Power 2 with a third conference of left overs. Then the G5... because lets get real either the defunct Pac-12 will absorb the MW or kill the MW.

I find it funny how casual talk about a player scoring 60+ points is today. And then you watch what a defense is doing... or more to the point not doing... and it is completely believable.

The decision to not play defense ruined basketball at the pro level. The three point line has been there for ages and it wasn't until offenses figured out that they could just win games by chucking up lots of threes did it become a viewer issue. Granted... I figured that out playing NBA Courtside on the Nintendo 64 when all I did was shoot threes and win every game. The NBA is due for a defensive revolution but I doubt that will happen. This current brand of basketball is flashy and is a constant highlight reel. I'd also say reduce the number of games in the season to make them matter more but the NBA won't do that because the money. And the playoff is pretty boring if you ask me. Best of 7s! That's a season in itself and usually the statistical winners from that really long regular season are in the final 2. It's rare to have a Cinderella contender. Wasn't it Miami last year that made a nice run as an 8 seed? Could be completely wrong... But any of the lower seeds making it out of the first round is rare because they have to win four games to do it. Anyways... There's my rant on why I am bored of NBA basketball. Though to answer the posters original question... I was a Blazers fan in middle school but not anymore. If they are having a good year I may keep an eye on some news stories about them but that's it.

Lupoi didn't do so great when he was the DC at Alabama, with a defensive minded coach. However, I wouldn't hold that against him because growth is part of any profession. I think Lanning has done a lot to build this defense and then this last season he brought in Chris Hampton as Co-DC which I think was a MASSIVE hire as it really did tie the whole defense together and I think it is allowing Lupoi to shine.

Probably after Leavitt was let go... And probably after Avalos left. Those would be the only two windows that would make sense for Cristobal. Taggart maybe? Feels unlikely though. Then Helfrich and 2016 doesn't match up with any reasonable timeline.