David Marsh

The Heeler Family... From Bluey! First off I have two girls and I have seen all the Bluey. Beyond that Bluey is more than a kids show. If you have Disney+ it's worth watching just a little bit... And you'll be hooked. Also my family is the Bluey family it feels right now.

With recruiting comparisons you always need to see how they recruit and not who they recruit. Syracuse isn't going to compete for many top tier receivers so instead you have to look at who did he bring in and develop. What qualities does he look for in a receiver? The Ducks don't go after any and every five star. Nor should they. I'm assuming he does a good job getting the players they need to be successful. Now put a bigger brand and more resources behind him... And he'll elevate it. First recruiting job he has is on the Oregon roster and the incoming freshman. Convince them he's their guy and I have no worries.

He's right... The meta game is stale. “But it’s a copycat league that we play in, and you can’t have everybody playing one way, a successful way and you playing a different way. You’ve got to get in line with what’s working to win, and right now that’s what it is.” Now this isn't entirely unique to the NBA. The NFL is saying has a very very similar problem but not to the same extreme. All pro sports suffer from it to some degree. When you only take the top 2% of the best athletes from the lower leagues you're dealing with a level of athlete that is functioning at such a high level that they can execute the game in the best way possible. Now that may shift a bit... But in the NBA right now the best athletes can chuck up threes without a problem. The officiating has been punishing physical defense for years so trying to play physical defense is pointless. Just shoot more threes! Between the ability of athletes to shoot threes at a high rate and the rule administration being what it is is it any wonder the NBA meta game is all threes all the time? College ball has variety because few teams can field enough top end players who can play the game the pros play. So they have to find other ways to win. And the officiating allows and encourages players to play defense.

And unlike Herbert he should have plenty of receivers who can actually catch his throws. I can't tell you how many times in 2018 it was frustrating to watch Herbert throw beautiful balls to JJ3 or Redd only to watch them fail to secure the catch entirely and it result in an incomplete pass. There is a reason in 2018 why Herbert seemed laser focused on Dillon Mitchell and that was because he was the only one who could reliably catch his passes. 2019 got better. But Herbert never had the stable of recievers he needed. Moore absolutely does.

Someone posted this on another forum but I wanted to post it here with some observations. Dante Moore has an incredible arm and I think we all knew that. But what really stood out to me in all these highlights is his comfort and ball placement. Yes, the bulk of the first half of the video is against less competition but his smoothness and perfect placement on those passes is beautiful. Not to throw Dillon Gabriel under the bus or anything but this last season he didn't look THAT smooth in his deep throws. I think part of that is the better defenses Oregon played but the other part of it is Gabriel's height is sub 6ft which made seeing over linemen a whole lot more difficult than what Moore has to deal with. I am expecting the deep ball to make a big impact next year. Moore has the arm talent to get it there consistently.

Samples is in an incredible negotiating position. He's getting a pay raise for sure and probably a title bump too. I'm sure his agent is pushing his name everywhere he can. I feel Lanning is going to want to keep Samples but it will come with a steep price tag.

The way the NFL and all pro sports work is that success is repaid with difficulties. The Chiefs have been successful so as a result their stars have required bigger pay days which eats into the salary cap. As a result, they have to make roster cuts at some point due to salary cap issues. Additionally, their success has resulted in lower draft picks. So is it surprising they've hit a couple bumps on the road? No.... That's how pro sports work and to get out of this takes some very, very careful roster management or a few downish seasons.

Fun formation and it was fun to write about. It's going to be a long off season as we all wait for the next one to begin.

Nahh I think he would have left. It was the destination, timing and money. MC didn't even consider the Miami job at the end of the 2018 season when it opened up. But when it opened up before Diaz was even fired it was only for Cristobal and it was served up in such a way that he couldn't say no. MC wasnt leaving for anything else than this particular opportunity served up especially for him.

Does this hurt, yes. Is this surprising? Not really in truth. Last year I made a forum post on how Adams only got a one year contract extension. I thought that was a little odd at the time but I think Adams has had an eye to move on at some point and I don't think either party wanted a big contract tieing them down.

It's a pity that Cristobal didn't have any patience for him and his development as he could have been something special at Oregon. However, those what ifs always trickle down as if Shough was a star at Oregon we might not have gotten Nix.

And the solution in both cases is more DATA!

Looks like former Oregon DC Andy Avalos is the recruiter of the year in the Big 12. Good for him... his Boise State head coaching stint didn't go well for him but glad he found a landing spot.

And we haven't seen many NFL coaches be successful at the college level. Pete Carroll just continues to be the exception. We'll see how Bill B does at North Carolina but most of us doubt he'll turn the program into a contender over night.

Spring portal opens up if that's the case. Granted they have to enroll inorder to enter the portal. So if they weren't planning on enrolling till the summer they're mostly stuck. Pretty easy to get out of a letter of intent these days too. So who knows anymore.

And if his goal is to be in the NFL he frankly needs to get out of college. The two are two different systems and there tends not to be a ton of cross over. In short you didn't see a lot of coaches just move between the two on ayearly basis. Certainly not head coaches anymore... If he wants to be a head coach in the NFL he needs to be in the NFL circle. All comes down to his personal goals.

The defense right now is good, you don't post a 13-1 record with an awful defense. But it really does feel like the defense needs to get more out of it's players. Part of my on-going thinking is that is the defensive floor too high? Should the scheme be made more adaptive so that younger and newer transfers have a better opportunity to learn it faster and see the field faster? We'll have to see... what many others have said is that this year will be year 4 for Lanning and his recruiting classes are going to need to start to emerge as older players who are experts in the system. However, having said this the 2022 class that Lanning brought in has almost gone via the portal over the past few years. I think that was a salvaged class for a first year head coach that was quickly eclipsed by the portal. But it will be interesting to see what the 2023 class is going to do this upcoming year.

The biggest thing in trying to determine the best backs or any position is it all comes down to the era they're playing in. James and Barner played in the era of the blur and the new uptempo style. Because of that they put up insane stats with that scheme and other teams not adjusting. Does that make them the best? Maybe... Granted, I feel they're probably no. 1 and 2 on my list followed by Freeman. But what about DAT? Statistically he doesn't pop as much as the others but he was a massive game breaker. Maybe no. 4 But now I'm completely bias of that era of Oregon football.

No argument from me. I think the linebackers have done fairly well in Lanning's system. A lot of people have said they are under performing put the standard they keep trying to grade Lanning's backers to is a downhill run stuffer or pass rusher. Which isn't the sole role of linebackers in this defense. I think they need to continue to work on their coverage skills though. And it was you Mike who made a comment about the Oregon defense last week and was the inspiration for this article. Thanks for that!

You mean you DON'T want to be a Beaver fan?

Top Heavy wins National championships. Balanced is far more fun to watch from a strictly chaos standout. This is the Old Pac-12, a super fun conference to watch. Unless that is you have National Championship aspirations in which that probably isn't happening from a balanced conference. But still... fun to watch! I think I watched more SEC games this last season than I ever had because of the chaos. The chaos is super fun and I enjoyed it... I just don't want negative chaos around my Ducks. I want my Ducks to WIN without drama!

I'm completely behind Lanning and I do feel he is the one to get us to the promised land. He WILL win us a National Championship the only question is when. In reviewing this season I am nit picking everything. It is one of those seasons that the final goal felt so close but the team fell short and now doing an autopsy and figuring out why is the next step. As always, thank you for your insightful comments Jon.

Probably more than anything else it's the players. The Oregon secondary has been different every single year! I think Tysheem Johnson has been the only consistent face in the secondary for the past two years. Florence would have been, but his injury kept him out this season. Sure, Reed was in his second year with the Ducks and made an impact, but he isn't getting drafted or more to the point I'd be shocked if he is. Linebackers have had consistency as there have been three guys in rotation in the last two years. Bassa has been back there all three with Lanning and he has great qualities, but he was never a Troy Dye player... Speaking of which Lanning needs a Troy Dye in his backer corp. A great tackler and coverage guy and a fantastic leader. Defensive line felt good this year at times but still feels like it lacked that lock down ability on the run. I do feel the biggest problem continues to be the secondary. Hoping to see that change soon.

But if those wins are vacated the biggest problem is that Washington WILL hang a National Champs banner for the 2023 season. We all know those Huskies would totally do that the minute those wins are vacated.

The funny thing is that both of Ohio States last two championships can thank the playoff. 2014 the playoff expands and Ohio State slips in as the No. 4 seed. 2024 the playoff expands and Ohio State gets in because it's a 12 team playoff.They did then go on to win it all both years and taking out our Ducks in the process. But still in both years the Ducks would have been in the championship running regardless. 2014 we were ranked no. 2 and if it was still the BCS we'd get in... However the BCS favors undefeated teams so probably sitting that one out for the undeserving FSU who would have been demolished against Bama. Then this year if it was a 4 team playoff .... Well that is harder to figure out who would and wouldn't have been in besides Oregon. There were no other clear cut teams in by the old 4 team model of 1 loss teams... So maybe Notre Dame but they had that really bad loss to NIU. But in both cases it's clear that if the playoff hadn't expanded OSU would have been OUT.