David Marsh

Since his days at FIU he has a winning record. I'd say he's a good coach. But there is a large gap between good and great. Cristobal will never learn to get out of his own way. However, this season it felt like he was doing so by letting his OC and Cam Ward do their thing. That offense was one of the best statistically in the country, against inferior competition granted. In the off season he will give his fans hope that they can put it all together. But come the season he will make some bone headed decisions and get burned for them and lose to teams his grossesly more talented roster has no business losing to. Like you I'm glad he's not at Oregon anymore. He certainly saved us a lot of time, money and agony. Miami can keep him. Cristobal reached his peak in 2019 with a Rose Bowl win and Pac-12 championship. He hasn't learned anything since then. He'll keep Miami in the playoff hunt for sure... But that will probably be it. At best reaching the playoff but not sniffing the Natty. His teams will have too much talent to be denied the hunt.

Andy and Ari on3 night show had a great mention of Oregon. Something a long the line of... "We should mention them because they keep dominating but yeah Oregon is a lock for the playoff." They moved on to the rest of the chaos.

Nope... They fired Mani Diez because they knew Cristobal was taking the job. There weren't any other candidates it wasn't a coaching search. It was major donars saying they'll get rid of Diez and pay Cristobal. Cristobal was hiring their own and a splash hire all in one go. He's not a bad coach... He just isn't a coach who will take them to the promised land.

Goes where? Pretty sure Lanning is only going to the B1G championship game at this point.

Meh... Fine Going to be honest. Their offense has looked in decline for some time. But I suppose getting the SEC bump helps them. They get to play Georgia. We can see how that goes for them.

You can see how he has earned the nickname "mini Bucky" because he runs like Bucky. He has more top end speed than James and has more power than Whittington.

Pfft. The Heisman is probably going to someone who gets the wonderful experience of WATCHING the playoff and not playing in it. Going 12-0 and to a P2 CCG and a playoff spot is better.

Riggs looks so freaking good.

We broke 40 points. I'm a happy camper now.

Looks more like Dan than Russel Crowe.

People... Always need to have faith. Cristobal will always find a way to lose completely winnable games with his talent level.

Who am I supposed to root for in USC v Notre Dame? My love of non-Duck chaos says USC... But my hatred of USC says Notre Dame... Am I rooting for another earthquake to create a chasm to consume both again? Probably.

Absolutely. The B1G meta game is a lot easier to predict. Is the B1G Easier than the Pac-12? | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM In any sort of competitive gaming, whether it is sports, cards, board games or even video games, there is... Lanning was building a lockdown physical defense for the Pac-12 and now in the B1G it's perhaps easier.

So... If you were an Ohio State fan which coach would you want? Ryan Day who put together the best roster in college football but managed to lose two games. Or... Mad Man Dan who has a very good roster but throws in some crazy stuff to give him an edge? Ryan Day's seat just heated up even more... But I don't know who they could hire that's better at Ohio State to be honest.

Ryan Day tries to use the Lanning Rule.... But fails on all accounts.

I also think he sits down and thumbs through the rulebook on a regular basis. He is definitely experimenting on the field. Not everything works but even the best designed play doesn't work 100% of the time. Excited to see what else he has for us this year.

This article was already pushing the word limit for what makes an acceptable article length... So I left out the "fake knee" against Wisconsin where they took a knee formation and did a direct snap to James. This almost worked. Against Ohio State Lanning also used a swinging gate formation which moved the entire offensive line, minus the center, to the left of the center and detached. The play failed but Gabriel had Holden wide open down he middle for a touchdown if he got the ball there. There were some others but it would take looking back at the film. These are just the ones on the top of my head. And of course there were others in previous years.

I am under the impression that 120 is about the limit between the current 85 scholarship players and the walk-ons to fill out the rest of the roster. Most teams hover around 100 total players between scholarships and walkons. I would imagine that walkons may look to transfer in droves in the hopes of finding a scholarship somewhere, but they do that as it is right now. No clue where they get thus 150 number from.

I mean... how many are being pushed out and how many are opting to leave on their own? I'm sure there is a bit of both but I'd be surprised if we see 50. I think Colorado and Sanders were close to 30 leaving last season and they brought in another 30.

Ducks vs Them is a masterstroke of PR, fan base access and recruiting. Lanning doesn't let the media see anything significant when it comes to observing practice. Warmups and some basic special teams drills is it. Lanning also doesn't give away anything in his press conferences. Not unlike Chip Kelly, Mark Helfrich or Mario Cristobal before him. However, he does it with a smile on his face and a charm offensive that none of his Oregon predecessors had and as a result everyone likes him a whole lot more but in terms of getting access to the program there isn't any. But do you hear any fans complain about not having any access to the program? No... because Ducks vs Them and That Team Out West have both given the fan base unprecedented access to the program while at the same time allowing Dan Lanning to have complete control over what he does and doesn't want the public to see. There are still plenty of private team moments we never see and you often see parts of presentations or papers blurred out because he doesn't want that stuff seen. But as fans we get a taste of the behind the scenes and recruits get a taste of the person who wants to be their head coach. That series is an absolute boon for Ducks fans and I know I get excited to see the next installment each and every week and I am shocked by how much I learn from the program because of it.

Can we all agree Mariota did the Heisman pose best? Because it was unintentional and airborne.

Or.. or... Maybe a SEC team should go up to Indi and play a playoff game there.

The answer is not really... but there are a couple of interesting cases we saw this last weekend where schools that were forced to be patient might be getting some playoff for it. Billy Napier at Florida felt like he was going to be out of a job potentially before the season was over. Now he has knocked two SEC teams out of the playoff running entirely. Florida seems to have found their quarterback and the team is rallying around their coach. Florida probably would have fired Napier if it wasn't for the fact that they had an interim president they probably would have fired him. Though that non-decision may pay off because Florida won't have to pay to fire Napier and he may yet turn the program around. Let's be honest for a moment, before Napier Florida was not the powerhouse they desire to be as they had a lot of coaching turnover in the last decade. Taking the time to unravel the culture not just in the locker room but around the entire athletic department takes time. And that doesn't bring into account figuring out the whole NIL game when it comes to recruiting. Florida may have their long term head coach already and the fact they were forced to be patient may playoff. The other school that is forced to be patient is Oklahoma. The Sooners have not been good this year and in the off season they gave Brett Venables a hefty contract extension. The Sooners are locked into Venables whether they like it or not for a few years. The defense is solid but the offense needs improvement, kinda the direct opposite of the Riley years. Though against Bama it looks like they may be headed in the right direction. This coaching hire may yet playoff. It is amusing how the trend has become a coach gets one or two years to turn a program around before being declared a failure. It used to take at least two years before a coach could start showing improvements. But in our win now culture in college football with the transfer portal patience has gone. It's just funny how the schools that are forced to be patient may be seeing some real results.

It could be some special teams stuff they have brewing. The media is only there for the first 15 minutes or so and that coincides with special teams reps. So.... probably something crazy is brewing.

To which Dan Lanning says.... "Hey get this truck off my damn green lawn!"