David Marsh

Oklahoma is starting to pull ahead. Maybe Texas isn't as good as everyone was saying? Both teams have some issues and neither is unbeatable. But it looks like Texas has lost a few players due to injury and that shows a lack of depth. The Ducks have a ton of depth this year that's for sure.

The Texas Oklahoma game could determine which team has the inside track to winning the conference and a CFP spot. The rest of the Big 12 doesn't look so good. They might have to play each other again in the Big 12 Championship Game ... I believe they haven't changed their format with the new additions.

And my bet is that most of the pickers for that game are going to pick the Huskies over the Ducks. But the Ducks are going to win and make them look silly.

I didn't see one already made so here we go... there is loads going on today. Ohio State is downtown o Maryland at the moment and Missouri is taking it to LSU. And Red River is heating up. Let chaos reign!!! In a good way for the Ducks anyways.

Don't need to shut it down completely and I don't think that's possible... but get just enough stops to build a lead offensively and run out the clock. Don't need to hold them to zero... just less than us.

I think at this point we still have yet to fully understand how high the ceiling for a transfer portal team can be. In truth I think we may be pretty close to understanding just how high they can go. I think it might take a few more years. Colorado did something amazing with their roster turnover as they went from a 1 win team last year to trippling that by mid season this year and I think they may get another win or two... getting to 6 might be tough.. Colorado also gave USC quite the scare which is a long way from where they were last year. But... Colorado couldn't compete with Oregon which is built very different.

I fast forwarded through the intro... there are at least some time stamps on YouTube.

We see this mostly across the board as well. Look at the runningback room. Any other program Irving, Whittington (now injured) and James would not only be starters but the featured backs. Instead they all have to share. At receiver it looks like Hutson is in the second string at this point. I saw him on the field with Thompson I believe. Though I do anticipate Hutson may transfer as he is now down the depth chart but we'll see. Offensive line will be pretty deep once we get some more transfers back to full power as well. Strother is practicing again and did play some reps against Stanford. Also... on the defensive line Burch is on the bench a whole lot more than I think anyone anticipated. All these fresh legs exhaust opposing teams thats for sure.

It all comes down to how they use the portal. USC, Washington and Colorado all want to use the portal to get the best players they can get... usually skill players. Which is admirable. But the portal has only a few of the absolute best recruits that every big program is after... high quality linemen. Oregon has really prioritized linemen that they want. Sure USC got a good defensive linemen from Georgia... or at least precieved good, Lanning didn't go after him so that says something I feel. Good and big linemen are difficult to recruit as high schoolers and expensive to get from the portal but personally I feel that going after linemen is probably the most important get out of tje portal. You can't teach big and that was on full display against Colorado.

Expensive yes... but I do feel it is fair. It wouldn't effect the scholarship limits because they aren't with the team. It's no different than a medical retirement in that regard but it's just no the players choice.

If Rising wants to play another year then best to red shirt him and let him come back fully healthy. If he wants to enter the draft... he needs to get healthy to do that and not risk getting more injured by playing. It is likely Utah loses another game before he returns. They don't play Oregon until week 9 which is his projected return date. Before then Utah has Cal and USC. But wait... Cal isn't very good can't hey beat them? Yes... but Cal is happy to play a defensive slugfest type game and that's the only thing Utah can do. I give this one a coin toss with a slight advantage to Utah. If Cal can put together slightly more offense they might be able to win. As for USC... well they'll score on Utah and Utah's offense probably can't keep up. This is the game I predict Utah probably losing. Which puts Utah at 2 losses which knocks them out of the playoff running and probably out of the conference championship running. So what would Rising be returning to? In this day and age where everything is about the individual player and that player looking out for what's best for them it would be refreshingly selfless for Rising to return for his team... but it would be unwise for him to return for himself.

Every coach is doing it now. Sanders was the most high profile coach to do it at scale. Riley gutted his roster at USC and filled it up with the portal as well. Lanning even gutted and rebuilt this last season. Though in truth the portal has uncontrollable losses, sure coaches push players out , but a lot of players just leave because they want to. I'm pretty sure that Lanning and company would have been happy to hold onto Donte Thornton but he left and they needed to go fill the spot. I hate the idea of more lost recruiting rules... but it has to change with the other rules.in place.

I'm sure they'll be developed into top NFL draft picks. Every last one of them.

His teams had made the playoffs ... but never won a playoff game. Got close once but came up short against Georgia, first time Georgia made the playoff. The other appearances were less competitive.

We are reaching tte point in the year that teams are starting to understand their own weaknesses. With this understanding comes two kinds of weaknesses. One that can be fixed with changes in coaching or practice. A good example of this is Oregon getting their penalties under control. They were really bad against Texas Tech but since we have seen them decline in a meaningful and significant way. The other kind of weakness is structural and these are a lot harder or impossible to fix during the season. Colorado has a major structural weakness in their offensive and defensive lines, they're too small. That can't be fixed during the season because they can't add anymore guys to their team. They are going to have to live with that. Teams usually have a mixture of the two. But I think some of Washington's problems are certainly structural. They don't have much depth and they lost one of their big linemen against Arizona and by the sound of it he is suspect to return for the Oregon game. If that's the case that's something they really can't fix. They've also had some bruised up receivers but they are expected to return but how effective will they be? How effective with Washington's offensive line be against Oregon's pass rush? That's another structural problem. Sure they can scheme their way out of it by getting the ball out fast but what if there is no separation between receivers and defensive backs? The question for the Huskies is how much can they fix? And how much can get put a bandaid on to make it less bad because there is no in season fix?

We are testing the depth and guess what???? WE HAVE IT! I wish Noah the best in his recovery but the run game won't slow down. We have too much talent to be stopped! Bucky and James have ripped it up this year and will continue to do so.

If the B1G money wasn't so good Nebraska probably would have pulled a Colorado and left for the Big 12. Oregon has the brand to recruit nationally and it is paying off.

Here is how I see the offenses break down in the Pac-12 right now. Air Raid -Washington -Washington State -USC -Colorado -Arizona -Arizona State Ground and Pound -Utah (would probably balance out if/when Rising returns) -Oregon State -Cal Balanced -Oregon -UCLA (Passing attack is a bit suspect at the moment but both stats are close) -Stanford (but they are awful at BOTH!) So far Oregon has played a TON of pass heavy teams... and some of their most dangerous competition will remain pass heavy teams. Oregon State and Utah could be dangerous but our Offense has put up a whole lot more points. Utah might be a bit more deadly if they get Rising back as they have been one-dimensional so far, but how good is Rising going to be if he isn't 100% and when he returns he may be healthy but he isn't going to be as good as he was last year, at least not right away. He hasn't been able to play or practice at full speed for quite some time.

I don't know if Colorado is an elite overall offense. But they are an elite passing offense as they are ranked in the top 10 for passing offense. If Sanders isn't getting sacked every other play he can destroy a defense. But Oregon never gave him the opportunity. The reality is that most teams have decided to lean towards the big 12 model of minimal defense and just outscore the opponent. I think that's really the easiest way to win these days. Building a defense that can stop stread offenses is HARD and getting the pieces to do that is even harder. The teams that pick up the best linemen tend to be in the top 10 recruiting. We can thank Cristobal for starting to prioritize the lines. But I think Lanning's hires on both lines have developed our linemen far better than Cristobal's staff.

Beat me to it... The first game I saw Bucky Irving was against Ohio State and the dude was shredding them. A week later it was CJ Verdell shredding the Ohio State defense. Bucky was an incredible talent that slipped away from them.

Probably right... We are flying under the radar and will get bumped up when we win but not as much as other teams. That's just fine because if we keep winning we'll be where we need to be through it all. Remember we are just starting the month of October.... lots of football to be played still.

No... 15-0!!!! Let's go Ducks. Let's live that dream!

The problem comparing any current defense to Gang Green is that Gang Green never had to face the offensive proliferation that has happened in the last 15 years. The game in 94 was defensive focused where it isn't as much today. Still an incredible defense and a great model to strive for.

And... Troy Dye's other hand has a broken finger on it and he still played. The guy just couldn't be stopped!

Colorado is pretty air raidy too... Washington has slightly better lines and I would say better receivers. Most teams are going more of the air raid offense these days. Oregon is a bit of the exception. More on this on Tuesday.