David Marsh

Last year I think Stein wanted to do more but Gabriel and the offensive line didn't have the ability to do so for whatever reason. He was also limited in terms of running backs as James was THE back for the majority of the season. The offensive line wasn't settled in a rotation until week 3 which limited what they could do in terms of a run game and pass protection.

The blocking this year on the whole so far has been insane! Dakorian Moore's block in week one just pancaked a guy in the end zone. Granted that wasn't the guy he was supposed to be blocking... but if you're going to block the wrong guy might as well pancake him. I know it's only been two games and we haven't played a real contender yet... but this team is giving me a lot of hope. Penn State isn't looking quite so scary at the moment. Especially seeing their offense stalled out a bit against Florida Atlantic for a drive or two.

Being as these games get drafted before the season starts by all the networks that carry B1G games what probably happened was this... Fox (who has the most picks) either took this game because Oregon-Northwestern is the most interesting B1G conference game. USC-Purdue is the only other conference game. I suppose it's a toss up as to which would be more interesting but CBS has USC-Purdue. the only other interesting games are on ESPN/ABC which means Fox wasn't able to carry them probably based on the home team. Minn at Cal could be interesting but that's on ESPN. Ohio State gets a late afternoon game but they are playing Ohio and that game shouldn't be all that interesting. Michigan plays Central Michigan at the same time... So that leaves Oregon-Northwestern as the only B1G conference game or only Power 4 match-up worth watching in that time slot.

I wouldn't cross Mad Man Dan... He'll set lose a bunch of rabid Ducks.

I don't think we saw this level of complexity out of it last year because it's a two year install for many players and especially the quarterback. Last year's offense felt a bit vanilla compared to the 2023 offense with 2nd year Nix. Yes Stein was in year one but by the sound of it Lanning had an offense that he wants to run and made Stein adapt to the terminology of the Ducks and not the other way around. Lanning knows what he wants in the offense for sure. And this offense is going to continue to develop and be freaking scary. Last year's was acceptable but I think we may look back at that team and seem that a down year.

Thanks for the link... Yeah this would have been helpful for writing the article. Jayden Limar had the MOST snaps of all runningbacks at 23! Makhi Hughes second at 15. Limar didn't have has many carries as Hughes (9) but he was in on more plays. It shows how much this staff thinks of Limar and his development that he is in the game as much as he is. He made some fantastic blocks. On the plays where there were 2 backs lined up along side Moore, Limar was always one of them and he never got the ball on those plays but he was a blocker for the runner. Incredible development and I am thrilled for Limar. Biggest surprise of the year so far I think. And anyone who says they saw this for Limar (that isn't on the team or a coach) is outright lying!

There's a third option... Reveal to Mess with Opponents. Oregon put some stuff on tape that now opponents have to use some of their limited time to practice against. Oregon put Sadiq in the wild-cast (or maybe QB, it kinda looked like he had the option to throw it). Now teams have to prep for that scinario. Oregon did a 2 point look... now teams have to prep for that, even if it failed against Ok State. All those runningbacks... opponents have to prepare for.

I love how they forget how he didn't even have the interest to pick up the phone for Bama but he'll definitely take over at Florida.

Three wins against three different OSUs in one year? Yes, please!

This does feel different so far. Last year we only scored more than 40 points three times, Oregon State, Washington and Penn State. Never broke 50. Last year had some very sleepy third quarters and it was the norm that Oregon would score 0 points in the third. The game may tighten up and they'd put up some points on the 4th to put it away. As a result Gabriel was in the game through 4 quarters quite regularly. Moore this year is doing what Nix did in 2023... Get the job done and taking a seat. The blocking does feel better and the defense feels like they are improving as well. The 2024 team was probably worse than 2023, we just were ill equiped to deal with the Huskies. Everyone else we disposed of. This season feels similar... We are the better team so far and Oregon is demolishing teams in the first two weeks. Something is different but in a good way.

Just saw a report that Novosad was "questionable" for the game. Probably a little dinged up and I think he's still the clear no.2 option at QB. But not worth risking your primary backup if he's not fully healthy.

Since Lanning took over we have seen some great offensive line play. This year it feels like this may just be the best offensive line yet. And doesn't this feel like the offensive line that we were promised under Cristobal? Massive and physical...

The no. 2 OL looked really good. I think there is a lot for confidence in Pickard as the backup. Last year he got Doug Brennered because the coaches threw him in at center and put him in a situation he wasn't ready for. Last year the coaches were clearly scrambling to out an offensive line together and they found a combo. This year they have layers of options. I also think it doesn't hurt to have a right handed quarterback again and having a normal blind side. At the start of last season the right side was the weak side and it was made worse by being Gabriel's blind side. He just didn't always see the pressures coming.

Article coming out tomorrow that looks at our depth. We have some INSANE depth this year. Though I don't not want to see any injuries we have the depth to take a few hits.

Their Clemson win is looking less good as Clemson barely edged pass Troy. I have a feeling that BOTH teams were overrated in that game. We'll have to wait and find out.

That's kinda what I thought at first. I just thought they were putting Moga in first and Novosad would get some reps later. I was surprised to not see Novosad at all. Thomas getting some reps with the 3s and 4 made sense. I wouldn't want my backup to take a hit like Thomas did. No offense to Thomas. But Thomas as a walk on has also earned some reps with his hard work and the last couple series of a blow out is absolutely the time to do it. Northwestern and Oregon State are up next. The backups will certainly get playing time in both of those so we'll have to wait and see who gets those reps.

For football Boise State is intriguing but there are two problems that has kept them out of a power conference all these years. Market share - we have all learned too much about media markets with realignment that's for sure. And Boise State is just a really small market. Probably OSU and WSU have better market shares than BSU but BSU is a much better football school. Academics - this one seems silly but some of the Power conferences do still care about the academic side of things. The academics are BSU is what really kept them out of the Pac-12. Boise State will be putting a whole lot of these new pac-12 trophies in their cabinet which will probably anger the only two real pac-12 members..

Things going from bad to worse.... Oregon State falls to Fresno and WSU is struggling against San Diego! They are bottom feeders in their new conference! A conference they opted to build while destroying another.

Novosad doesn't have a redshirt at this point. Novosad was also the second QB out there in week 1. I'll trust the coaching staff on this but I'm puzzles as well.

Yes! But absolutely thrilled to be wrong! He decolped big time. But also a quick observation when Oregon went 2 back sets one was pretty much always Limar (at least while the ones were playing). He didn't get the handoff but he was a blocker and made some significant blocks for others.

And they would have had a sack with the proper coverage. Great example of it takes 11 to make a sack.

That.... And... Not taking that huge win and leveraging it into a bigger brand and program. They took the win and were happy with it. Never thought of the next step. Oregon in 1994 reached the Rose Bowl and continued to work on building their brand into something bigger and better. 1994 was the beginning. And the difference between those two... Oregon lost that Rose Bowl but made something of it..just think of what the Ducks would have done with a win?

This has gotten me thinking about both OSU's that wear orange and black and how alike they actually are. They are in different positions but both have opted for the "things are fine" approach. Oregon State has never really invested in their football program. They have always rejected the Oregon approach of invest in the program and strive to improve and good things will happen. Instead they opted for the goal of just reaching a bowl game is good enough. The embodiment of this is their hiring of Mike Riley and the maintaining of his contract. Riley was a good coach, he had more winning seasons than losing ones at Oregon State and he kept the Beavers generally towards the middle of the Pac. But he never got them to a Rose Bowl by winning the conference. OSU never invested in the program and they were fine with the status quo. Oklahoma State had money invested and they hired Gundy back in 2005 making Gundy one of the longest (if not the longest) tenured coach in college football. Gundy has been better than Riley and Oklahoma State has invested more into their program than Oregon State. But Oklahoma State didn't seem to leverage their funds into building a next level program. They are firmly in the BIg 12 which is much much much better than Oregon State's situation but the SEC isn't calling on Oklahoma State to join them. It feels like Oklahoma State is just fine with where they're at right now. Maybe in a few years they'll get more active about trying to build a better NIL collective and leverage their resources into building up their program but in a lot of ways Gundy feels like Riley. Just fine.

It's possible ... but here are my reasons why that probably won't be the case. Phil Knight helped elevate Oregon's brand but the university also bought into it. The hiring of Rich Brooks and the indoor practice facility followed. After Brooks there was Bellotti and then Kelly. All built on their predecessor in terms of on field production. The uniforms and facilities absolutely helped but it was the coaching that produced those results and it was the AD and President who hired those coaches not Knight. NIL is a big deal right now but regulations are slowly coming. With revenue sharing coming in this year I can see more regulations on NIL coming soon as well because players are getting paid. So hopefully the future impact of NIL is reduced. Though Knight is the biggest donor for Oregon they are not the only one. In my article linked below I talked about another big Oregon donor, Connie and Steve Ballmer. They purchased the Concordia University campus in Portland that is now the site for UO Portland. They were also the ones who increased Dan Lanning's contract. So there are other investors at Oregon though none are as big as Knight. Multiple sources have said that Knight has money set aside for Oregon in a trust. This money is supposedly invested and will become available over time. This wouldn't make up for the loss of Knight but it is stability in the transition. The Nike connection will continue after Knight though it will change over time. Nothing is forever and Oregon will continue to be all about innovation on and off the field. This leverages the brand and will keep Oregon relevant. Oregon is in the B1G, one of the Power 2. We will have money coming in that makes us relevant moving forward. Oklahoma State did not leverage their brand into a bigger and better conference. The SEC is not calling for Oklahoma State to join them. http://fishduck.com/2023/08/its-time-to-take-a-deep-breath-oregon-is-going-to-be-fine/

I'd say we often smile at Trojan comments. Oh wait... laughing. We often laugh at Trojan comments. My bad there.