David Marsh

That's failure to develop... Star ratings are really just a rating of athletic potential. There is a colation between star ratings and those players reaching the NFL. Five stars are far far more likely to make the NFL than a three star but not a guarantee. Cristobal failed to develop the vast majority of the talent brought in. I mean it took up to this point for Mase Funa a four star to really show his potential. I also think that is a huge reason why he has decided to come back for one more year. And the sad fact of the matter is that the teams with the most five stars are the ones who actually win national championships. Yes TCU has made the playoff... In a weak big-12 and with a whole lot of luck and they still didn't win their conference. Oregon is the only team to reach the national title game in the last 20-ish years that didn't have a favorable blue chip ratio where the roster is mostly composed of four and five stars. And Oregon didn't have the bodies to hang with Ohio State... Auburn was a different story.

I do think Brown and Bassa are looking to take those middle linebacker spots next year. Granted Justin Jacobs will be interesting to see where he fits in. He is taller and bigger so does he play one of those edge positions that still need to go into coverage from time to time? But I do feel like we saw the best overall performance from our linebackers this year during the game. Far from perfect but linebacker has been a liability all year.

I just wish we had Chase for more than one year. Granted I don't think he would have been too happy in the Cristobal offense but we also didn't have any receivers for years it felt like... Also in part due to the Cristobal offense. But still ... It did feel like a very fitting moment for the Cota family with the game winning touchdown. Maybe we'll see another C. Cota in 20-30 years.

Oregon has a facemasking penalty. But otherwise a pretty clean game.

That field at the holiday bowl was deteriorating fast. If you just look at the uniforms over the course of the game they were real muddy by the end. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some added slickness to it.

Great article... A couple thoughts that I'm really excited about. 1. The pistol plays on display in the article were VASTLY different from what we saw under Cristobal. Under Cristobal if it was a pistol play it was going to be a run into the A-gap 99% of the time and I'm really not exaggerating here. If you were to go back and look you would see the pistol used exclusively for running or almost exclusively for a large portion of it's use... The shot-gun would mostly be a pass play where the runningback would be used for blocking. 2. I could see Whittington and Irving being on the field at the same time with Stein as both can catch the ball and slide into the slot position and then slide into a 20 or 21 personell. That would be super deadly and really bring back some DAT or Charles Nelson vibes to the offense. 3. The tempo would be amazing to see brought back. Doesn't need to be all the time but more would be nice. We saw what happened in the Holiday Bowl when the Ducks played with Tempo... The ripped apart the opposing defense and scored points and when we slowed down we got into trouble. However, the game has changed and pure tempo doesn't work like it used to. Also the best teams in college football are the ones who have a power run game they can lean on to control the clock. The Oregon of the Kelly-Helfrich era really struggled to bleed the clock because the Ducks couldn't play slow, in part because they used tempo as a strategy to give them the edge over those slower and bigger defensive linemen. Oregon has the bigger linemen now and can play slower. But tempo is still super super important and I would love to see more of it. Thanks coach for the article and I am fealling super excited for next season!

I ask this question all the time. So I'm rooting for giant sinkhole opening up underneath all of them.

Obviously not a Pac-12 ref or else it would have been a flag on Oregon for targeting.

Yep... We beat USC in the championship game but lost the Fiesta Bowl quite badly with some of the worst special teams play we have ever seen as Oregon fans.

I wouldn't be opposed to this idea... But how do you prove a flagrant PI? In both cases that you mention the DBs didn't even try and get their heads around and they just ran through Franklin. Is that incompetence or intentional? For UNC both plays were certainly better than the alternative which was Oregon scoring or getting major yardage but still difficult to prove on the flagrant side of things.

He had a couple of fantastic break ups. One early in the end zone where he just knocked the ball clean away from the reciever. The second he almost had an interception but the reciever got a hand in there and kept him from catching the ball. I also think it was TB who knocked the ball down at the end of the game on the hail Mary attempt. He needed the development this year but he has looked good down the stretch. I think it also helped out big time that the pass rush finally existed and put pressure on the quarterback! By no means a flawless defensive game... But a brilliant second half that's for sure.

I think Oregon needs three things from their new safeties coach. 1. Proven development... Prowledge had some nice hits in the past and in truth the secondary did look better as the year went on for the most part. But still need to develop that group. 2. Recruiting... Not much to say there. 3. Some DC expirence ... This I feel is the most important right now. Prowledge was in the box this last year and Lupoi was on the field Lupoi caught most of the criticism fairly or unfairly so as he was the bigger name. But this is a chance for Lanning to get someone in the box with more expirence and can hopefully help right this defensive ship. Perhaps a play caller even because this defense had some major issues.

Maybe line it up the next time we play a bowl game in California. I would be tempted to place a bet on a final score of 28-27 next time Oregon plays a bowl in southern California.

This came to me while I was asleep... Or trying to sleep. Before 2018 the last bowl game Oregon won was 2014 and that was a Rose Bowl win over FSU... Again another California game. So to go to the last bowl game the Ducks won that was not in California was in 2013 and that was an Alamo Bowl win over Mack Brown's Texas team.

So Oregon has developed a strange trend in our bowl game wins in recent history. Our last three bowl game victories have all been by one point. 2018 Foster Farms Bowl: Oregon 7 - Michigan State 6 2019- 2020 Rose Bowl: Oregon 28 - Wisconsin 27 2022 Holiday Bowl: Oregon 28 - UNC 27 Also... All wins have been in California so there's that as well. In this same time period our bowl losses have been outside of California and by a lot of points and basically uncompetitive. Just a strange observation, I'm happy for the win as we head into the off season.

He's a target... So we'll have to wait and see if it goes anywhere. Also remember that Prowledge was at Baylor last year. So this wouldn't be an entirely surprising move for him. I do feel like our defense is finally figuring itself out. So we will just have to see how this all plays out.

Well even with Dilly we have seen a runningback rotation that has at times been frustrating to watch. I found it so frustrating on the last offensive series where it was 3rd and 6 and Irving wasn't even in the game. In truth I've been shouting about this for well over a month now or variations of this... The ducks need to have their hot runningback in the game next to Nix even if they have no intention of running the ball because that player's presence says that Oregon might run the ball and forces the defense to defend against it. Then the winning play of the game if you watch the offense you will see Irving is on the field and just blocks a rusher, giving Nix the extra half a second to make the pass to Cota. I'm hoping Stein has a bit of a different philosophy for runningbacks. I love putting fresh legs on the field but not at the cost of keeping the hot hand on the sideline. Even with all these restrictions put on Irving he still ran for more than 1k yards this year... An absolute beast.

They played well in the fourth... But darn they looked lifeless at times. I'm just glad as fans and for the team that we all enter the off season with an Oregon win. Haven't been able to say that since 2019.

Finally... for the first time since 2019 Oregon ends the season on a win! A much much needed win!

The play calling has been pretty bad too... no Dillingham is really showing right now. I do feel Lanning did the right thing going for an outside hire. Nix is also not running which is hurting us as well but no need to risk him re-injuring an ankle for a bowl game.

Anyone else getting annoyed how the commentators harp on how UNC doesn't have their OC but they don't say a word about Oregon being without our OC????

Problem is the defense still has the same problems it has had all year long. I doubt there is much they can really do to actually fix these problems right now. Well there probably are some ways of doing it but are you going to do it without three starters?

Bucky Irving with the TD... The guy really should have had more TDs this year but usually he was subbed out at the goal line. He deserves that score and he is a beast!

Clemson... The ACC was awful when the Clemson was making their National Championship runs and in a lot of ways that helped them. Go undefeated and if injuries do happen the backups can make up for it against lesser competition. Able to have a healthy team for the playoffs themselves. And with a 12 team playoff you're going to want to get out of the regular season with an intact team. And thanks for playing devil's advocate.

If we didn't have the southern California void I would say Utah State and Colorado State would be fine additions as it adds more into that rocky mountain region and would alleviate some of the travel stress from both Utah and Colorado right now because they would have additional games that were close to them. But from a media market perspective it doesn't help us.