David Marsh

From the sound of it Nix and Stein have gotten along great and are talking about the Xs and Os at a high level. I think Nix is an incredible example where scheme and a players ability when paired together can make all the difference in the world for how that player preforms. Nix has a completely different player when looking at his 2022 season compared to his 2020 and 2021 seasons. I do feel Stein is downplaying the importance of his role in order to highlight the importance of his players.

I did mention that Oregon was playing with a depleted roster but we were really badly bullied at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball that game. But in our revenge with a mediocre Cristobal scheme we beat Ohio State in their own house by running the ball down their throat. It goes to show you how players can make all the difference because in 2021 we were the bullies at the line of scrimmage.

Allowing prospective athletes to have unlimited visits is fine the way I see it. They are keeping the cap on how many official visits a school can host which is the more important number for the future of College Football and recruiting. I did write an article about what could happen if they removed that 56 cap on how many visits a school can host. Unlimited Official Visits Will Only Make College Football Worse FISHDUCK.COM College Football has always been composed of the "haves" and "have-nots" and that isn't going to change, but there is a desire to...

The other side of things is how many coaches are pushing these kids into the portal. I think Brown is one Lanning would like to keep. Though Ma'ae wouldn't surprise me if he is pushed out... Though he did just move positions to try and find playing time. Tucker is interesting because he is only a redshirt freshman. I think a lot of kids are looking elsewhere to better themselves but I think some are certainly being pushed out because roster management has never been at such a premium.

Sucks to lose Brown. Sucks more that he may end up at Oregon state if he wants to stay close to home but leave the Ducks.

I'm not sure about Ohio state... But I did write an article about making the spring game a real game a year ago. It's Time for a Real Spring Game FISHDUCK.COM The Spring Game is just a glorified scrimmage. It's something all fans know, but we still get excited about... I feel it is far more likely that a spring game against another team would be against an FCS opponent. They need the money and they won't cost nearly as much as Ohio State would to come to Oregon. Fans would still fill the stadium because it's one of the few tastes of football we get before the season.

You can trash talk and be a good sport. Seems counterintuitive but it is completely possible. Trash talk all you want but at the end of the game win or lose with grace.... Granted if you push it too far you might get far more than what you bargained for at the end of the game. But you can always flip that by being a good sport because isn't it next level trash talking to take someone who is trying to get a rise out of you and all you want to do is shake their hand? What are they supposed to do to that? The biggest thing why I think sportsmanship has disappeared is that it doesn't get clicks or views to be a good sport. Where being a poor sport raises your profile for better or worse and that's the brand and that's where the money is. Good sports tend not to bring out any strong emotions... But bad sports do both for those with you and those against you.

I had the misfortune of driving through Corvallis yesterday... I thought the place could be improved with some more green and yellow banners with an O motifs rather than those orange and black ones.

From what I have heard about early talk about this idea is that both coasts would play the vast majority of their games within their current conference alignments but at the end of the season there will be some cross conference games, including a conference championship game from the top two teams. Far more managable expense wise to only do one or two cross over games a year.

I think the alliance with the ACC is a far better option despite the geography. The ACC still has it's tent pole teams... Namely teams that give the conference purpose. Now the LA schools would argue that they were the tent pole teams of the conference which in terms of media money they did help bring in a big market. However, the PAC has Oregon and Washington who are both miles ahead of whatever is left in the big-12. The ACC has Clemson, FSU, Miami and part time Notre Dame. And... The ACC is desperate to get more money from their incredibly long and poor media contract.

Well by the sound of it each team has their own set of permanent opponents. Here is the link to what each team's permanent opponents look like. Oklahoma, Texas to SEC in 2024: What a 9-game conference schedule could look like FANSIDED.COM Oklahoma and Texas will be joining the SEC a year ahead of schedule beginning on July 1, 2024. By the grace of god... They used a formula to determine the "best" match-ups. They are trying to preserve some rivalries while they also took a team's win-loss ratio into account to try and "balance" out the schedule so no one was caught off with a murderer's row. However... Tennessee has been very bad over the last ten years and are now turning it around so you can imagine why Bama might be a bit upset about having Auburn, LSU and Tenn... when Auburn is currently the worst of the lot in that list but they would have actually been rated as one of the better programs. Oh well... Bama's tears are almost as good as Husky tears.

Looks like the SEC is going to 9 with 3 perminant opponents. Saban made a big fuss about the ones Bama got. Bama gets Auburn, LSU, and Tennessee. Then they rotate through the rest of the conference. Which is good so that basically if a player stays at their school for 4 years (I know that's silly in this day and age) they get to play everyone twice, home and away.

Considering the 2023 season is still about 6 months away there really isn't much of a rush to announce anything. I know the SEC has announced their rivalries and format change but the B1G can really wait until like January of next year to announce this stuff publicly and be fine. There is probably tons of stuff going on behind closed doors right now.

I wouldn't have been surprised if Altman pushed Ware out the door. Altman basically said at the end of the season that there needs to be a culture shift in the program and he might be giving a nudge or a push out for some who don't match the culture he wants to rebuild at Oregon.

Well... Basketball is the thing going on right now and men's basketball is the no. 2 money maker after football. I know many don't like Canzano but it is basketball season, or at least season's end, so it is timely. Football will be back to the forefront in a few weeks when the tournament is over. Also both Oregon ducks teams going to the NIT and not the big dance does dampen our interest in this year's tournament.

Well short term money yes... But I'd say both were pursuing long term dreams. And neither realized how good they had it at Oregon and how Oregon probably enabled them to be better coaches while they were hear with our resources. Both have had a reality check to some degree. Taggart is now off to the NFL as an assistant coach. Cristobal just had an awful season and had yet another opportunity to learn some critical lessons. In both cases they thought the grass was greener outside of the PAC... Truth is... That isn't always the case and often it is a whole lot more difficult. The PAC is often referred to as a weak conference by the media... And sometimes that has been true but it is perhaps the most competitive conference as top to bottom it is always possible to lose in any given week and it is always difficult to win .

Looks like many may have quietly left the team. Perhaps even with that year one coaching rule where the coach can remove players in the first year and those players retain their scholarship with the university. This would have been done in December but looks like that is probably what happened to some extent.

Even though I knew Oregon wasnt in the big dance, I still put Oregon winning it all. Needless to say my bracket was a bust before the first game.

I read somewhere that Chip was ready to trade almost anything to get Mariota. Mariota was the quarterback he needed in the system he wanted to run. But it was not meant to be.

There has been talk about using Matayo U as a TE as he played some in high school.

A few things this year happened that I think contributed to a mediocre defense. 1. Rebuilding the culture was the first step. The crazy thing is that the best defense in the Cristobal era was 2019 and that had some phenomenal youth with some veteran leaders. Troy Dye was a massive leader on the field and he was a Helfrich recruit. KT was able to get off to a great start because the defensive line and linebackers demanded to be taken seriously and that meant KT had a lot of 1v1s which he could win and did. A veteran culture on the defense was never rebuilt after 2019. 2. Lackluster 5-star linebackers... Sewell had been a monster the previous two years but when his role needed to expand in Lanning's Defense he really didn't seem to take it on with much success. Then Flowe was a loose cannon who was just as likely to get a late hit as a big play hit. Neither were suited for Lanning's Defense and Lanning has brought in linebackers who should change that. I think Sewell was exposed in this defense and it hurt his draft stock and it showed just how limited he really is on the field. 3. Installing the defense Lanning actually wants starts now. When Lanning came in his mission was to maintain the roster and see what he had and use it. It turned out he didn't have a roster that could run his defense so they really used a bend but don't break defense that we have been using for the past few years more or less. With a huge influx of recruits and transfer portal players that should change in a hurry. This year we should see more of the Lanning defense because he has more of his players. Granted the drawback is that he is limited in the number of veterans in his system as many will be learning it for the first time. One of the things he had a Georgia is that he had stacked talent and talent that could cycle in with deep knowledge of the system when players left. He doesn't have that knowledge just yet but it should be there soon. Great article Joshua.

I think swinson probably wouldn't have seen the field that much next year without some major leaps and bounds in development. Thornton doesn't make any sense at all. He was on the rise big time towards the end of the season.

Eating it as a net gain or loss feels a bit silly to me. Sure there is plenty of talent to be gained by the transfer portal but sometimes a team needs a net loss into the portal to accommodate incoming freshman. Stanford, as I have said a million times now, will always be a net loser because they can't bring in much talent due to their academic requirements. USC under Lincoln Riley is a meat grinder where they chew up and spit out athletes so fast that they don't look like a program that will be doing much development at all. Come in ready to play or get out.

I wouldn't count Florence out ... I think he could sneak into the starting line up.

It's the continuation of the notion that the west coast (without the LA schools) has no value. Will the new PAC deal be equal to the B1G deal? No it won't... But if it's good enough then buying into a B1G deal that will require more travel and thus more expenses for a harder path to the playoff doesn't inherently make sense.