David Marsh

Oregon is going to give Lanning a raise and probably a new contract extension after this year. If recruiting holds the way it currently is, we will have a solid recruiting class, and his on-field results are excellent so far. Barring some crazy end of season disaster, Lanning is getting paid. Also remember... Cristobal was on everyone's list for any open SEC job when he was at Oregon as well. Hell, Cristobal was even on a lot of pundit's lists to go to USC! On the National level we are still treated as a stepping stone job and for the most part we have been so its not a surprise are still being treated that way. I do think Mullens and Knight feel like they have their guy and they are going to give him the pay to stay. They will probably be giving Dillingham a pay raise too by the end of the season. Keep in mind that Lanning's contract is pretty "cheap" right now not because of his current results but because he is a first year head coach. We got him on the "cheap" because we are giving Lanning the opportunity to be a head coach and build his program. As Lanning continues to prove himself his price tag will go up and I think all the major players are currently satisfied with what they have and are willing to pay.

I'll be honest this uniform combination is not working for me. Nightmare green and egg shell uniforms aren't my favorite to begin with but I'm ok with them as stand alones. But mixing and matching the two... Kinda looks like someone jumped in a pile of ducks uniforms and that's what they came out as ... It just doesn't feel cohesive. Switch out the egg shell top for just white and I'm onboard.

Zaga is basketball which is a revenue maker... But football is where the big bucks are located. I can't help but feel on this one that this move would benefit Gonzaga more than the big-12. Sure it helps big-12 basketball but does nothing to move the foot all needle. Also is Gonzaga going to make enough money here to actually make conference realignment profitable? That's a lot of distance traveling. Gonzaga as a private school does mean that the media market is more defuse but it is still not that big of a market. I think there is a reason that Gonzaga hasn't really made too many PAC conference realignment lists... But we will have to wait and see... It is interesting.

You have it right I'm pretty sure. Lanning is really following more of a philosophy for the middle of the game than adhering strictly to the middle eight minutes. If you go just one more minute earlier in the second quarter against cal Oregon scored another touchdown... That would be around 5 minutes left in the half. Technically it is outside of the middle right so it's not recorded as a part of the stat but it does show just how aggressive this philosophy is in the game and how it could exhaust opposing teams.

Though they cannot entirely control who has the ball and when in these middle minutes what they do have control over is their mentality and making in-game decisions around that mentality. Basically... its phase 2 - the aggressive phase of the game. What is Oregon going to do? Be aggressive and try to score as many points as possible before the half. Not getting the ball after the half? That still means play aggressive and maybe call a few different pressure packages to force getting the ball back. Lanning doesn't have a guarantee of getting the ball after half time but he does have control over how he wants his team to go after the ball.

Tune into FishDuck tomorrow for a whole article about this...

Donte Thorton takes Hutson's place at that point. We have depth and I'm not that worried. But it isn't a good look. I think it looks even worse this year than last year when Pittman left the team when he did because at least Pittman could enter the transfer portal. McGee is leaving just to sit out and wait at this point. He could be working hard to get himself in the rotation and then choose to leave once the window opened. It's just modern college football.

I would agree with this... I am hoping that the CFP Comittee has more forgiveness in them than the national media that can't seem to forget that the embarrassing Georgia loss came from a team with a first year head coach in his first game with a brand new staff against a Georgia program that had some coaching turnover but nothing compared to what Oregon underwent.

And an Oregon coach is NOT on the list! I'm actually very happy with that.

In a big shock... a few small changes this week but not really anything dramatic in terms of changes. 12. Colorado (1-7) - And the loser of the Garbage Bowl for worst team in the Pac-12 is... COLORADO! Though they did put up a respectable effort but they are just a really bad team this year. 11. Arizona State (3-5) - Arizona State defeated Colorado but that's not saying much. But the good news for the Sun Devils is they can hold their heads up knowing they are not the worst team in the Pac-12 this year. 10. Stanford (3-5) - I moved Cal ahead of Stanford here mostly because of key injuries. Stanford is now on their third string runningback and its showing. Stanford in the transfer portal era has struggled but what is even more clear now is that they really don't have any depth at all. 9. Cal (3-5) - It's close between Cal and Stanford which is worse but I think Cal barely has the edge here. 8. Arizona (3-5) - Arizona has an offense that's for sure. They still don't have a defense but they have a dynamic and dangerous offense. Arizona is absolutely on the right track right now and it may seem rediculous but I do think Arizona may need to give Jed Fisch a raise by the end of the season to ensure he doesn't go elsewhere. Arizona won't make a bowl game this year but I would be shocked if they don't make one next year with the way this team is improving. They just need to get a defense and they would honestly move up about 2 spots on these rankings. 7. Washington State (4-4) - I have so many questions about this team now. They have suffered some injuries that's for sure but they have lost some real momentum over the past month. Oregon clearly got their best shot this year and Oregon survived it. Last week I felt confident that Washington State would be able to beat the Huskies but at this moment I'm not so sure which is why I moved them down a spot, in really the only change from last week. 6. Washington (6-2) - The Huskies move up here mostly because I have so many questions about the Cougs. Washington had a bye week so not much to say about them but they get to host the Beavers this weekend. So... Go BEAVS! 5. Oregon State (6-2) - The Beavers are ranked in the AP Poll at No. 24. They had a bye week so not much to talk about but I do feel they are clearly headed in the right direction right now. 4. USC (7-1) - USC traveled to Arizona and found themselves in a shootout. Not too surprising at this point as USC hired a Big-12 coach and the Big-12 is all about the shootout so USC's defense played just good enough to get a few stops to avoid an upset and their offense is plenty talented to score enough points. But at this point it doesn't look like USC is going to have the ability to stop the teams that sit ahead of them, namely UCLA and Oregon. USC will play UCLA towards the end of the season but I don't think they will win that match-up, their defense will not be able to stop UCLA's offense and the USC defense will get stopped just enough to give UCLA the edge. 3. Utah (6-2) - This ranking hasn't moved but it comes with a MAJOR caveat. If Utah is without Cam Rising going forward they drop below USC no questions. Utah is not the same team without Rising and without him they are lucky to escape Washington State with a win. So if Rising is out going forward Utah drops but as we really don't know anything about his injury I will leave Utah here for the moment. 2. UCLA (7-1) - UCLA took a loss to Oregon but still looks like the No.2 team in the conference. They are the most well rounded team and they trashed Stanford on Saturday. If I were to place a bet for the Championship game I would probably give a slot to UCLA at this point. 1. Oregon (7-1) - Oregon is the best team in the conference and is close to locking in their trip to Las Vegas. If Oregon keeps on winning they are looking at a Rose Bowl at the very least and potentially a trip to the College Football Playoff... on Tuesday evening we will have a better idea what that path for the Ducks might look like. ---------------------- Championship Game Predictions.... Right now it looks like Oregon v UCLA for the Pac-12 crown looks the most likely. Utah will have to play Oregon at Autzen and I don't think they leave with a win this year. I give the edge to UCLA over USC. Also in terms of where things stand right now for that second spot in terms of tie breakers goes like this.... UCLA > Utah > USC USC has the best chance to unseat UCLA for the second spot as they will need to beat UCLA to win that tie breaker... unless heaven forbid Utah beats Oregon in which case everything goes absolutely bonkers.

Who do you take out to put in McGee? Franklin? Cota? Hutson? ... Hutson put up some big numbers against Cal, even after his dropped pass. Overall Oregon's starters are solid at wide receiver which is where McGee has been moved to position wise as he hasn't practiced with the runningbacks... but even the runningbacks are out there making huge plays.

I think Mariota needs the win more with where he is at in his career. But overall, let's just hope for a high scoring game and both qbs do well. Go Ducks!

No sacks... I'm a bit shocked by that because I thought there at least one maybe two. But I guess he was a runner? Whatever I'll take it all the same.

And the coaches and Nix did work at keeping the team focused just enough for large enough portions of the game to win. The offense sputtered and in truth should have scored 50 points but we still managed 42. Our defense should have kept Cal at 10 but gave up an extra 14 points in the 4th. I do feel strongly that if we had last year's staff, this would have been a loss. Granted if we had last year's staff we probably would have 4 losses... Georgia, WSU, UCLA and Cal. So I am very thankful for our current staff!

Just saw the box score. Miami 14 Virginia 12 In 4 overtimes! That sounds like a type of game Cristobal wants. Knifefight in a phonebooth type of game. The type of game that as Oregon fans we never want to see again if possible. It probably doesn't have Miami fans all that happy either right now. 4 quarters and 4 OTs to score. 14 points. For the record... Not a single touchdown was scored by either team and at the end of regulation the score was 12 to 12.

Yep... It has that feeling about it.

Easily left points on the field. I feel we probably should have taken a couple field goals and been fine with it. In truth you can eat Cal with field goals and I feel we should have taken a couple of those and been fine with it.

The game left like a let down. Just not a high energy game that we were all hoping for. However, we did win and still scored more than 40 and there was no doubt in the end we were going to win. Just wish we didn't give up 14 points to their back up QB.

They have scored 14 points on us with their back up QB.... This is kinda embarrassing.

That last doesn't hurt anything but it's a negative stat for Bo's Heisman campaign at this point... But whatever... A solid win will do him more help than one extra interception on his stat sheet at this point.

Is Lanning taking another time out to try and get another shot to score before the end of the half???

It's kind of funny... Irving has more touchdowns as a reciever than a runningback. That is a far cry from the first two games when we were all agonizing over him dropping passes..

We are now on the middle 8 minutes. Oregon has been the best team in the country at owning those middle minutes of the game. Let's hope they continue to do so today.

Nix is carrying this team right now and willing this team forward. Sometimes that is exactly what a quarterback needs to do..

The defense needs to get that pass rush working again. That big play feels like the pass rush kinda gave up on the play.