I get more jacked for D Line recruits than any other group. This player looks like an athlete, which is what the team needs.

They need to keep bringing in defensive tackles too.

1. 2006 on side kickoff 'recovery' to beat Oklahoma

   This was the one in my book that pissed off the world that Oregon won. For that, I will always give the number one spot.

2. 2007 beating USC and I think a game later, surged the Ducks to number 2 in the nation. That was really big. New heights.

   This was the era of USC being a national powerhouse. (beat Michigan earlier in season as well)

   This ranking put Oregon in the club of super teams, not just the pretty good who could win an upset.

   From this point until the end of the 2014 season, Oregon was ranked very highly many times.

3. 2010 Blowout win vs Tennessee. Showed the world that Oregon was not just a west coast team that could be other west coast teams. Cliff Harris was on top of his game. A real superstar... while it lasted. Give credit where credit is due.

4. 2019 losing to Az St. Iconic in a bad way. Showed that Cristobal and his team could sink to new lows.

   Made me lose my mind over stuff like this. Ducks should have run the table after the close opening season loss to Auburn.

   Oregon had a supremely talented roster that year including Kayvon Thib, P. Sewell, Holland, Herbert and others,including some future NFL cornerbacks.

   They had a real chance to win its first natty that year except for that loss that knocked them out of the playoffs to a very mediocre pac12 team. A team that was surging lost all the air out of their balloon.

   Just win out and get back to playoffs. But nooooooooooooooooo.

5. 2021 beat Ohio St. Knocked off a super team that was always around championships in that era.

   Got up to #3 shortly after that. Oregon was 'back' to the Chip Kelly glory days... until more classic Cristobal bad performances and I think that was the year Cristobal left the team and took the Miami job.

   But it still was a shot of adrenalin for the team and the fans. It woke up the media, that was for sure.

6. 2022 blowout loss to Georgia - iconic in a bad way. From the lows of 2016, Oregon had been climbing back and several times they were almost making playoffs again. Cristobal out and Lanning in. Dan Lanning 'worked' the portal and brought in a high school 5 star QB in Bo Nix. Oregon should have been competitive, even though this was Georgia's best team ever in history. This was a huge kick to the nuts for Duck fans. Still need more time to regroup. Quite a few Duck fans jumped off the band wagon at this point.

7. 2010 season natty vs Auburn. Even though the team lost, it showed that Oregon could compete for a championship. The team hung in there against a talented Auburn team and could have won it if they got a break or two. It made the fans believe that Oregon could hang with the big boys. Yes, moral victories are important. Don't forget the undefeated regular season!

8. End it with another bad one: 2009 loss to Boise St

   Oregon was surging and Chip just got promoted. This was when Boise St was good. This should have been a great win for the Ducks to kick off the season. Not only was it a loss, but a complete meltdown with espn showing non stop replays of L. Blount losing his mind after the game. The Ducks did rebound that year and make it to the Rose Bowl.

To me, these are the kind of games that write the Oregon football story. I don't care too much about playing the Wisconsins, Washingtons, and Beavers of the world. Iconic to me means games that have a national relationship, not just a local one.

These games tell the story of climbing the ladder, getting knocked down and then redemption. And the cycle continues.

These are the kind of games that make the big wins actually mean something. If it was easy, who would care?

I am not the kind of guy who yells USA USA USA at my tv during the olympics. America is the best nation at sports and of course they are going to win medals.

THe big losses are just as much part of the path as the big wins for Oregon. It is a journey, not a pleasure cruise.

Ducks have a very talented roster for 2026. I am more excited about this coming season than any other.

Just a reminder: End of Feb is last day to enter the contest - but we will give you till the end of the entire weekend.

Make your prediction and indicate whether you are in the for the money - losers send in 10 bucks to winner at end of upcoming season.

I'll try to read what is in here and make a final post w/ predictions by person on Sun or Mon so it is easy to read.

See first post for contest rules and tie breakers. You can change your original guess if you do it by this weekend.

You can enter also if you do it by this weekend. Have Fun.

On 2/13/2026 at 1:04 PM, Charles Fischer said:

I like the expanded look, but I do NOT like any byes. Expand it to 32 and be done with it, or make it 16 with no byes, no conference championship games, and no conference "play-in" games.

They are in danger of making the season too long, and with depth being depleted with most of the elite teams from the portal...more games=more injuries.

The byes have been a giant failure. They don't want to sit while everybody else plays. And then they are rusty when they play.

32 is too many. #32 vs #1 first round is like Oregon playing Portland State. Any big 4 can climb to #16 by winning games.

Nobody owes anybody an invitation without earning it in the polls. Just because you beat junior varsity teams and have some wins doesn't mean you are great.

The glory of the conference championship games went away when they did away with the divisions. Back then, there was some pride in your division. Now, it is just an exhibition game kind of preview of the playoffs.

What they could do is bring back divisions (since the conferences are so big now) and factor that into the schedule and the polls as the season wears on.

I would be OK with the top 4 conferences getting their division winners in and then playing with just them.

To do that, ND would need to join a conference. The big 4 would have to pick up the pac12 teams that are worthy plus a few others. Or remake the pac12 and merge the southeast into one conference.

Even with 12 teams, those at the bottom of the best 12 cannot compete. That is just how the game is.

I checked out his tape on 247. With his size, speed, moves, ability to see the holes, and finally top end speed running straight ahead, he should see the field.

He looks like a giant upgrade over the guys who went into the portal. What I did not see was his ability to shed tackles. That should come as he gets older, stronger, meaner and nastier. But on most of his runs, he didn't need to as he just out ran everybody.

Good article. First, I don't buy into the hype about Arch Manning. He is a guy who "needs to get it going" his entire college career. At some point, that is who he is - a player trying to find a rhythm, getting there briefly, and then doing a whole lot of trying to get back there again.

Second, what matters is talent of the field, not talent that already went to the NFL. (Indiana, Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St)

Third, this is the interesting one. Sometimes players improve with another year of playing and sometimes they kind of stay of the same, and once in a while, they slip a little.

Dante Moore: He already has the perfect arm, so I can't see any improvement there. I do expect improvement in how he reacts to pressure since that is really the only part of his game that he needs to work on.

Matayo U: He seemed to have moved down a notch last year from his first year. As his body grows and matures, I think he will go up a couple of notches and turn it on this season.

The skills players on O and D should be some of the best in the country.

Are the linebackers going to improve as a group? They should be more athletic and the subs who have been hanging around should be ready to contribute, but this is a question mark. I feel the same way about the edge players.

The D line: Key subs have left via the portal. Seems like the Ducks have traded backups for backups thru the portal and went down a little talent wise. Can the newer players step in and bring some juice? Again, a question mark.

The O line: A whole bunch who have been patiently developing in the system. Will they be any good? Another question mark.

Overall, the Ducks have some great position groups and some not too sure - only time will position groups.

It really come down to the O line and the linebackers playing up the standards of the rest of the team. There is no big bunch of experienced transfers to save them. We will see how well the staff can develop these players and get them ready for the big time. I would expect to see some "growing pains" from time to time, but then for them to form into solid units by November. At least, that is the hope.

16 hours ago, Steven A said:

It is; however, these guys played a lot more snaps than other who have left and had a greater impact.

Yes that is true. But that is all part of portal life. It hits every team. We don't know which backups were planned for the future and which ones were just role players. We don't know how the staff feels about them leaving. We don't know how the staff feels about the ones who are staying. We don't know if coaching assistants had anything to do with it. We don't know if the staff felt they had more potential or already reached their ceiling. Etc. Some other backups might be passing them up in 2026?

And here is what kind of puzzles me: Why so many D linemen in the portal and so few O linemen? Is it the chance to start next season or is there something else? Any way, the staff has to work around it and put in a depth chart that will work.

I can see a scenario where the starting DTs get hurt and there is no quality depth and that tanks the season. Lets hope not.

Ducks have great QB, great receivers including TEs and RBs, great DBs, awesome D line and some real athletes to help out at edge.

I mean this is serious college level talent. If any other team had this much fire power, I would not pick the Ducks to beat them in a playoff game.

The other 'pieces' need to fill in and not be liabilities of course. I hope they do it because they will lose a lot of good players at the end of next season to the NFL or the portal.

10 hours ago, KCDuck1 said:

All,

I believe we ought to start substituting Elijah Rushing and Aydin Breland whenever it is feasible to give the starters a break. Use them or LOSE them.

Best regards, and of course, Go Ducks!!!
KCDuck1

I wish both of them played more this past season. I am glad both are still in the program. I think Nasir Wyatt is going to make an impact.

The D linemen who left were probably better than the D linemen who came in the portal, but the recruits really look good. They need to get snaps so they stay hungry and don't get discouraged.

9 hours ago, Steven A said:

Since we will probably/have to lose all the returners on the DL, it will be interesting to see if any of the departures try and return for Duck glory.

And, if so, will they be welcomed back?

I am more interested to see what role they get on their new teams next season. And then of course, what kind of an impact they have. The track record of those leaving the Ducks is very, very low. There were a few QBs who shined in the SEC, but other than that, not too much. If memory serves me: Dante Dowdell, Lake Seastrunk, the OT who went to BYU were stars. And I am not counting the ones who left right away like the QB who went to Cal and the RB who also went to Cal a few years back or the WR who went to Florida. Tyler Schuck had a good year at Tech. I am also not counting the ones who went to 'junior varsity' programs like Nevada, Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky or "Southeast Idaho Community Tech".

I was impressed with NFL pass coverage. It was a step ahead of college. There were no windows when the DBs did their thing.

Drake Maye not only was not good at moving in and out of the pocket, he misfired too many times to give his team a chance to win. But some of that was Seattle's defense that would not let New England run the ball and thus made them one dimensional.

As a Portland resident, I rooted for the Seahawks to support the northwest. But if Portland had an NFL team and Seattle did not, I know that almost nobody from Seattle would have been rooting for Portland. Funny how it works out that way.

As I was watching Seattle's D line in total amazement, I don't think the backups the Ducks lost to the portal were of the same caliber. But I did wish that Tionne Gray and Terrance Green stuck around as quality backups and rotational pieces.

Finally, that game was yet another reminder that the quarterback is the most important position. Darnold did not have time either, but he made decisions and throws under pressure that Maye was not making.

Tobi Haastrup and Markus Dixon

One edge leaving and one coming in. Oregon needs pass rushers.

Simeon Price and Iverson Hooks are my wildcards. They might break out.

When you lose assistants, you also lose future players - because assistants recruit.

I would rather have the best players than the best coaches, if it came down to that. But I don't think that is the choice.

Coach Lanning has seen it here for 4 seasons now. The first year was some rebuilding and learning how to be a head coach, then 3 seasons of getting almost to the top. He knows what he needs to close the gap.

I can tell that in the players he is bringing in now, that they are more athletic and have a higher upside. I trust that the coaching promotions would also have a high upside as well. He must have been mentoring them along for such a time.

I predict 2026 is going to be a season that us Duck fans have never seen before. We have seen the Ducks kick butt on the weak, the mediocre, and a few times on good teams (but not always on THEIR best day). In 2026, we should see the Ducks dominate the above average and make them look (and cry) like little girls. Just look at the upgrades and factor in the returning vets getting better with another season under them. We should also see some standout freshmen contribute.

All we need is for the new coordinators to NOT BLOW IT.

He should give hockey a try. Anyone think anyone would be able to out skate him once he learned how to do it?

But at any rate, he did far more than most of us who played high school football. Wherever he goes, he will be a role model.

This amount of talent acquisition in brand new. Oregon has had quality here and there, but not so much of it all at one time.

5 stars, borderline 5 stars, high 4 stars, and former 5 stars via the portal make this a stacked program.

But even recently, much of the top line talent has come from the portal. I would like to see more recruits develop and turn into conference all this and all that kind of players.

Even if they got the call - Dyer was down... Oregon was reeling and getting run over near the end of the game.

They still needed another play - a turnover or a tackle for a big loss to get the ball back.

Back in those days, Oregon had to get better in the trenches and it was proven in these games:

Oklahoma 2006

Auburn natty 2010

Ohio St 2009, 2014 natty

LSU 2011

and a few games in that era vs Stanford and USC

The pain that the program went through trying to bust through the ceiling but failing is laying the foundation for the team to keep getting more and more competitive as time goes on.

14 hours ago, Jon Joseph said:

OR123, pondering the schedule, looking at teams to be played in November with two games on the road, the loss of jack-knife Sadiq, the talent lost through the portal, especially on defense and QB, I have to hedge my prediction.

If all hands are on deck, 10-2. If not?

However, screw the folks at B1G HQ: Win 'Em All!

I see 2026 for Oregon being like the last time LSU won it ALL. Yes, the O line is a question mark. All the other pieces are there. Some young (or portal) edge help is needed for a pass rush too. And the inside linebacker group has to come together.

LSU was sooooo good that year, it didn't matter who they played. And it was mostly due to the passing attack. Oregon will have that plus a great running game too. They already have returning players who can stop the run and the Duck secondary is unique and special.

Oregon lost a LOT of depth, so injuries could kill the season (see 2007). If Oregon plays to their potential, it doesn't matter who lines up against them. That is because all the super teams of the past 5 years are done. There is a real opportunity.

Building momentum. We are going to need a closing date to lock in. I am thinking before Spring camps because injuries can happen. Or we could extend to just before fall camps? But since we are already predicting, waiting gives everyone else an unfair advantage. I would say leave it open until and including the last day of February.

And I also think pay end of season is good. We probably need at least 8 to 10 contestants to make it worth the while of a bet.

8-4, 16, 4, 295 Going with gut feeling. Replacements are not the same guys.

3 hours ago, Jon Joseph said:

11 - 1 Playoff - 1st round bye.

Which is fine. So far, Cig is the only coach who knows how to win 2nd round games.

Tie breaker not needed.

What's my prize and where is it? 🤬

I was thinking we all put in (mail in) 10 bucks and follow it all season and let the drama unfold. Winner take all.

(if Mr FishDuck is OK with it? and you guys want to do it? Lets get everyone in)

Unless the Ducks break down, they make the playoffs again.

My most anticipated game in the final 4 of next year's playoffs... get one more step ahead and then play for a natty

But other than that, I look forward to the Washington game. It is a good rivalry. West coast football.

Since we have a lot of varied opinions, why not? It sounds like fun. (It gives us something to do)

Tie breakers: Indiana's College Football Playoff ranking / Indiana's ranking within the B1G / total points scored

At conclusion of regular season before B1G championship game

Example: 10 - 2, 9, 3, 400 Anyone up for this?

This Indiana season has a lot in common with the Ducks 2010 season under Chip Kelly. The Ducks in 2009 were good, but not good enough. 2010 brought the Ducks undefeated to the championship, but they could not close it out vs Auburn.

This championship, Indiana got the game winning INT to close the deal. Compare that to the Ducks not being able to stop Dyer at the end of the game. What if 'Dyer was DOWN' and on the next play, the Ducks forced a fumble for a big return and the Ducks sealed the game?

Both had a RED HOT new head coach who had a little different formula on how to win. I compare those Indiana back shoulder catches that were timed to perfection to Chip's zone read that nobody could stop.

But college football caught up with Chip and then the Ducks HAD to grow in recruiting to keep up with the success. I suspect the same will happen for Cig. Indiana had a roster full of over achievers that got so much better than they were in high school.

In fact, I see a similar season in 2026 for Indiana that Penn St had this year. Lose a few star players and it is not the same team anymore. Ohio St is losing some players as well. Michigan lost a few after their natty. Same with Georgia after their second championship. But I don't think Indiana will implode like Penn St did.

Quite a few teams have had 'Cinderella' seasons: TCU, Hawaii, Boise St, and most recently Texas Tech. But Indiana was the only one to carry the juice all the way to the end. You could count SMU in the early 80s, but they cheated more than everybody else at the time AND they had players who were super stars in high school.

If Cig can keep it going in 2026 and beyond, then there really is some kind of magic. But I look at this last season like drawing an inside strait in Las Vegas and cleaning out the casino - a one time thing with a lot of luck.

I predict an (8-4) or at best (9-3) season for Indiana and missing the playoffs.

But even so, Indiana should get all the credit in the world for being the one (and only?) team to go from the bottom to the top is such a short time frame with players who were not rated super highly in high school.

Pretty soon, 'Google Me' is going to be like Prime Time's 'Do you Believe?'. I can't wait until the Ducks play them again.

I define success to be what the team does in the December early signing period and then what happens with the portal.

The games just follow recruiting. The expanded playoffs were needed. When it was just the AP determining champions, every game was a playoff game - all charging ahead to get that number one spot and not lose it.

Two years in and the teams with byes lost 7 out of 8. Time to go to 16. The top 4 or 5 will get warm up games. It is also time to dump the group of whatever. If they are good, they can get ranked high enough to get in. Or... let their top teams play top 5 teams in the first three weeks, get a win, and then build a case for playoffs.

Doesn't all this remind you of 'Prime Time' at Colorado? It does a little to me.

If it follows the same script, Kiffen will win a few games, get all the attention, and then get beat down by a 'real team'.