HappyToBeADuck

Well done 81DuckAlum. Thanks for posting. If MC is genuine he stays. Doesn't seem to be the kind that will walk away from the kids and their parents. Been wrong alot in my life. Hope I am right on this one.

Mario has a big decision before him. Stay at a school that has a 25 year successful culture and process in place. Oregon has been close to the top of the mountain, (Joey Harrington years. Ducks got jobbed out of a Natty spot). Then fell down for a few years. (Bellotti, Kelly and MH took us back to the top twice.) Then the 4-8 and 7-6 years with MH and Slick. (Then the 4 year climb back near the top under MC.) Thru it all each staff stuck to the Oregon culture and process. During that time Oregon boosters, especially Phil and Penny poured untold millions into facilities and state of the art everything. The fan support was spectacular. Miami on the other hand got to the top 30 years ago and stayed thru Johnson and Erickson. Hats off they broke thru and butt whipped all the blue bloods. Well done.... However Miami had no culture or process in place. No investment into facilities by boosters. Coker could not maintain and for 20 plus years the Canes have been an after thought. So MC can choose to maintain and grow the established culture at Oregon. Enjoy unlimited booster support and get Oregon to the top. He has about 60 plus blue chip established players to work with. Or He can go home. Start fresh from the ground up. Then establish the needed culture and process and take the Canes back to the top. He can maybe hope the boosters will invest hundreds of millions to upgrade facilities. Either way MC will get it done. I just hope he remembers which school gave him his second chance as a head coach. MC talks about loyalty. Let's see if he means it.

Thanks Oregon Rich. He was "quite a guy. He led and taught by example. However, he allowed us to grow by our own choices. Good or bad they were our choices, our results. MC could learn alot from that principle. Lead by example and let your coaches grow.

KT was fun to watch.... Glad he chose Oregon and raised the bar for more of the same. I don't feel KT played enough games to fully develope his game. With injuries and covid his actual playing time experience was a small sample size. He was handled more often than not. Don't think scouts didn't notice. One more year to mature. Grow into his man body and look out. Another season will do him wonders. IMHO. However, I wish him well. Thanks for being a great Duck. Hope he has an amazing NFL career. And an even better family life. The Lions, Jags, Jets, Texans and whoever gets Seahawks pick will have one hec of a player. Another great Duck to the NFL.

Wow these are all solid posts. So many pros and cons. I agree that the Midwest guys will stay put. Fickell for sure. May be Campbell moves because this roster is loaded for 3 solid years. Kiffin is adored and understood at Ole Miss. West coast coaches are not impressive. Best choice of young guys may have gone to Washington? I hope MC stays and Phil and Penny are still on board. If so, let's take advantage of the weak members in the PAC. Find the very best, innovative, young OC and pay him $3 to $4 million a year. Make a splash hire and raise the bar. Make Oregon the desired young coaching destination. Give them a life changing money contract. And please MC, let em coach. Turn em loose.....

His agent would be less than great if he didn't create a bidding war for the services of his client. Lots of money on both sides. My father, rest his amazing soul, was a national union president. His negotiation skills and timing were exceptional. He organized a pay increase strike, for labor, that lasted from lunch to dinner. All on a very special day, Christmas Eve. The wealthy newspaper owner called him just as we sat down to eat Christmad Eve dinner. My Dad said he would be over after he finished dinner with the family. Dad told Mom he would be back within the hour. He left, she cried because some previous negotiations had lasted days. 45 minutes later Dad was back. The strike was over and he had to get to work (swing shift) Mom asked how did this happen so fast. Dad replied that the owner, William, asked him one question, what can we do to get this resolved? Dad said, well let me ask you one question? After you answer that question we can get started. The question Dad asked: Tell me Bill, we have known each other 25 years now, do you want to be the first in your family to not print a Sunday Christmas Day edition newspaper since 1890? At that moment the union got its pay raise and the 4th generation newspaper owner printed his coveted Christmas morning paper published.. Youngsters may not understand but that used to be the biggest, advertised edition of the year. Timing....let the negotiations begin.. Mario and his agent are poised and timed between 2 sets of wealthy boosters. At this moment it is good for Mario to be a Duck. Generational wealth awaits.

I think Mario will do his job until he has another job. Nobody will out work him. Wish he would simply stop and listen to others who have already paved the road. Go Ducks.....

I rarely take what radio and TV talking heads spout off as gospel. The more outrageous the more listeners or clicks. Colin Cowheard misses more than he hits. He was spouting from reliable sources the Veneables was going to be hired by Oklahoma. Deal would be finished last Monday. This time, his sources have a 50/50 chance of being right. John Canzano mentioned yesterday that a group of boosters were flying in to potentially meet with Mario and his agent in Vegas. Mario us definitely going to see his mother asap. The outcome may depend on whose private jet he takes back to Miami. The Miami boosters or Phil Knights. Either way MC is going to even be richer. One choice will make him more financially secure and held in high esteem. The other choice also more financially secure but a man without honor and integrity. Not because he takes another job. That's fine. It's okay. But because he didn't have the courage, as a man, to at least say I am going to look at the Miami job offer, weigh my choices, talk to my family and then make a decision.. Again its not what he said..... It's what he didn't say.. Thanks for all the great comments today. Great day to be a Duck.

I rarely take what radio and TV talking heads spout off as gospel. The more outrageous the more listeners or clicks. Colin Cowheard misses more than he hits. He was spouting from reliable sources the Veneables was going to be hired by Oklahoma. Deal would be finished last Monday. This time, his sources have a 50/50 chance of being right. John Canzano mentioned yesterday that a group of boosters were flying in to potentially meet with Mario and his agent in Vegas. Mario us definitely going to see his mother asap. The outcome may depend on whose private jet he takes back to Miami. The Miami boosters or Phil Knights. Either way MC is going to even be richer. One choice will make him more financially secure and held in high esteem. The other choice also more financially secure but a man without honor and integrity. Not because he takes another job. That's fine. It's okay. But because he didn't have the courage, as a man, to at least say I am going to look at the Miami job offer, weigh my choices, talk to my family and then make a decision.. Again its not what he said..... It's what he didn't say.. Thanks for all the great comments today. Great day to be a Duck.

For what it's worth: P-12 coaching is weak. In OOC games the PAC got schooled by G5 and 1-FCS coaching staffs. Over the last few years the PAC has embarrassed itself in bowl games. Mario simply out recruited them and the talent difference helped over come....... OUR COACHING DEFICIENCIES.. KW and his staff are not weak.. DS and the Stanford staff are not weak.. They game plan and adjust the plan during the game..... And their schools stuck with them.. I won't make excuses for our selfish (looking elsewhere) coaches and their coach speak. They gave up an important life element (self respect) Its not entitled. As coaches you let your players, fans and yourself down. As for the players: Hats off and congratulations. You thrived thru multiple injuries, key injuries and underwhelming coaching. You gave Oregon one of its greatest OOC road wins at the shoe. Very proud of you...... FYI: Utah had almost 40 players who were 4th thru 6th year players. This was an experienced team. Some of those players were return missionaries who started college at age 21. Lots of experience and maturity. Utah had men on the field. We had mostly boys. Oregon has over 50, true freshmen, covid freshmen, redshirt and sophomore redshirt players play this season. Lots of lessons learned. Stay at Oregon and we can all watch you grow and mature into men. Thru my tears I will say it's great to be a Duck.

Well theirs that old saying.... Be careful what you wish for! Consider that 6 P-12 schools couldn't get bowl eligible. I for one had more fun with 10-3 this year than the 4-8 and 7-6 years. For you newbies, those 2 years were brutal and without hope. Only a handful of schools are Invitational worthy. Oregon is currently not one of them. Udub fell into oblivion for 20 years because of bad coaching choices. Hired CP, rebuilt with great leadership and made invitational. Sure fell off quickly, IMHO. I would rather MC stay. Then hire assistants who can in game coach.

Their were no words that MC said in his press conference that bother me. Words mean nothing....... It's what he didn't say that is troubling. He should have said: I just signed my contract extension with Oregon. That's all that needed saying. He didn't Safe to say that everything is on the table.

PittDuck, you are right on the money.. Will they be ready? Wish I was confident about that. They should really play physical and nasty. Friday at 5 can't come soon enough

I don't think anything is for sure when it comes to the coaching carousel..... Who would have thought Riley to USC or Kelly to LSU. Or Oklahoma or ND would need a coach. The chips will fall where they fall. What a great time to be a Duck fan.

Just food for thought. Michigan State stadium holds about 26,000 more fans than Autzen. With a 7 game home schedule, well that is 184,000 ticket purchases. That's 3 Duck home game numbers. I googled to see what MSU average ticket price is..... Ready, wait for it...... $110 per. In a perfect world, just on attendance, those extra seats bring in $20,240,000. That doesn't count parking or concessions for those extra fans I doubt MSU really needed to squeeze that money out of any boosters. But a good AD knows how this game is played. (So does my wife) My stomach tells me that MSU has much more money in the coffers for their Athletic Departnent than Oregon has. As for the 1%ers. Not sure which school has more. Either way, Mullens is aware of what's going on around the college landscape. Hoping he acts accordingly to keep MC happy. Hoping that a handful of Duck boosters, not named Knight, step up and help Mullens keep MC and his staff in line with others. Go Ducks.... put your big boy pants on and payback the Utes. Ohio State awaits you and the price tag for MC will go up. Be a great Christmas gift for the coaches 1-0 this week says it all.

I have faith in JM to have a overall game plan to keep Utah off balance. As well as in game adjustments once he recognizes the Utah defenders tendencies. Exploit them he will. Now from all Duck fans, positive thoughts and energy for AB to execute and Exploit those opportunities. This could and should be the game AB connects over the top.

Grandpa Duck, I don't know if that's a curse or a blessing. The talking heads have had to wipe egg (or duckies poo) off their heads a few times this year. Maybe they decided to play it safe?

Charles thank you for expressing what many on this forum feel. Find myself having to push the thought of a 12-1 Duck team being left out of the invitational, out of my aged mind. The beauty contest/ratings conscious committee toys with the base human emotion of passion. Fans are passionate, crazy passionate. The committee toys with the emotion of millions. What a power rush it must be for those sanctimonious individuals. Their are no rules or precedents to follow since they threw out the head to head benchmark. Imagine how Sparty fans feel. All OBD's can do is win out and hope for more chaos. A Bama loss, a Cincinnati loss for example. Chew on this forum junkies: when Cincinnati plays SMU today it will be only the 3rd team they face with a winning record. This will be the Ducks 5th game including the juggernaut that is tOSU. Their are no comparisons in the respective schedules. But as mentioned so often, MC and the Ducks find a way to lose a game against a lesser opponent. It's the Achilles heel of Duck football. Regardless of all the circumstances surrounding the Stanford debacle, it's a big L. All the excuse the committee will need. GO Ducks. Beat Utah, let's see how the committee treats a win as an underdog on the road....

30Duck that will be the the game in a nutshell . Now that the Ducks aren't lined up 9 yards deep the backs can hit the hole quicker. Less chance to be TFL. Neutralize the UTEs front 7 and it will be a long evening for Utah. Give AB time to hit the short pass and the Ducks can put up 40 plus points.

Ducks 42-24 3-4 198 Go Ducks 1-0 Stop the Utes running game and KT, Brady Swinson, Jeffrey Bassa and NS will have a game to remember.

Gonna be a great game. Utah coaching staff will game plan to try and stop the Ducks running game. The optimum word is try. One of AB's strength is in the short passing game. Go ahead and stack the box, play to AB's comfort zone. He will move the sticks with crossing routes, screen passes and tight end dump offs. Utah has a weak secondary. Their lack of depth has them playing many inexperienced youngsters. Tomorrow AB will hit some over-the-top TD passes. Gonna take some points to win this big game. Go Ducks. Beat the Utes and AB have the game of your career.

Grandpa Duck thank you for sharing that awesome history lesson. You speak with first hand knowledge, personal experience and wisdom. Love to hear more. Go Ducks. Scoreboard is the fact that trumps opinion. 1-0....

Unlike the national not so know-it-all talking heads, this beat writer has seen the Utes play. He speaks with visual knowledge and 10 games of analysis. The national clowns always talk about what teams can do to Oregon. Rarely do they speak of what Oregon can do to the other team. Play the game. Let your play do the talking. Going to be a great game and a big challenge. Go Ducks. 1-0......

Scoreboard is all that matters. Most of these clowns have not watched either Utah or Ducks. Just some highlights and what they derive from other social media Nonexperts ...... It's keeping up with the Kardashians on sports talk broadcasts. This looks good on me because I am a Kardashian. It sounds good because it came out of my self important mouth. As much as I wish we lay the lumber to the Utes, this will probably be a one score game. The outcome can go either way. Go Ducks. 1-0. Prove en all wrong.

Bring the A plus game Control both lines of scrimmage Play clean, error free and no bone head penalties. This game is for the taking. GO DUCKS.....1-0