HappyToBeADuck

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

The Ducks should be the underdogs against Utah in SLC. The Ducks would probably be favored in Eugene. Our beloved Ducks best bring the A plus game Saturday. Utah is capable of beating us on their home turf if we don't bring it. When we bring it, I don't feel Utah will have an answer. They didn't have an answer for BYU or SDSU. This Duck team is vastly more talented than those 2 teams. However, the games are won on the field not with statistics. The talking heads just spout stats. They don't know anymore than you or I. Go Ducks. Bring it and bring it all game long. The Utes have not stared down this rushing juggernaut. They have not played anyone with a defense with KT or NS. 1-0

Tandaian great stuff. Food for thought. I wonder how many teams in the 21st century can say they never trailed tOSU in the second half? In the shoe, nonetheless....... When's the last time tOSU lost a conference game at home. Like a tootsie pop, lasts a long time. When's the last time Michigan, MSU, Iowa, Wisconsin or Penn State beat tOSU in the shoe? Well done Ducks......

30 Duck you are so right that it is a great time to be a Duck. Time to beat Utah and go 1-0 this week. I could sure use a 9:00 am kick off this week. Anticipation is brutal.

David this offense is becoming more watchable. Thankfully...... Nice observation and well explained article. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us IMHO the JM offense is very sophisticated and difficult to defend. Each formation has multiple but unique options that require the defense to sit back, momentarily, and watch the play unfold. That hesitation, coupled with the correct QB read, allows the offense to move the ball with ease. As 30Duck mentioned "It is becoming harder for us, and the opposing defense, to no what is coming" The defense cannot be overly aggressive. When they try they take themselves out of the play. For me, a 5 to 8 minute Duck drive is beautiful. Fun to watch...."Becoming more watchable" The last 3 games our rushing attack, coupled with the Ducks aggressive defense has allowed the opponents about 25 minutes of time of possession. Take out garbage time and Colorado has 14 points, WSU 17 points and the puppies got 16. That's impressive. Ball control and time of possession equal fresh aggressive defenders. As I have rewatched the games the long passing attack has been there for the Ducks. AB has not connected. The receivers have beaten the defender deep. Should have been TD's. Or big yardage. If those passes had connected we all would have felt excited. When I watch the JM offense it's like watching a chess match. Just that moves take place within a 40 second clock. Enjoy these last potential 5 games because chances are JM will be gone. I will always keep watching Duck games. They are more watchable now and the future maybe even be more so. Let's hope the future QB's have equal execution ad AB, but better downfield vision.

Great comments on this topic. Thanks..... I wonder how different the receiver out look would be if AB had connected on a number of those long. passes. The kind where the receivers beat the defender deep and should have been TD's As I have reviewed all this seasons games those plays were there multiple times. Every game. The receiver did his part but the ball was nowhere to connect 8 or 10 long pass plays or touchdowns this season maybe tell a different story. Oh well, shouda, coulda, woulda..

Hope this is not the beginning of things to come? 4 and 5 star players are used to touching that ball. Being involved, being the star, its in their DNA. It takes a QB, with all the tools, to allow the entire play book to be opened wide. It takes a very unselfish player to work this hard, for months, to get no touches. Team first and the win is the goal. Not saying MP is selfish. I simply admire those talented players making personal sacrifices for the team. For the win. MP just couldn't stay in that role. Great success for him and a blessed future.

After all the conference championship games are completed the coaching dominoes will fall. Can't blame any coach for getting an opportunity and the money that will come their way. All these articles, this season, showing and explaining Coach Mooreheads plays just leaves me wanting more. Great stuff. Hope JM stays around a little longer. Would love to see the whole playback opened up. Especially around the young guns in waiting. First things first. Utah is no easy out, home or away. I feel confident JM has a few new tricks up his sleeve for the Utes.

ESPN is simply a shadow of its once proud self. Remember the more these clowns make outright blatant, controversial statements, the more clicks and hits they get. When it's time to renew their contracts, the little mouse kingdom looks at who drives the ratings highest. Stupid, outrageous and controversial sell. So far the only common sense statement was from Heather Dinich. She mentioned she would not be surprised if the IC had tOSU jump the Ducks in the rankings. Beating a top 10 team should have value. Head to head should have more value. Unless it doesn't fit the narrative. I guess beating cream puff G5 teams has more value than playing a tough P5 schedule. Do any of you feel that Cincinnati could close their schedule with away at Utah, home vs Oregon State then away at Oregon? Or better yet Home vs Baylor, away at Oklahoma then home vs OK State the little mouse kingdom and its IC insults all P5 conferences and the value of their schedules.

MC is on the verge of something great. He and his staff have laid the foundation for the next 3 years. Glad someone has a level of common sense. What a great time to pull up stakes and go fix a dumpster fire at Miami. Just like us at times the Miami fan base is delusional.......along with a few unqualified beat writers. ( Me too, sometimes) Some fans may not like MC. That's a personal choice. But he is not a quitter. Don't you feel he is built to finish what he starts?