Southern Duck

I think Nix is a Georgia kick off game insurance policy. We may not win in ATL but Nix has seen that kind of speed and wont be a deer in the headlights so to speak. He also knows Dillingham's offense and hopefully will be a steading force till the game slows down for either Ty or Butterfield. Iamaleava is on the horizon too, so our young QB's better get it it going before this kid quacks!

This exactly! Mullens I think wrote up a clever contract to make certain boosters and alumni happy offering tradition, knowing that what was in that contract, Wilcox or Chip could never do. Both Chip and Wilcox should be thanking Oregon HUGE for driving their own school contract negotiation stock way up too. Both got new extensions just thinking about the Oregon job. Devils in the details...... so to speak and Rob mastered the loop holes therein, is my thinking. I'd also say this, if you think we kept Florence, Tucker, Iuli while picking up James and acquiring Nix, Taimani and Gonzales in the portal if we hired Wilcox, well I don't know what to tell you! There's also no way Wilcox or Chip would have brought the kind of staff Lanning did either. It should be duly noted that we out recruited Cal and UCLA with a brand new staff, a wrecked recruiting class and 4 weeks to correct it. The other coaches suggested for Oregon's job didn't even finish top 50, with years of prep time. That's very telling to me as to where our recruiting might have be headed without Lanning. Lanning was a super smart hire and Mullens earned his keep with this one.

When you watch Georgia's D, they are just lethal! You can't play on your heels on D and expect to strike fear into your opponents and Lanning's D fly to the ball in swarms and makes you feel their difference. That Bulldog D took over the 4th quarter of the national championship game and put Bama DOWN! Now if Dan can bring even 3/4's of that to Oregon and we can get some legit space crushing SEC sized DT's, we'll own the PAC. USC will quit, before they'll get hit the way Lanning's D's at Georgia punish. That I can promise you! It took Georgia a handful of years to find an offense and that may have been what cost them a couple national titles. Let's hope Dillingham is the next Lane Kiffin, because I don't think there's anyway our D wont be very good!

Technology may save the day here "one day" when accessing high school QB's to the next level. My thought, "maybe" timing/ processing sensors on the QB helmets in these pay for camps. It will measure the speed and reaction time it takes QB's to deliver a play in different football settings. We'll see.. The Latin for me here is a great QB must be able to see the field as a "concept 1st" then break it down surgically, with pace and find the play within the movement of the defensive chaos, right? What separated Marcus, Vernon, Herbert from Shough, Butterfield or Mahalak might be the half a second quicker reaction/ mental processing speed to go along with the arm talent and feel they already have. Oregon as I've mentioned before can't afford to miss on 3 QB's in 3 different classes due to a D-1 growth spurt at a speed these kids just can't figure out. Whatever the rating camps can do to aid in this intangible area would be greatly appreciated by the universities and in the long run, by the players too. Who want to be a 5 star flop in college? These kids families shovel big money for their kids to be seen and developed today. The mental of this game needs to be as honest in assessment as the worship for their physical gifts. I guess that's what I'm taking away from all of this....

Was listening to Sirius XM "PAC-12 Today" and they had an ASU football media guy on talking about Jayden Daniels and the portal and the thought he may zoom on over to Missouri for SEC exposure.... Then he got very informative.... He went on to talk about QB's and their overall high school development to college. In a nutshell he said.... Coaches are relying WAY TOO MUCH on agencies like Rivals and 247 to target "their best" QB's coming out of high school, based upon a pay for star systems that costs these players many a thousands of dollars a year to get rewarded within. Essentially pay for stars. He went on further to say, that all the mindless drills these incredible athletes do to obtain these stars don't prepare them for college football at all. Such as, run around a bunch of cones and hit a wide open targets and even less important, 7 on 7 drills... These same highly ranked QB's, he said, most of them "Can't decipher a cover 2 or 3 defense nor digest a play book enough to run an offense fluidly". Then these QB's hit college and their new coaches only have 20 hours or so a week to coach them up but these kids simply don't have the college football "vernacular" to be effective at this level. So many top QB's transfer out because they mentally aren't prepared for D-1 football but have been told they are 5 star good on a previous "pay for" grading system that's essentially irrelevant to their overall success at their new level. This would make great sense as to why Caleb Williams reunited with Riley at USC and Nix to Oregon with Dillingham. Coaches "his thinking" just simply don't have enough time to teach "their offenses" to kids that don't have the mental and physical gifts to absorb everything thrown at them at a D-1 level. My thought, this is why many of our high star Duck QB's often go to smaller schools after us, to slow it down and be properly taught. So when I think who will win the spring ball starting QB spot for the Ducks? I apply this info above to who already knows Dillingham's system and that looks like Nix. Now perhaps Ty and Butterfield will immerse themselves deeply into their playbooks like never before but they'll still need to be groomed within it on the field, which gives Nix a big head start. There really is no replacing live reps and many of them for QB development. Don't you agree? Especially going against the one's on defense. I thought it also very interesting that he went on to say that at Bama, "who replaces an OC every other year", Saban let's the new OC know that their offense isn't needed, they'll be running the Bama offense, already implemented. The players know it and that cuts down on the learning curve of a whole new language of offensive plays. Hmmm.... Now when you look at Oregon's best QB's over the last 20 years.... Herbert, Marcus, Adams, Thomas, Dixon, Harrington, Clemmons and on.... they had both the mental and physical to be effective at this level. However they also had offensive consistency to grow into the players they became at Oregon. Except for Herbert and Adams. The reason I think Herbert is an amazing pro is he was able to improve every year in college with different OC's and head coaches because his mental of the game was so high and his arm talent so great he could just adapt like he's done for the Charges now. Vernon was simply just a freak of the pocket awareness nature and is the EXCEPTION to almost every QB transfer rule. Love that guy! Perhaps what Oregon needs for it's next great QB is an OC that is talented and STAYS put for a whole QB cycle and can groom "his QB" mentally to match his natural physical gifts? I'd also add that these big recruiting sites might want to up the mental challenge aspects of their QB star evaluations to match their physical ones? They'd really be doing their colleges a favor here in recruiting. These kids are paying for it anyway, might as well help them be realistic too as to what they need to really work on to be effective college players. Right? Otherwise, why should these kids families go broke paying for these services? Just my opinion......

Petersen is a great offensive coach but an average recruiter at the very best. Mario is an exceptional recruiter with an O line specialty, that makes sound coaching hires. If Moorhead can sculpt what Mario can recruit, Oregon is stronger for not having Petersen is my thinking.

Moorhead has forgotten more football than most of us could ever learn. He's only unsuccessful if... 1. Mario doesn't let him coach fully 2. He can't translate the wealth of football knowledge he has to our team in a way they can execute on.

Justin should send them both signed Rookie of the Year jerseys!

A Buckeye win there.... is worth a dump truck of gold to the pollsters! We could trip against WSU and UCLA by a "respectable" margin still win the PAC and that OSU win jumps us into the discussion no matter what. OSU hasn't lost at home in what a decade?

Is Tanner the "Oh CRUD Ty took a heck of a hit" here comes Bailey? "Knock on wood that never happens!!!!"

If we lose by under 10 in Columbus and drop one in the PAC, while winning a 3rd conference championship, I see us in the playoff. We beat the Buckeyes, we could lose two in the PAC and still make the playoffs.

Yes! Just imagine SHOUT being played on something slightly better than a mega boom box? As for booze and people getting up and causing a game vision ruckus.... Imagine if every fan on their smart phone could scan their ID, seat# and then Venmo the concession stand and that would prompt the closet beer vender to bring you a beer? No one get's disturbed and the vendor closest, get's the tip through his I.D.#?

I blame the Titans for all of this. They drafted Marcus without an O line or an offensive coordinator with a brain for years. Without Succop, the Titans may not have won a game for 2 years. They beat Marcus up on a play book that better fit a Big Ben than a fluid athlete like Double M. He finally get's mangled with no targets for years except Delanie Walker to throw too and then they bring in Tannehill and let the OC call real plays for him. Sorry to say but Marcus got a raw deal. Ya just don't draft a player like Marcus with no vision for him. It's like driving a stick shift in 2nd gear until you destroy the clutch and the gears, which is exactly what happened to Marcus Give Marcus a real O line and the ability to improvise with at least two WR's that can catch and let's see what happens.

It doesn't seem like the student body loves the games like when I was in school, is that fair? At least at Oregon? Seems the student section takes off early in football games and barely show's up for hoops, well "women's they showed up for Sabrina". What's the disconnect? Sure can't be the epic facilities!

You guys have hit all my thoughts on the head.... You can't teach fire and we don't have a Sabrina here to make the others accountable. This team to me has already mailed this season in. Graves needs to find an engine for this team. I really don't think this class of freshman has that person nor do I see it in Prince or Sabally. They have a bunch of nice weapons but no "IT" player. The other HUGE elephant in the room is and "this may sound odd", our team is just too nice. Watch Baylor, South Carolina, Louisville, Texas A&M, those teams have some big physical ladies with evil intentions out there in the paint. We don't have that kind of player. I would also suggest to you that none of the other PAC schools have those type of ladies either and that's why they wont win the NCAA title too. Oregon needs a Sabally size player with a Sabrina fire in the paint. We don't have that and until we do, we'll never win a national championship "in my opinion" nor will the PAC. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 wins in football for the same reason they win in hoops.... Big, physical and nasty when they have to be. If Sabrina had a Brittney Griner, Oregon has two national titles right now! Graves needs to focus on the big evil board crushers in the next recruiting cycle.

MKA seems almost too nice for a college venue! One day I hope MKA will be as rock'n as THE PIT was... is that even possible?

the Cameron Indoor of college football? There may be no little BIG HOUSE in hoops more crazy and loud than Cameron. Is that how the nation see's Autzen when coming to play us? Our stadium is half the size of Bama, OSU, LSU, USC, Michigan and even Penn St. but I'd be willing to bet our house is just as loud the way it's designed. I liken it to the Red Rocks Amphitheater for additional acoustic sound. Would adding onto Autzen actually destroy it's mystique? If Cameron added 5 thousand seats to it's 10k capacity now, would it still be the same? If we did build onto Autzen how would we do it to keep the sound and the environment it's known for, at an Oregon level?

The good news is no matter how this recruit turns out.... Our D will have seen true SEC/BIG-10, sized O lineman in practice and we have a handful of them now...

VA had feel and pocket awareness you just can't teach.

You listen to that podcast and it's clear that besides needing a football masters to follow that X's and O's chalk talk, that JoMo knows what the hell he's talking about. I would hope Mario would be like "PHEW! One less thing to worry about!"

Two things I took from this.... 1.When your OC creates his own offensive language from scratch then he's a STUDENT of the game. 2. He was asked who he watches for offensive inspiration and his answer was CHIP KELLY! Mario got us an OC that fits the Oregon culture with the EGO left in WESTWOOD! Well played Mario, now let him coach!

Lake will take UW down, his ego and whatever else behind the scenes that went on to Petersen walking away, should have been HUGE RED FLAGS to the nation that the powers that be at UW aren't the right ones making the decisions. Smith is a smooth operator, he knows that he can't out recruit Oregon or for that matter most schools in the PAC + they don't have the funds. That said, he's been given a get out of jail free card with the transfer portal and that might just make up for their recruiting woes. I worry that Butterfield might end up there as their next Mr. Anderson. The Beavs are getting their 4 star recruits just a year or two late. They have D lineman from the SEC on their team now. Guys Oregon have never been able to get. Note to Mario.... "raid the SEC for 2nd string d lineman!" Helton to me at USC isn't the problem. Their recruiting is top notch and has been for decades, it's their strike a pose, selfie, follow me on Instagram, how many likes do I have, super soft culture that now makes up the Trojan Mantra. It's not "IF" USC will implode on the football field, it's "WHEN"! The entire philosophy of USC needs to be stripped down to the original foundation and built again. Otherwise.... 3-4 losses a year should be expected. UCLA isn't Oregon and Chip is a long way away from his lab in Eugene that Uncle Phil protected him in to work! The problem is Chip loves the offense but defense just isn't his thing. How do you know this.... Chip recreated his Oregon D at UCLA with almost the same staff... Guess what? They are still just treading water. No real D and UCLA will never be relevant. Shaw to me at Stanford is almost over. He's a great coach but he needs EPIC talent to compete and Stanford doesn't give him that chance. I see David going to the pros soon, he'd be great there.

I wonder if the better question is who's the best CFO for their team as a head coach and who has the best coordinators to get their vision accomplished? I.E. Nick Saban

If it were me, I'd put Terry, Richardson, Duarte, Eugene and Frank out there. Terry can get to the hoop, set up the offense and distribute, Richardson can knock down the three plus handle the ball on presses, Duarte can feed of the mismatches and create his own shot and Eugene and Frank offensively play the catfish role going for anything that doesn't go into the hoop.

Campbell was a RB whisperer and I really don't think Mastro is. As a side note.... Didn't Deruyter leave Cal to be the main DC here? I'm not sure having a Co-DC is necessary or wise for coaching longevity but to each his own....