Charles Fischer

Whoops! Final Score: Clemson tops Ducks 6-5...

Top of the 6th inning versus No. 12 Clemson: Ducks lead 5-3!

Big Tournament to start the season! Great to start with such a pitching win. Playing No. 12 Clemson right now...

"Heavy on the Mister." Yes, Jon and other guest writers submit the articles in an email, and then I take it from there. I load it into WordPress, add the formatting, and sometimes tweak a few sentences for clarity and then go search for pictures. So yeah...I serve as a copy editor-light. As I recall...you are a writer/editor, and anytime you or ANYONE has something to say...write it up and email it to me. I'll publish it!

Great article Jon, and more proof that regardless of performance on the field...that the National Champion is from the Big-10 for the third year in a row, and B1G teams beat SEC teams, and showed our new depth-- yet none of it matters when the polls come out.

Shane Lemieux is on the practice squad for the Seahawks.

OK...I do not follow the NFL much, but I HAD to post this...

OREGON ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | FEBRUARY 4, 2026 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL | @OregonWBB Fourth-Quarter Dramatics Give Ducks Fourth Straight EUGENE, Ore. – Wednesday night's Oregon women's basketball game had a bit of everything: A dominant first half, a demoralizing third-quarter collapse, then a dramatic comeback by the Ducks, who've come to be known by their coach as the "cardiac kids." Up 21 points at halftime, the UO women gave up all of that lead and more to Illinois at Matthew Knight Arena. The Ducks trailed by eight midway through the fourth quarter, but rallied back to take the lead on a Katie Fiso drive with eight seconds left before hanging on to win, 76-73. The Ducks won their fourth game in a row, and completed their second fourth-quarter comeback in five days after Saturday's win at then-No. 16 Maryland. "In the end, we got the win, and that's what's most important," UO coach Kelly Graves said. "We showed some poise when we fell behind by eight. I know it wasn't looking good, but that's kind of when we start to make things happen. It's crazy." Mia Jacobs had 23 points and nine rebounds to lead the Ducks, Ehis Etute added 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting with nine boards, and Fiso finished with 16 points plus nine assists. The newest "Big Three" for the UO women not only combined for 59 of the team's 76 points in the game, they scored 22 of 25 in the fourth quarter. "It's a good, tough win," Jacobs said. "It's gonna help us in the long run. So it's good to have that under our belt." How It Happened: After making two-thirds of their shots in the first half, 18-of-27, the Ducks opened the second half by going 2-of-16. The Ducks led 45-24 at half, and Fiso got the lead back to 21 at 49-28 with a layup early in the third quarter. But the UO women would miss their next 13 shots — the last eight of the third as Illinois rallied to tie it at 51-51 entering the fourth, and then five more to open the fourth. Jacobs finally ended that cold streak with a couple of layups early in the fourth quarter, but Illinois matched them and more to lead 66-58 with 4:25 left. That's when the "cardiac kids" found their footing. First, Etute made a bucket. Illinois missed at the other end, and Fiso hit a turnaround jumper. Then, after another Illinois miss, Sofia Bell — whose trio of threes Saturday at Maryland gave Oregon the lead for good — was fouled on a three-pointer that dropped; she missed the and-one, but the Ducks were back within 66-65. "It felt like we were back in the game at that point," Etute said. "It was our game again." Etute answered an Illinois basket with a layup for the Ducks, and it was 68-67 with 2:04 to go. Jacobs then hit from three to put Oregon up, but the Illini answered in kind. It remained a one-point lead for Illinois at 73-72 in the final seconds when Fiso missed a jumper, but Etute collected the rebound. The Ducks called time out with 12 seconds left. On the ensuing inbounds play, the ball found its way to Fiso again. This time, she drove across the lane; Etute was camped out in the post, and Jacobs was set up on the arc for an outlet pass. But Fiso saw a path to the basket, lofted a high-arcing bank shot with her left hand, and it fell to put Oregon up 74-73 with eight seconds left. "When I'm driving downhill, I see, like, a straight line," said Fiso, who followed that bucket with two game-clinching free throws after an Illinois turnover. "If I see that straight line, I'm committed, and I'm going. If I didn't see that, Ehis was right there to get the clean-up. But I trusted my work. I put a lot of work in, and I ended up making a shot." The dramatic finish took the sting out of an equally dramatic collapse by the Ducks coming out of halftime. There was little indication at the time it was looming — Oregon led 23-14 after the first quarter and 45-24 at the half, having shot 66.7 percent in the first half while holding Illinois to 34.6 percent. "We had (a few) goals coming in, and one was to limit transition points; that's how they won the other night at Washington," Graves said. "They had zero transition points at the half. The other was blocking out; no second chances. They had zero second-chance points for the first half. So we had done what we wanted to do, and that's why we had the lead we did. And then we suddenly kind of forgot about that." Illinois shot 9-of-19 while outscoring the Ducks 27-6 in the third quarter. The UO women made two of their first three field goals in the half but then went ice cold, as Illinois put together a 21-0 run to tie the game. "They just came out, they were more physical, they wanted it more, and they executed better," Graves said. After an Etute free throw to open the fourth, Illinois scored to take its first lead of the entire night, 53-52. Etute followed with two more free throws to put Oregon back in front, but the Illini countered with an 11-2 run to go up by eight. That run was capped by a bucket for a 64-56 lead with exactly 5 minutes left in the game. Graves took a 30-second timeout to stop the momentum, and huddled his team to deliver a message. "We've been there before," Graves recounted later. "We've been there, done that. You know, there's no quit in them." They proved that over the final five minutes of Wednesday's game. The "cardiac kids" may have caused a few palpitations in the process, but in the end the Ducks got it done. Up Next: The Ducks host Ohio State on Sunday (noon, B1G+).

Hello My OBD FishDuck Forum Friends! What is your prediction of Seattle versus New England? Take your shot and let's have fun with it... Let's get these predictions started, and remember I look for the differential between your predicted points with both teams from the actual points. I will use the tiebreaker information when needed, so provide all the data below! Entries without ALL the information are invalid, and predictions on other threads don't count. We Have Two New Rules: If two winning scores are tied, and tiebreakers tie? The first one who posted wins, automatically. TerryM9 gets 42-6 locked in every time as his. (I love this guy!) Please follow directions, as I need all that is below for tiebreakers: --the winner --the score --the amount of turnovers Seattle creates --the number of sacks Seattle records on New England --the number of passing yards by the Seahawks My prediction is: Seattle 34-17 2 3 211

Written by a passionate rival-love it. THAT is what makes CFB fun!

Jones is a high 3-Star with Rivals, and is a 4-Star with the other services. Besides Oregon...he was offered by Tennessee, Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas A&M, and Georgia of the SEC. In the Big-10, he was offered by Oregon, had been previously verballed to UCLA, and also offered by Nebraska, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Washington. (Ha!) Obviously quite a few see his upside at 6'5" and 285 lbs. to start.

Fantastic article Jon, as you featured the coaching chops of these coaches like none other. I love some of the word-play you had fun with, but boy--you demonstrated how the price of poker just went up B1G-TIME in the conference with these coaches. The new coaches are all very hard workers....grinders, who are going to make our schedule even more challenging and entertaining. Thanks Jon.

As I wrote in the article....one is 38 and the other is 39. Lanning is 39...

What is interesting as well is how for recruiting...promoting our stability of coaching has become a key point. A staff that largely stays together is unheard of these days, and a big selling point in itself. Parents of recruits can take great comfort from knowing that Dan Lanning not only implements it with his staff, but he lives it.

In the case of Mehringer, it almost seems that he took a step down on his career path to be at Oregon. He had coached QBs, been passing game coordinator, been a WR coach and operated as as OC already. To come to Oregon to coach...tight ends? This was a step of diversification in his career, but he was clearly taking a step down to join Oregon--to be able to take a step up later. Ditto with Hampton, as he went from a DC to a Co-DC and defensive backs coach. I failed to look at the big picture of how they viewed this for their careers. They could have been stuck at Oregon in the role they took, but they had the confidence that their talents would be recognized and they would be elevated in the end.

He is a true 4-Star with Rivals, and besides Oregon he had a long list offered, but the other notable ones were Michigan, Nebraska, UCLA, and Utah. Whew! Looks pretty lean for 280 pounds!

NOT the top-20 you want to be on...

The truth was there all season....

So true...

The No. 5 player at all positions in the nation? Whew! From Maryland, and did not go to the Terps, Penn State, Ohio State, etc?

He is a Rivals 3-Star, but other than USC and Michigan listed above, he was offered also by Nebraska, UCLA, and Washington. (Ha!) Every class in the trenches will have some "upside" projects, and it is good policy to make those offers. In today's portal-transfer environment--if it does not work out, then they will voluntarily leave to make room for a new project.

Yep....

That was SO good, and you have to turn the sound up!

OREGON ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | JANUARY 31, 2026 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL | @OregonWBB COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The first road game of January for the Oregon women's basketball team was an upset of a ranked opponent, and the month ended in the same fashion. The Ducks went across the country and knocked off No. 16 Maryland on Saturday, 68-61, taking the lead midway through the fourth quarter on a trio of three-pointers by junior Sofia Bell. That capped an 11-0 run that put the Ducks up 61-54, a run sparked by two of Ehis Etute's career-high 26 points before Bell caught fire from behind the arc. The UO women won their first road game of January at No. 21 USC, and capped the month with another ranked win Saturday. The Ducks (17-7, 5-6 Big Ten) ended the month with a season-best three-game win streak in conference play, and play three of their next four at home beginning Wednesday against Illinois. "I think this means that we've finally pieced it together, we finally found each other," said Etute, whose team endured a four-game losing streak in the middle of January before winning their last three in a row. "We have finally worked on our team chemistry and got way better, and now we've finally translated that into our games and are finally winning the hard ones." Etute's 26 points came on 10-of-15 shooting, and she grabbed 11 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. Bell added 16 points on four made three-pointers, including the three in a row that gave the Ducks the lead. "I think we're playing really well together," Bell said. "We know our strengths at this point, and we've kind of identified ways that we need to improve. And I think we're doing those things, and that's going to help us in March." The Ducks shot 45 percent and held Maryland to 37 percent shooting Saturday, and Oregon had a 39-35 advantage on the boards. The UO women also had 17 assists on 25 made field goals, and improved to 3-5 this season in games decided by single digits. "We've been in games like this before, and we haven't always finished them," UO coach Kelly Graves said. "It was great to finally finish one tonight. … This was a really great win — certainly one of my most memorable." How It Happened: The Ducks misfired on their first three shots of the day, while Maryland hit its first three – all coming from Oluchi Okananwa – as the Terrapins built an early 7-1 lead. Mia Jacobs connected a triple for UO's first bucket and later converted a layin to cap a 6-0 run that handed Oregon its first lead at 10-9, as the Ducks held the Terps scoreless over a four-minute stretch. As the quarter closed, an Amina Muhammad layup put the Ducks in front after 10 minutes, 14-13. Oregon's lead grew to eight after hitting on its first three field goals in the second, including a three-pointer by Avary Cain. Astera Tuhina later knocked down a triple, putting the score at 25-19 in favor of the Ducks. After Maryland converted an and-one, Bell pushed the lead up to eight with her team's third three-pointer of the quarter, followed by a floater to put the score at 30-22 with 3:41 remaining in the half. "I thought our kids executed really well," Graves said. "Our turnovers were a little high (19); when we struggled, it's because we were trying to do too much. But when we settled down and tried to run something in the halfcourt — and usually that something ended up trying to get the ball inside to Ehis — we made it work. We executed it." The Terrapins held the Ducks scoreless the rest of the quarter, however, as they proceeded to score the half's final 14 points to take a 36-30 lead into the locker room. Okananwa accounted for nine of her team's points during the spurt to lead all scorers with 23 first-half points. Etute paced the Ducks with 10 points and six rebounds. After a Maryland bucket, Oregon scored 10 straight points to begin the third quarter to reclaim the lead at 40-38, getting eight points from Etute in that stretch. Etute finished the quarter with eight points, five rebounds and two steals, but the Ducks trailed 50-44 headed into the fourth quarter. With UO leading 40-38, the Terps ended the frame on a 12-4 run. "I appreciated the trust my teammates showed in me, and how they kept giving me the ball," Etute said. "Obviously, I wanted to show up for them, and they needed me in that moment, so I delivered." Etute got the fourth quarter started with back-to-back layups, her first of four layins in the quarter's first four minutes, to inch the Ducks within two at 54-52. From there, Bell knocked down three consecutive three-pointers over a three-minute span to give Oregon a 61-54 lead with under three minutes to go. "I was pretty open, and my teammates found me," Bell said. "So all that was going through my mind was just knock it down." The Ducks then went scoreless for the next two minutes, and Maryland crawled back within 63-61 with 27 seconds left. But Katie Fiso, Jacobs and Bell all knocked down free throws down the stretch and Oregon got the win. Up Next: The Ducks return to Matthew Knight Arena to host Illinois on Wednesday (6 p.m., B1G+).