Charles Fischer

Wisconsin No. 3? The second most boring uniform in college football is Penn State, and he has them at No. 4? Traditional and iconic, yes, but only Alabama has more boring of uniforms. PSU is not No. 3 or even No. 18; there has to be a lower grade... I kinda thought the black and gold presented by Purdue was much cooler than most listed. How do you NOT love this...

Jon...the homework you do is just astounding. Nearly a full team returning who have experience winning? I did NOT know how weak their schedule was...whew! They HAVE to be the best "over" bet in CFB... You are not flying under Jon Joseph's radar!

They are handy for when Hyenas try to steal their kills...

If there was EVER a team that could get an elite portal transfer QB...it is Oregon, as has been proven the last three years. Nothing beats experience...

David, I'm looking for RS Freshman Jeremiah McClellan (below) to have a big "move-up" year, while I could see Justius Lowe having a "break-out" year like the examples you gave. Dak Moore will just break-out and beyond...

Austin Novosad has played some...looked good in the Fiesta Bowl in mop-up time versus Liberty at the end of the 2023 season, and I was impressed with his Spring Game.

Too many injuries? Q: "How often does your wife get tired of your antics?" A: "Every single day...." (Taken from an interview when he was at Oregon)

So you and everyone knows…I am not a “Chuck,”

Boy...what a blow to this year, and to the stacking of the classes. A ton of talent in the WR room, but mostly inexperienced, not what you want when it is late in the game and 3rd and 9 at Penn State. I cannot put my finger on it, (besides the big drop in the Spring Game) but I do not have a good vibe about the transfer Malik Benson.

Jon, as always you give us a good take-to-debate! I don't know about University of Minnesota being one of the top 32, as I'd imagine that Miami would want to be "in" and connected to the Dolphins. We might end up with quite a few matchups that are not geographically close to each other, although I like the matchup you have for Our Beloved Ducks. Arik Armstead, No. 91 for the 49ers...

Oh, that was a dandy, as is this one below... "Is Will Stein a genius or merely another coordinator with a flashy playbook?" Lovely. Another writer-hack who gives us a typical blah-blah article...

He makes my point why we should NOT have conference tournaments. So we play 30, that is THIRTY CONFERENCE GAMES, to have the season tarnished by one game in a silly tournament? Oregon State lost four games to us, had a similar record, SAT OUT THE TOURNAMENT WEEK, and did just fine in the seeding.

Not to mention that USC had a MAD exodus of players over the last year, and they are trying to replace them...

And they put USC at 19th?

I agree with you David, that a rule change in the middle of the season is not only odd--but I don't know if I've noticed that before. Thanks so much for all this research for our benefit!

How can this be? "While the exact number of deaths attributed to rhinoceros attacks each year is unknown globally, research suggests that such attacks are relatively rare." "However, it's important to remember that rhinos, especially the larger species like white rhinos (which can weigh around 5,000 pounds), are wild animals and can be dangerous, especially if provoked or if someone enters their territory. Their poor eyesight and tendency to charge when feeling threatened can lead to serious injuries or fatalities." "Hippos are considered a dangerous land animal, with estimates suggesting they kill around 500 people per year. While some sources claim a higher range (up to 3,000 deaths annually), the more widely cited figure is 500. This aggressive behavior is often attributed to their territorial nature and tendency to charge at boats, mistaking them for predators." Hippo Charging a Boat in Namibia...

While I’m not happy to see Penn State as one of the nations top defenses, it certainly is not a surprise. We are going to have our hands full!

Boy is that true, as I anticipated a couple more weeks to the season. To have it end so abruptly--is harsh. But...we will be BACK!

Hello my Duck-Buddies, My initial suffering, binge, and hangover are now past, and I can step back and be reasonable about the 2025 Baseball Season. We had not won over 40 games in the regular season in a decade until this year, and so many new records shows continued progress, such as the new Home Run record broken again under Coach Waz. Seeing a new attendance record at PK Park is thrilling as well. But something that the coach referred to often in his interviews is how this team has more upside, but is not consistent enough...and that was certainly true. To win a co-championship and a good seed, the Ducks had to win 11 in row, and 16 of 17 at one point. The problem is...they peaked just before the Playoffs. It happens. This was a very good team that did not show their best at crunch time. There was grumbling about Oregon's non-conference schedule as we had four OOC series, and ten conference series. Remember, to make the tournament (64 teams) you have to be in the top 20% in the US out of over 300 D1 Baseball programs. Of the four non-conference series...Columbia made the tournament, and beat No. 16 Southern Miss. Rhode Island was in the tournament, and while Toledo was not, they were in the Tournament Championship game. Our final non-conference series was against Oregon State, of which we swept all four games. Other opponents showed well, such as USC making it to a final regional game before falling to Beavis. (We beat USC three times) St. Mary's beat Beavis in the first round, and we took two from the Gaels. Stunning Playoff Results College baseball was much more balanced this year, as quite a few other national seeds went down in their Regional. The No. 1 Seed, Vanderbilt, lost to Wright State! The No. 2 Seed, Texas, lost to UTSA, and the No. 10 Seed, Ole Miss, lost to Murray State...who advanced! In all, of the 16 national seeds, a total of seven of them lost their regional! Oregon was part of a trend! (Gallows humor) The highly exalted SEC started the Regionals with 13 teams in the tournament, and only advanced four, while the ACC advanced five to the Super-Regionals. In the Future? I See MORE Winning for Oregon Baseball!

I wrote a post the other day about what the principals at one of the pay sites have been hearing as the Ducks' new recruiting strategy--and their use of NIL. They are NOT going to get into bidding wars for unproven freshmen, and will spend the majority of their NIL dollars trying to retain the current team, (since the majority are still young) and to use a major portion of the rest on Portal Transfers to fill holes. This made sense, and a couple of us suggested that maybe it is a short-term strategy based upon the relative youth of the team, with more going to HS recruiting later as the classes balance out. This is a strategy that is a step ahead of other schools, as they get into massive bidding wars, and this explains all the lost high-profile recruits, and the decommits from Oregon. But what if...the Oregon staff is thinking out even further ahead? That when the NIL caps are actually set...that so many of these schools will have to go back and change those 2 million contracts to $80,000 per year? How will THAT go over with players and parents? But the schools will have no choice! So now, a player is soured on that school that is changing the deal on his former big contract, and now, for the same new money being offered....the Ducks are looking good between the same NIL offer, access to Nike, the uniforms, the staff, etc. Oregon could then pick up a TON of portal transfers. And they will HAVE the money set aside for those elite portal transfers! Are the Ducks thinking two steps ahead, or am I so bored with Baseball ending so soon that I am hallucinating tactics that don't exist?

The linked article refers to a 50 million package, so I believe it very well might be 10 million a year...

The majority of verbals do stick, but they are certainly more fluid these days!

Absolutely crazy and unsustainable. This is one way to get legislation figured out!

It is so complicated now...you gotta feel for the coaches. All that work...