Charles Fischer

How does this photo make YOU feel?

Man, I wish I could take one quote, and spin a short article out of it like that! But it is an exciting quote, and one that helps assure us Greybeard-age fans that explosion plays will return to Autzen.

Talk about “trying-too-hard,” as he is going out of his way to be offended. Our OC was talking about Oregon, to Oregon media and to stretch it into a massive swipe toward the Trojans? Slow news day, and a reach for a topic to write about—I’ve been there!

The Husky announcer, just makes me ill, as I would just love to tell that suck up purple ba**ard to suck green Duck eggs. No way I can make three full games of this Husky hack… Makes me want to hurl…

Wow. You MUST listen to this...so much great information, and you can hear why Lanning wanted him...a coach who fought-scratched-kicked-and-clawed his way into the profession. His respect for Coach Campbell? I don't how a new RB coach could make me happier. Love this guy.

EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon head coach Dana Altman announced Thursday the signing of junior college standout Brennan Rigsby. Rigsby (6-3, 180) helped Northwest Florida State College to the NJCAA national championship in March, scoring a game-high 24 points on nine-of-14 attempts, including hitting four-of-seven three pointers. On the season, he averaged 11.6 points (.461 FG%, .370 3P%) 3.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 33 games. “Brennan has really grown as a player and we can’t wait to get him on campus,” said Altman. “We believe Brennan will work hard to continue to develop as a student-athlete and has a very bright future.” The De Beque, Colo. native attended Wasatch Academy in Utah, before joining the Raiders for one season and has three years of eligibility left. Rigsby hopes to follow the same successful paths as former Ducks Elgin Cook and Chris Duarte, who both played for NWF before suiting up for Oregon.

Very cool..,

If 5-Star players are leaving Georgia...then that means the system there spit them out, and they did not want to work that hard. Or perhaps felt playing time was "a-given" considering their status. I warned Oregon fans in an earlier article that this program, if emulating the Bulldogs....will be very hard on players. Those who leave it may not be the ones to pursue?

As I wrote before....some of our former players Are Not On the Fans Team at all. At some point--Joey would be advised to "shut-it" before his legacy with us completely goes down the drain.

He felt that installing an Up-Tempo offense will be a challenge because "Kenny hasn't done it before." News Break....nobody had installed it until Chip came along, and it was the first time for him too. Every OC had to do it for the first time. I think it was an ignorant swipe by Bartoo on this one...

In the process of gathering information about Lanning from them for my six-article series....they have been nothing-but-classy through the whole process. These are like Tennessee SEC fans, not LSU SEC fans, and I believe we will have fun trading information about our teams over the summer.

Cameron Ward received a $90,000 package from the “Cougar Collective.” When five-star offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr. picked Oregon over USC, Michigan, Miami and Washington it caused a stir in the Pac-12 Conference booster world. The Division Street Collective — established to help UO athletes maximize their endorsement power — became an important player in the recruiting equation. Six figures for Conerly Jr.? Seven? And what else is happening on the endorsement front in the Pac-12? I reached out to a member of Washington State’s “Cougar Collective” on Thursday who confirmed that the entity put together a lucrative package for transfer quarterback Cameron Ward. Ward jumped in the portal in January and transferred from University of the Incarnate Word to WSU. He figures to be an integral part of the Air Raid 2.0 offense that new offensive coordinator Eric Morris is implementing in spring football. Ward’s total haul: $90,000. His deal includes a contract with a housing firm for the school year that provides an apartment in Pullman. Also, Ward gets the use of a new pick-up truck for the year from a booster-owned car dealership. Also, he collects $50,000 in cash in exchange for promotional appearances he’ll make in the next year. Said one member of the WSU collective: “For smaller schools to compete, it’s going to be very important. Our donor base is strong but nowhere near some of the big hitters.” The “Cougar Collective” doesn’t have a required minimum contribution from donors. It also doesn’t collect fees or turn a profit. It’s solely there for the benefit of athletes. The group formed and put out the call for “like-minded business owners” and then placed an emphasis on the connections that the current and future athletes could form with business owners and leaders. Said the donor: “We would love to be able to show any athlete, no matter what sport, that we can offer them some financial support to make college life a little easier.” Ward won’t have to worry about transportation, housing and he has $50,000 in walking-around money now. Also, it’s above board. The initial foray into this world was all over the place but we’re starting to get an idea of the general market rate for players. I have WSU athletic director Pat Chun on the statewide radio show today. We’ll talk some about the “Cougar Collective” and what he’s concerned about. I wonder if the athletic directors are concerned that booster donations to collectives are cannibalizing university gift giving. The NCAA is woefully behind the curve on all of this, of course. Coaches and athletic directors are already speaking out. I support the right of a college kid to earn from his or her endorsement. But the WSU donor raised a great point. The potential separation between the “haves” and “have nots” on the college landscape is problematic. Also, where is the line and will the NCAA ever draw one? WSU and some others are doing it right and appear to be in it for the athletes. But we all know what happens when the ethics get skewed and the deals rise in value. Renderings of the plans for Reser Stadium. HOT TICKET: Oregon State’s football season-ticket renewal campaign is tracking well, per a university source. The Beavers have renewed 87 percent of the season tickets from last season and hit a 95 percent sales rate (renewals + new tickets) this week. Athletic director Scott Barnes has to be thrilled. Those figures are the best renewal rates since 2013 when the football program was coming off a 9-4 season under Mike Riley. The Beavers are confident that the figures will result in overall season-ticket growth from 2021 to 2022. Reser Stadium is undergoing a renovation of the West side of the stadium. Season-ticket holders on that now-demolished side are being relocated to the East side next season. The capacity for the 2022 season has been set at 26,407. OSU’s spring game is Saturday. Admission is free to the public and gates open at 9:30 a.m. The game itself will air on the Pac-12 Network at 11 a.m. JT Daniels is transferring to West Virginia. OVER AND OUT: Journeyman college quarterback JT Daniels announced this week that he’s transferring from Georgia to West Virginia. He and his father showed up at an Oregon State spring practice a few weeks ago and observed. The Beavers knew Daniels was shopping as he declined an offer to take some photos wearing OSU gear during his visit. But the most interesting part of his trip to Corvallis was how it was viewed by current players on the roster. Everyone knows Daniels was looking for a promise of playing time or maybe even a guarantee that he’d start. Said one veteran OSU player: “He won’t get a guarantee of playing time here — no way. That’s not how our coach works and how would that go over in the locker room? He’d never have guys behind him. Also, some of us were talking about it… I mean, it was like he was there scouting our other quarterbacks to see what the competition was like.” Is his decision to attend West Virginia a vote of confidence for incumbents Chance Nolan and Tristan Gebbia? Maybe. But the bigger endorsement came when I told that same veteran Beavers’ player that I wondered if Jonathan Smith still needed to find a quarterback capable of winning games in the final two minutes. The player shot back: “You’re wrong there. I think we have at least two.”

Below is a quote from a Georgia fan answering me on a Georgia forum... I read your article asking if Dan Lanning is the next Saban? We Dawgs think that he is, and we lamented that he would be ready to be a head coach before Kirby retired--as that means we lose him...as we did. We've lost coaches (Pruitt, Chaney, Hankton) we were glad to see go, and others that were so good, we hated losing them but appreciate them so much the overwhelming sentiment is support in their new role. (Lanning). Oregon got an extremely good coach. We are not surprised Lanning became a head coach, we are surprised Oregon was smarter then every other NCAA program to get him. His first season may not be a W/L success, it takes a while to get there, but Oregon has one of the finest coaches in football. Whew! Can you get praise much better than that?

I do NOT understand the third starter....

Crushing for the Ducks; it was bad enough that we didn't have really good starters, but to lose a Friday night starter--whew!

Huge, huge, HUGE for the rest of the season. If he had been healthy and available vs. UCLA...maybe all those one-run losses don't happen?

If Oregon could have a great push the remainder of the season--we could have a shot at being in the top 16, and thus a host. That and our home game against Gonzaga late in the season will be big...

Another outstanding post by Axel....love it! Don't even THINK about beating the Ducks!

EUGENE — Willie Taggart arrived in Courtroom 303 at the Lane County Courthouse on Tuesday wearing a blue suit, blue tie, white button-down dress shirt and a pair of eyeglasses. The one-time University of Oregon football coach sat behind counsel table, left of the bench. Two former Ducks’ football players were there, too. Doug Brenner and Sam Poutasi were hospitalized in 2017 after a series of grueling offseason workouts caused what they now claim are permanent injuries. Their lawsuit seeks $125 million and names the NCAA, UO, Taggart and former strength coach Irele Oderinde as defendants. Lawyers select juries in a process known as “voir dire,” in which the judge and attorneys for both sides ask potential jurors questions. The lawyers representing the various parties waded into the jury pool on Tuesday, strategizing and questioning. By the end of business, they’d have 12 jurors and a handful of alternates. Two potential jurors were dismissed early on Tuesday after indicating they were die-hard Ducks’ fans still miffed that Taggart ditched Oregon for Florida State. Said one of them, "Yeah, I'm mad at him for leaving after a year." One retired female juror announced she was biased against “big corporations” and said “something happened and these boys need to be heard.” It prompted an observing attorney sitting in the back of the courtroom to whisper, “She’ll be gone in two questions.” He was wrong. It took seven. But she was struck. The jury took shape. It’s an interesting group. Among those who made the cut were two jurors who said they had medical backgrounds. One other told the court that he attended law school and passed the bar but never practiced law. A fourth juror works as a personal trainer. Another is ex-military who served in Iraq. One observer in the courtroom noted, “lots of salt of the Earth” types. Some notes here: • Legal experts in the courtroom noticed that the Oregon-based lawyers for the university huddled often with the attorneys representing Taggart and Oderinde. Also, that the NCAA’s East-Coast based group of attorneys huddled together off to the side. But the two groups of defendant lawyers did not talk with each other during jury selection. • At one point the lawyers for all sides went into the courtroom hallway during a recess to speak privately. The jury pool remained behind and an open microphone captured some of their conversation. Noted one juror who was selected, “I’m dreading eating hamburgers for lunch for the next three weeks.” • The plaintiffs originally asked for $25 million. They amended their lawsuit in March and tacked on an additional $100 million ask for punitive damages, but only against the NCAA. It’s a clever strategy. The prevailing thought is that a Eugene-based jury might not feel inclined to hammer UO with nine-figures in damages, but would be less empathetic toward the Indianapolis-based governing body of college athletics. The former UO football players at the center of the case will soon outline the damages they believe they suffered during those off-season workouts. They’ll talk about trash cans brought out for players to vomit in and oxygen tanks that were carried in on the second day of workouts. They’ll recount how Taggart told the team shortly after being hired that he was, “going to find the snakes in the grass and cut their heads off.” Brenner told me after his hospitalization, “They took years off my life.” Doug Brenner filed a $125 million lawsuit. Attorney Greg Kafoury represents Brenner. He’s a seasoned litigator with a reputation of getting great results for his clients. Said one attorney who has opposed him in court, “It’s the way he looks, the way he speaks, the tone of his voice, and how comfortable he is in the court room. “It tends to put you at ease.” Kafoury, however, struck a different tone, at least early in the proceedings on Tuesday. He was abrasive with the potential jurors. He pressed a few for answers. It caused some to wonder what he might be thinking. Perhaps, Kafoury took a stronger opening stance because he smelled blood in the water. After all, the NCAA’s lead attorney began the day with a softer tone, apologizing to the plaintiffs numerous times. Be sure — there is a lot at stake here. Brenner and Poutasi feel wronged and want $125 million in justice. Taggart and Oderinde badly want this lawsuit behind them with as little financial and professional damage as possible. The university denies any wrongdoing and wants this gone without a substantial hit. The NCAA probably feels like it’s only here because it has deep pockets. Feels ripe for a settlement, doesn’t it? Except for the conflicting agendas of the defendants and their splintered attorneys, that is. I doubt the NCAA wants to absorb an eight-or-nine figure settlement on its own. Taggart and Oderinde won’t want to publicly acknowledge they acted irresponsibly. And UO doesn’t think it did anything wrong. The university won’t want to admit it didn’t properly care for its student athletes. In this, the plaintiff’s attorneys appear to have successfully divided the prey in the courtroom. Taggart is an interesting participant. There are lots of bad feelings about the manner in which he departed Eugene. Most have moved on, noting that his successor, Mario Cristobal, won multiple Pac-12 titles. Still, he’s a polarizing figure in this drama. The jury will be sworn in today. Opening statements will follow. This case has the potential for a massive ripple effect across college athletics. I suspect this lawsuit will be widely followed should it go the distance in the next three weeks. The way coaches instruct and the certification process for strength coaches is all in play in this case. Other universities will take notice of what happens. The NCAA may alter its workout policies. We’re told this is the offseason. It sure doesn’t feel like it in Eugene.

And I stated in the article that I will simply watch to see if the wins happen over the next three years...no declarations of an upcoming 'Natty....no predictions of glory this next season....nothing. "Just the wacko-wailings of a fan who wants to believe." And who wants to have fun watching the football program progress and discussing it with his Duck-Buddies.

Gotta love it!

Gotta have some fun!

Sorry, but I’m not gonna believe the conspiracies on this one. Instead, I believe the Flowe is a much bigger match-up with Coach Lanning then he is with the coaches at Miami.

Woah! There is some real talent there, and almost shouts the type of combo RB that runs and catches. A future Josh Huff?