Charles Fischer

Very, very cool and I'll bet he was in the gym working on that field goal percentage!

Shaw had to "dumb-it-down" for Stanford guys? Huh.

Championship Rings and Non-Conference Flings... Oregon State and San Jose State announced a home-and-home football series that will be played in 2029 (Corvallis) and 2030 (San Jose) this week. It got me thinking about the Pac-12’s non-conference games in 2022. Oregon’s “neutral site” matchup in the season opener will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Sept. 3. That’s a big test for the conference and Ducks’ first-year coach Dan Lanning, who will make a poetic debut against his former employer. BYU feasted on the Pac-12 last season, going 5-0. The Cougars will play at Oregon and at Stanford in 2022. There’s some interesting non-conference scheduling strategy going on in the conference. Here are the 2022 non-conference games for each Pac-12 program: Arizona: at San Diego State, Mississippi State, North Dakota State ASU: Northern Arizona, at Oklahoma State, Eastern Michigan Cal: UC Davis, UNLV, at Notre Dame Colorado: TCU, at Air Force, at Minnesota Oregon: at Georgia, Eastern Washington, BYU Oregon State: Boise State, at Fresno State, Montana State Stanford: Colgate, at Notre Dame, BYU UCLA: Bowling Green, Alabama State, South Alabama USC: Rice, Fresno State, Notre Dame Washington: Kent State, Portland State, Michigan State WSU: Idaho, at Wisconsin, Colorado A RING TO IT: Utah honored the memory of running back Ty Jordan last season and Kyle Whittingham’s team won the conference title and went to its first Rose Bowl. The Utes’ conference championship rings are in and the program again paid homage to Jordan, who died of an accidental gunshot wound late in 2020. Whittingham was widely celebrated last season. He’s done a terrific job. But I don’t think it can be overstated — this was a program that endured the tragic deaths of two players in a nine-month span. First Jordan, then teammate Aaron Lowe was shot and killed at a house party two miles from campus. The team held a meeting after Lowe’s death in Week 2 of the season and discussed whether it should take time off or continue to play. The players decided to unite and rallied all season around their late teammates. Both players were honored with championship rings this week. Major college football feels like a big deal sometimes. But what Utah pulled off last season felt even bigger. CARDINAL RULE: Stanford is coming off a disappointing (3-9) season. David Shaw is now just 11-19 in his last three seasons. In 2021, I started to hear more and more from frustrated Cardinal fans who watched Shaw win 9, 9, 10 and 12 games in the prior four seasons. I am especially curious about Stanford’s spring, which Shaw said has been simplified to help some of the younger players catch up. “We made it simple,” he said. “Guys are playing faster. We still have a little bit of funk in there to keep it interesting but are playing faster.” Shaw knows he had some bad recruiting classes that haunted him. The incoming talent and his underclassmen are just plain better than his upperclassmen. Shaw’s 2021 recruiting class was exceptional. Stanford finished December’s signing day with a class ranked No. 12 by ESPN, No. 14 by Rivals and No. 15 by 247Sports. Additionally, last spring Shaw did something Stanford hadn’t ever done before — welcoming two early enrollees. He’s opened the door for early enrollees again this spring. Stanford will be improved. Also, I like their schedule better in 2022 vs. 2021. They’ll get at least one easy one (Colgate) and there weren’t any easy ones on last season’s schedule. Petros Papadakis works for FOX, among others. GREAT CALL: Petros Papadakis is one of my favorite football broadcasters — maybe THE favorite. He’s knowledgeable, passionate, informative and most of all — genuine. Papadakis doesn’t get enough run nationally but Pac-12 Conference fans know him well. I rarely watch a college football game just because of a broadcaster, but if I’m flipping past and Papadakis is on the broadcast I’ll not only tune in but stick with it. He’s often rough around the edges and I like that because it’s a very different experience from the herd of broadcasters there to mechanically promote network properties and manipulate the audience. His authenticity comes through on FOX broadcasts and during the '“Petros and Money” sports-radio show he hosts in Southern California. He’s also an occasional guest on my statewide radio show in Oregon. Papadakis attended high school in Southern California and accepted a scholarship to play running back at Cal. Papadakis told me once that he quit during double-day practices and took a taxi home from Berkeley. His parents must have flipped. He eventually ended up at USC, where he followed in his father’s footsteps and became team captain. I smiled this week when I saw a story announcing that Papadakis had been elected to the Palos Verdes Peninsula High School Hall of Fame. I know why they want to claim him. He’s made them proud. Papadakis told the local newspaper: “I was somebody who struggled in high school, like a lot of young people do. I was not a good student. I struggled getting along with my parents. I had a lot of issues with self-image and wanting to be accepted.” It’s exactly the kind of message that makes him great at his job.

Reasonable and correct about the Ducks.

Washington is not on the list? It goes to show that what some Huskies believe is true… Deep down God is a Duck.

This is SO AWESOME! Talk about bringing the former players back in and making them an important part of the program...helps recruiting, builds bridges with other boosters. This is great planning and I'm grateful to the players for taking part.

In the long term? This could be massive for the Chiefs as they build a future around Mahomes. Tough for conference foes, but not for a while!

This guy is a TRUE Duck fan!

This is one man's opinion, and as we've learned with Herbert going to the Chargers...dropping to a better team is not so bad... ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr.: Oregon Ducks edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux ‘not going to go out of the top 10′ WWW.OREGONLIVE.COM ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. projects Thibodeaux going No. 7 to the New York Giants in his latest mock draft and offered his assessment of the All-American.

Damn. Just about snorted my coffee again! We gotta get those new emojis for us!

RPI is great, but in the end...people do look at the polls. Right now only two Pac-12 teams are in the top-25, (Oregon State and Arizona) but I do think you will see OBD in there before long. Thanks for posting the RPI, as it lets Oregon fans understand that our Ducks are playing very well right now. Give us three killer pitchers along with this hitting, and Omaha would be very attainable! (But I do like the development of many of the young pitchers!) College baseball rankings: Ole Miss holds No. 1 spot, Virginia, Arizona make big moves WWW.NCAA.COM Here are the latest D1baseball top 25 rankings after the start of conference play. Ole Miss holds on to the No. 1 spot despite a 2-2 week and Virginia is up nine spots to No. 10.

This is another example of where the reaction emojis are quite incomplete. This deserves more than a laugh or a thumbs-up, even more than a clap....it deserves a Standing-on-Chair applause emoji! It is on the list for additions to the forum! And thanks again for making my day!

My friends, this is a BIG DEAL, and it could relieve some pressure off the need for NIL earnings, when athletes are getting commissions/fees for wearing sports apparel. (Before we get too negative, let's see how these things actually turn out?) Canzano: Adidas Throws a Haymaker on the College Sports Front Nike will punch back, be sure. A couple of years ago in Hollywood at Pac-12 Conference football media day University of Oregon star quarterback Justin Herbert showed up wearing a pair of size 13 “Oregon Air Jordan Tinker 3” sneakers. Herbert and I talked for a bit about his shoes. I asked the quarterback why he’d left the tags on them and he said, “I’m borrowing them.” Turns out the NCAA viewed the scarce customized sneakers as a potential violation and extra benefit. Herbert checked out the shoes from UO’s equipment room that morning and slipped them on. So did linebacker Troy Dye. But there was a catch: The football players had to turn the sneakers back in after media day. Only after leaving Oregon for the NFL would Herbert and Dye be allowed to keep them. Hold that thought. Adidas announced Wednesday that it is opening its arms to athletes who suit up for its 109 university partners. The sneaker company said that more than 50,000 athletes across 23 sports can now become paid Adidas ambassadors. Some athletes will be compensated for social media posts. Others might use commission-based links to receive a percentage of sales they drive to the company’s website and app. Others yet are in line for more lucrative brand partnerships. The rollout will happen over the next year. The big surprise to me? That it took this long for a sneaker company to officially enter the name-image-likeness fray. Also, that Nike wasn’t first. Or was it? I’ve been looking hard at university sneaker-company deals in recent days. Alabama is currently riding out what amounts to a lousy contract that former athletic director Bill Battle signed with Nike in 2013. It runs through 2025 and is worth $63 million in apparel and included a $5 million signing bonus. Just two years later Michigan signed a $169 million over 11 years that included $77 million in cash. A year after that Nike signed Texas to a 15-year, $200 million deal. And Ohio State got a $252 million apparel contract from Nike in 2016. Athletes have always been brand ambassadors for the sneaker companies. Free shoes, bags, and sweat suits have always been part of the deal. The difference now is that athletes will be in an official business arrangement directly with the company. Other major corporations are going to be busy today lining up their own widespread affiliate programs for college athletes. Nike won’t want to look like an Adidas follower so I’d expect some splashy accelerated advancements in the concept from them when they announce. Or maybe Nike will just shrug and say, “We invented this game, folks.” I keep thinking about Herbert’s “borrowed” sneakers. He eventually left Oregon with a truckload of team-issued sneakers, including those rare Oregon Air Jordan Tinker 3’s. Under current rules, Herbert could have worn the sneakers home from media day, posted a photo to social media and included a commission-based link for others to buy their own. Or Nike could have just paid him six figures to wear them to media day and called it good. Oregon defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux partnered with Nike co-founder Phil Knight and designer Tinker Hatfield on a $100,000 partnership last year. It was widely celebrated as a new day in college athletics. But I did some poking around and found that, at least initially, the endorsement windfalls were modest. In the first six months Oregon athletes signed 273 endorsement deals. The average value: $1,087. Biggest deal: $100,000 (Thibodeaux). But if you remove that six-figure outlier you get a better idea of how the typical Oregon athlete fared. Average at UO without Thibodeaux: $723. Meanwhile, Oregon State athletes signed 48 NIL deals during the first six months. Olympic champion gymnast Jade Carey signed a $200,000 endorsement deal that skews the numbers significantly ($5,340 average) so we’ll throw that out, too. Average at OSU without Carey: $1,198. Olympian Jade Carey signed a $200,000 endorsement deal at Oregon State. There are bound to be more six-figure paydays in the next 12 months for major recruits in revenue-generating sports, particularly. But the feeling I got from studying the initial returns was underwhelming. It’s why this Adidas deal is of particular interest. It’s built for mass participation and there’s lots of upside for all parties. The Adidas concept makes every athlete on campus a potential paid brand ambassador. The sneaker company hasn’t just turned 50,000 college athletes into a commission-based sales force, it has also added incentive for athletic departments to keep doing business with it. It was a solid punch from Adidas. Nike will hit back, be sure.

Bottom line....is NIL, is ANY of this stuff going to change college football THIS fall? No! Will it affect the next fall? No. Will it affect the 2024 season? Maybe some... So why are people checking out now? It could be a lot worse right now...

After four innings it is Oregon leading, 8-3!

I believe in the precipice scenario; people get up to the edge of the canyon or the precipice and decide that they don’t want to jump in, and then step back and take action to build a bridge over it, get around it, or solve it. I do not think that any of those aforementioned dire consequences take that component of human nature into account. I am hopeful that things will not disintegrate into such a dire result. For one thing, you can expect to see young women in the court room suing for the loss of their ability to get a college education through athletics.

Cool! Thanks Axel, as this is a “resume” game for both teams. when we consider that the Pac 12 only has two teams that are currently ranked in the top 25 in both polls, (Oregon state and Arizona), it makes this game have that much more meaning as I consider it another tough conference game.

“It’s that old saying: hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but the lack of hard work definitely guarantees you’re gonna end up on the other end of it,” Dana Altman said. “We’re gonna have to work. I wish I had a magic wand, but I sure don’t.” Some of this is Dana's fault; none of the veteran transfers he recruited were good three-point shooters...On3 has a good article about that today. (Subscriber only)

I think Dan Lanning, this quality staff, and reasonable NIL income can still do very well in the new environment. What do I predict for Oregon? Winning.

In this morning‘s Eugene Register-Guard, it was revealed that most of these transfer players still have a year of eligibility. Only Jacob Young is out of eligibility, and they all have to decide if they are going to return. Dana also made it clear that whoever remains had better be prepared to work very hard, so there will be a blending of the new and the old next year for sure. It is even possible we could see will Richardson return next year!

I am surprised to hear that Bittle was mentioned, as he struck me as someone who would want to work. It will be interesting to see which of the big-men stay and who goes. I do think Dana has something to point to..."this is what happens when you ignore my system." These Ducks have to work harder...

More later, but this a new record at Oregon as they have had multiple home runs FIVE GAMES in a row! The Zags are No. 23 in one Baseball poll, and No. 19 in another as they've swept three games from both Cal State Fullerton, Oklahoma State and beat Missouri. They have a pitcher who throws 97 mph, but I am not sure if we will see him. Oregon is starting Jacob Hughes, 1-0, 1.59 ERA from Meridian, Idaho and who has a brother Gabriel, on the Gonzaga team and won freshman All-American honors as a pitcher. I wonder if we will see a brotherly pitching duel?

I recall Graves declaring that Prince would be one of the top draft picks of the WNBA when she left.

Bob Gregory coming to Oregon as an analyst from Washington got the ire and respect of some Husky fans. I do think it is so cute when they refer to us as the "Zeros;" like the number of National Championship won by Husky men? My friends....in case you did not notice...for Oregon Football News....this current time is like the DEAD SEA, and tidbits like this below are amusing to read during such a time. For those who do not wish to read what Husky fans are writing--don't. "Don’t kid yourself He’s a good coach and a nice pickup for Oregon if it happens." "I agree that he's a good coach and a good guy, and they're not asking him to be the DC. I just think he's spent an entire career at places known for the highest ethical standards, and landing at a place that is known for the opposite. I wish him all the best, as soon as he leaves Eugene." "Objectively, it's a good move for the Zeros (I refuse to use the word "smart" in connection with them). They have a pretty new staff that does not have recent experience playing or coaching against Pac-12 teams. Whether we liked Gregory at UW or not, they get a seasoned Pac-12 defensive coach and recent DC of a consistently top 3 defense to help them scout all of the other Pac-12 teams. Gregory has prepared or been an integral part of preparing for and executing relatively successful defensive game plans against these teams for almost a decade. He is not allowed to be in a recruiting role (his Achilles heel at UW) if he is an off-field defensive analyst. Besides, the Zeros have above average to strong recruiters up and down their coaching staff, so he adds relatively little value there. Their perceived weakness as a coaching staff is coaching chops. I would say that Gregory is definitely a net positive in that department for them. I bet Tosh Lupoi is pushing hard for this, since Gregory was his DC when he played at Cal. Gregory also coaches the same position group as Tosh does, so perhaps Tosh feels that BG can be a redundancy for him at that position group, as well?" "Lol he went from our DC and interim HC to an “Analyst” for Oregon. That tells you everything you need to know about how bad we were under JL." "Bob Gregory was not a great DC but I think he was a good LBer coach that was unfortunate enough to play in a defense that was very unfriendly to ILBs the last few years. He wasn’t a great recruiter but he was a good position coach. And if he does get hired as an analyst he’s not going to be asked to do much recruiting at all." "LMAO. Let me get this straight. So Ulo (a walk-on) doesn’t count as a hidden gem find for Gregory because Ulo worked hard? But the other coaches find hidden gems but they Do count because it furthers your argument? I’m not saying I want Bob Gregory back as our ILB coach. But the man did have an eye for talent. He just wasn’t able to recruit well enough to get most of his targets. But my main point is to laugh at your take that all the other coaches found hidden gems when Bob didn’t… even though our two starters this year are hidden gems lol." "I know he's a good coach ... but don't sell yourself and work for a program that continually used negative recruiting tactics during your time at UW ... sit on the sidelines till something better comes up ..." "Gregory absolutely did not want to be the DC. He turned down Lake when he asked him initially. But good ole Jimmy circled around and came back and told him that he had to be the DC because there was nobody else." "We all have our opinions, mine is that Gregory was not a good recruiter and so, so as a coach and horrible as a DC. And he chose to continue working for Lake even after figuring out what we did that he was a fake head coach. Anyway, glad he is now Oregon's problem." "I sincerely doubt that the Oregon staff looks at it that way. He’s a good defensive mind." "Yes he is. Worked for Jeff Tedford and Chris Petersen. He could be a solid help for the Ducks. Adding some actual coaching help." "He's a good coach that has been around the west coast forever. Good pickup for the Ducks." "OH please make this happen...Everyone drop AD Rod Mullens a note and draw comparisons of Gregory to the great Oregon Alum Denny Shuler. Include the fact Denny scored the first Ducks TD ever in Autzen Stadium!" "It’s Rob Mullens. BTW, Bellotti thought very highly of Gregory. Veteran coach in the Pac-12 should be a plus for this new staff."

Whew! Big Inning!