Charles Fischer

Coach Nordy--I always learn something new in your articles, and today there were a couple of gems. I had no idea that Figueroa had heated up so much and your comment about ball rotation is one that most of us saw, but did not realize the impact until you supplied the stats. That explanation of short rests for the players--I never realized that and will be watching for it. Thanks so much!

Yesterday it was announced in the Eugene paper that Southwest Airlines, the great discount airline, is going to begin flights to and from Eugene in the second half of this year. To me, this could be a huge development for Oregon athletics on a number of fronts. Whoa! --It will become cheaper for Oregon fans to come to not just football games, but other sporting events, or combine several sports in their visit at once? --It will enable parents and family of players to come to games and visit their son or daughter student-athlete at Oregon more often. Could this be a game changer with some distant recruits? --This could destroy the traffic for other airlines coming to Eugene, and limit the number of flights from other carriers? The new American Airlines flight that is direct from Dallas, Texas to Eugene is important for Texas recruiting--and could it be jeopardized? I have been hoping for YEARS for SW to come to Eugene, and I feel this could really open the floodgates of more Oregon fans visiting, of which could have a big impact on the community. What other ramifications have I missed? Am I exaggerating the impact? (Calm down Charles)

To me the "juice" or the raw material is there in terms of coaches and players, but there are so many components that are unknown right now--I just don't know. You must have a great offense in college football today, and I do not know if Cristobal will swallow hard and do what needs to be done--when it is not what his base instinct is. Some coaches can "see the light" and adjust--even when they don't like it. Will Mario do that? Unknown.

Agreed. Will Oregon play to it's potential? Or will we lose to teams we should not? So many questions and that drama is part of great entertainment that is fun to watch...

Wow. Our Beloved Ducks had a 4-1 lead slip away to be tied 4-4 at the end of nine innings, but the Ducks exploded for five runs in the 10th inning! Robert Ahlstrom (North Eugene) got his first pitching start for this year, and freshman Andrew Mosiello closed it out for the win. Five runs scored with two outs? You gotta love the fight in these Ducks! What is crazy is how we would have thought we would won four games off of Seattle, and hope to split with No. 15 Santa Barbara, yet it went the other way around. That's baseball! But this team is growing right before our eyes and the return of Kenyon Yovan is huge. More later, and I sure appreciate the live streaming at Eugene compared to other places. Above is Tanner Smith about to get another hit and drive in Kenyon Yovan from second!

Brooke Yanez gets another win with help from Samaria Diaz relieving and the Ducks got the bats going to crunch Boise State. A game recap to follow later and one more game today of Softball against Portland State. Mya Felder celebrates her walk-off homer that also scored Hanna Delgado!

This is great stuff Southern Duck, as you have given me a lot to ponder and watch for....

Absolutely, by a mile. We will be in the game at Columbus, where we had no chance against those Cornhusker teams that crunched everybody...

It is good that someone else post this PittDuck, as I cannot keep up with all the sports--thanks.

No sweat. You know...what really fries me is how tech people create software with no directions and YOU have to figure it out or hire a web developer. So damn....I am going to do what NO OTHER SITE DOES! I am going to provide directions that are in plain English, take minutes to learn, and seconds to implement....and nobody reads them. Damn. I guess the tech guys were right? As a side-note? This forum software has been a nightmare for me; no directions, and when you ask for help, they send you a wrong direction or something that does not relate...and the tech guys knows it. They are jerks, and it is the way the world works now between all the software that I need to make two sites (the FishDuck Article Blog and this forum) work. This forum has been far-more-work than I ever anticipated, and simply setting the foundation will take another two months for me. (Unbelievable) This was a much bigger project in reality than I thought it would be, and at times....I wish members would give an ounce of effort toward a pound of work I've done. And it is FREE.

I have written a ton of articles and posted a ton of times. (More than anyone else) I think everyone knows where I stand....

THAT is a very cool video--thanks!

Look...the highlights are more than I can write, and frankly--this team needed this kind of game for confidence at the plate. Good gosh it is great to see Kenyon Yovan homer in back-to-back games? He is back, baby! And boy will we need him for conference play...and while that Oregon native did well, Aaron Zavala (Salem) homered again! Heck we had true freshman RJ Gordon getting experience pitching at the end! Won the series on a No. 15 team? Wow! (Calm down Charles...) Another Oregon runner is about to cross home plate....

You are quite right. Attaching a link takes seconds, and bringing that photo over is even easier. (Right click on the photo, copy and paste in your post. Easy-peasy!) It is a shame--I create directions and nobody looks at them... That is a beauty--thanks!

Boy I was hoping he would pass your muster, and that is not sarcastic. You call it the way you see it, and that doesn't always jive with the recruiting services and the offers the coaches give. I was wondering what your thoughts were and THANKS.

Don't get me wrong...Samaria Diaz had five great innings with no runs allowed, but freshman Makenna Kliethermes had ice in her veins as she shut down a Bronco rally in the 6th inning and did so against bases-loaded! Whew! Can you say 11-1? Kliethermes (No. 15) stops them cold....

You are being very kind; he alienated so many donors and former players and it took a long time to rebuild those relationships. He made life harder for the athletic department...the stories are legendary.

Brooke Yanez got the win again and freshman Hanna Delgado had a key two-RBI hit to create the winning cushion. A recap to come along with a second game against Boise State... Delgado is about to get her hit to score the runner from second....

Well, you can follow that logic, but it is not what I wrote. I have written several times recently (like yesterday) that I like everything MC does except running the offense. You want to take me down a bunch of rabbit-holes until you can score a victory, and I will decline. All of what you wrote in the quote above does not represent my views and should not be projected on me or anyone unless they actually wrote it. (That is a "Straw-Man" Strategy) My view is simple and a ton of people agree with it; he said when he came that he would not change the offense, but get tougher in the trenches. That has not turned out to be true; our scoring has declined in the last three years, our rushing attack has declined over three years and whether or not we are tougher is debatable. Scoring more points makes it easier on the defense....especially when they had a tough year like last year. But we will disagree and that is fine. You are a great fan and superb contributor here, and it is great that we can have a robust discussion without resorting to "Pistols at Dawn!" 😝

If you are going to watch this team...you better load up on the antacids for the ride. Yesterday the team rallied in the 9th inning, while the first game today they were down 4-0 until a rally in the 8th inning with a final winning run in the 9th. Kolby Somers, (the pride of Hillsboro) closed out the game again while Rio Britton (a reliever to starter Cullen Kafka) got the win. Aaron Zavala (the pride of Salem) got two hits while Kenyon Yovan began flexing his muscles with a home run and four RBIs! (The pride of Beaverton!) I would love to see the bats warm-up sooner, but I'll take the win!

No he does not IMHO. He rejected the offense that scored 43 points a game for nine years and replaced it with one that underperformed at 38 points per game in 2018 and 2019, especially with one of the nations best quarterback at the helm. He wants to do anything except what worked before and has been floundering about on offense since he took over. An average of 31 points per game last year was disgraceful, and yes, other teams such as ASU dealt with COVID too. I do not believe he would run an explosive offense....even if he had the players, and we will see proof one direction or the other in the next couple of years.

Sure, but now you are diverting from your original premise; you felt the offensive scheme of ball-control was fine, and I disagreed. Now you pivot to player quality, and I have no disagreement with that as I stated above. I do not believe that Cristobal would score the same number of points with the same players Alabama had, and it is because of different schemes, and that is my point. Did Arizona State have better players than Oregon? They scored 40.2 points per game average versus Oregon's 31.3....so if Oregon had more quality players...what is the difference? "Mario Cristobal has held the Oregon Offense down better than any defense since Auburn of 2010!" Duckpop22

Yep, and the current top teams are also the highest scoring offenses now, and doing the most winning. They are not winning with ball-control because of the skill players creating so much scoring against them, hence they have to score in response. Alabama scored 45 points last year against Auburn and lost, and had to score over 50 points this year to win the SEC championship game. It is the trend, and we are stuck in a bygone era, IMHO. We do not have to run the previous Shotgun-Zone Read-Spread Offense, (although the top teams are) but we need to score more if we want to win the big prize.

Holy Toledo! Talk about a lot of smoke...there might be some fire there! When the biggies at 247Sports such as Wilfong, Prehm and Wade all give positive updates of this 2022 QB's visit with his parents within a few minutes of each other? Now the Oregon Rivals AJ Jacobson too? Was there a silent verbal from Rivals 4-Star Alabama QB Tanner Bailey to the Oregon coaches during his recent visit? When that many recruiting tongues are wagging...you gotta wonder. Look at this offer list right here, (24 already!) which includes Michigan, Auburn, LSU, Georgia and Alabama?

Very cool ICamel, and thanks for finding and posting that.