Mike West

Who says discussion like that didn't happen at practice? This kid disrespected an opponent, and now his fellow players take a cheap shot at a former coach on social media. No guts. Or respect. Yet they demand respect. How tough would it have been for those kids to reach out to their parents, and use them as proxies to express their displeasure at "being disrespected"? Of course, MC could've pulled the ultimate "Tom Landry" and promptly benched the player for a full quarter. And told the whole team that would be policy from then on. But my question is, do you really think today's players have respect for anything? After that Twitter salvo, I don't.

Utah has a very talented QB that will keep them in position to win games. I don't think they'll have as good a defense, but they are going to score times of points.

Something tells me inflated egos will no longer be an issue.

That's because the LBs are passing to much attention to the QB instead of finding and covering their area of responsibility. Let's hope that changes.

The only problem with that is the semifinals are already boring. The cream teams smoke the pretenders. Now I get that an extra four teams will deliver more dramatic games in the quarterfinals, but the semis have got to get better. So it won't matter much if the SEC dominates in the playoff field (given they already do for the most part now). It's a simple fact: more teams need to up their game. The rest is noise to me when it comes down to it. If you suck now, you'll suck in the playoffs. If you don't get better, you'll get stomped when the real teams face you.

What I saw was a very , very solid defensive effort that controlled Alabama's offense, and spotty QB play. Remember, one of Bama's TDs was a pick six. That was a very close game through and through. And UW played Bama far better than we handled tOSU (completely). When it's said we just need to handle business in the regular season, I believe we need to stomp on all but the elite teams in the conference. No mercy. The cream of the conference has spent to much time letting mediocre teams believe they have a chance to win. We need to see Pete Carroll, David Shaw's and Chip's Oregon teams back in 2010-2012 ( and I hate to say it Chris Peterson's teams in 2015 and 2016 ).

Actually, it does. There are plenty of methods to project wins and losses. And the intangible factors ( injuries, weather, line up changes, etc) are actually factors in as well. Not only do people make a living projecting these "things", quite a few are damn good at it.

And what if Utah also beat Florida! Talk about street cred! Obviously, that is a tall, tall order. The best thing that can happen is, no matter the result of the Georgia game, improving every week should take care of itself. My thought is, what if Bo Nix pulls a Darin Thomas and leads an explosive offense in a similar manner ( most importantly by protecting the ball)?

Not sure why Utah is getting so much love. Last year they fielded the best defense they've had since I can remember, and it was still prone to struggle against the better passing teams. Now, they replace the two best LBs they've ever had, and they still will have trouble with elite passing teams. If AB would've been able to hit those open seam routes last year, we smoke them. So I'm not impressed with this ranking (Nix DOES hit seam routes well, so his sloppiness is the only concern). BYU is pretty good, but they're not top ten material. Point blank. If we generate the kind of points Duck fans are used to, they go down in Eugene. By the way, early estimations have OBD favored in all but two games (Utah and UGA). About what they should be in my opinion. The big question is how quickly DL gets this team to perform at a high level. The talent is definitely there to control all but UGA. But... As we all know, is tough to run the table in the PAC12. Averaging 42/17 will do it though. Let's see what happens.

Nix needs to clean up his "sloppy" play though. UGA's defense is still good enough that Nix will have to play very well. To date, Nix averages 17 PPG against elite defenses. UGA's defense will be talented enough they will be close to elite. He looks better, but he still goofs up routinely. I hope he gets coaches up on that (best way to clean that up is to force him to shoot for perfection during warm ups aka easy ups). Nix's flaws can be improved fortunately.

I get that Willie Taggert is very unpopular. His offense was the most explosive in Oregon history. Check the numbers ( and no Braxton Burmeister' s stats do not count as his his high school was a grade school in comparison to California's elite programs- he was not D1 caliber his freshman year). Taggert definitely would have taken Justin Herbert to two playoff appearances in my opinion. If you disagree, watch Herbert's highlights before and AFTER his injury. He obliterated defenses. Not dominated, Scorched, .and Torched them. Taggart's offense was a weapon of mass destruction with JH healthy. Made Mariota look ordinary ( and yes, I'll argue with anyone in that one- Herbert's NFL career should settle that matter all by itself). Simply put- SEC teams would have struggled to handle JH in that offense, and I mean Joe Burrow numbers I'm certain plenty will disagree. Look at Herbert's in Los Angeles, and go back to his 2917 highlights and tell me what you see looks different Taggert made Cristobal look like the turtle to his rabbit. And even Chip Kelly with Darin Thomas didn't look that clean passing the ball. Don't compare Taggart's arrogance and lack of proper judgement with his 2017 offense. Chip Kelly will never average FIFTY POINTS A GAME- even with a talent like Justin Herbert ( he wants to feature his run game too much). Heresy to many. Tape, however, never lies. Herbert looked like the NFL quarterback he is when he was with Taggart . If he stayed healthy, ANOTHER Heisman would be ours to cherish. Watch that tape. Show me how I'm wrong. Show me why you think Herbert looked like his freshman, junior and senior years. . I will defend Willie Taggart's 2017 offense till my cold dead hands can't hold a pen. His offense was unstoppable.

Kool Aide Mike says bring home a Natty ( yes, this year). Who says fantasies are for kids?

If Nix improves his accuracy (fundamentals in my opinion, he seems careless at times when he throws the ball), he will easily win the job. It does sound like the coaches are giving TT plenty of shots to take the helm, and he isn't ( looking and playing elite enough that is), while Butterfield is more of a natural that really can't be overlooked (and is probably executing as well as TT and thus keeping up with him). High performance is all that matters. OBD can have an explosive offense if these guys execute.

Oh, DAT was pure dominant explosive plays. I'll take the just plain explosive crew the 2010 set of WRs/TEs were. And their eye of the tiger mindset. See, we already have a dominant Oregon team that set the bar. The team that shattered the narrative Oregon can't play with the elite. That team was good enough to reach all eight playoff rounds. Good enough to reach the finals just about every year. And they weren't the most talented any of those years. But they had "it". The inner drive, the lunch pail work ethic, the poise, the pride, the juice. You can't fake what the 2010 Oregon Ducks had. You have it, or you don't. What truly generates explosive plays and dominant defenses? Thermonuclear, weapon of mass destruction attitude. An inner force that explodes outward and won't be stopped. Again, Justin Flowe and Noah Sewell show it already. The rest of the team need only produce thier versions of that willpower. And yes, DAT had inner fire like that. If you've ever seen DAT's high school highlights, you'd know he was far more than a fast dude. And that is why he was a legit five star high school prospect. Utah kicked our butts last year because they had it. Brooks' 1994 crew went to the Rose Bowl because they had it. I could babble another fifteen years about it, but I hope to see it this year. I think DL alludes to it every day. Now Thornton has produced billboard material. Let's hope DL put it on our billboard too, so the team can live up to it.

Kool Aide Mike won't admit it, but analyst "wanna be" Mike West will:. OBD are a work in progress. Albeit a very talented group. We really won't see results until fall given our depleted DL group hasn't worked much in the new defensive scheme I truly hope the players go all out this summer. Whatever work they put in will determine how good they are this fall. There is a framework Lanning can put into place (under NCAA rules) to coach them up if they're serious enough to put in the work. Kool Aide Mike hopes the players shoot for the moon. That the players go into summer with the mindset they can beat UGA. It doesn't matter if the win or lose, it's how they play in that game. Junk yard dog? Wild beast? Or dear in the headlights or somewhere in between? If Lanning and staff can instill ferocity only Chip's 2010 team demonstrated, this team will do wonders. Kool Aide Mike just threw a Hail Mary. Let's hope OBD catch that pass.