Mike West

Well I certainly hope we don't become the distasteful blue blood when we get there. It already shows some in the Athletic Department. Some believe they're too big for 'the others'. Reminds me a bit of The Outsiders. Not to mention, some kids can never relate to being humble as we Grey Beards know all too well. It's a blessing to be a contender. Not too long ago we were just like Oregon State and WSU. And we'd have been looking in the outside in if Rich Brooks hadn't worked his butt off and learned what he needed to learn.

Interesting take. If it's true that position coaches matter most to recruits, does it really matter? Chip is a football genius that doesn't relate to inflated egos that much (I'm with him on the egos, I can't stand hyped up (and relatively) grade schoolers). Chip changes the entire game of football. Chip is damn near the Vince Lombardi of College Football. The media age (social media that is) inflates egos and fosters many a delusion. So as CEO I wouldn't mind my coordinators spending more time finding ways to carve their elite opposition rather than hunt down too many maybes. Just my take. Recruiting should be for those that really want to deal with the kids. You can build relationships with them when they are on your team.

If the B1G is talking about it, it may well happen. I like the strategy: create compelling end of season games for ratings AND another revenue source for the conference. Expand to 14 teams, provide the 3 AQs for the SEC and B1G ( it's going to happen anyways - especially after the House Case settles), and hype it all season ( that will make the regular season more relevant than ever). Will it happen? We'll see. Money has a funny way of creating foggy hubris in decision makers. Let's see if they still care about the essence of college football.

My take on the posts here: OSU basically took a key coaching move by DL and used it as AMPLE MOTIVATION TO DEEP SIX OBD. Nothing like a rivalry starting off as hot as tOSU/Michigan. They already hate us. That's good. Another Blue Blood annoyed that we are coming for them. As I said, if I know DL at all, he is going to scheme better than he ever has. And personell doesn't matter as much as using the talent you have in hand.

LOL, I stared a whole new thread before seeing this... But my take is vital. We need every exam known to mankind to fix our issues with elite teams.

I’m curious, what’s the point in spamming a free website? Seems like an awful waste of time.

I’ve got to look at it. Michigan does an excellent job of slowing teams down. They have an elite staff. That’s one of the reasons they keep getting elite players. I believe our staff is pretty good. They haven’t attacked that major weakness yet. I’ve even seen CB Mohamed isolated at times in ways that don’t make him look good. That has to change.

I’m going to have to take a good look at them before I comment. Again, I believe it’s going to hinge on giving them solid rules for coverage. Savage couldn’t cover elite speed, but he sure was around the ball a lot. ‘’Ohio State (Chip) did a good job isolating the weakest man on man cover guys and kept the deep Safeties in conflict coverage. That is where the rubber meets the road-finding coverage rules that bolster those weaknesses and most importantly, forcing elite WRs to take short catches . Open field tackling is vital and that may be where OBD can take advantage of their skills best. This requires a lot of trial and error. Which I don’t think DCs and position coaches scheme for. It’s more the entire defense. One on One coverage is very difficult for even the best CBs and Safeties. That’s why I believe it takes looking at the best offensive plays ever designed and crafting coverage packages for them. I don’t believe coaches think that way.

I believe the scheme isn't suited to handle elite offenses. I've seen four games against that set, and then two relatively above average ( talent and scheme) offenses in Happy Valley and Ann Arbor that exposed some solid red flags. I actually believe the secondary was talented enough this year to handle Ohio State. They don't match up speed versus speed, but with the proper set of rules in zone, that group was keen enough to make plays and take away options. It is my belief that pass coverage should take options away from the QB. I don't see that as a priority in their scheme. I see a reactive formula that requires very elite talent. As in NFL esque talent. Nobody in college football is going to have a full set of players that rival NFL talent in any unit. That especially goes for a secondary. It has become quit clear the SEC learned that fact the hard way this year. Before, ten teams could stockpile talent and replace elite talent with near elite talent. Now Georgia and Bama face the same issue OBD have- holes in part of their units. In my opinion, that requires blending scheme that suits the talent level. I'm not sure many coaches are recognizing the facts on the ground yet. They still believe they can coach up the holes they have, instead of utilizing each players' strengths in order to produce an effective amount of production from the unit as a whole. Excellent coaches recognize this and exploit the weaknesses they identify. That's why Ohio State was chomping at the bit to play OBD again. The saw the flaws live, tracked our progress, and went to work on what Michigan initially exposed and Penn State exploited further. It's time to craft a scheme that is flexible enough to suit the many strengths the players demonstrate on defense. That's going to require testing the weaknesses in many forms and developing strengths that minimize those flaws. That's what I see at least. Lanning wants to use a style of defense. I see using talent that exploits several types of defenses ( that emphasize the players' strengths).

Away games are tougher. Hard to stomp a pesky home dog out. Nice victory. I’m impressed. Didn’t expect the win…

Rookie QBs usually struggle in their first playoff game. Franklin is probably an ADHD kid. That might explain the inconsistency and lack of focus.

Well, let’s hope it sticks. Kids getting ‘stupid’ with demands can take that to the NFL. This guy is good, but damn, does he really think this is really NFL land. I don’t want T to hear that Latree Spreewell nonsense (I got kids to feed). This isn’t Wall Street. Get your agent to sign some contracts for you outside NIL ( make him earn his money damn it). Greed is not good…

While I agree Ohio State wins the majority of this year's matchup over several games, I disagree (guess I'm in that mood today). The Buckeyes' loss to Michigan was the reason they're on a steamroll. But they nearly lost their Jedi status on Friday. Penalties hurt them. I haven't seen the game yet, so I'm only guessing here, they tried to bully Texas (got caught up on that I'm more physical than you stuff). I've watched Texas enough to know they had no business stopping a power passing team like Ohio State's. Which brings us back to the Ducks. The rematch would have been an OSU victory because Lanning has yet to suit his defense to the talent level of his players. I don't think that happens eight times out of ten because clearly, teams have been able to handle OSU 's strengths on offense. Nebraska, Indiana, Penn State... I doubt Lanning keeps his same stuff next year, or even the next game against a lethal offense. That's the definition of insanity and Dan Lanning is not insane. He's still a gambler but he's a much better gambler. I actually thought the secondary was much better this year, but as I previously mentioned, you cannot have guys guessing who they should cover, and when players are that out of position, they don't know what they're doing. In other words, they are given rules that don't work against even ordinary offenses like Penn State and Michigan had this year. A safety is supposed to take away the deepest route in his area of responsibility. Far too many times I saw Safeties twenty yards outside their area of containment. That's unacceptable. As I've mentioned dozens of times, in games at that, Linebackers are eyeballing QBs like they're going to eat dinner. There's a reason QBs are told to "move a safety or LB out of position . One would think a DC would take note and at least bait a QB into a bad throw. Given taking a QB's options away isn't part of the script, I see dark days ahead for OBD until they learn that lesson in a playoff game. This year's set of DBs could zone cover well enough to slow that lethal group of Buckeye WRs. That's the only way. The Mandalorian way. Ohio State barely gets out of its way. I hate to say that about Ryan Day, but now he has Chip, and Chip sure knows how to win his own way. That's is documented at this point ( I'll give him credit though, he found a way to take that late 4th quarter lead on Friday). That's why I don't believe Lanning allows an 8/10 run. This year or any year. When Lanning solves his pass coverage issues (some combo of above at least), he will win a Natty. And neither Ohio State, nor any other Blue Blood will stop him. Not even the refs will stop him once he figures that problem out. The Buckeyes are one of my favorite set of teams too. That's why I hate Ohio State fans. They damn near cost themselves a title this year.

I just don't get that upset anymore. OBD used to really, really SUCK. My first home game was a 3-63 obliteration I doubt will ever happen again in the history of the program. So what if it was bookended by another rout. This time, we're reigning B1G Champions coming off a 13-0 regular season. I expected a loss in the playoffs given how very few teams in the history of the game have gone 16-0 in a season. As in less than the fingers on a hand rare. That it was against Ohio State makes it sting. I'll take that damn ref fest in 2011 ( our first Natty appearance). Nothing sucks more than a conspiracy to prevent a new blue blood. That's my take and I'll die with a gun gripped in my hand before I'll accept another argument. We got robbed. I'll say it a hundred more times before I live my last breath.

Well, I will say this. He coached his current team better than EVERYONE EXPECTED. Including myself. You can't say he's not a good coach anymore. Like it or not, he exceeded expectations, and Colorado is way better for it. Neon did more for Colorado football than any coach since the late Bill McCartney. Not to mention, sometimes college football just needs a villain.

I love Boettcher. And he might scale up to Simon’s level. If he is used properly. He’s a heat seeking missile. Now if he does exactly what he did to get his one interception this year (watch the tape-you know what I’m talking about), the only time a QB will go his way if he is a step slow like he was in that exact play. However, if he does cover the guy ‘properly’ like that, QBs will hardly throw his way because BB will take away that option. And he already has the instinct to cover well. He just need to keep his eyes off the QB. I thought BB and Jackson were by far our best LBs this year. Now we need four more with their skill level and performance ability. Tweak the defense to suit their strengths and voila, we’ll have a top five defense for real ( if and only if they straighten out their coverage rules-which Penn State and Ohio State exposed for the universe to see-those players are better than the instructions they are given to cover guys).

That 2010 team had something no other Oregon team in my opinion. Intensity, toughness and sheer force. Nobody hit as hard as they did, nobody exploded off the page as well. They were more balanced as an explosive team. You couldn’t stop them (not even Nick Farley could sack QB Thomas-Chip blew his shot at a blowout ). You couldn’t really score on them either. Auburn got two TDs and a FG on poor ref calls. They shut down the second highest scoring offense-from the SEC at that- down. Despite giving up lots and lots of rushing yards. That 2010 team was WAY MORE PHYSICAL than Auburn. Ask the first known NIL guy Scam Newton. Watch how much he limped off that field. He got his butt kicked!!! Not one SEC team did that to him. The 2012 team had more talent, but the 2010 got robbed. And I mean Billion Dollar. Robbed. I think you could take the mentality of that team and put it on any of the best Duck teams and that group of players-if they don’t get robbed-wins a title. Including beating the 14 NFL Draft laden Buckeyes. They were that “Talented".

He has the kind of size and speed we lack. Only Devon Jackson is close to this guy’s talent level and size. ‘’That is exactly why I don’t like the defense Lupoi and Lanning run. They don’t have the prototypes to execute that type of system. OBD LBs -played well this year. Especially for what they are expected to do. Better use of their skill sets would make them even more productive in my opinion. They are not capable of what this guy can do.

DTBE. I kind of like that.

I'll say this: I doubt any Duck player forgets that loss. Ohio State is going to replace Washington as our bitter rival. They may up being that damn team back east.

Kind of gets into that issue of winning. Two losses are acceptable. Kids are leaving because they want more snaps. DE Winston comes to mind. He contributed often, and still left. Offensive Line is a little different. I believe you can't go more than 8 or 9 deep. We did see a significant drop off on the DL though. Opponents scored often when the subs came in. .So is that lack of experience or lack of talent? It took Winston three years to really contribute. I believe DT Washington is also going into his fourth year. He started making big strides, and he looked ready in the Spring. Again, some of this is purely scheme. The Edges spill into the B and C Gaps way too much for me. I've talked to FD about this, and he believes it's a pick your poison against Spread offenses. I say attack like Ohio State did, with the Safeties AND Seal the edge. But they use a 4-3 scheme to execute it. Same with Penn State. We also did in 2019 and had one of the best performances in Defense ever. Hmmm. So is it coaching or is it philosophy on defense?

Yeah, I stopped watching very early. It was obvious five minutes into the game. Ohio State got the rout they expected in October. I so wanted to shut up Buckeye fans. But I'm rooting for them because I happen to really like Ryan Day. I hope he gets that stupid monkey off his back As to OBD, it was not only a bad look, but poor timing. I think OSU still wins if we had played them later. I would hope OBD were better prepared. But alas, I'm backing DL till the end of time. He has way more upside than flaws. If he never gives us a title, I believe he gets us to a title game for sure. So many things have to go right to win a title. We've got robbed for sure and that 2010 steal will always tick me off. Yet, I'm damn near certain we have the right guy to pull off what many blue blood programs don't want: an Oregon Duck football title. We are reigning B1G champs. I sure didn't see that happening this year. So the embarrassment doesn't sting as much for me. The lessons learned this year are all that matter now

That's unfortunate if it was the treatment, not the injury itself. Jon is right. Staying in the moment matters. Because it's the people that matter to you that count. I'll tell you what though. Life is beautiful. We are so blessed to live in this country.

As usual, very good takes about this topic. Everybody wants a title. We have the components I believe Lanning has done a masterful job of recruiting talent, and putting an elite squad on the field. He took over a team with decent, but not great talent, and went to work to get the type of talent he wants. We've seen improved performance every year. Quite a few in Duck Nation weren't sure about the offense last Spring . The first two games really scared the entire fan base. DL showed just how great he really is. He and Stein took their time to truly evaluate the situation/personell this year and took that unit to an elite level. It's a work in progress. DL is performing very well given he is new at it. The College Football landscape is in a major upheaval, and DL has done an exceptional job navigating it. He has the chops to get us up the mountain, and to raise a flag on the mountain top.

I recognize why Lanning signed him. Don't recognize why Sagapolutele came here expected to play immediately. We have a super stacked QB room. Three guys that can start anywhere. Right now. Sagapolutele showed me he misunderstood what he was getting into. Some of that may be ego. Who knows. What I do know was there is no way snow will survive hell, and he wasn't going to start in 2025. Somebody gave him some very bad advice.