Jon Joseph

No surprise, I agree with Mike West, as echoed by Jemangi, throw the ball. However, you have to be in an upright position to throw the ball. It would also help to have your starting RBs healthy and blocking for the QB. Also, 'on the road' and in front of a vociferous 'home crowd,' how about running the ball on the 1st play from scrimmage? The second possession by OBD was a thing of beauty. A perfect time-consuming drive that kept the Heisman Trophy winner off the field for close to seven minutes. But once he walked on the field, how do you stop perfect throws to well-covered receivers? Against Alabama and Oregon, not Alabama State and Oregon State, Mendoza threw more TDs than incompletions. Have any Forum friends seen back-to-back shows like Fernando put on in the Rose and Peach Bowls? I haven't. If he is under pressure, your QB needs to have a quick release, escapability, or both. Dante is a solid QB, but he doesn't have a quick release or a dual-threat skill set. A&M QB Reed and Heisman finalist Julian Sayin and their respective O-lines wilted under Miami's pressure. Ole Miss QB Chambliss's athleticism and Miami's bonehead penalties kept Ole Miss in the game, but the Rebels did not have the talent and the depth to stop Miami on its last drive. On Monday night, I don't think we will see Mendoza, or a receiving corps that's been healthy all season, and an O-line and group of RBs who have been healthy all season succumb to Miami's pressure. IMO, this group is too well coached to go belly up. The Hoosiers were tested by Iowa, OBD, and Penn State, but stayed together and found a way to win. In the face of Miami's bully-ball, I don't see this group of 'outcasts' as so referred to by Mendoza, rolling over. Again, OBD's second possession was brilliant, both in play calling and execution. Then, after a stop by OBD's defense, we saw an excellent punt from Indiana's kicker, and then, an OBD RB, with few reps on the season, messed up an RPO handoff on OBD's 5-yard line. Once an avalanche starts ... So it goes. CIGS, GET THE B1G 3-PEAT!

If you are tired of the ESPN GameDay crew, check out the championship game coverage on BTN. Monday, 1/19/26, B1G Live Show on BTN, 2 PM Pacific. The BTN crew does a terrific pregame job of analyzing upcoming games. Also, the best pregame champ game coverage I have seen to date was Greg McElroy breaking down the game on his Always College Football (ACF) program. I record McElroy's show on ESPN U. The program, and Greg's pregame coverage, are available on YouTube. Greg sees Indiana winning a close game, 27 to 20. The B1G's Gerry DiNardo predicts more Indiana fans in Hard Rock than Miami fans. Go Fernando! We want a B1G Three-peat!

Hmmm. Quarter finals in 2024-25. Semifinals in 2025-26. Dan Lanning is heading into his 5th season with many players who could have gone pro returning, and some good pick-ups from the portal. I doubt Dan is done with this season's portal picking. It took Kirby Smart and Ryan Day six seasons to win a title. Getting pantsed in the last act in 2024 and 2025 is hard on the CFB soul. This season, OBD lost to an Indiana team playing a home game in Atlanta, with more fans on hand than the Hoosiers would have had in Bloomington. Neither loss is as devastating as Ryan Day's loss to Michigan in 2024. But Ohio State gets PO gifts from the football gods. A season earlier, TOSU would not have been in the PO field, and Day's job would have been in jeopardy. OBD did not have good fortune against Auburn, Urban Meyer's Ohio State team, Ryan Day's Ohio State team, and this season's No. 1-ranked team. Next case. In 2024-25, No. 1-seeded OBD 'earned' a 1st PO game against the eventual champion. The bracket this season had the top remaining top seeds playing in the semi-finals. FWIW, very little, I think OBD would have defeated Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl, Indiana would have defeated Miami in the Peach Bowl, and the two teams would be playing Monday night in Miami with many Oregon fans in attendance. OBD does not get PO gifts. That's the way Fortuna fumbles. I look around CFB, and I do not see a supposed top drawer coach, Day, Sark, DeBoer, Kiffin, Mario, or even Kirby Smart, that I'd prefer to have coaching the team in Eugene. From this fan's POV, I find the two bowl losses to be easier to swallow than when Lewis wiffed on a FG in Seattle that would have tied the game, and worse, the second loss to UW after taking the lead that resulted in a game against Liberty instead of a 1st round game in the PO. I'm certainly not happy about how this season ended. But I'm certain I am happier than Texas Tech fans. So it goes. There is no teacher like experience. OBD will be in the 2026-27 PO field with an excellent chance to reach the champ game in Las Vegas. Give me five? Monday night's championship game will be competitive, but Oregon is odds-on to lose its second 12-team PO game to another winner of the national championship.

GET THIS GUY! These 5 schools are instant top contenders for Colorado transfer Jordan Seaton

Amen! Far fewer Hoosier fans would have been in attendance. Using the NFL format, Indiana would have hosted Miami, and OBD would have hosted an SEC ream for the first time since Tennessee came West, Ole Miss. Sigh. Even with the game in Miami, I think Indiana has the chance to win Monday night's champ game attendance battle. With apologies to Charles Dickens (not Fischer 😁), this is likely CFB's worst of times and also the best of times. It's not Ohio State vs. Notre Dame. Instead, a somnambulant championship program with the chance to be the lowest seed to win a title, and a program that only woke up for the last two seasons since 1887, are playing for The Prize. A team with the composite 72nd-ranked roster is in the running for a championship. Huh? 1980 Miracle on Ice redux? Nah. The team without a Blue Chip Roster is the favorite? This will be a battle between the hometown Heisman winner versus the homegrown head coach, who happened to play high school football with the Heisman winner's Dad. This unrealistic script would be rejected by every studio in Hollywood. After all, the Hickory High Hoosiers, coached by Norman Dale, not Gene Hackman, and led by Jimmy Chitwood, did win a championship. Will Curt Cignetti measure the field before kickoff? Forget the Buckeyes and the Irish; ticket prices for this game are at an all-time high. And there will be millions more viewers tuning in on Monday night than watched last season's Blue Blood championship battle. Go Hoosiers! Make it a B1G Three in a Row!

I'm going to 'Wait a Minute' before grading Raiola's signing. I'm going to wait until I understand the plan. Will Dylan be an understudy for a season? If so, or if he starts in 2026, I'm going to wait until I see him playing in the Oregon system surrounded by better players and with better coaching. Dan Lanning and friends identified Raiola early on as the guy they wanted. The deal to bring Dylan to Eugene was probably (wink, wink) agreed to before or shortly after Dylan entered the portal. Otherwise, I think Dylan would have taken a few visits, no? No fault directed at either party; this is how portal picking works. Three of the Final 4 QBs are one year (subject to Chambliss' suit against the NCAA) starters. Dante is a transfer who basically went to school last season and learned on the job this season. Until there is a collective bargaining agreement between 'management', as however defined, and a players' union, it makes sense to go with an experienced QB, even if he has only one year of remaining eligibility. This is simply the name of today's game at every position. Talented young players not assured of starting at any position will be poached, as is the case with OBD's youngsters on the D-side of the ball. Dante's maturity in spending a year in training, and possibly the same decision by Raiola, is the exception and not the rule. However, Dante in 2024 and Raiola this season, should he sit and wait, are not doing so for free. Oregon hit on every transfer it brought in for the 2025 season. Looking at programs, Florida State and Penn State, for example, OBD once again received an excellent return on its portal investment. Clemson and Penn State started QBs developed within the system and played one another in the Pinstripe Bowl. Danno 'gets it.' And I trust his judgement.

The ACC hasn't fallen apart yet, but the Clemson and FSU settlements set the stage for it to happen. The ACC exit fee declines every season through 2029 to a far more reasonable number. Miami is the team initially benefiting from the ACC agreeing to teams keeping the lion's share of postseason revenue and media money will be distributed based on the number of fans watching a team's games. With the B1G's on-field results in football, and also this season in basketball to date, Miami, with its deep-pocket boosters, is now a more viable candidate for SEC membership than before 'It Just Means More' started morphing into 'It Just Meant More.' And the SEC could bring in UNC without upsetting an existing in-state program. UNC has deep pockets. Unfortunately, the football money was thrown at a guy who only performed at the highest level when he had TB. (Cough, cough!) Unless CAL, UCLA, and UW leadership go completely bottom-line brain-dead, there's no way they are leaving the P4 for a little league program. Also, even if these three joined the Pac-8 + Gonzo, what would the incentive be for the P4 to promote the Pac-11 + Gonzo to Power conference status? Canzano is not a bottom-line, brain-dead individual, so he feeds his customers this propaganda. Like Conference USA, the reconstituted Mountain West, now known as the Pac-12, is a media and nationwide afterthought. I like the idea of OBD kicking off next season with a blowout of pac-12 Boise State.

I'm hoping The Trophy doesn't stay in Vegas. 😉 I want to see it headed northwest to Eugene.

He is a weapon returning kicks and punts. An all-around outstanding athlete. Great addition who was predicted to go to Texas Tech or Texas A&M. Koi will be swimming in a B1Gger, better pond. 😁 Here's some more from ESPN - ESPN.comSources: Ducks land ex-Gophers star safety PerichFormer Minnesota safety Koi Perich has committed to Oregon, sources told ESPN on Monday, confirming a report by CBS Sports.

Darn! You beat my nine-hole record. 🤬

After wasting her time in Jersey, she finally has a chance to get a good education. Welcome Aboard! Fairways & Greens!

As Coach Cig has said, this is all kind of surreal. Indiana grad, Saturday Down South's Connor O'Gara, wholeheartedly agrees. Do not be surprised if more Indiana fans are rocking hard in Hard Rock than the Canes' fans. Saturday Down SouthI'm an Indiana graduate who still can't find the words to...IU's run to the College Football Playoff National Championship is hard to fathom for plenty of folks, most notably IU grads.

More on Michael Bennett's transfer from the Yale Bulldogs to the Ducks. https://duckswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ducks/football/2026/01/12/oregon-football-michael-bennett-transfer/88142691007/

A Blast From the Past - Will Indiana Tie Yale's Record? AP NewsInside the Numbers: How Indiana and Miami stack up going...Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza originally planned to attend Yale, where he was recruited five years ago.

Does Big Red football matter in Nebraska? Here's a take on the transfer from Nebraska Public Media - Nebraska Public MediaBig Ten foe picks up Dylan Raiola in the transfer portalNebraska’s starting quarterback throughout much of 2025 will stay within the Big Ten.