Jon Joseph

Fascinating game in 2022, besides BYU at Oregon; Arkansas at BYU. In 2023 BYU officially joins the B12. No program will benefit more from stepping up to the P5 than will BYU. Last season the 13th ranked Cougars had to play in a crummy bowl vs UAB.

NONE of these pundits understand how difficult it is to go on the road in the Pac-12 for 5 conference games. Why, because they somewhat understandably discount the Pac-12. Since CU and Utah joined the conference, no Pac-12 team has run the conference schedule. Not one. And every conference opponent is fired up when they play the Ducks. After the rivalry game, every team wants to defeat SC and the Ducks more than any other opponent. And btw, no team that played 9 conference games has ever won a playoff title. Open on the road vs a team that will be preseason ranked in the top 3. Play a team, BYU, that will be preseason ranked in the top 25 and last season finished ranked #13 by the playoff committee. And play an FCS team that is far from a cupcake. These rankings are one of the reasons the SEC teams get a mulligan. Other than Bama and UGA, of course, last season, the SEC was not all that in its bowl games.

Sorry, the young man's name is Stetson 'The Mailman' Bennett.

I checked, Stetson is healthy and will start at QB for UGA in 2022.

Oh, that's bad for your health and scoring points.

None of these draft gurus are the least bit self-accountable. Where is McShade and Kiper's post-draft grade on how close (far off) they were in their draft projections. If these guys picked at the track like they do with the draft they'd be homeless.

Negative Events With Spin. Some guy claimed Conerly was NIL paid $1.2M to commit to Oregon. This un-social media is off the rails.

As far as I could tell the young man was homesick?

JT Daniels has transferred to W VA. But Natty-winning Stetson is back at QB, unless he has been injured and is out for the season. Stetson, unless injured, is THE GUY.

I don't see anything 'wacky' at all. So far, everything we have seen out of Dan Lanning, his staff and the players has been nothing but positive. The potential is enormous; however, 'potential' is a scary word. Keep on keepin' on with the enthusiasm; it's all good.

Love the take, but Saban, especially since becoming a Grand Dad, has been far less grumpy in recent years. He could not have been a more gracious loser in 2021 to former assistant coaches Jimbo Fisher and Kirby Smart. At 71, I'm fairly certain that Nick Saban has no desire to leave Bama for any other job college or professional. I don't see a drop off in Saban's energy, like we saw with Bobby Bowden at FSU. I don't see the out-of-control grumpiness we saw from Woody Hayes. I think Dan Lanning has a terrific upside but he has yet to coach his 1st game as a head coach. I too hope he and his family love Eugene. But Dan gets on a Saban-like run and it will cost a boat-load of money to keep Dan at Oregon. The mediocre coach at Purdue and the hasn't done anything yet Mel Tucker at Michigan State are both being paid a lot more money than is Dan Lanning.

Interesting and fun article. Saban, was a HC at Toledo, at Michigan State, at LSU where he won a Natty, and with the Miami Dolphins before coming to Alabama. In his 1st season at Bama, Saban posted a losing record including a loss to LA Monroe. Nick Saban is the CFB coaching GOAT. One reason he is the GOAT is because every year he brings in a recruiting class ranked in the top 3 and these days, plugs in positions of need from the transfer portal. He went 1-1 against UGA last season, losing to UGA only when WR Williamson went down in the champ game after WR Metchie had been injured and could not play in the champ game. It took coach Kirby Smart with a roster stronger than Dan will ever have at Oregon, six seasons at UGA to win a big game against Saban. Will Smart be able to sustain the 2021 success and come anywhere close to winning the number of national titles Saban has won? Will he, or Dan at Oregon, win 100 games in a row against unranked opponents? Saban accomplished this incredible run at Bama. Conerly was a terrific get. But I don't see Lanning or any other Ducks HC reeling in top 3 recruiting classes season after season. Or, sending double digit number of guys on to the NFL season after season. I'd be more than happy if Dan, like Brian Kelly at ND and Riley at OK, could consistently get Oregon into the Final 4. (This means going at least 12-1.) And then wins a semi-final game(s) and wins a single national championship. Will Dan be at Oregon long enough to accomplish these lofty goals? Make no mistake, I love the enthusiasm. However, I am concerned that many Ducks fans are placing unrealistic expectations on a guy who has never been a HC. And in 2022 Oregon has one of the more difficult schedules in CFB. The schedule lightens up in 2023. Dan will have had a year's head coaching experience. Hopefully the starting QB in 2022 will return in 2023? I'm looking at 2023 as the season when the Ducks, notwithstanding having to play what will be an improved USC team, will make a legit run at the Final 4. Again, fun article Charles. Thanks.

I don't like losing Pac-12 footprint highly ranked recruits to Notre Dame or to any other school outside of the Pac-12 conference. If he goes to South Bend and balls out he could help take down Stanford and USC. Help ND with its BS 12 game no champ game schedule sneak into and get blown up in the final 4. The conference has to keep these guys on the Left Coast. BTW: JT Daniels is transferring to W VA. 2 years of eligibility left. This seems like a very strange landing place for Daniels?

I'm OK. My spouse helped up from the laughing fit that brought me to the floor! Priceless!

Nix vs. UGA - 0-3. 639 total passing yards. 1 TD. 2 INTs. But as you so noted, he started against and defeated a number of talented top 25 teams that had better guys on D than he is going to see in the Pac-12.

There was a reason why Nix was the SEC Frosh player of the year under Dillingham. If his ankle is OK I think Nix has a chance to light up a whole bunch of Pac-12 Ds? He is not going against the Ds he saw in the SEC. And on the road he is not going to be playing in front of the hostile crowds he played in front of in the SEC.

Love it! But, are the kitty cats jealous? On a more serious note, the Georgia Tech RB that the Beavs signed out of the portal looks to have a legit shot at replacing Baylor at RB?

Very good points. However, businesses that do not continually finish 'in the black' end up with new management or go BK.

OT - A+M Transfer QB Calzada was playing with a dinged shoulder but the standout player in the Auburn spring game was Robby Ashford. Looks like Robby has a legit shot at starting at QB for the Tigers, a team undergoing a big time 'culture shift' under Brain Harsin. A number of Auburn guys portaled out because they said Harsin, unlike Gus Malzahn, practiced them 'too hard." Guys like this? If I was a teammate I'd be glad they went away.

David, thanks for another terrific article, including noting the influence of NIL and the Portal on CFB in general and on Oregon specifically. As you implied, 'culture' in sports is nebulous. In CFB, like in all sporting endeavors, your 'culture' is going to be measured by W's and L's. I think Wake Forest has a terrific culture, a small school that wins a lot of games. But Wake will never win a national championship. Lots of OBD folks believed that Mario introduced a great culture at Oregon. I didn't see it. If you play down to the level of the competition, as the Ducks so often did under Cristobal, IMO you don't have much of a 'culture.' The best sustainable cultures we have observed lately in CFB exist at Bama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma. UGA won a natty last season against a dinged up Tide team but did not win the conference title. We have yet to know whether last season's success at UGA under Smart is the beginning of a championship run or a Chizik-like title for Auburn? Of the 5 teams mentioned above, all 5 including UGA last season, had a significant roster talent advantage over the vast majority of conference foes. In CFB, wins follow the best Jimmies and Joes playing in the best schemes. I have a good deal of hope that Dan Lanning and the staff he has assembled will bring a lot of success to Oregon. But the 1st thing I want to see is in-game EFFORT. I want Oregon to play up to the quality of its roster and not down to the level of teams the Ducks should destroy. Then, wins will follow instead of embarrassing defeats against CAL, OR ST, ASU, Iowa State and Utah. The talk out of Lanning et al and the enthusiasm out of the players has been great. Now, walk the walk. Conference titles and Final 4 invites will define Oregon's 'culture' under Dan Lanning. If a team does not win far more games than it loses, the program's 'culture' is irrelevant. A team's APR, graduation rate and good citizenry, will not keep a losing coach employed.

It's good for depth, but it's a shame so many starting DL guys have not been able to play this spring.

To be elite, you have to win a championship. (But winning a championship does not make guys like Gene Chizik and Larry Coker anywhere close to elite.) Grinch was up and then down at OK. He did well as the DC for Leach, not an easy task in the Pac-12. But what does he have to work with at SC? I think Riley will need two years of solid recruiting and portal picking before SC is a legit Natty threat. But I also think you'd best be able to put up plenty of points vs SC, starting in 2022, if you are going to defeat the Trojans. The D is a mess. But the run game averaged 4.4 yards per run last season and the OL only gave up 18 sacks playing in front of a far less mobile QB than Caleb Williams. Four OL starters are back and Riley picked up an accomplished OL guy from UVA out of the portal. Drake London is gone. But the overall talent at the skill positions has significantly improved. On paper, I see SC having the best O in the conference in 2022.

Great take. Additionally for the record, Nix is 0-3 vs UGA. 639 passing yards (213 a game) with 1 TD and 2 INTS. Auburn and TN don't have it easy. Only 2 teams that have to play UGA and Bama every season.

LOL funny. Thanks Man. Riley has been taking a lot of heat on OBD. But? In his 5 years at OK, FBS CFB teams averaged 29 points a game; OK averaged 43.6 points a game. And over this period of time, Riley played against more top 50 Ds than did Saban and Alabama. Riley produced 2 Heisman winning QBs at OK. He never had the same QB finish with the most passing yards in consecutive seasons. He plugged QBs in, they played and produced points. Riley is 16-6 vs the AP top 25. He never lost more than 2 games a season in his 5 seasons at OK. This puts him in elite company, company that does not include Saban at Bama, Shaw at Stanford and Smart at Georgia. Adding transfers from the portal, Riley brought in the 10th ranked class to SC in this recruiting cycle. (Of course losing Conerly was a big whiff and huge for Dan Lanning. SC has not recruited a 5* OL guy in the last 7 years!) Will he turn SC around? Remains to be seen of course. But he does come with bona fides that no other coach in the Pac-12 has. He certainly should not be feared but IMO, he should be respected. But and not being the least bit sarcastic, keep the jokes coming; priceless!

Nice. Looks like a good back up player and possible special teams contributor? He counts toward the 2022 and not the 2023 class, right? If it is the 2022 class, do you use a scholarship on this young man or save it for a guy out of the portal?