Jon Joseph

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?

I LOVE the reference to Vince Lombardi. Despite all statistics to the contrary, despite a guy like Saban changing the Bama style of play on O, Mario seemed to be trapped in a 3 yards and a cloud of dust time warp? If you watched Michigan last season, I don't expect new Miami OC Gattis, especially under the aegis of Mario, will bring the Miami O into the 21st century any time soon?

Hayward, I see NIL as breaking down into 2 components. Direct marketing deals, like KT signed with United Airlines. This is what NIL was intended to do. Reward a student athlete based on his/her skills and marketability. The second, 'buying' a player to come play for your school under the guise of NIL. In the 2nd scenario the player's NIL rights are assigned to the 'Committee' purchasing the player's services. The purchasing party has 2 interests. First, for the school to win more games. 2nd, to market the player's NIL rights and hope to bring in a return larger than the amount invested when buying the player. A 'normal' marketplace would over time self regulate the use of NIL to buy a player's commitment. Spend more than you get in return often enough and the investment in untested high school kids (and guys out of the portal who are busts) should in theory, fade away. But I don't see this happening? The folks buying a player's commitment are by definition, FANATICS. Yes, there are NIL committees that accept small donations but for the most part these committees are made up by people with far more money than sense. A poor ROI is not going to dissuade these folks from trying to buy more wins. A+M may never win the SEC let alone a Natty but the people who just bought the best recruiting class of all time cannot stop crowing about it. Regulation will come. It will come with a Super League under the umbrella of a single commissioner and with agreement among the teams and the inevitable players union that will allow for rules restricting the buying of players, the transfer of players, the number of assistant coaches a team can have, etc. It will also come with a massive media deal and yes, it will be NFL-Lite.

It's about the SYSTEM and not a SINGLE player. The 3 top running teams in the SEC last season were not the 'usual suspects.' 1. Arkansas 2. Ole Miss 3.Tennessee. Not one of these teams produced: an all SEC running back; an 800 yard rusher; a player who averaged more than 13 carries a game. All 3 played up tempo offense and ran more plays than did the rest of the SEC teams. And all 3 had dual threat QBs. Even with the run production, all 3 Os hit the long ball. All were in the top 4 in the SEC with passing plays of 50+ yards. The above stats are courtesy of Connor O'Gara of Saturday Down South. As O'Gara notes, 'It's all about the scheme.' From what we have all read to date, the up tempo style of play is what coach Lanning and coach Dillingham will be bringing back to Oregon, instead of the dysfunctional O we saw out of Mario. Travis Dye going to the Trojans is a loss, no doubt. But there is plenty of talent at the Oregon RB position. And an up tempo scheme will not only help the skill players. It will help the OL guys obtain better blocking angles and will also help wear down the opponent's D. The Oregon Brand will return. Far more important than my POV is hearing from many the Ducks player that 'football is fun again.' Can't wait to get this party started!

No institution exists to control NIL. Based on the Alston decision, any 3rd party attempt to 'control' NIL will likely be shot down in court. Putting at least some of the money in trust is a terrific idea but is at the discretion of the player. Without a players union and agreement with 'management,' NIL, the portal, etc. are out of control.

THIS is the name of today's game. You cannot duck this issue and it is so good to see the Ducks step up. The programs that cannot or will not step up will soon not be playing CFB at the highest level. Pac-12 guru Jon Wilner sees a schism coming in the Pac-12 between those who are OK with NIL and those that are not. Wilner describes the 'schism' as occurring along academic lines. In other words, CAL, Stanford and at least the administration at UCLA are not on board with what needs to be spent today to be top drawer competitive. And one wonders where the UW administration is in this regard?

$8.8M in his last 6 starts! 52 days from 1st win to #1 in the world; it took Woods over 250 days to accomplish the same.

$100M here, a $100M there, pretty soon it all adds up. Everett Dickson, kind of.

AMEN! But if it happens why was the guy, an athlete like Dixon, not given a shot? In last season's spring game I thought he showed as much promise as did any QB. Cannot wait until this season and leaving Mario's shut down O behind. I respect those who believe Mario showed big time recruits could come to Oregon but what difference did that make when playing slo-mo ball? A recruiting genius and a coaching chump who never, IMO, progressed as an HC as many on OBD believed. Oregon will never have the roster strength of a Bama or an UGA but Oregon can out scheme, play fast on O and beat teams with better rosters. THIS is what is the Ducks brand. THIS is what has to happen to for Oregon to ascend. Sorry, but Oregon is not ever going to out-recruit a number of teams down south.

And the guy 'suspected' to start at QB for Auburn sans Nix is now in the portal. the 2 most delusional fan bases in the USA? Auburn and Texas.

LOVE THE ENTHUSIASM! I don't necessarily disagree but OOC playing the likely #3 team in the country and another top 25 team and then having to play 5 conference games on the road? Your words to the football gods ears my friend.

Scotty Scheffler, who just won the Masters by 'a lot,' won his first PGA tournament on 2/13/22. Now, he is #1 in the world and a Masters Champion. Here's the football connection that grey, grey beards will get. Scotty went to the same high school in Texas that produced Bobby Lane and Doak Walker. The best RB trophy for RBs in CFB is the Doak Walker Trophy. May the Ducks in 2022 go on the same kind of run!

Looking at the schedule I can certainly see 11 Ws but I also want to be patient with Lanning in his 1st season if need be.