Jon Joseph

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.

Not - I watched the Clemson spring game yesterday. Could not believe it snowed earlier in the day in Clemson! I was interested to hear Dabo say that CFB will be 'blown up' and a league, he mentioned 50 teams, completely free of NCAA involvement is coming. He also thinks the league will have its own network and a lot of games will be pay-to-watch broadcast. Also noted that in this week's mailbag, Jon Wilner thinks that NIL will 'divide' the conference by 2030, along what he refers to as 'academic lines.' Wilner also reports that SC has sub-rosa, reached out to the B1G for possible membership. Go Ducks. Fired up for the Spring game, glad to get Coach Boles' take and glad Charles linked in Boles' thoughts.

Therein lies the rub? Can he do it again? Agree with all of the points you made. Although I note that at OK, Riley never had a roster ranked, if it was higher ranked, significantly higher than the Texas roster. During his time at OK the B12 was not blown out in a NY6 non-playoff Sugar Bowl, and the B12 representative usually defeated the Pac-12 opponent in the Alamo Bowl. If Riley performs at SC like he did at OK it will be far from 'underperforming.'

Interesting. It has now been 7 years since SC signed a 5* OL guy.

In the playoff he underperformed. But he won the B12 year after year and went to the playoff 4 times in 8 seasons. And, he produced 2 Heisman winning QBs. I very much disagree that he underperformed as the HC at OK.

OL is a ballet. Ballet dancers practice a given role to get in synch with one another. Ballet dancers far longer than do CFB OL guys in the limited time allowed for practice.

In agreement with many of the above. No, he won't start. But I think he will see playing time.

Thanks Mike. Again, I sure hope you are right. Baylor's D was pretty good in 2021. It held down a prolific Ole Miss O in the Sugar Bowl (part of that was due to the Ole Miss QB being hurt in the game) and won a conference that I think was better and deeper than the Pac-12; see the bowl results. The B12 went 5-2 in the post season and won 2 NY6 bowl games. I do think the Ducks are catching UGA at the right time in 2022. Lots of guys on that great D will be playing in the NFL in 2022. And if he is healthy and starts at QB, this will be Nix 4th start versus the Dawgs. And Nix has played many the game in an atmosphere that the Ducks will see in Mercedes Benz stadium. The talent on D as you so note should be fantastic; especially, if Flowe can play at his top drawer level. But as you also noted, it will be young and facing an O led by a QB with a ton of experience playing behind the best OL the Ducks is likely to see in 2022. It's going to be a fun and interesting ride.

A judgement call. But on Stanford's last drive the judges all seemed to be against Oregon? 1 brutal call after another. Something you would not see in the SEC if Bama had a 1 score lead against MIZZOU on MIZZOU's last possession. But Stanford is the Ducks NEMISES. What can go wrong against the Cardinal usually does go wrong.