Jon Joseph

Huh? Oregon in 2020 lost the Fiesta Bowl to Iowa State. Mario at Oregon won the Rose Bowl on 1 occasion.

Are you referring to the win over 8-4 UCLA that Oregon almost threw away in the 4th quarter? I agree that was a good but a to be expected, win. With the roster Mario had, to not win a conference that is sending 6 teams bowling, is a failure. The SEC is sending 13 out of 14 team to bowl games. The B12 and the B1G are also sending the vast majority of their teams to bowl games. No reason the Ducks should not have won this conference in 2021. No reason the team should have retrogressed after the Ohio State game. Injuries? Every team in CFB suffers injuries, including Stanford and Utah.

The kid's a gamer with no NFL upside. Perfect game management at Ohio State. Close wins over inferior opponents. Terrible at Stanford and terrible twice vs Utah. I believe it was a mistake to start AB at all this season? But Mario is totally risk-adverse and perhaps, was playing this season more for Mario than for the Ducks? Who knows when a 'representative' of Miami first reached out to Mario? After the opening game beat down by Bama would not surprise me. If Brown gets the start its out of sympathy and the Ducks, playing against Caleb Williams and Bob Stoops, could easily be blown out. Does this Oregon team have the heart and the will to show up for this game?

PLEASE STOP! Kellen is an NFL guy through and through who will soon be a HC in the NFL.

Thanks Steven. Reading this, why does Mullens still have a job? A 5 year extension for Helfrich? Followed by hiring 2 G5 coaches with losing records in the G5. Mario won a consolation bowl game. Big whoop. He missed 2 playoffs with a ridiculous loss at ASU and with the best roster in the conference, barfing on The Farm and being blown out by a Utah team that had never won a conference title. My take, like Hayward notes above, Mullens is just covering his sorry ass.

I did not and do not advocate OR hiring DeBoer. But is is a fact that DeBoer defeated Kelly this season and came damn close to defeating Oregon.

If UO hires Kelly than UW hired a guy, DeBoer, who defeated Kelly in LA this season and took the Ducks into the 4th Q at Autzen. If Mullens hires Kelly it means he could not bring in a top drawer candidate. What is Kelly's record in the pros and at UCLA? BAD! Kelly inherited a tremendous group of assistant coaches at UO and ran a system that was once revolutionary. Since? He has stunk it up. All of a sudden Kelly is going to get fired up about recruiting? Colorado State just hired Jay Norvell from Nevada. IMO, Norvell would be a better hire than Kelly. IMO, this hire, if it happens, will be an Epic Fail on the part of Mullens. 2 of the 3 main challengers to Oregon in the conference will have made better coaching hires.

This just in! You cannot win a Playoff unless you play well enough to get into the field. Like beat Powerhouses Stanford and Utah.

If not, why not? Do you you really want the guy to start his first game in Atlanta vs Georgia? Brown has done NOTHING to 'earn' the start. Brown is not playing in the NFL. Sitting Brown will not hurt his draft chances. If I'm TT and I don't start, I am seriously considering heading for the portal and taking teammates with me. Of course, if TT has no more upside than AB it doesn't matter and the coaches screwed up signing TT and not coaching him up. On Mario if this is the case. Like so much other frustration with the team and for the fans.

EXACTLY. If you do not have a plan for recruiting the portal you best get one ASAP.

This hire has become its own gossip column. People! Other people make money speculating on things. Names will be thrown at the wall. Maybe one will stick? But sooner rather or later 'the truth' will out and we will have someone to in reality discuss. Meanwhile, I thought I saw Bill Belichick in Eugene yesterday!

How about Knute Rockne?

He is an NFL guy waiting for an NFL HC offer which should be coming reasonably soon. Until someone is hired names are going to thrown out realistic or not and attributed to anonymous sources.

Thanks David. Today's students are well aware of the number of players in the portal vs the # of scholarships available. So IMO, caveat emptor. The portal as predicted, is being used to give some top players players good enough to play at their former school, some golden chances. SEE: To'o To'o and Wilson at Alabama. And the chance for some schools to turn it around. Michigan State brought in 40 players from the portal before the 2021 season. Went from winning 3 games to playing in the Peach Bowl. There is a lot of 'roster tampering' going on today, off the record, with players being encouraged to portal to another school. Many of these 'offers' come with a guaranty of NIL money. HS QB recruiting today as reported in The Athletic, is taking 2nd place to finding a QB in the portal who has playing experience. Why take a chance on 'newbie' when you can bring in Spencer Rattler. The NCAA today is gutless and powerless so there will be no new rules and regs. forthcoming for the portal or for NIL. This is as close to pro football as you can get with a number of CFB coaches making more per annum than all but a handful of NFL coaches. The Portal is a guidepost on the way to the CFB Super League. Not to denigrate student-athletes, but the inmates have taken over the asylum. Note, in 2022 a team is allowed an extra 7 scholarship athletes on the roster.

But what if 'god' is Phil Knight?

But Banks is holding off until February to commit. Maybe with the right hire Banks and other de-commits can be salvaged. But we are closing in on early signing day.

Let us not forget that when the UGA and A+M AD jobs were open Mullens had his hat in the ring. I hope Mullens is not the only one involved with the new HC hire?

Does this = AB starting at QB? I hope not.

UF is interesting. It is one of the few schools in the SEC that is an AAU member; ranked among the top public universities in the nation. Facilities that are lacking compared to most of the SEC programs. Mullen did seem to go a little off the rails this year? But he did very well at MISS ST and in the last two games vs Bama he took the Tide to the wire. Like Kelly and Ryan Day, he is from New Hampshire. I do not think he has many connections on the west coast? He does run a modern O and raised the game of Dak Prescott and Kyle Trask. Malzahn has a good job at UCF which is getting better with UCF joining the B12.

Andy Staples has a similar take up on The Athletic today. Along with an article discussing the PO and other CFB matters with GK. Among other things, GK indicated that the Pac-12 would be going to 8 regularly scheduled games. Alliance OOC games will begin sooner rather than later and be spread out throughout the season and designed for equal competition. GK also told Andy that there may be too many cooks in the playoff pot? Indicating that the G5 conferences do not deserve an equal seat at the table. I totally agree with his G5 take and why should Notre Dame have a seat at the table?

After years of stability Dabo just lost his DC to Oklahoma, his AD to Miami and his OC is rumored to be the #1 candidate at UVA. But come west? I don't see it. And would UO pony up $9M per annum plus incentives?

Does anyone think that Dan is or should be in the mix?

Hoke? We'd be watching the same snail-pace O we watched under Mario.

Thanks for the 'zip.' LOL

Lebby is following Venables to Oklahoma. Lebby was investigated by the NCAA and the NCAA found crickets. Big Suke has to fill up his on air time.