Haywarduck

A one hit wonder band, who thinks they are legendary.

Not sure who would deserve it more, but he is definitely Oregon's College Football Player Of The Year. Thibs is as talented as any player out there, but Noah left it on the field, every game he played. I was actually shocked we were able to beat WSU without him. His impact on the team is unquestionable, and massive. Travis Dye matched his heart on the field, but the talent of Noah is exceptional.

Great idea to put a donate here button somewhere. It is the season to be both grateful and generous with our giving. We should all ask ourselves if we can give, as we all gain so much! The donate button shouldn't be dominate, like our defense will be, but we should be locate it, unfortunately, like our offense, tough to find.

Wow, just wow! Made me question my loyalty to the Ducks and love of college football.

Lastly the article today is about Loyalty. Loyalty is being shown to AB. We as fans can decide to show loyalty to players, or just the idea of winning with what we, as fans, think is best. I am not talking about staying with AB if he plays like he did against Utah. If he is off again like that, the second half should see another qb or two. I will say loyalty to the players should involve giving AB a chance to lead the team he led all year. If not we are no better than some of the things we are so critical of. What do we want our program to stand for?

Great article, as it takes many people to support such an auspicious plan. Each piece has to fit into a massive machine, and that machine has to become a microprocessor. Gone are the days where the coach is only person making critical decisions. Does anyone really think Saban could have turned the Alabama offense into what it became without delegating the offense to Jim McElwain and getting rid of Applewhite after one year? Saban has continued to make shrewd hires and management decisions. So much of coaching is delegated, and then trusting the coach, assistant or just chief of staff. Each piece has to be trusted to know their job and do it well. The coach can't be expected to micromanage, nor does a program want that. You hire great staff, keep them accountable, and let them be part of a larger web. Lanning will be judged by the play on the field and wins and losses. Those all begin at the decision level we see with the hiring of Malchow. Not many really want to understand this level, but it is incredibly important for Lanning to make the right hire or the circuits go haywire quick. Meanwhile Cristobal continues to kill it on the recruiting front, congrats!

I would add the best case scenario is he has such a good game he can hand it off in the 3rd quarter to one of the young guns. AB deserves to start, and the offense has been built around his skills. He has also been a warrior within this system, we should be grateful. I get, am in that camp, we want our offensive output again. The problem is this is what has been built and we need to let it play out. We can wish for what we will see next year. We need to show the patience Ty and others have shown, it will come!

I also think it reflects on how our society is today. It use to be you went down to 'Kim's' bookstore, after going to 'Bob's' coffee shop. We now drive through 'Dutch Bro's' to get our coffee, and feel good about the relationship with the drive through person. We then wait for Amazon to deliver our book or other item. Nothing wrong with society now, I suppose that is a whole different conversation, but it is different. Loyalty is based on convenience, and performance. If it isn't convenient to wait in line at Dutch you will go to the next best. If the coffee isn't good you might choose some place else. You won't just ask Bob at the coffee shop what is up with the coffee today. You will just get online and give the coffee shop 1*, rant, and feel better, temporarily. So we may want Kim's bookstore and Bob's coffee shop, but we don't live in that world anymore. If you really want that again, go down and watch Linfield Football, great stuff. What we have is Starbucks Football, and we better like the new brew, because it is what is available until our massive gift card is used up.

Lanning is taking over a winning program, like Helfrich did. Great question about loyalty in both situations. I think it can be defined, better, by saying there is a commitment on both parts to 'winning' and growing the program. Saying there is loyalty on either part, is disingenuous, at best. There is only loyalty to money, it drives everything. Cristobal's weakest element was the fanbase beginning to tire of Cristoball. If the fanbase decided not to attend games, pay for their seats, donate, and Cristobal faltered in wins, he would have been gone too. If the money stopped, the loyalty, commitment to Cristobal would have crumbled. Lanning and Oregon have made a commitment to grow the program from where Cristobal had it. Failure on the student athlete part, recruiting part and the winning part will begin to erode that commitment on Oregon's part. It will erode because the money, revenue will dry up. Revenue and money spent are tied together, but not completely. Revenue is critical for the Athletic Department, and its budgets. Revenue is tied to the fanbase, and it's support. The money to build and support the coach won't waver for a long time. That money is tied to the big donor(s). As I stated before Oregon's commitment can't really be questioned. The money Oregon is putting into football is staggering. With this commitment, loyalty, isn't a question on our part. The only question is will Lanning fulfill his commitment. If not, the money will still poor into the program and it will move on.

Another casualty of Cristoball. Fortunately there is talent behind him, and it won't be held back. Again I just hope DJ Johnson comes back and is a leader on the team. We need, and have new leadership. It is good the diva types are leaving and the youthful talent is taking over!

We don't know much for sure, other than Canzano had no clue. My bet the PK's were extremely involved in who would be the next coach, and Mullens knew the rules and how to be an AD.

The Pac-12 shutting out tosu for the season would bring me great joy. The Pac-12 gong 2-0 against the nuts, do it Utes! What a way to bring in the New Year.

Love this guys act.

The RB always being the team leader in rushes. A 1,000 yd. receiver and other guys getting regular catches. The qb being, at least, in the conversation for the Heisman on somebody's board. The defense having no, or few injuries, and it will take care of itself. A pundit states 'Oregon's offense is back!' which would pretty much mean all of the above is done. Lastly we never have to hear about how good the dawgs were in the past.

The back up plan is making the position as attractive as possible. Coaches undoubtedly look at positions and the support they get. They also look at where the previous coach ends up. When the new indoor facility gets done, and it isn't just a rich alumni's pie in the sky promise, the Oregon program will look even more attractive. The academic facilities being built on campus are also impressive, along with Hayward Field. Oregon looks like an elite athletic department with many mens and women's NCAA titles, and an academic powerhouse. The job of coaching may have become a stepping stone, but it is an upward stepping stone. Coaches haven't been asked to walk on water, and they haven't sunk after coaching at Oregon. We may not like the directions our coaches have gone, but to most coaches this is an attractive attribute. Not just the head coaches, but the OC's have taken head coaching positions. I actually wouldn't call our plan a back up plan, more of a moving ahead plan. Our coaches and the program keeps moving ahead, and coaches want to be part of that kind of program. We are like the cool kid who always lands on his feet, and people just are attracted too. We aren't just the rich kid, who often has to impress new friends with just money and power, because they have alienated all their old friends.

And I would argue some give him too much credit. How would Mullens do hiring coaches at UW? Would Cristobal have been able to leverage their storied past? Hiring an assistant, or somebody with a losing history hasn't worked out with the dawgs. My take is he does his job well. I highly doubt he was behind contacting Lanning or pushing that pick. I can agree to disagree on this one, and agree it is time to move on.

Agree it use to be like Christmas with signing day, all the new student athletes you were allotted. Now it is like having parents who can't find all the gifts, student athlete's until they leak out over the months after Christmas. The transfer portal has created a whole different element for building a team. If you are good at it, the team you build is much more likely to have the players you need after seeing them play against you or other teams. Watching high school kids dominate against inferior talent is hard to evaluate. Coaches often rely on the camps kids go too, but those are often just a place to get a glowing write up as the kids parents are paying for the camp. Kicker camps are notorious for promoting kickers who can only perform in a vacuum, with the wind behind them. The transfer portal may become the more productive way of picking up talent with heart, which only shows up once game day switches to Saturday. Colleges may end up signing only the sure things and then picking up transfers who have proved themselves at lesser schools, or from coaches who promised them more than they could, would provide. Could it be the teams out of the top 20 are the proving grounds for the 2* and 3* talent, kind of like a minor league. They then move on to the bigger schools if they pan out and play for pay, which is already happening? We don't know how it will all play out, but it could be interesting as we see some crazy stuff happening.

Seems like a pretty good idea at the high school level. You don't have punters, kickers who can do much. I wonder what data was being analyzed, I imagine high school statistics. I do agree with analytics. Also love the line at the end of the story. “Worldly wisdom teaches us that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.” This is another reason I like the hiring of the young guys. They will be more apt to question conventional wisdom and succeed doing it. Our program has the reputation of doing just that, once again, hopefully!

My experience says Mullens was doing what needed to be done as the acting AD. He needed to fulfill NCAA requirements for interviewing a diverse group of candidates, check. He needed to interview an alumni to appease the alumni base, check. He also needed to look like he was bringing back the offense, check. While this was going on the real work was being done, by those who lead the decision making process. The press had no idea about this process so they made up all kinds of stories about Mullens actions. Everyone has their role and Mullens did his very well. Most importantly the Oregon Football Program made the right decision.

Urban was, not surprisingly, fired. What program is going to take a chance on this guy? Seems like a Rick Pitino type character at this point. Rick ended up at Iona College. I think Urban may just stay on tv for a while, if a network will take him. He has a strong coaching tree, but his roots are rotten.

Always a pleasure to read and see your analysis. I look forward to future information on this hire as there is undoubtedly a lot of information to digest. It will also be interesting to see how Dillingham will do as The offensive mind of the team. With Norvell as his mentor Dillingham was undoubtedly tied to Norm's ideas and processes, not a bad thing for a young OC. We will now have Dillingham running the complete show. What twist has he been wanting to do which Coach Norvell may not have been open too? That will be an interesting item to see. This would be a question I would ask him, if I was at his presser. A new OC without the heavy hand of the old guard, will be exciting to see!

I didn't believe it until he pulled out the boxes of t-shirts Mullens had made. Once again reporting where there were no facts, just saying what people want to believe.

I have been around, and even seen world class athletes teach, it isn't always pretty. Most love being around the great world class athlete, and may talk about what they said, but they can't apply what they said. The world class athletes lesson is usually just an amazing story, everyone remembers afterward. An elite master teacher is worth every penny. The reason the NBA is now full of ex-players as coaches is because they are just glorified baby sitters. I wouldn't take a lesson from a coach, over a player, but a true master teacher, any day. Have you had a lesson from a legend? I will admit Einstein and his teacher would have been way over my head! I have also been around some math quants, crazy stuff their minds do.