Haywarduck

Maybe I am going down a rabbit hole, but why should all sports be the same, fair. Life isn't fair and at least they play with a round ball. Talk about unfair, try playing with an oblong ball on a golf course. Another thing which isn't fair, if your 7' tall or over you have a 1-6 chance of playing professional basketball. The game is a freak show, if you ask me. There are some great athletes, but then you have some guys who just get a check because they are extremely tall, with long arms. The playing field is never level, ever.

This article is a minefield of subjects and topics which can only lead to violations of rules. I suppose it is a nice test of our ability to stay on topic, oh yea the Ducks. Go Ducks! I for one love the fact players don't make money unless they make the cut, love that element of the PGA. The rest of the beefs the multi-millionaire golfers have, not sure I want to spend the time understanding or feeling any compassion for. My two cents.

Got up way too early, what else should one do, watch a nice preview of the O returning to Oregon!

It will be fascinating to watch. Will the NIL money keep these supposed one year and ready for pro ball players on campus's longer? The NIL money may make the level we see on the college courts higher if players stay around. There is certainly the money in college basketball to pay them decent money. If we start seeing a group of players staying together to play for one school again then the NIL thing might help the college game, naaaaah. Not going to happen. Interesting ponder point though.

Exactly and how Oregon does things. Best of luck to Dior, wherever he ends up. This is how the future at point guard looks after Richardson is done.

I am done with one and done wanna be's. I prefer the idea of Richardson coming back and another young guard from Oregon coming in and taking over like Pritchard did. I am actually thrilled with the recent developments.

Talking about insurance, I remember a buddies wife's insurance was more than hiring a chauffeur, back in the day. The last straw was parking the Rover on the edge of a cliff without the parking brake, in neutral. It almost stopped after hitting a couple cars, but not so lucky. Not to say a male can't have the same scenario, especially a college kid with a Bentley. As far as poverty cars, anyone fill up an American car lately!

AB was 64% throwing mostly sure things. I doubt AB would be even close to Nix's percentage throwing the passes he was asked to throw, to the receivers Auburn had, behind the O-line they had, against the competition he saw. Apples to apples Nix is a huge upgrade. AB, was told, 'don't make any mistakes,' Nix was told to make things happen against a head wind. My take is the head wind will turn into a tail wind when comparing the tasks. I completely agree Nix's scrambling against the competition he saw was a liability. I look for that to change with our O-line, our receivers, and the lower competition, but the first game might be a Dilly!

Hopefully we will all be saying 'Dilly Dilly' with what our coach brings, out of the pit of misery, I say! Could that become the chant after every explosion play? Now that would be some fun, not quite the 'shout' tradition, but some fan fun!

Herbert to Shough, AB was tough. Shough, AB to the next guy will be much easier. It is all in the perspective, to a degree. We want scoring, and downfield passing, which we had little of the past couple years. With downfield passing you have excitement, something which has been sorely lacking. I think it is going to take both the coach and the fans to be ok with the outcome of the big play and the big pic. Statistically Bo has gotten better with his pics. The thing Georgia sent last year was the kitchen sink at the guy. He had 4 sacks when the Bulldogs played him. The challenge may to our O-line to give him time and a protected pocket. Great point to shake us up a bit in our love affair with every move Lanning's team has taken so far. The spring game was refreshing, will it stay that way?

They played against the Mari'no'O Oregon at Rice Stadium and in Las Vegas. This season they will play Lanning's team at Autzen, as whole different ballgame. Another thing about Utah is they, historically, build to a senior laden very good team. The key there is they build, and that process isn't always pretty. They usually have a couple off seasons then a good one. They are due for a poor season.

The biggest transfer loss might be starting at qb for Auburn. Wouldn't that be a head scratcher if Ashford starts for Auburn and has a stellar year? I could see Ashford surprising college football more than I could see Mari'no'O killing it his first year at Miami. Of course I always was pulling for Robby to make it big.

I have to chime in on the whole Helfrich legacy discussion. Helfrich was a very good coach, and I wanted him to succeed as much as anyone. The fact is he didn't improve on the Chip Kelly's recruiting legacy, and that is how we should evaluate his recruiting history. Helfrich came in after Kelly had improved our recruiting, and our standing, ability too recruit. Comparing Kelly's first year of recruiting against all of Helfrich's recruiting doesn't give a true perspective. While Helfrich's coaching, scheme allowed the players to continue to excel on the field, for a while, it didn't build off that success in recruiting. Recruiting is easier when you have success, and Helfrich should have been able to exceed Kelly's recruiting and he didn't. He sucked at recruiting, bottomline. Putting perfume on a pig can make it smell better, but it is still a pig. The reason slick and Mario were able to recruit to Oregon is because of what Kelly had done, and really the coaching success Helfrich had. They knew it, the student athletes wanted to believe they could be just like Mike, no not Mike, but our greats. The wanted to be like DAT, Marcus and others. Helfrich and Frost were dead wrong about recruiting to Oregon.

I think the transfer portal, as soon as a kid proves he is elite he is gone, will do more damage to the lower tiered schools. The whole NIL will also have a larger impact, but the visitation situation is just another punch in the gut at the way it use to be. Oregon will also have to be careful as we might become the amusement park everyone wants to see. How many kids actually are considering Oregon, or are they just wanting a free trip to see the best facilities in the nation. With unlimited official visits Oregon could become an add on after the decision is made. If there is one thing for sure the NCAA is a toothless megalodon, destined for extinction.

The indicator of our recruiting which I loved was bringing on Kawika Rogers from Kapaa, Kaui. Nobody really knew about the guy, but we wanted the player nonetheless. Reminded me of what the Patriots did with their 1st round pick. They picked a guy the pundits didn't think was going until much later. The Oregon Football Program needs to listen to their heart and mind when evaluating talent. Pundits, and all the camps kids go too will be yelling and screaming names. The Lanning team needs to keep it's blinders on and pick up the Mariota's, and Chungs and make men and football players out of them. Also agree with Smart assessment of those players whose primary focus is NIL money. Kind of like the first date when the first question is what do you do for work?

I will cheer on the above average qb, giving an extraordinary effort, with an amazing supporting cast. It could be argued this may be what we will see if we play sc in the championship game. I will take our qb's effort and our staff working to build something exceptional, while others look to buy it all. I have to trust in the formula we have used in the past, and hopefully will in the future. Why we went with AB in the transfer portal, an average at best qb, I will never know. It is time to move onward and forward, while back to our past formula with an attitude!

I don't agree, it relies on qb development, continued focus on recruiting, and development of the supporting cast, along with a scheme to get after it. These components are critical no matter who is our qb. These were sorely lacking over the last few years. I was, and am one who didn't think it was critical we hired the best proven coach. We needed to hire somebody capable, and then provide the best support. That is always what we have done, and are again doing. This is what we have to, again, do at the qb position. I think there are many Burrows, Brady's, sitting on benches, maybe even ours. There are also just great college qb's like Vernon Adams just waiting to transfer to a program like Oregon. We just need to focus on making sure Oregon is ready to make them great again. Chasing after the guy to fix our program has never been our way, and I don't see it now either. Hearing we aren't spending big NIL money on a qb warms my heart, we are staying true to who we are! We are a program which makes great coaches, and qb's! We do it through hard work, and it is sustainable.

Our qb situation is much like our head coach situation. We don't go after the top head coach, throw money at him, while expecting him to solve all our problems. We go after a skilled coach and support him, we make head coaches! Same thing with qb's we have never gone after the top qb's, until recently. Ty and Jay are two of the most highly rated qb's we have ever had. The missing ingredients, development, support, and scheme, which equate to support the qb! The fix, one guy, Dillingham is the key to the whole process getting back on line. I personally think we were going down the wrong lane with Cristobal. His road was to rely on getting the best talent, and then talk big and look bigger while doing the opposite. At qb you need to develop, support and give them a scheme to highlight the most aggressive offense possible. He didn't develop, didn't use the support on the field, and certainly didn't put an aggressive offense on the field. Fortunately Cristobal has left us with the supporting characters to help a qb. We now just need development and scheme, and we must might have the guy to help us with that. With Dillingham putting a disruptive offense on the field is the way to, again, become the place where qb's come and become successful, and create top draft picks. It can be Nix or either of the young guns, just get somebody out there who can use the weapons, and has developed into what he can use in his scheme. If this happens the money shouldn't go to paying top NIL money to high school qb's. Dillingham is making less than Moorhead last season, and is only up for $25k raises over the next two years. If KD builds the O in Oregon again, through our qb ,then he should get double the salary over the next few years. He is the key to the whole qb process. If KD develops the guys on the bench right now, more elite high school, and transfers will fight to become the next Mariota, Herbert, and which one of these guys on our bench. NO big money to high school kids, make them want to be the next great Oregon qb, much like Lanning wanted to be the next successful head coach at Oregon. The stage is all set, I am excited to see who is going to be the next great one!

What we are seeing is how shrewd money does a deal. Compare that to how Ballmer bought the clippers and you can see the difference between how smart money is used and those who really don't care. I realize the Clippers are now worth more than he paid, but he overpaid. Ballmer's wife on the other hand, is a savvy lady! I won't go into their home states, but it is telling. The Clippers Are Worth Nowhere Near What Ballmer Is Paying TIME.COM A sports economist crunches the numbers on how much the basketball team is worth, and says the former Microsoft CEO has no reason to bet the Los Angeles team will ever be worth $2 billion

I'm not sure the job DeBoer has is to turn the program around as much as...........

For the last 30-40 years players have won the Heisman Trophy who had no business playing at the next level. They had very good O-lines, great receivers and highlighted their play. Look at Johnny Football, NFL receiver who would catch anything he threw while at A&M. There are a massive amount of qb's who won the heisman, got drafted and then floundered. What we are creating on the O-line and at receiver seems much more in line with winning it all than chasing after high school 5* qb's. I want to see Nix excel under Dillingham's guidance more than another 5* recruit coming into the program. Kids will fight to transfer to Oregon if Nix excels. The receiver room will be happy and the O-line will continue to be a pipeline to the NFL. That is the magic formula. It isn't critical that Nix wins the starting job, but if he does and is in the hunt for the Heisman it will set Oregon up very well into the future. I suppose it will bring us back to where we were before Mari'no'O with qb's. That is what I want to see along with fewer penalized yds. per game. Development of an effective passing game and more discipline.

Not sure it is wise to spend too much money on a high school qb when there will be many proven guys in the portal, if history is any indicator. Not my money, but it would seem the wise money is spent on the kid who has proven himself on the college level. Times are a changing, and the spoils will come to the shrewdest program, not just the richest.

Phil Knight stepping into the professional sports franchise world, interesting. Can we also dream about an NFL franchise! I would love to see a team to compete against the Seagals, and the 49ers. I mean what do you do with $50 billion?

Bo Nix may be the most important recruit, and indicator of recruiting this season. Nix will either be a recruit, transfer, who Oregon can develop into the player the program needs, or another elite recruit who fizzles. Too often recruits don't work out and programs elite recruiting never materializes as talent on the field. Nix will be an immediate indicator that Oregon can identify who they want, and make him fit into the winning machine they are trying to create. I tend to think Lanning and crew have been very strategic, and effective recruiters. Pulling in Taimani, Nix, Gonzalez, and a few RB's hit exactly where we needed depth, and skill players. Signing Connerly showed we can go get the 5* players at critical positions. Now we just need to keep the calculated, and fruitful recruiting going as we see a full season of high school recruiting in action. Having a successful Nix will propel our recruiting to an even higher level. That is the biggest success I want to see. Nix already shows Lanning can exceed Mario's recruiting, as compared to AB, now Nix just needs to blow away expectations.

They definitely stalled for a while, and we seem to be taking off, love it! Whatever happened to Penn State and ‘Linebacker U’? SATURDAYTRADITION.COM Penn State used to be home to the nation's top linebackers.