Haywarduck

Speaks to what can be bought, and what has to be earned. PK has put in enough effort and money for the programs to exceed expectations. The programs haven't put in the hard work to meet or exceed those expectations. Interesting statement in these times of NIL and transfers.

Oregon crushed the Aggies, 9-1 in blocked shots. That is the only stat they won.

Not sure if anyone else has noticed the announcers for the NCAA games continually referring to players as 'X, who is a transfer from Y.' We definitely need to get use to the effects of the new transfer rule and NIL development. No longer is it going to be 'X who grew up just a few blocks from campus is playing really well.' Years from now it will be, 'you played NCAA basketball, how many schools did you attend?'

I may have been let down, but I got right back up, as has the program!

We are assuming spending millions on NIL deals is good for a program. Spending big money on Cam Newton transferring paid off. DJ getting big money on the Dr. Pepper deal didn't pay off. My bet Texas A&M will be an experiment many will learn from, much of it not too good. I would say our mega donor knows when a recruit or transfer is worth the money. He picked Tiger when he was a kid and created a whole division, golf, based on what he knew was going to happen. Even bigger was what he saw with MJ, a whole brand worth billions. I think Mr. Knight knows how to spend his money better than almost, if not all donors. Our facilities speak to the student athletes and the parents. I would say the reason we can recruit so well is parents and athletes are impressed by our facilities. Most importantly the parents know their kids will be taken care of. The academic center is second to none. The rehab facilities all also world class. Parents concerns are not only allayed, both parents and student athletes can be assured the dreams and fears are taken care of. I will patiently wait for the money to be spent in a wise way by the Oregon mega donors. For now I see us effectively dipping our toes in the water. What I see is other programs jumping in with both feet, some may not come back up. We will be just fine.

Great article and I like what one of the old assistants said, 'it is just something about that place' as an explanation of the losing. I would ask what it is about Eugene that consistently creates winning teams and coaches. We have had many coaches leave, but none of them has done as well as they did at Oregon. Even assistant get jobs elsewhere and struggle. Hopefull that something about Eugene will help Lanning in his first year and all the years to come.

As a coach, I can tell you athletes just straight up tell you no, I am not doing that. The kids seem to be empowered by their parents to set boundaries. This can be helpful, but a kid telling an adult no to hard work is just another move like the participation trophies. I still remember getting sore from the workouts from our hard ass basketball coach in grade school. We learned to love it, and we never lost. Seems like kids now aren't so much quitting as never even trying, and learning what it takes to succeed. Here is my favorite participation necklace! It is gold, as it should be ;). Not sure why it won't load right side up, maybe that is also the way it should be.

This focus is completely different than what Mario seemed to emphasize. He wanted to almost bully the opponent and expected them to submit. The problem was not too many opponents submit to an attempt to just over power them. The focus Lanning has is, it isn't the first encounter that wins games, it is the last. The last ounce of effort during workouts. The last guy giving it his all on a play, even when he isn't involved, directly. It is also the last ounce of effort in the 4th quarter when it is all on the line. You have to train for that effort. This will definitely be something to watch, not hear about, a theme from another article. You can talk about how tough you are, how hard you train, but it all comes down to what you did in the months, and days leading up to game day when it is all on the line. What I love about this is it is also about building men of character and integrity. The easy way isn't the right way. As the Seals say, 'the only easy day was yesterday.'

And how many of them played for and win a national championship? Programs need 5* star talent, 5* talent does end up in the NFL at a higher rate, but what part of the formula for winning a national title is recruiting 5* players? I think it could be argued Oregon needs more 5* players to compete for a national title, but how many? Is the talent level more important than the culture, the scheme? We definitely see programs loaded with talent underperform. We also see genius coaches who can't compete with the talent they recruit. There has to be a balance and no one thing can be the focus of a program. We have had coaches who aren't balanced, great at one thing, and it hasn't worked. There is no one magic area to focus on, and that will get us a national title. I do think it is an area we can improve upon, but merely having NFL talent won't get us to where we want this program. One thing I would be interested in seeing is the number of camps, 4* and 5* players have been too. The kid who scouts flock to see is different than the kid who is promoted at each camp he goes too. Some kids don't go to camps, yet still get the press. A Herschel Walker type is too busy running track and running over people to go to camps. Other kids don't go to any camps, and don't get any press. I just want to make sure we don't focus too much on the star rating of the student athletes we recruit. Our recent RB transfer was a 2* coming out of high school, but runs a 4.4 40. Sometimes a position coach knows what he is looking for, and he isn't in the recruiting circles top picks. We will definitely need more 5* recruits on our roster, but we need coaches choosing which guys they want too.

SPEED! Love it.

I do think it is time to put to bed the idea you can't recruit to Eugene and the facilities, experience at the Oregon Athletic Department. This isn't the hard part of building a program at Oregon. It is done across multiple programs and maybe just needs to be better understood, but it isn't some magic slick created, nor Mario licensed. What is difficult is to create a winning culture, even Dana struggled with that this year. This is something we will watch a first time coach create. We may want to be be patient as all the parts come together. The other part is the whole scheme and game day coaching. We have struggled through many years of watching that be something extremely difficult to do. In the past we were lucky to see that be something pretty easy. We saw a genius on the sideline, and hope to see that again.

I would say it was a statement about what was said by the last few coaches, and trying to speak to everyone not just the fans. We have heard about Oregon being a dream job from the past three coaches, with results we haven't always enjoyed watching. Every coach has come away much better off, whether just financially or with their supposed real dream job. The main focus has to return to what we see happening. Too often we hear words that are meaningless in our society. Without difficult actions we are often distracted by words and promises. Those promises are often a distraction to what we really should focus on, want to focus on, what is actually going on. It may not be as entertaining to watch for what is happening when we have been trained to listen to words, and just have faith, keep believing in what is said. Watching what is going on also means looking at the nuances of what is being done. On FishDuck we have been discussing this at length through the short Lanning era. Instead of discussing the 'power offense,' with 'explosive plays' we have been trying to figure out the culture, and what the offense may turn out to look like. We are also looking at the havoc rate on defense, but there hasn't been any grandiose promises. I think what Coach Lanning is talking about is the Oregon Football Program to again focus on what is happening on the field and even off the field instead of in the press conferences. The curiosity needs to return to subtleties of what is happening, not just the bluster and big moments. There will be plenty of big moments, but the refinements which got us there is where the focus should return too. I look forward to again focusing on what happened with greater curiosity than what is said. College football will be better too when they are focused on just how did Oregon turn another questionable coach into a wunderkind. What is happening on offense, defense and off the field to create such amazing outcomes. We already see the shift here on FishDuck, but I have a feeling it will spread as our curiosity with what is going on becomes larger as what is happening creates an amazing story, without all the words.

I just want to hear, 'wow I never expected this guy to lead this team in annihilating Georgia in Atlanta, never in a million years.' 'Then to see our back- up come in a put up a few more td's, just astounding.' 'I can't wait to see what our 3rd string qb can do in the second half of the EWU game, because he deserves to play too.'

My top ten, such good writing I thought it deserved a top ten! 1.) In its last eight NIT games, Utah State has won as many of those games as Ty Willingham’s Huskies won in 2008. (Yes, I know that was a long way to get in another dig against Washington, but it was worth it.) 2.) Ryan Odom is the first-year coach at Utah State, which finished the regular season at 18-15, not great, but astoundingly better than the Oregon State Beavers’ laughable 3-28, and why not deliver a swift, hard cheap shot to those miserable rodents? 3.) When asked about tonight’s game versus the Ducks, Odom said, “Our metrics are our metrics. The numbers are our numbers.” He said some other things, but they are just cliches, and you can probably guess them. 4.) Supposedly, the best Aggies basketball player is some guy named Bean. They apparently weren't able to recruit Rutabaga. We don't know if Summer Squash plays on the USU women's team. 5.)This may explain why the Aggies are five-point favorites in tonight’s game. The odds may well shift in the Ducks' favor, if they can find the arena. 6.) At UMBC, Odom beat up on such heavyweights as Massachusetts-Lowell, Binghamton, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, better known as the NJIT Highlanders. Yes, there really is such a place; as far as we know NJIT has turned out far fewer stellar athletes than say, Sheldon High School. 7.) We all agree that Aggies is not a great nickname. However, we concede that it is better than the UC Irvine Anteaters and the Rhode Island School of Design Nads, where the official mascot is named Scrotie and looks like a, em, er, never mind. (We are not making this up, and as Yogi Berra famously said, “You can look it up.”) 8.) The first, last, and only time that the Ducks lost to Utah State the #1 TV show was Bonanza. Lorne Green, as far as we know, did not attend that game. The Ducks are 5-1 against Utah State all-time, according to the Deseret News. 9.) The last time that Utah State won a game in the NIT was during the Eisenhower Administration. 10.) IT'S (one of) THE NCAA GAME(s) OF THE YEAR!

Broke college athletes brings up a sad topic. Most high school students have no training in finance at all, not part of their education anymore. College football players would be smart to take a home finance class as freshman. Colleges would be smart to put together a class for their NIL students so they have a fighting chance at leaving college with a little money and able to handle an IRS audit. Colleges should try and get ahead of this train wreck, and slow it down, at least with education. Give these 'student athletes' a fighting chance.

Great article and, once again, the NCAA shows they really are not up to managing college football.

Contrast the sc way to the Oregon way. The Oregon way is to look stoic on the outside, barely any movement from above the waterline. Underneath there is a flurry of activity as the Duck advances forward. Great conversation about what that activity is!

A couple more of these at 45 coming from a 25 year old at full speed, force may have him questioning the decision. I know I was pretty sharp in my 40's physically and mentally, but I didn't recover as fast. The old aches and pains from past injuries also start talking to you at odd times. It is amazing to watch what he can do, but I cringe at knowing the outcome of the wrong hit, accidental mistake. I also question the impact on not being there for his kids as he could be long term. You can't make up for missed time with your kids as they go through milestones, or just little moments. The pull of being one of the guys is strong, but he will always regret missing moments with his children more in hindsight.

So true, the individual celebrations have already begun, continue within the sc program. Soon enough the quandary of how can we loose with this much talent will, again, be the topic of conversation at catered cocktail parties throughout the sc faithful.

The secret sauce, which really isn't too secret. Individuals make up a team, but a team is made from the connection between all the players and coaches. This can be seen on the field when a true team is built. When you have a team you don't see individuals celebrating, you see the team helping each other. Players helping each other make tackles, get up from tackles, and covering each others mistakes and weaknesses. Everyone is part of the team too. There is a commitment from the back-ups, and they feel part of the teams success. All this is happening while each individual is committed to growing and becoming their best. There is support for helping each other become their best. Each player knows the other is trying to elevate his game, not just win the game. There is a joined bond to win as individuals, while putting the team first. DJ Johnson exemplifies this attitude. I hope it catches on and we see it take over the program.

At what point is he just going to walk away and realize his time has past. It is amazing to watch one of the GOAT in his prime, and even show what he can do as he ages, but he needs to step away, before he isn't able to gracefully. There is no doubt he can still play the game, but it is time for others to take the torch, and time for him to move on..

I will say it out loud, I actually won't mind if he struggles or doesn't get the national title, or national title right away. He is going about things the right way. I can't see how it won't happen, but I also see it happening the Oregon way! He is developing young student athletes into men of character. Much like Rich Brooks who had lots of success, but we don't judge him by his win-loss record. I have little doubt he will have much success, but it will be a process, one we must respect.

Great stuff on giving the coaches and players feedback, while looking within himself for change. Sounds like he is trying to create a holistic concept of building a program. There will be a head coach, and everyone will be on the same page. I do like the emphasis on efficiency. One of the hallmarks of Chip Kelly's success was how efficient his practices were which translated to the field. Execution of plays and how one plays starts in practice. This is a great indication of how we will see a renewed emphasis of discipline on the field. Less mental lapse penalties, better special teams play and players in position to make plays. I also want to see players running to help teammates up and not celebrating simple the play. Save it for after the win. My concern for a first time coach is being allayed as Coach Lanning illuminates his vision for the team. We are now starting to see it in action. Nothing, so far, has me concerned about his process or outcomes so far. We are seeing something special come to fruition. That still is going to take time, but like a beautiful full Oregon Pinot, well worth the wait.

True, but you're in Seattle so it seems like 52 days in Seattle and 255 sunny days in Eugene.

It is my understanding he is taking a pay cut to try and get into the NFL .