SmithRiverDuck

I hope 2002 Duck is correct and we play in the Holiday. It says the Pac-12 opponent will be from the ACC. Gee, if only Mario could've had a slightly better year...........

He can have Lupoi. I got no problem with that.

The scenario Disco Duck explains above is another example of the NFLing of college football. Reading it I began to think of ASU as an expansion team picking players from an expansion draft. In this example it makes sense for the player as they will be getting time on the field. Don't take any important pieces, Dilly. Unless you want to be known in Eugene as Dilly the rat. Now that college football features revolving rosters I have no doubt we can find able replacements. Seriously, who the hell in Duck Land isn't absolutely in love with Bucky Irving right now? Barring one almost unfortunate slide, Whittington has endeared himself to us, especially the latter half of the season. We're gonna be fine. Even if we loose Dante Moore I don't feel like the sky is falling. I think coach Lanning learned a lot this season. The one thing I'm hoping he takes to heart is something Dillingham was asked in an interview this season. Asked who are the best coaches, Dillingham replied, "The least stubborn." We've seen coach Lanning embrace the Oregon History by inviting it into his regime. I hope he knows Dyer was down even though we'd been pushed around all night and didn't deserve to win that game. I hope he's still as perplexed as I am as to why Oregon managed to knock Ohio State on it's ass, score a touchdown, stop them with a devastating defense and then play the rest of the game as if we didn't know how. I hope he knows how many times we've been so close to glory only to have Oregon.......Oregon!!!........done in by, of all things, a tree.........I hope he's seen both the fake Statue of Liberty and the real one, each run for a touchdown. These are the places we'd like him to take us to. And finish the job.

I had posited to one of my fellow civil war revelers that aside from Georgia, no one had beaten Oregon this year besides Oregon. I stand by that statement especially after this game. Much has been written about growing pains and learning curves. But I'm just not sure I agree with those assessments............ Coach Lanning is a riverboat gambler. I hope that doesn't change. The call to go for it, or not, I believe falls with the HC. What play to run when you're going for it, one would assume, is going to come from the OC. Don't want to seem like I'm throwing Dillingham under the bus now that he's flown off for what could not possibly be greener pastures in the desert. They don't have any water there........... It's undeniable that Lanning has the same edge as Chip Kelly. Keep the boot on your throat when we have you down. Perfect. Perhaps with a capable punter and special teams that are actually special, different decisions will be made. Our future, while now decidedly murkier that just a few days before, would still seem quite bright.............

I have thought that Brennan Marion was one of the most interesting offensive minds since I read this story some time ago. I wondered what happened to him and where he was but didn't have the time to investigate. Also don't have the time to look into the Longhorn passing statistics for this season. He's listed in the article that Pennsylvania Duck has posted above, but not one of the favorites. Reminds me of Chip Kelly......... How Brennan Marion’s GoGo offense is changing football FTW.USATODAY.COM How an offense marrying modern spread looks with old-school option plays is changing football.

The gambles are forgivable. The ABSOLUTELY LAME play calls for those gambles are not. The putrid defense could be overcome. The bad coaching could be overcome. The bad offensive play calls could be overcome. But not the combination. I thought that Dillingham proved he is not ready today.

The only thing that really bothers me is that he's so closely tied to Dante Moore. I don't know that Moore would follow him to Tempe, but it could seriously throw a wrench into him coming to Oregon. I hope that coach Lanning would be in Moore's ear day and night to assure him that the Duck offense would remain as exciting as it is even with a Dillingham departure. Lose Moore and the class will suffer and ensure another year, at least, of portal quarterbacks. IF a serious offer comes from ASU, AND he can be kept in the fold with more money, then Mullens needs to write whatever check necessary. Give us three more years Dilly. After that first or second Natty, let the world then be your oyster..........

The injury bug has been an issue for a few seasons now. The Duck teams that have gelled into champions got the early season to learn how to play together. This has been missing for a while as we stumble through December with a rag-tag line up. Dante's progression has been fun to watch. I wasn't happy when Richardson said he was coming back, and I haven't seen anything to change my mind. I will always have faith in Dana Altman. He's one of the best in the country. I can never remember which stat it is (might be consecutive 20-win seasons), but the other guys on the list are all in the hall of fame. It's just that his name isn't Izzo, or Shashefshky............Yeah, I know. You spell it..............

Thornton needs to be better with the ball. He put it on the ground twice last night. Granted, the second time was on the stupid reverse and Thompson shares the responsibility for that one.

One question that HAS to be addressed is the status of the run game. We're good at it. Utah is not the best at stopping it. Was it the missing personnel on the o-line? I'd peg the Utah DC as one of the best in the country. He knew what we were going to do before I did, and I had FAR to easy of a time figuring out what we were going to do........ Dillingham actually had a decent plan for an immobile Nix. Then he decided to get cutsy........A few times. Knock that stuff off and I think we beat the Beavs.........

This year I'll probably be most thankful for my wife putting up with my insufferable behavior during nail-biting Duck games..........

Kudos to Bo Nix for crediting the D. And kudos to the D for some massive, unbelievable plays! But I hate third down. It was third and something fairly long, I told my wife that they've got us right where they want us. something happened, I don't remember what, but it ended up 4th and ten. We promptly gave it up. This is what has to stop. As well as the D played tonight in certain plays, I pray for the day when third down comes with a stop instead of a give-a-way.........

In the end it was the Nix/Sewell fueled heart of this team than thankfully proved me wrong. Thank you to both of them. I do stand by my earlier statement that outside of Georgia, no one has beat this team but itself.

At one point this season we were one of the best running teams around. Don't know why we abandon it early in the games and then try to run when the other team KNOWS we want to run the ball. Seen this several times this year........

Thanks to Rising for throwing it into the ground. Basically whomever screws up the least in the last few minutes wins this game. Despite everything it still might be us.

Washington didn't beat Oregon. Utah won't beat Oregon. Other than Georgia, only Oregon has beaten Oregon. Two out of the three losses will have been lost by the coaches. Don't see Dillingham going anywhere right now. He's not ready. He needs to get a lot less cute. Been nervous about Lupoi since the get go, and NOT sold now.

I don't see how they win this game. The defense has to win a game. OUR defense has to win a game. Good luck with that. Why in the heck can't we run the ball? All you need to see if if there's a back in the backfield to know what's coming. Ugly.

The USA Today article is a bit over the top in sounding the alarm. A look around the NCAAM world tonight saw lesser teams hanging with teams they had no business hanging with for awhile, anyway. Heck, Sac St. even went up on UCLA by 7 for about a minute and a half.......... Chef Altman has barely cracked an egg and my mouth is already watering at the POTENTIAL souffle that awaits us......... Ladies look good too. 43 better than Northwestern.......... B-ball status: Full steam ahead until further notice!..............Although, we may have a "problem" with Houston.............

Be here now..........

It does seem like we're smack dab in the middle of right where we always wanted to be.........

Projecting All 41 Bowl Matchups, College Football Playoff WWW.MSN.COM For the first time since preseason, we’re projecting the participants in every bowl game. SI article on MSN............. Seems legit to me. Basically just predicting win outs by the major players and accounting for committee preference. What I like about it is that the four conferences that deserve it at this point are represented. The ACC played itself out this weekend and should have been in the weakest position anyway.

Bo is gone. His stock will not rise any higher by staying another year unless the Ducks melt down over the next three weeks. Right at this moment we need to be praying that Dante Moore is the real deal from the get-go. Thompson does not look good by any measure. We as fans are relegated to outsider status by default. We glean information by what our eye tells us. My outsider eye tells me that Butterfield has been short changed. I'm not sure that the staff has seen any film with him in game situations. I've seen Butterfield in games before. I'd feel much more comfortable with Butterfield as my back-up and fear losing him to the portal MUCH more than losing Thompson.

Another example of how the "Conference of Champions" is always on the cutting edge. This is what has been happening to the Pac since the inception of the playoff. Self-cannibalization of the conferences has become the new parity. No loss is out of the question. Any body see that Georgia/Missouri game weeks ago? Many questionable teams are ALMOST capable of taking out the big boys. The way things are playing out over the last few weeks is helping the Pac-10 (it's what we effectively are at the moment) gain credibility for the CFP. Georgia's win against OBD is weekly growing to look like the biggest laurel hangin' on the Bulldog's sleeve.........

Yeah, and suddenly beating Bama ain't quite what it used to be..........BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Very good! I've been in a rut where I keep recycling the same one's every year. You know, how you can use your UW degree to park in a handicapped zone. And various Fusky as defendant jokes, etc. So this is great!