SmithRiverDuck

I'm hoping Mullens has made of list of needed improvements and bonehead penalties/showboating as you've astutely noted should CERTAINLY be on the list...........

People, don't focus on his time at FSU. They're dealing with a bare cupboard. Pay close attention to the paragraph that talks about 2018 at Memphis. THOSE are numbers we want to have. Norvell thought enough about the guy to take him with him to FSU from Memphis. If Lanning is comfortable with him then so am I.

I feel like we're at the end of a Scooby Doo episode where they've already removed the mask to reveal the cantankerous old curmudgeon responsible for driving away all the customers at the old amusement park and now all the details about how and why are coming out..........

Don't know what all this rebuilding talk is. We are the youngest team in the P5. MC did manage to get us the last four top PAC-12 classes that were top 10 nationally. What are we rebuilding?

Not seeing the risk. Ok, I see risk. In every single hire. I'm feeling like it's going to be a home run. And with that I'm off to read what Charles has posted about the recruits Lanning has been responsible for. I'm likely to be feeling even better afterward.

I certainly don't understand any negative feeling about this hire. It seems top-notch. Very exciting. Could I have been happy with a shot at returning to past glory? Yes, but as a last resort. The past is almost impossible to recreate and definitely no more guaranteed than the unknown future. Was lots of talk this week about Oregon being a stepping stone. Where have all our coaches left for? Cristobal-Alma Mater, Taggart-"Dream Job", Chip-NFL. It's not as if Nebraska called out of the blue and stole our coach. The last school I saw stoned was Oklahoma as Lincoln Riley went flying off to the land of palm trees. Oregon HC is one of the most desirable jobs in college football and will remain so at least as long as Phil Knight is alive. This season was the queasiest roller coaster I've ever been on. Aside from winning and being a decent human being, I'm hoping our new coach will also start us on some continuity. I want to get, "Ho hum another year with boring old Nick Saban" type comfortable. The pressure to win a Natty every year that exists in the SEC does not happen here. The pressure won't be the same. We understand that eeeevery once in awhile we'll have to settle for a lousy old Rose Bowl in a year where it isn't part of the national playoff. The biggest problem we'll face if salaries keep skyrocketing as they are. Wondering what sort of Christmas presents we'll be receiving on the offensive side of the ball. I'm very excited. Gotta have something to look forward too. Basketball season is apparently already over..................

Was kinda hoping that we'd get him for that position and that he'd be wildly successful (as he has been) at it, because.......you know.......karma......... And I often find irony quite delicious........

Horrible games for sure. There's going to be a stinker every once in a while. A head coach's job is to make darn sure that they're very few and far between. Helfrich's cardinal sins for me were recruits calling him and him not bothering to call them back and not knowing that Justin Herbert was literally living across the street.

I've heard Dan Lanning's (is that right?) name exactly ZERO times before today. Same with his offensive buddy that is now being bandied about. But I'm sold. Do it! Other than that I'm an Aranda fan, followed by Fickell, Kiffy and anybody including the Devil who can get me a Natty. I'm sorry, it matters. Probably more because I'm currently drinking. I'd like to say that's because of the current state of my Ducks. But, the simple fact is, I like booze. I'm onboard with the Chipster if for no other reason than, "I'd thought a school like Stanford could afford a lawn mower." Or, "Who has the hardest job in football?" Chip: Nobody, it's a game. I'm going to bed. Let's all pray that I don't look at this site 50 times tomorrow...........

I really need to stop checking back here every hour on the hour. Seriously. No really. Seriously.

My plan if I'm Mullens is to let MC go to Miami. Stop Moorehead from going to Akron (Akron, SERIOUSLY?! Nothing says, "GET ME OUTTA HERE" like taking the Akron job) by making him the head coach and then getting a really really good Defensive coordinator. I know some people think DeRotorooter did a great job. I thought our defense (but not because of the players) was middling at best and less than that when KT was out. We couldn't cover anybody.

If Oregon was a brand that recruited itself Helfrich would still be the coach.

Luckily I've been getting drunk enough while typing out my rants that I stumble off to bed and then just x-out the browser tab in the morning. But I'm pretty sure I meant all those things I didn't say.

Shoo-in Pac-12 2021 Coach of the year Kyle Whittingham and his staff seem to do an excellent job of putting their players in positions to be successful. Even managing to neutralize a top-5 2022 NFL pick.

Dana Altman is not a coach. He is a sculptor. His medium is clay. He shapes his artwork over the course of several months. Almost always in the end there is a masterpiece.

At the moment we can leave Fleck off this list. Harsin's really close to "Roloviching" his job. But I digress. This is an interesting list. Campbell's group fairly recently made MC's group look like a confused group of 1-A high school coaches. But what is the (this season anyway) common take away from this list? These teams have coaches that to an eye-test put their players in good positions to succeed. meanwhile Oregon often looks like a comedy of errors that succeeds on sheer star (4 to 5*) talent. I don't know what the answer is. MC does sooooo many things that I like. I may have mentioned a few weeks ago that I thought the type of Alabama program MC was trying to build was so much talent that not even coaches or referees could screw up their path to victory. I still believe that.........

Three weeks. The Cougs are a constant thorn in our side. Only team other than Stanford to more often ruin what we currently got goin' at the time. Yet I still can't hate them with the intenseness that I do the Fuskies. Then we get to go to Ootah and home against our no longer civil war (notice no caps? That's because it wasn't based on the actual Civil War) partners, which is (almost) always not a cake walk. So, five weeks I guess then........What a minefield.

AB's downfield throws remind me of Shaq trying to hit a basket from more than 4 ft.................

Watching successful changes being made at Oklahoma and other places has made us "intelligent" (the quotes don't indicate sarcasm. See above posts for how smart we are) Duck people envious and more rebellious to Cristobal's entrenched attitude. We've seen what Ty Thompson potentially offers for a more accurate downfield passing game and we'd rightfully like to go for that test drive. After frittering away the undefeated season at Stanford there's a bit of wiggle room for experimentation. At least give another QB SOME playing time. In addition, some quarterbacks have benefitted from watching for awhile before coming back to lead again. The Oregon offense needs a spark. That is undeniable. Too many weapons are not being used. I'd also like to talk about the problems I have with the defense, but I've barely scratched the surface with the offense and after a long day of work and two hours of libational reward the alcohol is starting to do it's job. So we'll leave it there..........

I'm sitting here at the computer because I can't stand to watch what's on the screen. I'm absolutely sick of it. I'm sick of Cristobal recruiting 4 and 5 star players and coaching them down to 2 or 3 stars. I'm sick of watching him completely mismanage the clock. Somebody above said it wasn't bad clock management. WOW! We got the ball with over two minutes left and didn't start running a two minute offense until there was 35 seconds left! Not bad clock management? I suppose not if you're not interested in adding some points before halftime. Cristobal lost the Stanford game with bad clock management. I'm sick of undisciplined players getting bad penalties and stopping momentum. I'm sick of watching them celebrate and talk crap to opposing players after every defensive play. There's plenty more, but right now my thoughts are as disjointed as the Oregon football team.