latracey

Orgeron to UW??!! Now THAT is just crazy. I will need some verification before I believe that. I can't imagine Washington's AD hiring him given some of things that have come out about him.

It definitely did, but a strong, nationally respected Pac 12 is a good thing for all of its teams. A CFP for Oregon, even if they had managed to beat Utah, wasn't a shoe in because of the impression by national pundits that the Pac 12 is a weak conference.

It's gone from rumor to fact... just like that. And just yesterday at his post game interview, Riley made it clear that he was NOT going to be LSU's next coach. The implication was clearly that he was staying at Oklahoma. Not so fast... Lest we forget, college football is a business, and every coach has his price.

Dependable rumor has it that Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley is going to be the next coach at USC. Now THAT would be a hire that hits it out of the park. To all of those people who wanted USC to get back to being great, be careful what you wish for. If this is true, then the recruiting in LA just got A LOT tougher.

Cristobal won't get many votes for COY because the perception around the conference is that Oregon is blessed with the kind of resources that insure that our coaches will do well. There is a lot of jealousy and, let's face it, real hate directed at the Oregon program. Other teams have Oregon circled on their calendars, and Oregon has everyone's full attention and gets everyone's best game. That said, he has done a remarkable job throughout his career at Oregon, and most notably this season. Through player injuries that mounted through the season and a lot of second guessing from the fans, myself included, about his quarterback choice, he has guided Oregon to a 10 win season that included a victory over Ohio State in their home stadium which I still contend is the greatest victory in college football this year. Cristobal isn't perfect and he will be the first to admit that he is still learning and still striving to get better. He's hard nosed and stubborn at times, but he's the first one to work in the morning and the last one to leave every night. Oregon was fortunate that the players made a concerted effort to get MC hired after the Taggart debacle, and MC has turned out to be one of the most successful coaches in the history of Oregon football. In my book, Mario Cristobal is easily this year's Coach of the Year in the Pac 12, and I hope and pray that we are able to keep him here and watch him progress for many more seasons to come.

I was at the game and that 50 yard bomb catching Williams, who was in full stride and a step ahead of his defender, right in his hands was a thing of true beauty. No less beautiful was the touchdown pass that Kris Hutson somehow caught with a defender all over him. Hutson had himself quite a game today. Brown was on today like never before, but his receivers are adjusting better and catching passes that are a little low, or a little behind them. That's a pretty special receiving corps Oregon still has after losing some pretty special receivers to injury. Utah's defense will have more to consider on Friday.

The good news is that the 12/13 personnel offense that Utah runs is now an offense our defense has been preparing for for 3 weeks. Advantage Oregon!

I said it before and I will say it again. Great coaches find a way to pick a team up after a soul crushing loss and find ways to use the lessons learned to inspire wins. I put the challenge to Mario to show us what he had. What he had was a win that left no doubt about which team was superior over, when it comes right down to it for old timers like me, our One True Rival. I'm really impressed with what I've seen from Mario Cristobal this season. Who among us thought we would be enjoying a 10 win season back in August? Mark my words, Cristobal will have the Ducks ready to battle with Utah on Friday. Let's git 'er done Mario!

Have a WONDERFUL time at the game Coach Eric Boles! Las Vegas is a pretty sweet place to view a game. You can order cocktails at the concession stand there. It's pretty trippy. I see a game that is going to be much different than the one in Salt Lake City. Utah will come into the game over confident, and why wouldn't they be. They will be well coached and they will give the Ducks a good game, but, as I have said before, I like our chances in a rematch. If you don't let it crush you, a lot can be learned from a loss. A loss can sometimes galvanize a team. In spite of the fact that there are so many out there willing to point out that Oregon was overrated and that we should have expected them to stumble against Utah, I will contend that Oregon is a much better team than those people realize. I know we are riddled with injuries, and that we are young, but I think Oregon has found its heart and I think they are going to prove that in their next 2 games.

Come on Jon! Of course Miami has the 9 million to pay Mario's buy out, Diaz's buy out, and pay Mario at least twice what he's making at Oregon. This is 2021 my friend and billionaires aren't that rare anymore. Trust me when I tell you that there are some extremely wealthy Miami football donors who want to see their team back in the discussion. If Michigan State can figure out a way to come up with a 10 year 95 million dollar deal to keep their coach, then Miami, we are talking The U here, can easily find a way to come up with a deal for Mario that is as sweet or sweeter. If it just comes down to a matter of money, then that isn't going to be a problem for Miami.

And to add intrigue into the situation, Mario took off for Florida to visit his mother who is not feeling well immediately after his press conference tonight. Will Miami talk to him while he is there visiting his mother? Count on it.

It's about the coaches you play for. MM ran a system at Oregon that was well suited to his skill set. JH's time at Oregon was different almost almost every year and he was never able to settle into a single system. MM didn't fit the system at Tennessee and has been hurt most of his time as a Raider. JH has the perfect coaches, system, and team mates with the Chargers to fit his skill set. Drew Brees recently talked about his impressions going into the NFL and how those impressions changed over time. He said that as a person going in, he just wanted to be the highest draft pick possible so he could get the best contract. In retrospect, he realized, that in the long run, who you end up playing for is way more important in terms of career longevity and success.

Ducks 31 - Beavers 28 2 turnovers 3 sacks 220 passing yards Many have lost faith in this year's Ducks and their coaching staff. The team is riddled with injuries, and is forced to field one of the youngest teams in college football. I think WSU is going to take the Apple Cup today, which adds even more significance to The War. Last week's game in Utah was an example of how overwhelming it is to play a team surging with emotion who clearly wanted the game more. Tomorrow's game will be different and, while the Beavers will give the Ducks everything they have, Oregon will find a way to prevail. Ducks will be Pac 12 Northern Division Champs, and I like their chances to beat Utah in a rematch for the Pac 12 crown.

In an actual college football playoff of the best teams in the country, Power 5 conference champions should get a bid to play in the playoff. The Pac 12 conference champion, no matter who it ends up being, should MOST DEFINITELY be in the playoff, as should the conference champions from every Power 5 conference in the nation. The CFP, as it now stands, is nothing more than an invitational based on a beauty contest. Politics, and probably money, play far too substantial a roll in the figuring of which 4 teams end up being selected. It is a far cry from an actual college football playoff. To be an actual playoff, the field needs to expand to at least 8 teams, and probably 12 teams if you want to include everyone who truly should be included. Who cares if Washington, who is currently 7 - 5 somehow finds the way to become the Pac 12 Champion? If they did, they would end up with 9 wins, and they would have to have beaten teams that other teams, like Oregon, lost to. In fact, they would have to beat Utah, a team the clobbered Oregon.

"Nobody wants to win more than the players do; and nobody feels worse than the players when they lose..." Nick Saban had some wise words to a fan who wanted to know why Alabama didn't win games by more than what they did. I think this also applies to how it feels to be Mario Cristobal, or a University of Oregon football player.

KT was definitely double and triple teamed against Utah, which indeed should be expected and has happened most games. What shouldn't be expected to the degree that he is frequently held. Game in and game out when watching the replays, KT is being held, and Utah was no exception. I don't blame blockers for holding him, but why is it hardly ever called? I would expect that Cristobal and DeRuyter must also see what I'm seeing in film review, if not in the game itself. If I were MC, I would make sure to appraise the officiating crews of the fact that KT is held a lot. As long as blockers get away with holding KT, they will continue to do so. As far as Mario's reality, this is a young team that has been riddled at key positions by injuries. It is amazing that they have gotten 9 wins this season including a road win vs tOSU this season which amounts to nothing short of one of the best wins by any team in the nation. Love him or hate him, AB was instrumental in the tOSU win, as well as all of the others. Love him, or hate him, Mario has done a fabulous job with this team this year. It's also true that AB played poorly in Oregon's 2 losses, but neither of the losses can be blamed solely on him. Most of the rest of the team played poorly against Utah, and the coaching was sub par in that game. Before passing judgement, however, let's see how the Ducks do against an Oregon State team that beat Utah. In fact, let's see how the rest of the season plays out. This season and this team's story is not over yet.

Coaching college football is not easy. Although college coaches are well compensated for the work they do; for most, it's 70+ hours a week for 9 months out the year where you neglect your family and everything else. Chip Kelly literally lived at the U of O football complex during football season and never went home. The job is done in a fishbowl where everyone and their mother watches what you do and expresses an opinion about the quality of your work on any number of public platforms available to the public these days; and you are only as good as your last win, and even that might not have been good enough. I agree with Fentress' views in the podcast. This isn't even close to the best team we've seen at Oregon in the 21st century. This year's Ducks are loaded with talent, but they are riddled with key injuries and they are one of the youngest teams in Power 5 football. What they have managed to accomplish this year has been pretty amazing when you consider what they have had to overcome. I don't always agree with the decisions made by Cristobal and his coaching staff, but my hat is off to them. Getting this team to 9 wins, and beating Ohio State is a spectacular accomplishment. Anyone who calls Oregon's win over tOSU a fluke needs to find the game on Youtube and rewatch it. It was, in every sense, a thing of pure beauty. IMHO, talk of firing Mario is pure insanity. Mario is a very good coach. If he can find a way to inspire and fire up his team to play at the top of their ability against a motivated Beaver team after that devastating loss to Utah, I will say that he is a great coach. However, I know that if he doesn't, it won't be from lack of effort on his part. Blowing their chance at the CFP was big, but, as Harrington passionately pointed out, there are still HUGE things on the table for any Duck with green and yellow coursing through our veins. A chance to beat the Beavers after last year's humiliating loss to them should be incentive enough. If WSU beats Washington on Friday evening, what is already The War will be for the Northern Division Pac 12 Crown. Come on Mario and our Ducks; let's get 'er done!

Thank you, Mr. FishDuck, for all that you do to make this the best Duck forum on the planet. Happy Thanksgiving to you Charles, and to all of the wonderful forum members here who help to make being a Duck fan so enjoyable. We all have many Blessings to celebrate this year.

Wilner puts Cristobal's chance of leaving at 35%. Mullins certainly isn't going to show MC the door. His 9 wins just got him an extended contract. The advantages at Oregon, with its amazing facilities and support from no less than Phil Knight, are legion. Mario has proven coaches like Kelly and Scott Frost wrong about the ability to recruit here. Hayward Duck's observation that MC's ceiling is his learning curve is the end all to beat all statement on the topic, and David Marsh points out that MC's coaching is getting better. I would add that Mario's passion, attitude, and hard working approach to coaching his team fit well with the culture at the University of Oregon, and with this community. Speaking as a person who was born in Eugene and raised my family here, and who has traveled the world, it's hard to imagine many better places to live and raise kids. The fans here are tough on you when you don't meet their expectations, but my SEC friends tell me it's much worse in places like Florida. Think football = religion. Programs like University of Miami and Florida are looking for a magic bullet of a coach who will come in and have immediate success. We all know that that isn't how it works. Willie Taggart learned that lesson the hard way. A decision to leave Oregon comes down to how much MC misses living in Florida close to his family, and how much more money he gets offered over what he is currently making. Like the cliche says, everybody has their price. It would have to be a sweet enough deal to insure that if he fails, he would end up with enough money to be set for life (see Willie Taggart). Clearly, recent coaching contracts have proven that there is A LOT of money being thrown around out there. Will Mario leave for what appear to be greener pastures? Does he leave hoping that he can be a "magic bullet", or does he stay in a job where he is well paid, lives in a wonderful place, and has as much job security as one can ever hope for in the world of college football. It's a complex, multifaceted question that only Mario can answer. Time will tell.

One of the marks of a truly good coaching staff is their ability to pick a team up off of the turf and get them motivated to shine after a crushing defeat. I'm sensing that a lot is going on with our Ducks associated with injuries, attitude, and overall team youth that finally added up to what we saw on Saturday. Cristobal and his staff need to convince their players that there is still a TON to play for, not the least of which is to beat an Oregon State team that embarrassed the Ducks last year. While it's easy to pay lip service to shutting out the outside noise; let's face it, that's impossible in this day and age. Winning in college football is, for the most part, hard; and the intensity and pressure builds with every win. Every game requires attention to different details and a different game plan, along with putting the next men up in the best position to succeed. It takes a lot of skill and good fortune to keep it going, and to keep the motivation and emotional level high. Brown leaves a lot to be desired, and I think he was playing hurt for most of Saturday's game, but he can and has been great at times. Anyone calling for a QB change now is insane. Cristobal's in game coaching has me scratching my head at times, but he has coached his Duck teams to Pac 12 Championships. Oregon is a young team, and they are riddled with injury, but they still are loaded with talent. This team can win their next 3 games, and yes, I truly DO believe they can beat Utah in a rematch. Will it be easy? Nope. It really will come down to coaching. Good coaches find ways to inspire their teams to greatness. Cristobal needs to earn the right to be the highest paid public employee in the state of Oregon and show everyone that he deserves a spot in the discussion about Oregon's best football coaches. It's time to shine Mario. What do you got? It's WAR TIME !! The CFP is gone, but beating the Beavers this year given what is on the table would be HUGE! I know that losing hurts, but it's time to reach down find the best part of who you are. It's time to live, breathe, and be 1 - 0. Show us what you got and make all of us true Duck believers proud.

I truly believe that incorporating the sideline couch for couch coaches would revolutionize the sport of college football.

I totally agree with Duckdude. Listening to Brown in his interviews, I can see why most of his teammates support and respect him. Last night in his post-game interview, he said this: “Including the possibility on being in the playoff, not including the possibility, I’m going to be honest with you, it’s still a great opportunity in front of us,” quarterback Anthony Brown Jr. said. “I feel like as team we need to understand that and I feel like we do. It’s hard because it’s a social media-based world and everybody is hounding on us right now about playoff implications or whatever the case may be. But life happens. It’s not always going to be the best and today just wasn’t one of those days and Utah had one of the best days I’ve seen a team have. “Looking forward, I feel like we understand that we have this amazing opportunity in front of us even though it may not be the playoff. But not too many teams get to play in other bowls that are up there in those tiers. I would say just be thankful for the opportunities that we still have.”

The one thing that hasn't been mentioned is the pressure that must be felt and managed by a team that is ranked highly. The pressure to manage injuries, attitudes, and emotions in order to get a team's best effort week in and week out is truly unimaginable to most of us. And with each win, the pressure increases. On top of that, you are doing your job with millions of people watching and second guessing your every move; and nothing you do is good enough for everybody. It's a rare breed that is cut out for coaching, and I marvel at the abilities of the truly great head coaches. Winning is hard. Winning at least 10 games is almost impossible. Is MC overvalued? He has his strengths and his flaws, like all of us. Take away the lost CFP opportunity, and 9 - 2 is a season most coaches and fans would find very satisfying, and it triggered the U of O to sweeten his contract. How many other coaches have coached their teams to conference championships? Beating Ohio State is something no other team in the nation may do this year, and it certainly wasn't a fluke. The problem with doing away with MC is who do you get to replace him at a time with so many juicy options? Successful coaches are coaches that fit into the dynamics of the culture of a university and its community. Chris Peterson fit Boise State, Jonathan Smith fits Oregon State, and Chip Kelly fit Oregon. Willy Taggart didn't fit here. I think MC, however, does fit here. I could see him leaving for bigger and better things, but let's be real folks, Oregon would be crazy to cut him loose. The test of how good, and how valuable MC is heading our way like an orange and black Tsunami. MC is charged with the task of picking his team up from a loss where his teams' flaws were exposed on every level, and preparing them to execute a game plan to beat an Oregon State team coming in with a tremendous amount of momentum. Beating Oregon State is the time honored true test of a coaches worth in this state. It's time for The War. Game on baby !!!

We've all seen the good and the bad when it comes to AB. Many of us had our doubts about how likely it was he would develop much given that he has had 6 years to do so. Charles and many others have stated that, while he has his shining moments, AB is the worst Oregon QB1 we can remember at a position where Oregon is traditionally blessed. Personally, I think people are reading too much into what Cristobal said about AB being the best chance for success. He was talking about this year. He isn't going to panic and grab Rattler out of the portal. Thompson is a legitimate 5 star quarterback and I'd be very surprised if either he, or one of the other 2 quarterbacks waiting in the wings wasn't the QB1 next year. My concern with Oregon this season is more of a coaching/leadership concern. Cristobal is Oregon's coach and, like AB, he has his shining moments and his moments that have me scratching my head. While MC preaches that he's a coach with "real" relationships with his players, something is brewing under the surface of the team culture that isn't good this year. Huston is called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and MC loses his mind in rage toward the player on center stage national TV. A star offensive lineman is dissatisfied and hits the portal. Pittman leaves after publicly posting that he was "disrespected". Kayvon Thibodeaux posts a recording of a post Washington game locker room speech loaded with F bombs from MC that shouldn't have been for public consumption. In the game last night, Williams was yelling throughout the game at AB regarding his poor passes and the two had to be separated at the end of the game. I compare this to the 2019 Oregon team where Troy Dye and Justin Herbert were the obvious team leaders. While that team had its ups and downs, there was something wonderful about the culture and unity on that team that seems woefully lacking on this year's team. They also beat a Utah team favored to give them the drubbing that Oregon received last night from Utah. Even though Utah was ripped with the kind of tragedy this year that would tear many teams apart, Whittingham found a way to rally and unite his team. They were disciplined and well prepared for what Oregon brought to the table. MC characterized Jimmy Lake and Washington as "everything wrong with college football". Whittingham, on the other hand, seems to be everything right with college football. Instead of spending so much time reading about the Navy Seals, perhaps MC should be studying Whittingham and his program.

I also think Oregon State is going to win tonight, and I think you have the different scenarios correct geoquack. The bottom line is that we need to beat Oregon State. If we lose that game, then we have lost the North Championship. Utah had a lot to play for tonight with the tribute to a battleship, a tribute to player tragedy, and senior night. Plus they had a record crowd in their home stadium. They were emotionally high and Oregon seemed flat in comparison. Oregon State is also going to be coming into Autzen on an emotional high. The Ducks need to find a way to also be emotionally high.