latracey

My biggest surprise was the revelation that the PAC 12 presidents turned down an offer of 30 million per school by ESPN after USC and UCLA left. Instead of countering with something reasonable, they countered with the ridiculous price of 50 million per school. Their ignorance regarding the media value of The PAC 12 without USC and UCLA is a real head scratcher. Another surprise was not making league expansion a priority immediately after USC and UCLA left. Adding San Diego State and SMU, for instance, increases the overall media value of the league. Deciding to do this after a media rights deal was signed seems like it was a huge mistake.

FishDuck is definitely a place I visit every day to stay up to the minute informed on my beloved Ducks. Judging from the slow down in loading speeds during all of the latest things happening, I think a lot of my fellow Duck fans feel the same way. This place is buzzing 24/7! The articles and information are unparalleled, the analytics are top drawer, and the strictly enforced code of ethics are much appreciated and make for a wonderful experience. I can’t thank Charles enough for turning his passion for the Ducks into something we all enjoy, and for the tremendous time, effort, and money he has spent creating and maintaining this little piece of Duck fan paradise.

Bill Oram covers the Beavers and the Ducks. He took over John Canzano’s spot when Canzano left the Oregonian. That said, he tends to be a lot more critical of the Ducks.

This is as wild and crazy as I thought it would be. Apple setting time limits is hilarious. Although the details of their deal are vague, it sounds complicated on top of the fact that it relies on future variables that may, or may not pan out. I think The Kamikaze Kid has the timeline for how this is going to play out about right. I’ve really loved the PAC, but it’s not looking good for The Conference of Champions.

Frankly, it’s looking rather bleak for the PAC 12, but until another school bolts, there is still hope. As so many have written, Oregon is going to be fine regardless of how things play out. The same can’t be said for Oregon State and Washington State.

Tomorrow promises to be a crazy, crazy day indeed.

The point that the PAC 12 has some excellent coaches and is one of the strongest football leagues in the nation at this time is a great one. The problem is that George Kliavkoff is perhaps the worse in the nation at his job. The media rights deal should have been done months ago and had it been, we’d be looking at much different circumstances right now.

Captain Kliavkoff seems to have completely lost control of the ship and it’s every PAC 12 school for itself. It makes me wonder how close Kliavkoff truly was to closing the media rights deal; clearly, not nearly close enough. The next 24 hours promise to be interesting for we fans who hold the Conference of Champions near and dear to our hearts. I’m really hoping a way is found to save The Pac 12. It’s looking more and more like it’s going to take a real and true miracle.

Good for Justin!

Ducks Win !!!! Woo hoo !!!!

Ducks lead 10 - 1. Wow!!!

A good local newspaper weaves a community together. The Register-Guard was an absolute jewel; long time employees who were master craftsmen and truly gifted writers with their fingers on the pulse of what made Eugene special and unique. We are all at a loss now when it comes to getting local news. None of the local news sources are great and The Register-Guard is a complete waste of time.

Whether you agree with Daniel Kelly’s harsh analysis, or not, it’s clear that Oregon’s defense this season left a lot to be desired and the overall play at linebacker was not very good. The film that accompanied Kelly’s assessment, for those who needed evidence, backs his criticism. The linebackers are the heart of the defense and it’s one of the areas where vast improvement is needed. It’s hard to say how much adjusting to a new system effected Sewell, but he certainly wasn’t the beast he seems capable of being. It seems clear that staying another year would have helped him hone his skills and raise his NFL stock. That said, as Kurt Rambis pointed out, there is plenty of positive buzz supporting Sewell. He won’t be a first round pick, but he will get his shot at his NFL dream. I wish him nothing but the best.

DJ made an excellent choice. Although he seemed to struggle at Clemson, something tells me Jonathan Smith is going to have him playing lights out for the Beavers. Look out Pac 12.

One critical area I’d like to see Oregon improve on is the quality of their punters and kickers. Kicking the ball out of bounds on kick offs hurt the Ducks in several games. Punter errors contributed to losses. Great teams have kickers who consistently kick the ball in end zone on kick offs. Punter errors hurt us in the Washington loss and were instrumental in the loss to Oregon State. I know Oregon signed an Australian kicker who has never played organized American football and they are rumored to have a few others as preferred walk ons. Hmmmmm… Some aspect of the kicking game has been a thorn in Oregon’s side for several seasons now. It’s a critical aspect of the game as evidenced by the loss to Oregon State. I hope Lanning and his special team coaches make it the recruiting priority it needs to be.

Noah Sewell just declared he is throwing his hat into the NFL ring and won’t play in the Holiday Bowl.

This is turning out to be one of the best and most exciting signing days in the history of Oregon football, and there is much more yet to come. My hat is off to Coach Dan Lanning and his staff.

I’m glad Oregon recruited a punter. Poor punting proved critical in Oregon’s loss to Oregon State. That said, it would be nice to have a little more information on Luke Dunne.

I have a feeling that Coach Lanning is well informed regarding what Nix’s plans are for next year. If Nix’s plan is to leave for the NFL, I’d be surprised if Lanning doesn’t snag a QB out of the portal. Given the history between Card and Stein, recruiting Card looks like a pretty smart move.

I like that Lanning pointed out last year that he keeps a list of quality coaches he knows and has worked with. I was impressed with how quickly he put together a very high quality staff of assistants. Whomever he chooses, he will put a high premium on a candidate’s ability to recruit and develop talent. I trust him to find an OC who will perfectly fit into and augment what he is creating at Oregon.

There was an interesting article in The Athletic yesterday about Dilly taking the ASU job, how he was raised in the area loving The Sun Devils, and the family and all of the connections he has there because it really and truly is his home. I get it because Oregon is my home, and I grew up here loving my Ducks.The money will be nice, but this truly is the job the means the world to him. Maybe it would have come back around, but who knows. I really enjoyed watching Oregon’s offense this year for the first time in many years thanks, in no small part, to Dilly. Although I was really looking forward to how things would have evolved with him working his magic with Oregon’s offense, I wish him nothing but the best.

Although I expected it, losing Dillingham is a blow on top of the blow of losing to Oregon State in the heart wrenching fashion.the chips finally fell. I was looking forward to seeing his offense evolve in the next couple of years at Oregon. I understand that being a head coach is his dream and, even if the situation isn’t the best one, when your number gets called, it would be hard not to go for it.

I grew up with the game being called The Civil War and it’s etched that way on my heart. The fact that no one has come up with a new and better name that everyone can agree on is evidence to the fact that changing the name of the game was a completely ridiculous idea.

We all saw this coming. At least Mario has that 80 million dollar contract so, like Willie before him, he’s going to come out of this doing just fine. What were the people in charge of his Miami hire thinking? It’s another thing for Oregon football lovers to be thankful for this Thanksgiving

I wouldn’t call it borderline stupid, but putting Ty in at the beginning of the third quarter, and having him run the trick play they had him run had me scratching my head. That fumble, scoop, and score killed Oregon’s offensive momentum for the rest of the third quarter. Clearly, when considering what could go wrong by putting Ty in, the answer is a lot. One could argue that the fumble wasn’t Ty’s fault, but getting hand offs and tosses from him seems to be a lot more complicated than it should be. I don’t get it, but it is what it is.