latracey

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.

We aren’t going to know anything more about who plays and who doesn’t until we see who is suited up for the game on Saturday. Today is the last media contact day until Saturday night. While I’d like to give Ty the benefit of the doubt and believe that a weeks worth of practice with the ones will make the difference, it doesn’t align with what we’ve seen in games he’s played in so far this year; not to mention the fact that Utah’s defense is one of the best in the PAC 12. My fingers are crossed that Bo is able to go.

Kris Hutson gave a post practice interview shown on 247 Sports Duck Territory where he actually said Bo is down so it’s the next man up, and then talked about how much confidence he has in Ty Thompson successfully leading the team. My fingers are crossed that this is part of Lanning’s gamesmanship to fake out Utah, but I don’t know… Hutson also suggested he faked his injury and it was just part of the game plan to give Oregon a few more seconds last Saturday night. Yikes !!

Lanning is playing the injury situation close to the vest this week and is even restricting media during visits to practice, although he did state the news regarding injuries was what he considered "good news". We aren't going to know the extent of Nix's injury, or whether or not he is good to go until Saturday's game.

I also won’t attend games that start at 7:30 pm. That puts the ending of the game much too far after the bed time of an old man like me, not to mention the time it takes to get home after the game. That said, I guarantee you that Autzen will be sold out and rocking on Saturday night for the Utah game.

The big exception to the above was the decision to go for it on 4th down, deep in Duck territory, in a tie ball game with around a minute left on the clock. All of the successful trick plays, with the exception of the on side kicks, were attempted with the starting QB at the helm, which greatly increased their likelihood of success. Few of the successful ones were attempted with the game on the line. The fact that TT has proven to be a one dimensional QB meant that Washington knew what was coming, stacked the box, and were in position to stop our running back even if he hadn’t slipped. A better decision would have been to call a time out to carefully consider the situation and the options available; one of which included putting Nix back in the game to run the 4th down attempt. Hind sight is 20/20 and mistakes create the best learning opportunities. Lanning is very smart, and I’m sure he learned a lot from his mistakes on Saturday night.

Contemplating whether or not Bo Nix returns next season is interesting to ponder, but I’m just hoping he comes back for the next game at this point. He clearly suffered a leg or foot injury last night and there has been no update today. Anyone else have a bad feeling about this? Can Oregon win another game this season without Nix?

At 6-1 in conference play, Oregon is definitely not out of it, but Washington exposed and took full advantage of the weaknesses in Oregon’s defense. The Rising run Utah offense is better than Washington’s offense, and their run defense is a whole lot better. Oregon State is playing lights out at home and will be motivated to beat Oregon. The Ducks have the toughest 2 games remaining of any of the top teams in the conference. I’m really hoping Nix’s injury isn’t too severe and that he’s ready to roll next week. That said, I think Oregon’s coaches and players learned some valuable lessons in last night’s loss. I’m excited to see how the coaches and players respond and rise to meet the challenges of their next 2 games.

As usual, there were some questionable calls, but the one calling Franklin out of bounds before catching the ball at the end of the game was a killer. As the replay revealed, it was close, but Franklin wasn’t out of bounds and it shouldn’t have been called. The most disappointing thing about the game for me was Lanning’s decision to go for it deep in Oregon territory with Thompson at quarterback. It deprived Oregon’s defense a chance to stop Washington and win the game. Failing to get the first down gave the Huskies the ball well within field goal range for their kicker.

It’s a crazy world made up of all sorts of people. Some are trustworthy, solid, and true to their words, and some figure that the best end for them and theirs justifies doing whatever it takes to get there. We’ve watched Dan Lanning since he’s been at the University of Oregon. I feel like he’s been authentic regarding the kind of person he is. His staff and his players love him because he has his priorities straight and he is a man of integrity. Lanning is one of the most intelligent football coaches Oregon has ever had. He knows he is blessed with some special resources at Oregon. He has taken what Mario left, combined it with an amazing staff and some great transfers, and he is building something truly special. Only a selfish idiot would leave Oregon at this time, after only one year, to go to Auburn; and that’s not the Dan Lanning I feel like we all have come to know. Let’s savor and enjoy this special moment in Duck football history.

I’m really surprised to see Seven go. Players have to adjust to sharing the rock in this offense which has to be more difficult for those further down the pecking order. I noticed Nix had serious words for McGee in the UCLA game after what I assume was some sort of miscommunication between the two after a play. It will be interesting to see what his reasoning for leaving at this point in what appears to be a great season for the team. I wish him nothing but the brightest of futures.

My understanding is that Bo is a senior and this is his last year of college eligibility. Is that not correct?

Time and time again I watched Cota make difficult catches while he played for UCLA, and I was thrilled when he decided to come to Oregon. Jeff Maehl is a great comparison. Both guys have great hands and find ways to make tough receptions in traffic.

I’m really tired of the mediocre quality of the PAC 12 football officiating. Neither of the pass interference calls against the Ducks in the second half should have been called, and it looked to me from looking at the replay several times that Bo actually DID have the first down he risked life and limb to get. It was certainly too close to reverse the decision made on the field.