Kurt Rambis

Sorta agree. For 2023, Moore would only have helped if there were a serious injury to Nix. And of course he may turn out to be nothing special. But if he is special, it's 2024 and beyond where this sucks. Now, we have no idea who OBD may get for the future. But chances are, having Moore would have been a lot better than not having Moore. Whether this turns out to be a big deal or not entirely depends on how good Moore turns out to be, but also who we get for the future. Oregon will be just fine without Moore for 2023. The jury is very much still out regarding the longer-term future.

To me, this is very similar to what the one-and-done has done to college hoops. Unrecognizable teams with unrecognizable "stars." Guys who quit midway through their only season or barely bother to show up at all. Intense pressure to be a star in 35 games before you leave. Teams with mediocre talent who has been there a while and knows how to play together as a team beating all-star teams in the tournament. It hasn't been good for many players, for schools, or for fans. In football, it's hard to get excited about any recruit, transfer, or roster player, knowing he could very well be gone next season (or mid-season). It's nearly impossible to keep good players on lower-level teams, or let a kid develop by sitting behind a star and playing special teams. I don't particularly worry about the well-being of players who transfer and end up with nowhere to go. It's hard way to learn that sometimes you have to pay for foolish decisions. It's like the many people who quit their job then can't find another job. Sometimes life sucks - deal with it.

I have to laugh at this Headline Hyperbole. "Football World Reacts" and then some "writer" quotes three random, unnamed fans expressing surprise at the transfer. Yep, seems like the whole football world is reacting in shock. Gotta love the Internet...

When I see someone leave a P5 team for a lower level team, I always figure it's one of two things: 1) he knows he needs to go someplace at a lower level for significant playing time, or 2) the rest of the P5 knows he needs to go someplace at a lower level for significant playing time. That's not a criticism, as many thousands of kids have great experiences playing below the P5 level, whether that's Nevada, Rhode Island, Northern Illinois, or Southern Oregon State. I hope Dollars flourishes there. But when I see guys like LaDuke and Dollars transferring to Nevada, it does tend to say something about where their best fit may be.

I can do the eggshell and almost any combination that includes the apple green. I really am not a fan of the nightmare green, black, etc. I've been a fan of a pro team that has used basically the same unis for around 50 years - I want to watch the Steelers in black & gold, not mauve and beige. Ducks are green, gold, and white for contrast.

Obviously Nix returning would be ideal for the Ducks, but I've given up guessing about what players or coaches will do. Too many people trying to read tea leaves; kids changing their minds; situations changing around the kids (like coaches leaving or a hot new recruit/transfer coming in to threaten their playing time). If ever there were an example of the word "fluid," it would be college football rosters.

Ah, media hype. Hard to consider this a "bombshell" when it includes such powerhouses as Austin Peay and a school that doesn't even currently have a football program...I wonder if they confused "buzzing" with some mild snoring? My guess is Alabama will schedule every one of these programs within the next decade...

He'll either come to Oregon or he won't. I can't hold my breathe worrying about the decisions of 17-and-18-year-old kids. He may be visiting for a free trip, to try to do some stealth recruiting for Oregon among UCLA recruits, just to make sure of his decision, because he's having second thoughts, or whatever.

Pretty hard to hold kids accountable when a coach hasn't been.

Not entirely sure I agree with this - will depend a lot on how many guys we get through the portal. This year, we had portal transfers and freshmen who were Lanning's, and even there, some of the recruits were Mari holdovers, if I'm not mistaken. Next year, many of the upperclassmen will still be Mari recruits - Lanning's guys will largely be freshmen and sophomores. I think it may take yet another year before the majority of the team is Lanning's players.

I wish I had a better sense of why the D was so underwhelming this year: lack of fit between players and scheme? Lack of player development? Poor schemes/coaching? Over-rated players? Three DCs in three years basically screwing everyone and everything up? Either way, we're losing a ton of players off an underperforming unit. Freshman talent is important long term, but short term, some help has gotta come from the portal, or next year will be particularly ugly.

Again, who knows with each player why he's transferring? Some are pretty obvious, like Butterfield who couldn't get onto the field no matter what the situation was, or other players who aren't getting playing time and are watching other high-level recruits come in. With guys like Walden, it could be the coaches have advised him to leave due to injuries, demonstrated ability, or culture fit. It could be he chose to leave for one of those reasons, or because he misses home, doesn't like the rain, doesn't like his position coach, thinks he can get a better NIL deal elsewhere, got a girlfriend in another state, needs to be closer to home for family reasons, doesn't like the offensive or blocking schemes, thinks he's being unfairly held back by coaches - whatever. I had plenty of classmates at Pepperdine who transferred out, and each one had a different reason. I imagine it's much the same for athletes.

Man, does that look like a kid having a happy birthday? Looks more like someone piddled on his cake to put out the candles.

I think you could say that every coach of a really good team that isn't undefeated "blew it." Why? Because his team wasn't good enough to go undefeated. Whether the issue with the loss(es) was risks that didn't pan out, bad play calls at key moments, a game plan that didn't work well against an opponent, failure to recruit a great QB, failure to have his team ready to play in a loss, failure to recruit depth, failure to hire great assistants, failure to keep some great players from the portal or attract great players from the portal, whatever. The Ducks failed to have dependable backup QBs, had a porous defense, and had some risky decisions backfire. So yes, Lanning blew it. So did Saban, Day, Sweeney, Kelly (both Brian and Chip), Riley, Fisher, Wittingham, DeBoer, and every coach not named Harbaugh or Smart.

My perception of Brady just went up about ten notches.

While I do remember the 80s, and even the 70s with this team, I don't compare the current situation to that one. I compare the current situation to reasonable expectations and recent history. The Ducks have gone through a variety of failed coaches and finally hired an extremely young, first time HC, who then hired a variety of fairly young assistants. They were absolutely going to make some mistakes (and did). The players were going to struggle some adjusting to new terminology and a new system (and did). Before the season, most people (fans and experts) were projecting 2 - 5 losses and some serious growing pains. The team lost 3 games, including two which were very close, with a gimpy QB. Disappointed? Absolutely. Particularly since wins against BYU, WSU, and others had many of us thinking that the CFP were a distinct possibility - or at least the Rose Bowl. But compare this season with last season, when we lost against a Stanford team we should have destroyed, played boring football, kept it close against mediocre competition, and finally got pummeled twice by Utah. Not only is this season an improvement over last season, but I believe it is putting us on the right track for the future. Assuming recruiting stays strong, Lanning learns from some mistakes, and we get a good new OC, Oregon will remain in competition for major bowl games and the playoffs.

Not that I'm great at prognostication, but I actually expected this one. Guy was a tremendously high recruit but didn't produce that way and wasn't the top WR in the room. Multiple coaches while at Oregon and now his OC is leaving and probably his QB. I particularly expect three kinds of players to transfer out from any school: Top recruits who don't pan out quite as expected - either they'll blame the coaches/team/scheme for holding them back, or maybe they're actually being held back or not the right fit in some way Guys buried on the depth chart who want a chance at more playing time Big-time producers at small or moderate programs (e.g. WSU, Rutgers, Illinois) who feel they can accomplish more (and probably earn more) elsewhere He certainly won't be the last Duck we lose to the portal this year or any year.

I think it's fair to question the wisdom of some of Mullens' decisions, in hindsight. At the time, most of them seemed pretty good. Helfrich - Before: bright offensive mind taking over for Chip. After: seemed to hit his nadir as an OC - not HC material. Taggart - Before: high energy, fantastic recruiter. After: don't really need to rehash this disaster. Cristobal - Before: loved by the team, keeping a great recruiting class, Alabama pedigree, great recruiter. After: not much of an actual coach. Lanning - Before: bright young defensive mind, UGA pedigree, national title winner. After: tbd Sure, we probably could have hired someone with HC experience. Look how well that's worked out for Wisconsin, Arkansas, Texas ATM, ASU...

Years ago, I had a co-worker who got pulled into jury duty. Her case involved a Black guy who went to a bar. He was having a beer, minding his own business, when another couple of guys started hassling him for no reason. Witnesses said it was obviously racially motivated, including repeated use of the N word. The guy lost his cool and punched one guy. My co-worker was upset that the jury had no choice but to convict him of assault. No matter what awful things were said verbally, the guy answered physically, which is a step up in seriousness. Although the instigators' behavior was shameful, he had no right to escalate it to a physical confrontation. I see the same thing here. If the fan said something, maybe he should be barred from future games. Maybe OSU should be fined for allowing fans on the field. But unless the fan was the physical aggressor, the player had no right to turn a verbal altercation into a physical altercation. And even if the fan did touch or grab his facemask, as I've seen suggested, a punch to the head is an escalation of the force used in the physical contact. I'm guessing he doesn't play in the bowl game - not much more the team can do to him, unless the school itself wants to step in and take away his diploma or his right to be in the graduation ceremony (if he's graduating), or kick him out of school. Dismissal is an option, but other than continued pre-draft support (e.g. participating in the pro day, continuing to work out and practice), I'm not sure what difference it will make to a guy with one game left in his college career. Understandable reaction, but not an acceptable reaction. There's a big difference.

I would imagine the primary type of player who might travel with Dillingham would be guys who didn't get featured in the offense a ton who think they'll have better opportunities at ASU - largely backup skill players. Guys already getting a lot of run probably see no reason to change a good thing. And I would expect some of those guys to leave any way, ASU or otherwise. This may affect some recruits for whom Dilly was the primary recruiter - no idea who those were. Also may get some guys who want to travel with the new OC coming in. Heck, college football team rosters are a crapshoot anymore, so who knows?

Same here on Cardwell. Couldn't figure out why they were bringing in both Whittingham and Irving. I thought Bo Nix had the opportunity to be a huge bust and set back the development of the other two QBs. I thought the D would be pretty good - especially the LBs. I thought the Ducks were probably a 3 - 4 loss team...so sadly I'm correct there.

My father specialized in turning around "dumpster fires." He would be hired to run a division or a company hemorrhaging money, with few prospects, and every time he had them profitable within three years. He had plenty of people each time saying, "Don't take that job - that's a graveyard." But he relished the challenge. I have no clue whether KD is cut from the same cloth, nor whether he has the chops to extinguish a dumpster fire, nor whether he'll have any chance of success if he goes to ASU. But some people think they can turn around even a horrible situation - and sometimes, they're right. I would hate to lose him after just one year, but if he thinks that's a good position for him, more power to him. I've left companies for a big raise and a promotion, so I feel it would be hypocritical for me to castigate KD if he decides to do the same thing. I just wish him luck in making the right decision for himself, his family, and his career (if the job is actually offered to him). Successful programs are always going to lose assistants who want to become coordinators, and coordinators who want to become head coaches.

FYI, CBS Sports has the following to say about the ASU job: Watch for Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham to get a good look. ASU may fall into one of the best hires of the cycle. The talented Dillingham seems to be the leader in the clubhouse, but you never know with an administration that got rid of Herm Edwards then retained the AD who hired him (Ray Anderson). Dillingham, 32, is a proven commodity despite his relative youth. His quarterback, Bo Nix, may get a Heisman Trophy invite. Dillingham would be given all kinds of resources to turn around the Sun Devils. In the new Pac-12 (without USC and UCLA), why can't ASU compete for a playoff spot every year?

Certainly ASU is a dumpster fire. But many, many people will look at a dumpster fire and think, "Yeah, but I am good enough to put it out." No idea whether Dillingham fits that description. But you notice that every year, perennial dumpster fires like the Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns, New York Knicks, Pittsburgh Pirates, Northwestern University football, and Vanderbilt football have head coaches. So I'd have to guess lots of coaches out there are looking at ASU and thinking, "Yeah, but I am good enough to put it out." The big questions are whether Dillingham is one of them, and whether ASU thinks he's the guy with the extinguisher.

That's a great observation, but I don't think the options here are 1) run the QB or 2) not allow any running. Any more than it is 1) always go for it on 4th down or 2) never go for it on 4th down. It's a question of when and how to run the QB. Runs where the QB gets outside and has a reasonably clear field, generally facing DBs or LBs at worst, and has an opportunity to slide or run out of bounds are one thing. Running a QB between the tackles or into heavy traffic is another. It simply adds a much higher level of risk to the equation. Russell Wilson vs. Josh Allen is a good example. Wilson runs when he has to or there's a clear path, and rarely takes a hit (or at least that's how he played in Seattle). Allen runs at will and often seeks out contact. Allen hasn't gotten hurt yet, but that's probably coming. Until he gets hurt, it's a tremendously effective strategy. If he uses his arm and legs to get them to the Super Bowl, Bills fans will be elated. If he separates his shoulder in the playoffs while getting extra yards or running in traffic, they'll be devastated (again - hey, it's the Bills). Also in question is what the backup situation is like. If you've got a good backup QB, maybe you can take a little more risk. I think the jury is still out on whether we have any capable backup QBs. We've seen nothing of Butterfield, and Thompson has done nothing at all in a very, very limited backup role. It's pure risk-vs-reward. I'm not sure there's a clearly right answer, but the more Nix runs, and the more traffic in which he's running, the greater the chances we'll see Thompson or Butterfield for a lengthy amount of time.