Washington Waddler

Okay, know it’s only a top 10, but here’s 11. Keep getting thrown out at 1st while trying to use the field ump as a scratching post.

Both Joe Walsh and Lincoln Riley. Life is hard on those LA freeways - in the back of a limo.

Unlike the sled pullers, USC has a genuine pedigree of past accomplishment. They talk real because they’ve been real. Their biggest obstacle to reclaiming that former glory is the inability to keep from tripping over the hubris generated by that past. They just can’t believe anyone worth anything would ever want to come to Eugene instead of Troyletown. Arrogance is blinding, and that can work in the other’s favor. And, let’s give credit where credit’s due? A lil shout-out to Mario for raising the elite recognition bar higher, and putting Dan in position to take advantage of it.

As much as I enjoy rubbing Husky snouts in their own droppings, the seismic center of this recruiting win is in LA where Riley has just received his first of hopefully many cold baths dished out from Eugene.

Liked his DAT finish line head-bob at the goal - good to see speed guys wanting to come here again.

Great job! It’s pathetic that these transfers can use the same language as those who are really moving on to the next level and foregoing their college eligibility. Not only do they lack honesty, they also lack imagination. Good riddance.

Thanks FD - some great memories! Was sitting with my wife in a sea of orange & white when LaMike made that reverse field end around. Got quite a few SEC glares for my display of Duck enthusiasm!

Easily forgotten because it’s easily shortened to Commodes.

This geography vs culture argument is pretty interesting. But, can’t say if it’s one thing or the other. Think they’re intertwined - they bounce off each other. While there’s no way you can dismiss the advantage of being close to home, what keeps you home is the strength of culture; and the south has that in spades. My time in the south taught me numerous things, but one thing indelibly: there is a line non-southerners can’t cross in trying to get to know some deeply-rooted southerners. When that relating point is touched, there’s a shut down. It becomes you against him; us against them. Without falling off an historical cliff which is - aside from pointless - nowhere I want to go, suffice to say the line I experienced felt like a kind of indelible mark of difference that saturates - for some - this southern sense of self, and flows through every aspect of southern life including the symbolic battleground of football. It can take the artificial and make it real. We westerners are as serious about our football as those in the south are, but we also maintain a sense of humor about these self-imposed images. I remember once passing a USC fan at Autzen and saying, “welcome to Duck country condom”, and him replying, “thanks, dinner”. We’re serious, but not so serious as to not laugh at ourselves. That’s harder to do with southern football fans. Case in point: had a quick encounter with an Auburn fan before the Natty during which I shared with him my western sense of humor. I said to him, you guys sure have more than your share of imposing mascots, and went on to say, “all you need is to add one more, and I’d feel like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz saying, War Eagles, Tigers, and Bears, oh my!” Not even the glimmer of a grin - just a transfixed stare. He then instructed me that, no, there is NO Bear. There are ONLY War Eagles and Tigers. End of encounter. I think things are slowly changing. Football-wise, maybe we are getting a little more SECish, and them a little less resistant to the outside world? Maybe that’s why we are seeing more southern recruits willing to jump ship and take a chance on Oregon. So, while you can’t take the south out of the recruit, in a changing world, you can sometimes take the recruit out of the south. Go Ducks!

Have the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor yet? Not going to worry about Kelly’s team until then.

The only image UW should be filing for trademark is a ‘dawg’ chasing its own tail.

Agree with your premise - the sea change in college athletics to invest the athlete with more and more control over his/her destiny forces everyone else with an interest in those destinies to either adjust or go bonkers. Me, I’m looking to the nimble-minded coaches who seek an advantage for their players in every situation for my inspiration. There are emerging ways to coach-up and keep kids if you’re willing to grasp and present both the benefits and disadvantages of NIL and the transfer portal to the players most affect by them. Neither is an end-all, be-all solution for them, and the coaches that see that are the ones I want at Oregon.

With Chip and Mark we use to refer to it as playing in space. Whatever the terminology, it’s good to hear that offensive approach being talked again.

All That Money

There is a good reason why sales and advertising people are not involved in business operations. Mario is the rare exception, and the results verify why you don’t mix the two departments.

When you look at the production Gonzaga gets compared to us from its bigs - even from frosh - is that just a talent gap, or is it also knowing how to get the most from them?

Like others here have pondered, how much did the loss of Tony Stubblefield affect recruiting, player development and motivation? Altman put staff along side gym rat mentality as issues to rectify.

I’m not sure that’s even remotely possible with high school students.

On a national level, assessing a player’s raw talent by the star system appears to be the only means possible to give some general sense of what a football program stands to gain by offering a scholarship and NILS $ in exchange for at least one year of service. Past that, evaluation is much more difficult, simply because it involves the development of innumerable intangibles that effect, but rarely light up stat sheets and scoreboards. Those assessments are the outcome of coaches committed to their students, and often involve slow, painstaking teaching that can result in the maturing of the whole player. That kind of player attract stars, but more importantly, attracts program interest within the channels of mentoring relationships that coaches truly rely upon to get the fuller picture of what a player is about. It’s a smaller system than the star one, but it gets results.

Yes, feel for Yanez with the year she was expecting to have. Hard hit on the team, but this is a resilient group that’s learning on the move how to step it up. Anyone understand the mechanics of the under-hand throwing motion and the type of stresses it can create? Lacking any real knowledge, I’ve always heard that the differing softball throwing motions create less torque than the over-hand motions do, but the cumulative effect of high stress repetitive motions in both have to have a lot of similarities you’d think.

When I think of Dana, I see a Nebraska guy with deep, blue collar roots, and an unimpeachable record of success built on the buy-in from guys like himself who were focused on the reason they came to play for him. I don’t think he understands people who are not as selfless and committed to ‘team’ as he is. For my money, you can take the ‘star’ system, and flush it down the toilet.

And that was preseason - in conference play, he dipped well below 60%.

What’s happening with Wong? Whatever she’s having for breakfast, give me some! Our newest hammer!

Couldn’t agree more! But this isn’t about the fans. This about time in the saddle. If you’re a coach, you never turn down the chance to improve, and the extra time to do it in. It’s a case of functionality over bruised egos. In regard to Will, what happened to him was Jalen Terry. When he left, Will’s true roll went up in smoke. A shame he’ll not get the chance to redeem his game along side Dior Johnson.

I stand with the Cane community on this one: my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.