Washington Waddler

About the only way that’s going to happen is if Miami forfeits all there time-outs.

Mario ‘what you see is not what you get’ Cristobal will do just as well if not better recruiting to his new program. What he won’t get are all those frustrated, untapped, hungry kids from the Miami neighborhoods that filled the roster in his playing days. They now get top drawer offers from everywhere. And with the inability MC has shown thus far to transform talent into players, that local source of hungry motivation will be sorely missed.

Anybody whose ever been on the other side of the fence knows you don’t get much juice from an orange you just stepped on. Like it or not, it’s a relationship between writer and coach that requires trust. While a HC has to be the public face that ooze sunshine from time to time, it’s that trust that gets the real comment.

Just happy Nix is already on campus. So many of the variables already mentioned are greatly affected by the off-screen chemistry developed off season between QBs and receivers. We’ve got a great - if young - stable. If Nix puts in the time with our receiving talent, it should be one heck of a competition come spring for the job.

Is what we are seeing the corrupting by players of what was originally intended to be a simple, one time side-ways move, into a form of leveraging playing power by playing the old program off against a potential new one, thereby transforming the Portal into a portal-ploy to gain traction or guarantees? God, I hope not.

Couldn’t agree more. The challenge for Lanning is to mirror Saban’s strategy, but not approach it as recreating, but simply to reclaim our offensive identity. Saban’s task was to maintain and not lose his defensive identity edge while in the process of establishing a new offensive image. Lanning’s job is a bit the opposite: to create a new defensive identity while at the same time reclaiming our offensive image that is already their in the minds of recruits.

They should officially change their name from Texas A&M to Texas ATM.

It’s a major part of what makes the great ones great: they don’t lose focus on the big picture, and they never sweat the small stuff.

Don’t mean to dismiss our effort in Columbus; it was everything and more that’s been said about it. However, comparing to how the tree nuts played in that game to the rest of there season tells me we caught them on a very very good day. Based on that notion, it brings me back around to inexperienced head coaching, and MC not knowing how to balance his natural inclination to applaud great effort with bringing his team back to earth by reminding them how dumb luck always plays a part in beating teams like tosu. The idea of course is not to dismiss a win, but to balance the highs and lows, and maintain focused effort going into the next game — a mind set I don’t think we managed very well. Can’t call it a prediction, but one thing I’d like to see in 2022 is our inexperienced head coach relying on his veteran assistants to help keep the team focused.

What makes something ‘alive’ is the unpredictable nature of independent behavior: you can’t control it no matter how hard you try. Cases in point — the weather and Covid-19. While college football is hardly a force of nature, until now, it has always shown a resilience — a life of its own — because the majority of those who participate in it have shown a willingness to moderate personal desire, employee an independent governing body (NCAA), and adapt to change that helped maintain that independent character, and helped insure no person or thing could completely control it. So long as college football revenue was primarily driven by stadium sales, this balance could be maintained, even in light of social and cultural abuses within its own ranks that took generations to resolve, if ever. In spite of that, what college football could not change was the basic inequity of its own origins: that of being founded on the privilege of financial access to a university education, and all that that entailed. Inclusion, diversification, and the many forms of financial aid that we now take for granted helped alleviate this somewhat, but it could not change the basic unfairness of life. With the advent of social media — the steady march of access to increased revenue from radio through cable tv and Internet entities — it shattered forever that balance, because everyone likes lots of money. Greed trumps better instincts. The NCAA destroyed its own ethical and governing footing by using tv contracts to enrich university programs and not its players. And now, NIL and portal-driven cash has brought the universities themselves under the sway of the free market — and neutered their power to protect the independent character of college football — as the money door swings wide open to . . . what? I’m pretty sure most of us still fiercely love and would do anything we could to ensure the ‘aliveness’ and independence of this thing we call college football. With all the changes it has gone through, it’s hard to recognize it sometimes. But at its core, I cling to the belief that it’s spirit rages against the powers that would control and eventually destroy it. I cling to the hope that the SEC and ESPN will eventually teeter and fall like some latter day Towers of Babel from the sheer weight of their own greed, and we can then find a better way to make the system work so we can again enjoy thing we all love. But until then, I guess I’ll just enjoy being a Duck, and get on with life!

Don’t slip in the clam dip.

Recruiting is a confidence game, and the more time in the saddle, the more confident the recruit becomes. Miami has that in spades. Moss could be that rare high schooler (like DAT) who thinks outside the box, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Okay, I’ll play devil’s advocate on this one, and say that the Dood dudes are not necessarily anti-Lanning, but being fence sitters; hedging their bets on a guy who is obviously a comer, but has yet to sit in the hot seat. I think it’s more of a wait and see attitude than a judgment on his abilities. But, I also think everyone who has suggested it is spot-on that the top drawer assistants drawn to the program demonstrate a trust in Lanning’s leadership prowess (thanks Jimmy, you left us with a wonderful word), and that alone moves the needle into the ‘A’ bracket after everything is added up.

It’s a keeper! But, you know some bow wow down and out is going to suggest you change it to The Forum with Decoyum. There, shot that one down right here!

I agree with everything you said HD except recruiting. Just because MC was incapable of turning high school recruits into college-level players doesn’t mean winning the recruiting wars becomes any less important. A crucial key for me in turning PAC 12 fortunes around is to keep the focus on bringing the best coaching talent out there into the PAC 12. We need to slow the bleeding of western recruits into the midwest and southeast, and top coaching will help do that. The key to that, again, is Oregon and SC. Those two do well, and interest in the PAC 12 will grow.

Agree. In addition, over-looked in the recent success of ‘left over’ B12 bowl teams is the backs-to-the-wall psychology that helped generate that success: the pride in conference factor. Being in the PAC 12 this season by any of those teams would most likely not have created that same energy. As a long term investment; good risk, but in the short term; I agree, the results risk applies.

Washington — but only to go outside to go potty because they’re not house-broken.

As Duck fans, many of us fondly remember those days when Oregon pretty much stood alone among P5 football programs for the longevity and consistency of its coaching staff. Assistants were often career coaches, and head coach was a promotion from within the ranks. There seemed to be a steadying force in those days — a feeling, or determined vision — that held coaches in place through rough patches, and allowed us to stay the course towards the goal of playing for PAC 12 and National Championships. We grew accustom to it; we got use to it. And then Mark was fired — and like the triggering of a domino effect — we fell from that unique place where coaches felt like family, and into the competitive trough where contending programs battle with dollars and brand visibility to attract, hire and keep coaches who are only a phone call away from their next upgrade. Like the saying, you don’t know know what you have until it’s gone. It’s easy to look back on those days with a longing. Some of us would like to have them back. Many believe that kind of coaching consistency is the straw that stirs the drink; is the glue that holds all the other parts together, and without which we can never regain the path leading to greatness. That feeling can get downright uncomfortable when you look at Utah. There is a remarkable resemblance between Utah’s current program and where we once were. Like we were back then, Utah has a solid number — including their head coach — who have made Utah their career, and as a group (the 15 most prominent staff positions - my choices), average nine years in the program. Add to that the resemblance to Oregon’s past of a staff whose roots were primarily in the west (13 of the 15 for Utah), and it can feel as if they have inherited the mantel once worn by the Ducks. Two blow-out loses to them don’t help matters. But have they? And even if they have, can they hold onto that consistency, even if they want to? The question: is coaching consistency a goal unto itself, or is it just a first step — a phase — any worthwhile (and fortunate enough) program might go through on its way to entering the bigger fray? Utah could end up being lucky enough never to have to deal with a Mark Helfrich, or they may. Either way, success leads to visibility, and visibility puts you on another competitive level — another step — which programs either adjust to — or not. Coaching consistency certainly seems preferable, but is it necessary to success? It’s never a good idea to compare your program to Alabama, but that’s never stopped me before. Like the direction Alabama has been on for a long time, where I see us heading coaching-wise is similar to a roller coaster ride that is always trending slightly uphill: you start to fall ( lose a coach), but you don’t fall quite as far as you did the previous time (hire a better one). Dan Lanning feels like a step in that direction. Many of his assistant choices do so as well. Only time will tell. Will this move lead to coaching consistency once again? Probably not. Do we really need or even want that kind of consistency ever again, or is consistency something we must do whatever it takes to achieve again? I don’t know. There are lots of times, I must admit, when I miss that old consistent, unchanging Oregon we once were. But the more I let myself adjust to our new reality (expand my comfort zone?) the better I’m learning to deal with it — and even enjoying the ride! Thanks for being my therapists. Your thoughts?

It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

What was originally just the title to a fight song that became a dominant slogan over time was written in 1915, and referenced the heroic and tragic stand of western allies against the Ottoman Turks in WWI in the area known as the Dardanelles. The term, however, most likely references a more ancient tradition among warring groups of that area where edicts by despots were often signed, “fear this and trembling obey”.

And in the same way they came in: chained in a row with their noses up someone else’s rear end.

Cincinnati got in because there are that many voters who wanted to rub THE Ohio State’s nose in it.

The only ‘Bow Down’ going on in poochyland these days is the stooping it takes for recruits and coaches to crawl beneath where the Huskys have set the bar. Or, in the immortal words of Chubby Checker, “how low can you go?”

Yeah, what’s the point of building a brand spanking new four wheel drive if you never take it in the mud?

As always, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.