Washington Waddler

(I tried to dip my oar in this discussion a tad late, so here’s my two cents.) Booing your own team is something that concerns any fan who cares. And, it’s always pointless to consider this type of booing by those who don’t care because their agenda is beyond reason — like a drunk fan. However, for fans that do care, booing your own team is, at the very least, one of two things: either an impulsive, irresponsible reaction, or tough love. Booing the home team is either unjustified because you care, or justified because you do care. The first reaction is most likely rooted in a long gone but not forgotten past when college football stands were primarily filled by those who shared a common link with those on the field: they both attend (or attended) the same college. Students, faculty, alumni and their families make a pretty sympathetic choir because the line between ‘them and us’ disappears in a shared Identity. In addition, academic experience is rooted in learning, and learning is rooted in encouragement, not derision. Add to that a university system controlled and operated by only those that ‘have’, and you’ve got a self-supportive, if very exclusive little club. Enter the NFL. With the advent of football as a substitute for warfare, it’s popularity grew to include those without the means to enter the club that held the reins. So, start your own club — one that turns football into a profession. The second reaction is primarily rooted in the difference between these two clubs: you’re paying not for an education, but for entertainment, and you’ve nothing in common with those on the field other than a presumed bond of community identity which roughly translates as, “hooray for you, but what have you done for me lately”? Those hard earned dollars in Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh wanted something in return that justified the spending. American football had moved from a shared experience of amateur athletic excellence to become a professional product. Add to that the eventual inclusion into universities of talented ‘have nots’ being sought by football coaches — and the unavoidable perception of college football as becoming a farm system for the NFL — and you’ve created a bond between amateur and professional leveraged by the notion of product; a hand-me-down attitude from NFL to college that home teams are subject to the same judgement of the fan as consumer: Booing. What’s at issue is the fuzzy line that separates those who produce from the product itself. Even when fans understand their watching student athletes learning a process, it’s still the product being payed for that they see. And when it comes to a contest between shared identity and product, product is going to win every time. You don’t get to the CFP on moral victories. But neither do you get there by alienating your team and coaches with booing, and the recruits who might make it a better product. The answer? The time it takes to learn as a group the line you just don’t cross — which only seems to happen through trial and error — as evidenced by the successful programs that continue to fill the stands and recruit at a high level regardless of off seasons. It’s okay to encourage a better product, just don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg in the process.

In addition to the game clock management getting worse is the handling of AB. Why at that stage of the game would you put any receiver past 20 yards when chance for success statistics clearly show the percentage drop off that it does?

At the risk of repeating myself, they remind me of the floaters in Dylan Morris’s eyes when he throws the long ball. Retain them for the Seattle trip

If nothing else, the forum would go crazy comparing weak and strong scheduling leading up to the championship game.

So long as Dylan Morris continues to have more floaters than someone whose been staring at the sun too long we’ll always have a chance.

Based on our game at the shoe, this team plays best away, as the underdog and on a big stage. All three are present in this game. The unexpected? Our O line does what no one expects them to do, and gives balance to an offense which will require both the rush and the pass.

Losing is the great teacher because it’s painful and you’ll do whatever it takes to avoid it. Winning, on the other hand, teaches you only one thing: you like it. Addictive behavior cycles are like that. Hopefully, most long time Duck fans have had that watershed moment where they’ve had the chance to glimpse the bigger picture. Mine came at the 2005 Holiday Bowl loss to the Sooners where the ‘what ifs’ were eating me alive. A couple of gristled, longtime Oklahoma fans (dating back to the Bud Wilkinson era) sitting next to me kind of took me under their wing, and gently brought me up to speed on how long this journey was going to take. While it didn’t remove the pain, their perspective lessened it. No, Mario is no more the perfect a coach than Chip. One seems more interested in recruiting while the other seems more interested in coaching. Put the two together and you have what, a Nick Saban? How often does that happen? Wishful thinking is always a good indicator for me to reapply my hard earned perspective on this journey of being a Duck. When I look at Mario, I see the biggest experimental shift in football culture the Ducks have ever undertaken. Aside from Willy the weasel, he is the only Oregon head coach without west coast roots dating back to Len Casanova (l cancel out Chip because of his hand-in-glove fit for the west coast style). For better or worse, we’ve embraced a style of football we’re little acquaintance with. It’s difficult to quantify — this coastal difference in football philosophies — but we all know it’s there, and our west coast sensibilities are taking a beating. That can happens when you’re in the midst of an experiment. The advice? Hold onto your hard earned perspective, ignore the addictive behavior cycles, and let it run it’s course. Who knows what the next game may bring?

What is interesting is what’s not being said. Oregon’s unique grasp on cutting edge intelligence, imagination and conception is producing the first major college football program to eliminate outdoor practice facilities in favor of a near sci-fi-like removal from an increasingly hostile environment. The wave of the future? Wait and see.