Washington Waddler

Agree with the learning curve. Anyone paying the slightest attention can see MC is a determined learner. You have to thrive on your mistakes to become a skilled and highly capable head coach, and he checks that box. A great HC? To many variables and unknowns to venture there. The flip side to this coin remains the same: Can Mario’s Miami-bred sense of the game ever embrace the spirit and energy that is at the heart of Duck football? That river flows all around him, but he has yet to jump in. Until then, it may continue to feel like a kid with a shiny new car who keeps adding neat new parts to, but has yet to move it out of the drive way.

There is a pretty good reason you don’t start at the top. The only direction you have to go is down. Winning teaches you one thing: you like it. Loosing teaches you everything else. So, the paradox is tOSU really won that game, and we lost.

‘Tried and true’ makes for a poor guiding offensive philosophy in football simply because the circumstances that allowed for success in the past game are not necessarily going to be the there in the following. I’m a Mario fan. However, one thing that makes me nervous anytime an OL guy takes the reins is that his force of habit seeking consistency that was forged over time in the trenches will blind him to the more volatile and fluid reality happening behind him.

Well stated JJ. So long as the mythical NC was decided by a vote, competition remained between conferences: you didn’t know who, but you knew where they’d be going. With the advent of the BCS morphed into BCS x 2 — a Wall Street dream come true — we now have combined conferences (SEC ACC) dueling not so much for championships as the emerging right to view western high school athletes as a ‘farm system’ feeding their newly minted franchise championship system. Where does that leave the PAC 12? We’ve always been isolated by geography. Proximity in the east has always had a competitive advantage for them, but now with corporate greed involved, it has become a game changer with the NCAA becoming the big loser. Under the vote system we were just isolated on the west coast. Now, we might as well be somewhere in the Mariana Trench. In time, corporate greed often is it’s own undoing, but for now ESPN/Disney is running the show. Where o where NCAA have you gone?

Great analysis DM. Wazzu’s bringing the house strategy got me to wondering if JM’s practices had AB working screens a bit more this week. I’d also say that the addition of Cardwell’s speed after C.J. went down, and the addition of TJ Bass’s down field blocking ability has helped ignite this resurgence of interest.

What troubles me about MP’s move is the shortsighted nature of it. New WRs not only have to make the team, they have to develop chemistry with a QB — their evolution is unique among players. That’s why his move doesn’t make sense. Assuming he wants to land at a D1 program, he must reestablish both those relationships. For me, that’s sad because I saw his body type and skill set stepping into the position next year vacated by JJ and JR. We’ve a way to go yet to reach that built-in cultural understanding that seems to exist at other long time elite programs that you stay with it no matter what. But, it’s situations just like this that move us towards that goal.

Think Nike is giving a nod to grumbling traditionalists who want to see some yellow along the green. Great helmet!

Yeah, if things keep going the way they’ve been, the PAC 12 IS toast!

Yes, especially Leach who up until his final year had had our number.

u-DUH-b — still peeing on the carpet after all these years!

Agreed. JM is very aware of AB’s twice repaired left knee, and is only going to put him in harms way when the odds are in his favor, much as he did with a Coug defense that lacked a QB spy and reliable corner containment. Smart guys like AB heed the injury lesson, and learn to ‘unlearn’ specific running habits that led to the problem in the first place. I put my money on him to make it to the finish line.

Assuming both win out, any chance of the Ducks staying 3rd would rely on them dominating opponents, and tosu requiring fourth quarter come backs.

With the way this season has gone, the opportunities to give live reps to AB’s back ups have been few and far between. There’s as many QB use theories out there as there are loose wires in Jimmy Lake’s head, but I still buy into the idea that the best thing for the team is one guy runs the show. The closer we get to the brass ring, the more ridiculous the worrying becomes. I just try to remember how much more relaxed I felt in August about AB running the show than I tend to now. Hey! What me worry?

Flight On!

Yes. Was there once back when Urban Meyer coach. Like being in Pullman, only divinely inspired.

Agreed. There needs to be instilled a pre-agreement review by the PAC 12 on coverage arrangements by any network that contracts them to specific viewing requirements. But then, what did we expect? It was ESPN.

Anyone else notice how many times he was also dealing with hands to the face?

Love the way O lines responds to having a back with Cardwell’s patients and timing. It’s a trust you can’t buy.

Think KT put it best with his comments regarding the D’s show of resilience, and how they train for sudden change — it’s all about the next play. 1-0 Baby!

Yes, after yet another magic act win over us it felt good to see the rodents put the clamps on the stumps at clam dip stadium. And besides, it will give them a false sense of confidence coming into Autzen.

WSU’s challenging short passes and run game will be faced with a Duck D that appears to be gelling. Should be interesting.

Obviously, rivalries can live in hearts and minds as much as they do on the field. How fans relate to a rivalry is far beyond any analytical skills I might possess. But, as regards the field, I’m not sure you can say any rivalry is ever static enough to be judged alive or dead. It’s way to dynamic a relationship to ever be in a permanent either/or circumstance: it’s situational. That’s why a field rivalry can be ‘dead’ (through much of the Don James era), but grow into being ‘alive’ (starting in 1994), and then pass once again into being ‘dead’ with Oregon’s recent dominance. Will it flip flop? Most likely. Just don’t confuse the two ways we relate to rivalry.

All I have to do is run this dead pooch idea past my gut, and the surge of adrenaline-laced loathing that comes up tells me this rivalry will never end. They’ve earned my eternal disrespect.

I’ve often felt one of the great strengths of being a Duck grew out of the Rich Brooks development experience which painfully taught us the value to be found in patient determination. We know how to wait something out. We may have whined our way there, but we allowed the Brooks experiment to complete itself. There are not many programs that can say that, and is the primary reason I feel MC senses the kind of confident connection he does to our program. For me, it’s just plain fun watching that guy grow and mature into the coach he wants to be because he knows we have his back.

For what it’s worth, I believe MC’s response regarding this season’s injuries was that he’s never experienced anything like it in his playing or coaching career. Solutions notwithstanding, you know at the very least it has his and the coaching staffs’ attention. Under his guidance, the program protocols appears to be detail driven which gives me reason to think they’ll be revisiting strength and training regimens after the season is over. Is it a situation that could benefit by modification, or just simply behind the eight ball bad luck? Certainly hope it’s the former.