WiseKwacker

Yeah, I suggest you just do what I do: ask your grandkids to explain the significance.

Charles Fischer, aka "The GIF Meister." Just one of the many reasons I click on OBD every day.

This trial is one of those instances where you have two parties (the U of O and Taggart/Oderinde) who would normally be on opposing sides forced to work together to defend themselves. As mentioned above, Mullins and the U of O need to accept responsibility for turning the football program over to Taggart. And, from all those statements former players have made about things Taggart said about trying to weed out players who were coasting and not pulling their weight in the Helfrich era, we can be pretty sure Willie heard those things from Mullins, his staff, or Oregon boosters. Having said all that, I'm sure it absolutely grates on the U of O defense team to have their fate pretty closely interlocked with a notorious pair of Eugene refugees.

A really nice piece of writing, Joshua. Thanks for your work. And, agreeing with Jon Joseph above, your comment, "...they won their first national title since before this writer was born," made this guy, currently celebrating his 70th birthday, do a double-take. As each day rolls by, I gain more and more confidence in Dan-Lan. I'm steadily gaining confidence that, when those inevitable mistakes and stumbles occur, this guy has the under-control-ego to learn from his mistakes and to show a bit of humility that will allow the team and its fans to move past the transgressions. We'll see...

And, the lure of needing to play in a major program to impress the NFL scouts is really a thing of the past as evidenced by guys like Josh Allen, Trey Lance, Malik Willis, Carson Strong and others. Thus, any of these three guys could likely identify a college team where he could transfer and become an instant starter, and, importantly, show his skillset to pro scouts.

This one kind of surprised me. This kid played a lot of minutes for the Buffs as a freshman. I consider Tad Boyle as one of the league's best coaches, although not one of the best recruiters. So, I wonder what motivated the change...especially with Harmon returning, Richardson undecided, Dior Johnson coming in, and guys like Tyrone Williams, Rivaldo Soares, and Brennan Rigsby all competing for minutes at guard. Could be a team with great depth that can come at teams in waves, or it could be a team with a small rotation of players Dana considers reliable with some discontented guys not getting much playing time.

He was quite the athlete. He also was really good at baseball, having gone pro as well. One of the first two-sport professional athletes. That 1976-77 basketball season for boys class AAA was, in my opinion, the greatest year ever. As the state tournament began, there were four teams who were undefeated, with each one led by a star player. Lake Oswego had Jeff Stoutt, Parkrose (a power back then) had Ray Blume, Grant had Mark Radford, and defending champion, North Eugene, had Danny Ainge. Lake Oswego lost to Parkrose in the quarterfinals. Parkrose lost to North Eugene (51-40) in the semifinals. And, North Eugene won their second consecutive state title in the final, beating Grant 56-45. North Eugene coach, Barney Holland, eventually became an assistant coach for the Ducks. And, of course, the Ducks fanned on keeping Danny Ainge in Eugene for college while the Beavers recruited the three other guys for their still-powerful basketball team.

It doesn't seem like it's commonly done this way, but, if I'm a coach who's evaluating a specific position, I'd want to see all the potential players performing under similar circumstances as much as possible. Although you can judge a player's mastery of the playbook by just watching them perform with a random group of teammates, it seems to me that the real eyeball comparison is best made when each one is playing alongside the same set of teammates and against the same set of teammates on the opposite side of the ball. Thus, rotating all three of the QB candidates through reps with the first team makes sense to me while the evaluation process is still underway. But what do I know?

Here's my latest "brilliant" idea for the next NIL offer to a high school star: "Hey, kid, if you sign with us, we'll make you a team captain for our week #5 game this year."

Sure. Remember it well. On offense, it was a guy named Mario. On defense, it was Cristobal. And, for special teams, it was Mario Cristobal. Yer welcome.

Great to hear the positive talk from one of the young receivers, but, as grandma used to say, "the proof is in the pudding." I hope he's right, but we'll have to see come next fall. I'm not really worried at all about the loss of the veteran group of receivers (Johnson, Redd, and Williams). They all developed into a pretty reliable group, and I can see why they were starters; However, I think the young guys we have now (Franklin, Thornton, Hutson, McGee and Lowe) have greater upside potential. And Franklin and Hutson got quite a bit of playing time last year, so it's not like they're unproven. Certainly, Thornton had some huge plays in his limited playing time. So, when you combine that (in your mind's eye, anyway) with improved quarterback play this year and a more wide-open playbook, there's plenty of room for optimism. In fact, I'm currently looking around for that "fast forward" button to get us quickly to September.

Yeah. Sometimes I read what a juror responded to a question and ask myself, "Hmmm, is this person really so naive as to believe that this response won't get them disqualified by one side or the other? Or, just maybe that was their intent in the first place..."

Jeez! Talk about retinal burn... I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to "un-see" that.

Franck was, by all accounts, a good teammate. He brought lots of energy if not ball skills. As much as I cringed when the ball would go inside to Dante and Kepnang this year, I can see why they were playing ahead of Bittle. I think Dana wanted defense and rebounding from the center position, and those two guys offered more of that than skinny Nate did. Ultimately, I think many of us would like to see Bittle playing as a "4" ala Chet Holmgren, who played alongside Timme. I hope Bittle sticks and works out with that in mind for next season. Just watching him move around, you can see the natural coordination he possesses. Nice long arms, too.