Duck in HuskyLand

Are people being too hard on Cristobal? Short answer — YES!

[Post deleted ‘cuz I was wrong!]

Answer — no they will not like it! Mario could win the Natty and someone will be whining about the “good old days with Chip”.

OK folks, for arguments sake let’s say Mario has to go — I completely disagree, by the way, but what the heck… Let’s check the market and look at some of the head coaches who are suddenly available right now, and their 2021 records: Dan Mullen — someone mentioned him earlier: 5-6 at time of firing. Awesome. Especially that come-from-behind shootout against Samford. Ed Orgeron — hey, he was on TV with The Rock so that counts for something — 5-6 after winning a championship two years ago. Guess he needs to recruit better. Gary Patterson — remember him from the Helfrich Alamo Bowl Collapse? 5-6 this year. I’m a fan of the Horny Frogs, but the 2011 Rose Bowl was as good as it got for them. I hear Jimmy Lake and Rolo are looking for work, too. Both had problems with shots, though — Rolo would take shots downfield, but not in his arm; Lake wouldn’t take shots at opposing defenses, but did take them at his own players. Chris Patterson is available — he’s not coaching — but he really left Washington in great shape, didn’t he? And he lost to Mario twice. Lane Kiffin is technically still employed by Mississippi — but seriously, who would want to hire him? Anybody from Tennessee in the room? And boy, what a job he did with USC, hey? Good enough to get kicked off the team plane on the way home. He was left standing on the tarmac like the end of Casablanca. Someone mentioned Mike Leach — also not available. The Pirate captained WSU to mediocrity over 8 seasons — punctuated by a loss in the Cheez-It bowl on his way out the door. Then he went to Mississippi State, and so far he has his Bulldogs on an 11-11 rampage. Shiver me timbers. So, who are you going to call first, once you’ve fired your 9-2 coach? Your 9-2 coach, who has lifted the program from the stagnation of the Helfrich era, extinguished the Taggart dumpster-fire, and has made solid assistant coach hires. Anyone care to recall how many assistants Taggart lost before his 7-5 season even began? And how about that strength coach he took with him to Florida? And because the ghost of Chip hangs over this board, let’s go there and talk about Chip. Let’s talk about 17-25 over 4 years at UCLA. Then let’s talk about Mario and 34-12 over those same four years — and that’s counting the Las Vegas Bowl loss, which should really count against Taggart. Really, people? Be careful what you ask for folks — you just might get it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon–Washington_football_rivalry It’s a matter of perspective. Since 2004 the Ducks have played the Huskies 26 times and won 20. From 1934 to 1960, they also played 26 times — and the Huskies won 20. Its the Circle of Life, friends… Rivalry over? No contest anymore? Never!

Committee gave itself some flexibility to add tOSU or Cincinnati. Oregon is in a very precarious spot, and really needs 1) the SEC to produce a 2-loss team, Georgia or Alabama; 2) MSU to go undefeated; 3) tOSU to be no worse than a 2-loss team. If tOSU wins the rest of the way, and the SEC has two 1-loss teams, MSU and the Ducks are out, OSU and Cincinnati are in. I could be wrong.

I’ll take a big helping of crow, lightly seasoned. I didn’t see that one coming!

Lake is talking out of his backside. UW follows roughly the same standards as everyone else - NCAA standards. Maybe they get more medical science or tech types on account of proximity to Seattle — but every school had its specialization. All recruiting the same high schoolers. To be charitable, maybe he was trying to say something like “our engineering kids will use AI to defeat the Ducks”, but it came out all wrong. Besides, Stanford already did that!

BTW, is there a game on Saturday or something? With all the excitement about the playoffs on New Years Eve, I forgot…

Don’t forget Oklahoma. And Michigan State. Still undefeated. Not advocating for either one, just pointing out that The Playoff Committee has a lot of options.

“My final 4 guess today? Alabama, UGA, Ohio State and Oregon.” And that’s why we love college football! Endless scenarios! Don’t forget Oklahoma - no losses so far. And if Cincinnati wins out, I think this is the year an undefeated G5 team gets in.

Assume Ohio State beats Michigan and Michigan State, and wins the Big 10 Championship game. Assume Georgia beats Alabama in the SEC Championship game. Assume Cincinnati wins out. Assume the Ducks win out. Playoff teams would be Oklahoma, Georgia, Cincinnati, Ohio State. Oregon and Michigan State to the Rose Bowl. If Georgia loses to Alabama and is a 1-loss team: Playoff teams would be: Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, Cincinnati. Oregon and Ohio State to the Rose Bowl. In all cases, Jim Harbaugh is left wondering what happened.

New to posting here, some observations/opinions: Agree that the OC should stay in the booth. He just sees more that way. Cristobal doesn’t need a play calling laminate — but he does need a game-management template to make sure he doesn’t go for a 4th down conversion when an easy 3 would be better (Stanford, 1st half), or leave too much time for the opponent to make an answering drive (Stanford, UCLA) There’s tendency to get the play call in late that hampers ABs rhythm. Outside of clock-eating situations, he’s at his best when the Ducks don’t wait too long to snap the ball — more decisive and confident.