DrJacksPlaidPants

Vander Ploog is in the portal.

Alex Olesh from Penn State.

This is a thread to announce and consolidate players staying, leaving, and coming in to the Ducks football program.

Dan Lanning actively clears space for transfers and recruits out of high school. He’s not the only one. College football programs are no longer in the business of giving four year scholarships. They cut players for various reasons, but mostly because of lack of improvement. I’m sure DL had some tough conversations with some these transfers telling them they’re not in his future plans. Others went looking for a starting job and rightfully so. Florence, Fields, Laulea and Lopa can start at a lot of places. Purchase might be the only one he may have tried to convince to stay, but with Matayo and Teitum coming back and Nasir Wyatt making big plays Blake may have saw the writing on the wall.

On a positive note we just landed a former 5-star TE transfer from Penn State. This is probably why Ploog hit the portal today.

His transfer might have something to do with this.

I saw this as well. Oregon has done well with WR’s from Alabama G5 schools.

Yeah, I just now saw it on X. He, Blake Purchase and some guy named Grace announced today.

It seems LSU is moving on from Leavitt. This could be due to the Demond Williams debacle or Leavitt wanting to wait and see what happens with Dante. He could also sign with Miami. He is visiting them right now. Husan Longstreet is also in play for OBD, but Kiffin is hosting him this weekend. There are options if Moore goes pro. Raiola would be the least favorable because he’s still recovering from a knee injury which is why he might be willing to sit behind Dante as the article states.

I wasn’t talking about Chip. I was talking about Mario using the strategy of slowing the game down against Indiana. Much like what Ohio State did to the 2002 Miami team that was heavily favored and had a huge talent gap.

I don’t think the timeline is relevant. The strategy from the coaches can still be the same. The players just have to execute the coaches plan. Against Ole Miss, Miami had two 13 play drives and two 15 play drives, so they can chew up a lot of clock if they choose to use up most of the 40 seconds between plays. This strategy is right up Mario’s alley. Keep in mind that the new rules keep the game clock running after first downs and when a player goes out of bounds the refs start the game clock when the ball is spotted instead of when it’s snapped. The best way to beat a QB as prolific as Mendoza is to limit his possessions during the game.

2022: 10-3 Holiday Bowl champs (not bad considering first game against UGA). 2023: 12-2 Fiesta Bowl champs (lost to the NCG runner-up by a total of six points). 2024: 13-1 B1G champs (lost in quarterfinal to eventual national champion). 2025: 14-1 Orange Bowl champs (won 1st round and quarterfinal, but lost semifinal). If I’m a CEO and Dan Lanning is my sales team lead he and his team are getting bonuses every year for constant improvement. The trophies he brought home may not be the right color right now, but he has added something to the trophy case every year he’s been in Eugene. Keep in mind this year’s team returned one starter on offense (Pancho) and three starters on defense (Boettcher, Uiagalelei, Tuioti). Could Oregon regress next season? Sure, but I think the reason for that would be because of a change at QB and uncertainty with the new one.

In 2019 (2020 NCG) I thought the Clemson Tigers had the talent to take down LSU. However, they tried to score with them and it didn’t work out so well. When teams have similar styles of offense the more talented offense wins. When they have opposite styles it can lead to upsets although the examples are few. The 1986 Nittany Lions, 2002 Buckeyes, and a couple of Stanford/Oregon games come to mind (2012 for them and 2015 for us). Miami and Indiana have one common opponent in OSU. Both played them tight and held them to two scores.

I don’t think Fat Mac approves.

I was watching an interview on how Ohio State beat Miami in the 2003 national championship. They cited their ability to get four yards on first down and lean on the run to slow the game to a crawl. Fortunately, they had the talent and personnel to do that. This caused Miami’s prolific offense to get out of sync which was aided by Ohio State’s very underrated defense. The knee injury to McGahee didn’t help Miami, but the Buckeyes defense was playing well anyway. The reason why I have such a hot take on the national championship game is because of the following reasons: 1) I believe Miami has the running game to slow the game down and keep Mendoza on the sideline. I think if they hadn’t tried to get cute on a couple of drives they could’ve closed Ole Miss out without much drama. Their lack of composure needs to be remedied as well. 2) Miami has a great pass rush. It’s better than any one I’ve seen in the Big 10. Bain and Mesidor are a DC’s dream. This will be the best pass rush Mendoza has faced. Now, the double digit prediction win is a huge guess, but when a favored team is down at the end of the game they might try to make plays they normally wouldn’t when trying to come back. For example, a run blitz on 3rd and short with under two minutes left and down 3 points. It’s a great opportunity to break through the line for a long run (remember Oregon/Stanford in 2010?). Keep in mind, a ten point win is double digits.

Oregon Ducks On SIThis Five-Star Transfer Could Be Oregon's Next Quarterbac...The Oregon Ducks are led by quarterback Dante Moore, who could declare for the 2026 NFL Draft or return to school for the 2026 season, leaving Oregon's quarterb

The fact that there were two open receivers (JMac and RB with a blocker out front) tells me it’s a good call. The fact that Dante never looked elsewhere and stared down Benson tells me it’s poor execution. I think we get into the habit of blaming Stein, but he makes the play call with the assumption that his QB will make the correct reads. For example, Benson had a CB to his side with a safety over the top. The other side had JMac, Sadiq, Johnson and Hill (in the flat) being covered by a CB, a safety and a OLB. If Moore reads that side first he sees the safety come up to cover the flat while JMac blows past him as he is likely coached to read deepest to shortest route.

It was a good call that was poorly executed. If DM continues his progressions he sees a wide open JMac for a TD. I watched the video and the safety on the right side flew up to the line of scrimmage to stop what he thought was a pass to the RB. He blew his coverage and left JMac wide open. The safety on the other side had the deep half on Benson’s side. That’s why #5 jumped the route and picked it off.

I would put him right next to Herbert in arm strength. Their passing styles (college) are similar. Lots of zip and not a lot of touch. I would also compare Moore with Darron Thomas or Akili Smith when it comes to reading defenses.

This is one of the big reasons he needs more reps as a starter. Many of these suck teams where QB’s go to die are that way for a reason. They like to throw their rookie QB’s out on the field too early and it destroys their psyche when they get beat down. A good QB with a lot of experience can overcome some of the problems that come with starting too early in his career.

There was another thread about this, but it’s locked and I know last night’s game will revive this subject. In my opinion he needs more time as a starter. It’s not just the game reps, but the practice reps and game prep (film study, meetings, etc.). The mentality is different between the backups and the starter. Below is the first play from last night’s game. He obviously had it pre-determined in his mind who he was going to throw to. Had he read the defense he would’ve noticed #5 sitting on the short route with a safety over the top and moved to his next progression. He would’ve seen JMac breaking free from a blown coverage and hit him for a score. Indiana has a great defense, but NFL defenses are much faster. Good NFL QB’s don’t guess where the open receiver is going to be. They read the defense and process their movement and start their throws before the receiver breaks open.

I don’t say this because of the murderer’s row that Miami faced in the playoffs or how they’ve peaked at the right time. I say this because they’re playing in Miami, they’re bigger in the trenches, they run the ball very well, and their defense is built to keep a QB like Mendoza under wraps. This Indiana team reminds me of the 2014 Ducks team. We killed FSU because of their turnovers and then we got worn down by a more physical Ohio State team despite forcing four turnovers. If the Canes run the ball consistently without trying to be cute they can wear the Hoosiers defense down. They can’t rely on Beck. They have to play Mario-ball.

Limar is visiting the fuskies this week. He had place to go and people to see.