Grandpa Duck

As an elder worn down by 82+ revolutions of earth around the sun, I feel there are huge advantages to going with a younger coach. Energy, younger staff that relates better to recruits and players and being on top of the latest developments in the game are some. PK has to have similar thoughts.

Not sure about this. Can a player receive NIL money and not count toward the 85 scholarship limit? If yes, he conceivably could pay his own tuition, have a nice car, apartment and eat out at fancy restaurants. At some point there will have to be a salary cap.

Hope for the best. Christmas is not far away and we have our very own Santa Claus just up north.

Hopefully the Bruin fans will prove to be inept prognosticators!

One thing Chip did at Oregon, better than any coach I know of, was get his players in physical condition to withstand the rigors of a 12 game season plus post season. One of the things that detracted from our season ending play this year, in my opinion, was that our players were exhausted. Yes, they revived for the first part of the Beaver game. But the injuries and being tired took a toll in the Utah games. Chip was able to get the Eagles to buy into his conditioning regimen for one year, and it worked well. But the pro players were not willing to work as hard as he demanded. As I have said before, if the Ducks hire him they need to dedicate a compliance person to football recruiting. And, they need recruiters with the abilities of Helfrich and Aliotti, guys who were willing to put in the long hours it takes to find not only the diamonds in the rough, like Marcus, but also convince the big linemen that this is a place to start an NFL career, which it is. All Chip has to do is be the closer, and a script can be written for that part and played out on Zoom while and assistant is with the recruit in his living room, Chip on the smart TV. I can hear him telling the parents, "Your son will be in the best physical condition ever, and he will enjoy the work that takes because it will make him a better player. That leads to winning the day, every day. And wining the day leads to winning football games." Oregon has lots of advantages that UCLA does not. Yes, Autzen is a better place to play than the Rose Bowl stadium. All of the facilities are first class, and constantly being improved. Nike and Phil and Penny Knight. And, we have a history of putting players in the NFL. While I am not in favor of hiring Chip because of what he did here before when he broke the NCAA rules, I can see which way the wind is blowing. I expect to hear about the rerun tomorrow. Hope it works. At least the offense will not be boring or predictable.

I think your "docs" is meant to be Ducks.

Chip's full house comes with a joker in a game where jokers don't count. That joker is his failure to adhere to NCAA recruiting rules when he was at Oregon before. To me, that gives Chip a losing hand and could cost Oregon a lot of chips.

There is a huge problem when a coach mixes his religious beliefes with training players. Where is the boundary between teaching and proselytizing? What happens to the players who do not want anything to do with religion when another player they are competing with for playing time converts to the coach's church and then is getting to play while the nonbeliever sits on the bench. Even it the convert is the better player, the nonbelievers are going to feel discriminated against. Len Casanova was a devout Catholic. He went to Mass and communion every day. Yet he never led a prayer or brought his beliefs into the football program.

nw77b, I have lots of laughs reading posts. Your line of soap opera titles is classic, and a good belly laugh. I also laugh frequently when I am writing posts. This site is lots of fun.

Notalot says: "AD Mullens should always have a short-list of best HC candidates watching their performance, contract status, and family news shuffling the list to always have 4-5 viable and desirable prospects (who would likely take the position if offered) for head, and have been grooming his relationship with each." Really! And just how does and AD compile this list? Take the obvious prospects, Wilcox, Chip Kelly, Aranda, Kiffen, Fickell, for example. Is Mullens supposed to be calling these guys up to see whether on the off chance that Mario Cristobal leaves at the end of the year: "Would you be interested in becoming our head coach?" Sort of like a married man checking around with all the married women he takes a shine to and seeing whether they will be available to jump to his nest should his wife expire. And does anyone who has every worked on an employment contract want their boss to know that they are considering leaving for the next greener pasture? Is it conceivably possible that Mullens' hypothetical list of potential candidates willing to become a Duck will remain confidential in this world of instant information? My thoughts on the number of people who would allow themselves to be on Mullens' list. Not many.

Here is some speculation that may help you. We don't know what Morehead said to Mullens. Just suppose he said: "I understand that MC is considering leaving. If he does, and I am terminated, I expect to receive my compensation." And Mullens replied: "If MC leaves you most likely will not have a job at Oregon. You are not a candidate for head coach and it is highly likely that whomever we hire will want to bring his own OC." And Morehead said: "Well, I want my bonuses, so please keep me on through the bowl game." Then he said to Akron, "I expect to be terminated at Oregon. When I am terminated I will be right here to start work. If I am not terminated, I will quit the Oregon job in time to be here for spring practice." If you were Morehead does that sound like a reasonable employment strategy? He's not at Akron until he signs. If you were Mullens, would you keep Morehead on through the bowl game?

Each of the nine assistant coaches has a clause in their contract that provides that when the head coach leaves they can be terminated. If terminated they receive a percentage of their compensation, either 60% or 70%, for the rest of their contract term or for 12 months, whichever period is shorter. Right now, the shorter period for all nine assistants is 12 months. In every case if the assistant finds a job that percentage that Oregon owes is mitigated. That means whatever the new job pays offsets what Oregon owes. So they may receive nothing from Oregon if they keep working.

According to an article by James Crepes in the Oregonian earlier this week: "Each of Oregon's Assistants, including Morehead, have earned a $10,000 bonus for winning the Pac-12 North division. They also are in line fo a $15,000 bonus for competing in a bowl game with at least seven wins, but must coach in the game to earn that bonus." Not a huge amount considering what they make, but it would defray some moving expense. The article also speaks to McDuck's comment above about Morehead's salary going forward. Oregon would pay that for 12 months, subject to offset of any earnings Morehead makes, termed "mitigation". The forfeited bonus savings to Oregon by MC leaving early is $700,000. There are other potential savings should coaching staff leave early for other jobs.

Troy Taylor at Sacramento may be that kind of guy.

Belly laugh for that”right on point” comment, Fred!

I am s newbie also, duck023. This is a fun place to learn about, and to opine about all things OBD.

Winning the Alamo Bowl is not the be all and end all of Oregon football. I like the concept that these back-up QB's deserve to enjoy the game.

Steve Berkowitz’ Article in this morning’s Register Guard, originally in USA Today, puts price of Cristobal’s buyout, and paying off Diaz at 27.7 million. There are rather severe income and excise taxes for a private nonprofit entity on payments to their highest paid employees. Even though Oregon gets the Cristobal buyout, Miami pays it through Cristobal who owes the tax. Since Miami reimbursed Diaz’ tax when they hired him away from Temple in 2019, the writer assumes that the IRS will require the same treatment for Ctistobal’s tax obligation on his 8 million buyout obligation. Chump change?

In those days at Parker you could smell the cattle barns to the west.

Aranda really looks good. Injured in high school, he never played a down of college ball. But he was a linebackers coach as an undergraduate. His defensive credentials are impressive.

And I watched you make that tackle, but don't remember it specifically. I sure remember that last CW in Hayward Field.. In those days I was a married student, and my wife and I went to Duck games in Eugene and and Corvallis, where she had been a Beaver Rook Rally cheerleader. I had to endure four successive games of Enyart, who started as a freshman fullback for OSU, then four successive games of Schilling, who started as a freshman fullback for OSU. Eight years in a row of ignominy, married to a Beaver, watching the Ducks get demolished by three yards and a clump of mud. We would be ahead, sometimes by more than a TD. In the fourth quarter the Beavers would just hand the ball off to their fullback and we absolutely could not stop those two guys. Eight years in a row. Fans complain about team performance now, and haven't a clue what it was like to be a Duck fan in the olden days. There I'd be, dressed in a sport coat and green and yellow diagonal striped tie (yes, everybody wore neck ties to the games in those days), seated next to a cute girl wearing orange, and wanting to go home early before the inevitable ending.

Desert Duck raised Jim Aiken, who transformed Duck football offense from the single wing to the "innovative" "T" formation. On his first day with the players he moved a guy from another position, end, I believe, to be the QB. That was Norm Van Brocklin. And if you don't recognize that name, you don't know much about Duck football history.

Correction. Cas was 21-13-3 at Santa Clara from 1946-49. In 1950 he coached Pittsburg, but lost much of his team to the draft for the Korean War and went 1-8. At Oregon from 1951 to 1966 he was 82-73-8, but only 29-41-4 in conference. His best years were from 1959 to 1963 when Oregon was an independent. Liberty Bowl in 1960, Sun Bowl in 1963.

Cas was at Santa Clara.

"Get Brooks and Bellotti on the phone with all the recruits and let them know the whole Duck nation is behind them and the new coach, whoever it ends up being. Time for the real Oregon Football Program to stand up and carry the day." At this moment, Brooks and Bellotti are boosters, precluded from contact with recruits by NCAA rules. They would have to be on the coaching staff to make those calls.