Grandpa Duck

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.

If the Ducks hire Chip, which I oppose, there is one unmentioned aspect of his work that we badly need. Chip's teams at Oregon were in better physical condition than any other team we played. We won many games in the 4th quarter when the opposing "D" had hands on hips. At Philly, when the players bought into his conditioning philosophy, they did well. But the pros are not college kids, and would not sustain the program Chip demanded. If Chip could bring that conditioning back, reducing the injuries, he just may be the right person.

If they do that they will have to have a compliance officer watching his every move!

And for probably the only time, beginning with when we both posted on eDuck over 20 years ago, I agree with Duckbill. There was a long hiatus where I not only lurked and did not post, but also did not even view Duck sites. Just too busy doing other things. In addition to those staff named above, add Peter Sirmon. It's long past time the Duck people who make the big decisions, Phil, Penny, Pat K and Malitus (sp?), probably a few others, considered who we are and who they are. Northwest people are different from most of the rest of the country. I will be far more comfortable with a staff made up of people from our area of the country. Oregon played some great football under Bellotti and Helfrich. We can do that again with people who have the full confidence of their staff and players. Obvious to me that was not the case over the past two Utah contests.

There's another name that should be stricken from this list, Chip Kelly. Do people not know that Chip got Oregon into probation and himself suspended from the NCAA for two years because of improper payment of a scout! He left Oregon because he had to leave Oregon. Having a head coach who does not like to recuit is a nonstarter.

DuckIt, you may want to check your source on those comments. Let's look at what articles quoting the two people involved have to say about it. It's easy, just search "Helfrich recruiting Mariota". The Mariota recruiting to Oregon process started with Helfrich watching film of St Louis High School's starter, Jeremy Higgins: Ted Miller ESPN Senior Writer EUGENE, Ore. -- It all started in the fall of 2010 when Mark Helfrich, then Oregon's offensive coordinator, found himself curiously captivated by game film of the backup quarterback for the Saint Louis School in Honolulu. He had been scouting starter Jeremy Higgins, but it was a corner route from the skinny, nameless substitute that most arched his evaluative eyebrow. That pass -- "A rope," Helfrich effused -- was impressive, and Helfrich liked the way the guy moved around. Reminded him of Jake Plummer. So Helfrich called then-Ducks receivers coach Scott Frost into his office and asked him to watch the small handful of plays they had of this youngster. Helfrich wanted a second opinion because junior backup quarterbacks aren't typically pursued by Oregon. Frost confirmed to Helfrich that no, he wasn't crazy. The skinny kid looked as if he could run around and hurl the rock. So a few months later, as the 2010 recruiting season seamlessly turned into the 2011 recruiting season, Helfrich found himself standing in the shadow of Diamond Head, Hawaii's iconic volcano, watching that skinny quarterback named Marcus Mariota, a nonentity among recruiting services, in spring practices. He was the fastest guy on the field, and the ball flew from his hand in that lively way that makes QB coaches swoon. "I remember it like yesterday," said Helfrich, savoring a favorite and often-told story that doesn't seem to get old to him. "It was like a movie ... "I called [then-Oregon head coach Chip Kelly] 15 or 20 plays into the deal and tell him, 'This guy is unbelievable.' And Chip's response was, 'Offer him.' That was the extent of that discussion." As for Oregon being Mariota's "dream school", not so fast: Marcus Mariota admits he almost committed to Washington Huskies over Oregon Ducks Zachary Neel August 11, 2021 9:01 am PT In a recent podcast interview with GoDucks’ Rob Moseley on the Mighty Oregon Podcast, Mariota broke down his recruitment between the two schools, and what ultimately led him to choose Oregon. Here is a snippet of the conversation: Mariota: Well, I had been talking with Coach [Mark] Helfrich and Coach [Steve] Greatwood for a little bit before then, and they asked me to come up. They wanted me to basically show out your talents and your gifts to the coaching staff and kind of see where that went. It was funny because I took an unofficial visit to Washington the week before. You know, they offered me, I was excited, I was leaning towards going to Washington. Moseley: Oof. Mariota: I know! Moseley: Painful thought. Mariota: I know, that would have been… Life would have been very different. I'm not saying you were not told that a friend of the family gave a tip about Mariota to the Duck staff. I suspect recruiters get hundreds, maybe thousands of those tips every year. Far too many to follow up.

Didn’t Helfrich find Marcus in Hawaii when he went there to see a different player?

If we look outside football to the places other successful, long-term Duck head coaches left to come here, Altman from Creighton, Graves from Gonzaga, a smaller school like Coastal Carolina just may mane a lt of sense, 30Duck. I know, basketball is not like coaching football. But I well recall Pat Kilkenny flying all over the country in search of big name coaches before settling on Dana, who has stayed here.

If MC flies to Miami tomorrow, it’s not to see his Mom. He could have done that today. I get that rationale second hand.

Our “offence” was offensive!

How soon you forget Chip vs.Boise State.

. . . MBW (my beloved wife) just opined. “We’ve had a lot of times when we were the victor. It’s a lot easier to be a victor than it is to be a schmuck. Now we’re a schmuck!”

I suspect some Duck fans may be locked in a past when there were recruiting difficulties at Oregon. They need to put themselves into a mode of the last three or four years, under Cristobal. That's where the 18-year olds are. Oregon has huge advantages over most other schools. Winning these next two games is significant, but not necessarily determinative of how this class finishes.