Grandpa Duck

Oh what fun, it is to see, the tide give up the ball. Three turnovers in ten plays.

In the 1960's and 1970's we. would get our guitars and gather to sing folk and rock songs. One of them, by Three Dog Night, titled "Joy to the World" (not the Christmas Carol) opened with the line: "Jeremiah was a Bull Frog . . ." Re-watching the ending of the tOSU game at Autzen and the pass interference call on Jeremiah Smith reminded me of that line, and the behaviors I have seen by real bull frogs in ponds. Those frogs are very territorial and control their area to garner all the nearby insects that they eat for themselves. Then today on B1G Network I heard Smith interviewed at the Rose Bowl and he said that the offensive interference call near the end of the game "was nonsense", and he sort of said it under his breath, but clear enough for me to hear on my TV, "nonsense." He also said that the Duck defender, Nikko Reed, "had been holding him." So, since the B1G network had been running the game as an Oregon Classic I recorded it and looked at the ending, several times. Here's how it went. The previous play, ball on the 28 yd. line, tOSU QB Howard threw toward Smith on the right sideline at about the two. The pass was too high, but Smith went up for it and Nikko Reed went with him, undercut him and Smith fell to the ground, near Reed. The announcer said: "This time Smith was well covered." As he got up Smith turned his head, seemingly saying something to Reed. The next play Smith runs straight at Reed, makes contact at the 23 yd. line and while turning out toward the sideline pushes Reed backward five yards, and makes the catch, unimpeded, at the 21, falling out of bounds. The play by play announcer says, as the action is happening: "Second and ten, Howard (indicating the snap to the QB), Smith, got separation, and a flag is down. May have been contact, Nikko Reed was definitely pushed backward." He actually utters the "got separation" before the flag come out. The official makes the call of pass interference and the play by play guy says: "A freshman mistake." The color announcer chuckles and says: "I mean, his strength got the best of him on that play. Created separation for himself, extended his arms and this (the penalty) backed them up out of field goal range." Neither announcer questioned the call in any way. Reed never initiated any contact on the play. Smith went right at him with the obvious purpose of pushing Reed off balance, which he did. He was clearly protecting what he considered to be his territory. Unfortunately for tOSU, the football field with rules about pass interference was not a frog pond.

Tez was effusive in his praise for Dante Moore! Also spoke confidently about team preparation for Wednesday afternoon.

No! The anticipation is half of the fun. Time on this earth has taught me patience. It will happen if I manage to keep breathing. If I don’t, it will happen anyway.

The point spread is based on the expectation of how many bettors will put down money for a particular team. OBD having a smaller fan base will garner fewer bets. This opinion comes from a source who has never made a bet through a sports book.

Thanks, Jon. The Athletic is one of many subscription services available through Apple News at $9.99 per month. Or you can “Try it free”. outstanding article with lots of quotes from players and former coaches Will Stein has worked with.

Charles, relax. Do as I did and review the first game with tOSU, imagining in your mind that our healthy defensive line with Burch playing will be going up against their depleted offensive line. Then our healthy offensive line will face their defensive line that has not played against two of them before. You know that the game will be decided in the trenches where we have more strength and depth. Gabriel is the superior QB, and Lanning is the superior coach. OBD will win!

Merry Christmas to all and good football new year!

Jon is correct. Given the “requirement” of unanimous agreement of all participants and top four seeds for conference champions the likelihood of what we have was baked in. However, if tOSU had beaten Michigan then OBD may have been faced with playing them three times. Automatic top four seeds for conference champions is based on the fiction that conferences are equal. Giving G-5 an automatic entry to the playoffs has a similar ring. Strangely, the much maligned committee ranking is one element of this format that may be right answer. Put their top eight ranked teams in a standard bracket where one plays eight etc and no one has a legitimate gripe.

The outcome of the games showed that the committee process for ranking the teams worked. When Oregon, Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas are winners 10 days from now that will again be determined.

Well maybe Clemson is not a space filler.

What’s most laughable is that they write about coaches who do not come up to Trojan standards! Standards from when? The 1980’s?

Bucks 17, Vols 10

Notre Dame 28-13 1 o 238

Did Bo Nix win the National Championship? I forget. Oh, that’s right, he lost to the puppies three times. Was DG Natty ready on day one? Oh yeah, he threw five picks and nearly lost to Idaho and Boise State. Dilly coached up Nix, and Stein is still coaching up DG. Our staff can and is doing the same with the QB’s we have.

With due respect, Jon, the Committee did not seed Georgia, they ranked them as #2 of the five conference champions. Seeding was determined by the conference’s representatives before the season began. If the Committee had ranked Georgia at #5, or #6, they would still have been the #2 seed as the second highest conference champion.

Oregon developed Van Brocklin, Berry, Musgrave, Joey, Marcus, Herbert and some others I cannot recall. Nix and Gabriel were not great in their early games as Ducks. Both benefited from great OC training and play calling. Moore came through the portal. I think he could be as good as any of the above.

I first saw a 16 team bracket in 1948 at the OSAA basketball tournament at MacArthur Court. Since then I have seen as a spectator or played in as a competitor, mostly golf, well over 100 brackets. I have never known of a bracket to be “reseeded”. I cannot even conceive how that could fairly happen. The disagreements about who would be playing whom would make the current bracket controversy seem like child’s play. Hopefully someone smarter and more experienced than me will explain how this magical reseeding solution works.

What jrw said above is a big part oh it. OBD have 11 really good players on the field every snap on both sides of the ball. Difficult for any single player to stand out and get credit. We see great QB protection, great pass, great catch, great down field blocking by other receivers all in one play. And, a huge portion of the sports world thinks that the Knights bought the whole operation because Nike is a famous brand. Makes no difference that it’s not true, that’s the perception OBD live with.

YES, I’m suffering withdrawals so badly I watched three FCS games over the weekend. Compared to the Ducks it was like watching high school players, at least for me. Rooting for the Vols, Longhorns and Bulldogs so there will be no question about Duck dominance.

Thanks, David, for showing what would have happened were the committee's rankings used for a standard tournament playoff bracket. Playoff tournaments with a number of teams that are not divisible by the number 4, have a first round bye when there are from 9 to 15 teams, and that is what we have. I knew when the conferences arrived at the number 12 that it would be a mess. People keep saying the committee "blew it" or was influenced by the SEC or ESPN. Simply not what happened. As 30Duck says, their job was to rank the teams and nothing more. And. they got that part right. The bracket that makes the committee look bad was negotiated by the conferences. The history is, at first, no playoff at all. We went for several years with a Division II playoff and no NCAA Division I recognized champion for football. It was a mythical champion by newspaper poll results. Then for a few years, two Division I teams played off, then the BCS with four. All this happened slowly because a substantial number of the Division I teams wanted to leave everything as it was, with bowl games being the end of the season. And, the bowl committees lobbied to keep it that way, which was in their interest. The negotiated deal by the then six conferences included all conference champions getting into the playoff. The favored top four seeds happened because it was the only way to get everybody to agree to go from a four-team BCS playoff to 12 teams playing off. Some wanted 16, but that was a reach to far from where they were ar four. The ACC, Big 12, at the time the PAC 12 and the Mountain West, I think, plus independent Notre Dame, feared the B1G and the SEC dominating the playoff structure. They feared that their teams would not gett what they considered to be a fair shake. So, to keep peace, everybody agreed to what we now have. The committee had nothing to do with that agreement or to setting up the bracket. The conferences did it over two years ago. Nobody likes what we have, but if you think the other three conferences, or by the time the next negotiated aggrement happens should the PAC-2 become the PAC-8, four conferences are going to give up their automatic seeds into the quarter finals and let the B1G and the SEC roll over them, think again. They have the numbers when it comes to a vote. And those posters who favor reseeding after the first round of games have no clue as to how that political can of worms would develop into someting "better". It would be far worse. Even worse than that would be getting Congress involved. This sports political nightmare for determining the college football NCAA Divition I Champion has only just begun, and it's not going to end anytime soon. I've written before about my dream of an 80-team Division I, eight conferences of 10 teams each, based on geographics, nine conference games with every team playing every other team in their conference. Then the Championship is determined by the eight conference champions playing off in a standard bracket. No committee, no polls influencing, no political negotiated agreement. That's not going to happen either. Maybe we will have a 40 team super division made up of the B1G teams, the SEC teams, Notre Dame and five others from the other four conferences. That number of teams could be worked into two conferences with two leagues of 10 team each. Nine game league regular season and a playoff of four teams. Whatever, but the structure must include a number of teams divisible by 4 to take the politics out of it.

Replying to the article KirklandDuck posted above, the author, Adam Bradford, says: "For decades, USC has been the premier football program on the West Coast." Well, maybe if you go back to the previous century. I hope USC keeps thinking about themselves that way. Don't tell them that the only history that counts is that lived by a 17 year-old high school recruit.

I left the family room for a couple of minutes for my pregame pit stop and missed the coin flip. When I returned and heard the announcer say that Penn State had won the toss and deferred I told my wife: "That's a mistake." Franklin gave OBD the ball and the opportunity to gain the lead, which was never relinquished. Another part of that is that OBD got one more drive in the first half and scored on the first and the last. Many are saying our defense was carried by the offense. In a way, that's true. But the defense succeeded in holding Penn State to a field goal on their first drive, and to stopping them completely on the opening drive ot the second half. OBD won the third quarter 7-0. We won the kicking game. Penn State missed a field goal, and our OBD punter out performed theirs. OBD had about 45 fewer yards of penalty. That can be chalked up to discipline. Obviously OBD coaching staff has improved player performance in this area. Yes, Penn State made more yards from scrimmage than OBD. They had to. Their penalties and OBD kicking game gave them a longer field, that is, poorer field position and farther to go to reach the goal line than OBD Of such things are championships won.

The wonders of auto correct. Jew replaced jrw.

Thank you, jrw. That is a really fun read!