CO Duck

Kind of insulting. No NFL bound players will stick around for this. Maybe use this as a super early spring scrimmage? See what we have deep down on the depth chart?

He’s not even 50/50 at this point, at least not from outside 30 yards or anywhere that isn’t dead center. I’m not sure a backup could do much worse. I feel bad for the kid. He’s been around the program for a long time and has obviously scored a lot of points for the Ducks. But he’s a huge liability right now. Field goals and field position will be critically important in the PAC 12 championship game and the CFP.

It seems like Camden Lewis is broken. He has only made 62.5% of his field goals this year, which is the worst of his career. He’s only made 50% of his field goal attempts since the Washington game. During that period, he is 2/7 (28.5%) on field goal attempts of 30+ yards. He also frequently sends kickoffs out of bounds. I understand he is the leading points scorer in Oregon history, but it’s very apparent he has the yips. Oregon has some tough games ahead, and the kicking game might prove to be the deciding factor in those games. Is it time for DL to bench Camden for the #1 kicker in the 2023 class? This is a special team and it would be a travesty to squander the season over loyalty to a broken kicker.

This was in the Denver Post about a week ago. It will be interesting to see if Blake Purchase stays committed to Oregon. There is a lot of buzz here in Colorado about the hire. If Deion Sanders lands with CU Buffs, Colorado's top prep football players say they'd stay home, play for Coach Prime WWW.DENVERPOST.COM Colorado prep talent that’s spent a generation ignoring the CU Buffs is going to want an audience with Deion Sanders in Boulder before they say “I do” to Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, Brent…

Seems like the deal was finalized at halftime.

The way special teams were playing, the results wouldn’t have been any better. Think about it—starting with the long kickoff return that included a face mask penalty (gave Oregon State a very short field), then the bungled kick return (gave Oregon bad starting field position), then the fumbled punt (gave Oregon State the ball on the 1 yard line)—those three special teams plays resulted in 14 quick points. In my option, special teams killed Oregon. I don’t blame not wanting to put the ball in their hands. The special teams coordinator should be fired tomorrow. Special teams have been anything but special for most of the season.

Fire Lanning. Just inexcusable sequence of play calls.

I wonder how much Dante Moore factors into the starting quarterback decision. Moore is free to decommit at any time. If Ty becomes the starter and excels, does that cause Moore to re-think his commitment to Oregon knowing that Ty will likely be the starting quarterback for the next 2-3 years? I'm probably overthinking this, but if the coaches like Moore that much more than Ty, and if Ty isn't clearly better than Nix, then why play Ty if that possibly leads to Moore decommitting? I doubt this is actually a consideration. Just food for thought.

Ty Thompson should enter the transfer portal as soon as possible. We all know what Bo is. We saw it today. He was and is horrible. His experience obviously doesn’t matter. And yet Ty wasn’t given an opportunity to take a single snap. It doesn’t appear Lanning is considering making a change. Ty must be experiencing deja vu. This is A. Brown 2.0. Bo has another year of eligibility after this year. That means Ty won’t get a shot this year or next. This will likely be Moore’s team in 2024. Ty doesn’t have a future at Oregon. He won’t even be given an opportunity. I’m sure he will figure that out sooner or later.

If I were Ty Thompson or Jay Butterfield, my name would be in the transfer portal by Monday morning. I hope they do it, too.

After suffering through A. Brown last year—after the coaches so stubbornly refused to give the other guys a chance—I’m not sure I can go through that again. Bo Nix is what he is. He’s had flashes of brilliance with a lot of stupid errors all throughout his career. We’ve seen his ceiling. If DL and this coaching staff stick with Nix, I’m going to have a lot of free time on Saturdays this fall.

It appears the PAC is the new Big East...

Losing recruits isn't great, but they are high school kids--not known commodities. Losing a starting corner stings.

I’d be curious to know how often it works out for a native son that returns as a head coach. It seems the hype is almost always greater than the results. MC should consider how returning to Nebraska has worked out for Scott Frost. Scott Frost the player was a two-time national champion quarterback. A true legend in Husker lore. Coach Frost is a pariah whose coaching seat is awfully warm right now. Husker fans are literally (they’re in Nebraska, after all) grabbing their pitchforks to run him out of town.

Thanks, Charles Fischer. If only I had more time…work, wife, and kids seem to command most of my attention. Responsibilities are the worst.

Or truly cedes control to an X and O guy…

He’s elite at some things, but not all. It could be worse, he could be average at everything.

That seems to be what most of the reports are saying.

I hope not. But that’s what happens in college football. Look at Texas, USC, Miami, FSU, Nebraska, etc. All big-time programs with winning traditions relegated to mediocrity for years (decades?) because finding a good coach that is elite at something is really, really hard.

Completely agree. But he can learn, or hire guys that are Xs and Os guys. In which case he will need to cede more control to those coaches. I think his biggest weakness is he’s too stubborn. For example, he stubbornly stuck with AB when AB obviously was ineffective.

Exactly. He’s still a work in progress. But, how many college coaches are actually elite at anything? Recruiting, Xs and Os, player development, etc.? Not many, and even less are elite at more than one of those skills.

Following Oregon’s second humiliating loss to Utah in as many weeks, I found myself drawn to the growing mob of Ducks fans calling for Coach Cristobal’s head. I even rummaged through my garage searching for my pitch fork, but alas I could only find a plastic rake. It’s understandable that so many Oregon fans are upset. We’re disappointed that this year’s team ostensibly underachieved. We’re frustrated and bored with an offense that looks like it was stolen from Nick Saban in 2007. We miss the “Oregon brand” of football. And so we call for Cristobal’s firing. We hope and pray that Miami makes an offer that he can’t refuse… …We should be careful about what we wish for… Coach Cristobal is an elite recruiter. Being elite at anything is very difficult. Does he need to evolve as a coach? Absolutely. Does he need to make better personnel choices? A resounding yes. But how many college coaches are really elite at anything? USC spent the last decade searching for an elite coach and finally made a marquee hire, but only after pulling off one of the biggest coaching coups college football has ever seen. Coach Cristobal’s coaching chops, or lack thereof, are well documented. But he’s learning, and he will learn from this season. Hopefully, he hires a offensive coordinator that will help implement a dynamic offense. I have my doubts, but we will see. In any event, with MC at the helm, Oregon will continue to be pretty good by playing a boring brand of football with top shelf talent. Oregon will be competitive most years, and every so often they will put it all together and be included in the national championship conversation. If the alternative is roaming the coaching wilderness for the next decade looking for a coach that is elite at anything, is that so bad?

MC doesn’t learn. He’s also stubborn and unimaginative. That’s why he usually gets out-coached.