The Kamikaze Kid

Don't know where Baker end up. Maybe he's a Duck and maybe not. To me it doesn't really matter. At this point, I don't see much difference between football NIL chasers and basketball's five star one and dones. In both cases I would much prefer solid three and four stars that are just ballers over big ego attention seekers. I'll support any team win or lose if they give everything they've got. If the UO is just a stop on their way to bling city, what's the point? If they don't care, why should I?

Texas Tech's D was better than most people realize and the Ducks O still put up over 30 points on it in a tough road environment. I'm not too concerned on that side of the ball. Improvement on D is where my focus will be for Hawaii. After two games the 1st and 2nd strings should begin to solidify and I'm curious about who starts taking over their spots. Against TT, the amount of havoc plays created by the D seemed to increase as the game wore on. I want to see that trend continue this week, and I'll be interested to see who is on the field creating the havoc and who is not. On offense, I still want to see some solid work put in by QB2 and see some confidence in running the show. Against CU, UW, SC, WSU, Utah and OSU, the D will be needed to keep the opponents from lighting up the scoreboard. That's a lot of offense to have to stop in one season. If the D gets it together, this could be a special season.

The B12 really should grab up OSU and WSU. Both schools are top 25 capable right now and would strengthen that conference right away.

Very tough game to fully process. First, I'd have to give Tech props. They may end up a 9-3 top 25 team when it's all said and done that simply botched their first game of the year. The Ducks may have just won a brawl on the road against a very motivated quality team with players that can make plays. When looking at UO's negatives, I think it's important to keep that in mind. Next, I'd have to say that was one of the worst coached games of the Lanning era except for the OSU meltdown. Two 0s on the field for the opening kick off? 14 penalties for well over 100 yards? The return of the Mario offense? That is all on the coaching and that needs to improve immediately. On the plus side, taking back momentum in the 4th quarter, winning it 20-3. In a tough road environment, with the home team having all the second half momentum, the Ducks absolutely owned the fourth quarter and won going away. If there is a half full glass in this case, I'd say it's the resilience the team displayed. in the end that is the ultimate positive. Hopefully the Ducks learned enough to get better quickly. Today, there are 8 Pac teams in ESPN's top 25 and the Ducks play 6 out of the other 7.

UO 45-24 2 TO 3 Sacks 345 Pass yards

Great article. PSU had two goals entering this game. One was to collect a paycheck. The other was to avoid injuries. Congrats to them for achieving both. If Texas Tech goes 8-20 passing for 51 yards, I'd consider that a successful day of defense. If Michael Jordan just stands at half court being triple teamed while his team destroys the opponent with a 4 on 2 miss match, you wouldn't say they shut down MJ. That's how If feel about zero sacks while the team basically gave up on a passing attack.

I tuned into this game when TT was already up 17-3. Announcers were talking about how TT was absolutely dominant up to that point but I didn't see it. What I did see was Wyoming battling much harder than TT and deserving the win. I didn't see nearly enough defensive power to stop the UO offensive machine. I didn't see enough offensive power to over power the UO defense. Each game is different sure but what I saw last night looks like an up coming tewnty ish point victory for the Ducks.

Maybe just maybe with the Ivy League west finally gone, The Pac 2 can still invite in the best of the Mountain West and rebuild a respectable conference. OSU, WSU, SD St, Fresno St, Boise St, UNLV, CSU, Hawaii wouldn't be a bad start. Maybe Apple still wants a foot in the door of college football and dishes out $10M a school and maybe even pushing closer to $15M with subscription incentives. That would be better than simply joining the MWC for all schools involved. I'm still rooting for the Pac to survive this.

I want to see a real QB2 show up. That’s my biggest concern.

All the best to you and yours SoGaDawg.

The more SUC fans spew hatred for OBD, the more inclined the BIG will be to schedule their yearly beat down and that’s all right with me.

Backing up his team while keeping one foot in the door with Lanning. Smart guy!

Oh I agree the $15M per would be a stretch for the schools I suggested. It would more be for Apple to invest in a foot hold in the college sports market. They could afford a little up front loss for the benefits to kick in down the road.

Flowe is like an insane drummer that smashes the cymbals and does crazy fills all around the drum kit, doing everything but actually keeping a steady beat.

If Cal and Furd would just stay put, the Pac could add SD St, Fresno St, UNLV, Boise St and maybe even SMU and Tulane. If Apple still wants it's foot in the door for College sports, they should give the Pac a decent offer to be their guinea pig. If they could get a deal in the $15M range, that would at least stabilize the Pac and help them keep their football staffs together. Their would still be potential for 2-4 teams being able to crack the top 25 with some good western media markets. Again it's Cal and Furds sense of elitism that is gumming the entire thing up. I'm still rooting for the Pac to survive this situation and think OSU and WSU deserve better than this.

Seems like the B12 is really whiffing on expansion. CU, AU and ASU have just been about as dormant as can be in football for a long time. OSU seems to have a long term coach that could keep a team in play for the top 25 for the next decade. WSU actually has better media support than the schools the B12 brought in. When all is said and done, I think they will have bloated themselves on empty carbs and passed up the real meat and potatoes that were out there to be had.

I love the new rivalry that has developed with Utah. The past few years, the stakes have always been high for both teams every time they've played. I'll miss it and hope we see them again in the playoffs in the future.

Let's face it. Since Troy Dye left, the D has been a major disappointment. Last year, Lanning found out that his complex defensive scheme was too complex for the players to absorb in one year and he had to simplify it and take many of the wrinkles out. He was also mostly working with guys that weren't brought in to run it. This year, I think he's been able to expand the simplified system back to it's original complex state and is now working with a group of players that are the right type to run it. The turn around has the potential to be drastic and elevate the UO into playoff contention right away. But until we actually see some on field results, potential is all that it is. I'm not going to hold it against people who want to see it before they believe it. However, I do think there is something to believe in this year.

Yes, avoid the team that gave you your only loss. The same team you wanted to avoid by changing conferences. The same team you wanted your new conference to avoid bringing in. The same team that will live rent free in your head no matter how hard you try to avoid it.

And Cliff's interception was good!

Great article. I think the next step in the realignment carousel is supper conferences getting rid of dead weight at contract renegotiation time.What happens if Fox tells the BIG that they'll pay $100M per school for the top 14 media teams if they add 4-6 top ACC teams but drop the bottom 4 media teams? If not, then it's just let's say it's $60M each for everybody. What would they do? I'd expect this to happen in the next go round in 2030. I think the media giants won't want bloated 24+ school conferences with a bunch of light weights glutting them up. They will most likely want the biggest bang for the buck. At that point, I'd assume that the SEC/ BIG would be the varsity conferences with 36-40 schools. The ACC remnants and AAC merge as do the B12/ Pac/ MWC for a JV level. The remaining conferences will either drop to a freshman team type status or just drop to a lower division all together. I don't like this direction for college sports but that seems to me to be the direction that it's heading.

Was Dilly the offensive mastermind that brought the offense back to life, or was it a sleeping giant that Lanning woke back up? Is Lanning an over rated defensive coordinator that held a clipboard for Kirby Smart, or has he rebuilt the terrible Duck D into a Georgia esque machine? Year two will go a long way to answering these questions. If I'm a legit five star recruit, I'd want to get a sense of understanding before committing. This may be the most important season for UO in a very long time coming up. 12-1 and playoff bound, expect the five star flood gates to open. 8-4 with the same problems on D as last year, expect a flood of decommits. I think the pond is more than half full and the Ducks win the Pac, make the playoffs and head to the BIG as THE team to join.

Ultimately, it is all shaking out to true school value. The BIG level schools are heading to the BIG, The B12 level schools are heading to the B12. The MWC level schools will be joining/ merging with the MWC. The independent minded schools will be going independent.

The problem with Furd is they are that kid all the other kids looked up to and tried to emulate. ASU, WSU, OSU and the rest, all got to feel like the Ivy League west just by being associated with them. Furd's sense of self spilled over to the rest of the conference and seriously clouded their judgement. It is no coincidence that the B12 destroyed the Pac. First they didn't have schools worthy enough to bring into the Pac when any of them would have jumped at the opportunity. Then the B12 did the unthinkable and brought in some lowly G5 schools to replace Texas and OU. Then while the Pac demanded $50M per school in a media deal, the B12 swooped in and grabbed the $30M that was being offered. Then the Pac still held it's nose up about adding schools even while all the alarm bells were going off. Even now, Furd is still the anchor around the Pac's neck as it tries to do anything to avoid going under.The only way they got that much power is they where the school everybody else wanted to be. If the Pac had the humility and awareness that the B12 displayed, they would be the undisputed third best conference in the country right now and it wouldn't be close.

It won't matter what ingenious plan Luck comes up with because it just won't be good enough for Cal and Furd it keep those Ivy League west feelings alive. WSU and Beavs would be smart to tell them to either go independent now or just hold their nose and go along with whatever plan starts taking shape.The Pac could still cobble together some top 40 football and B Ball schools and squeak by as a legit power 5 conference but it won't happen if all plans get the thumbs down for not being high status enough.