The Kamikaze Kid

It feels like everything is in place for a special season even in year one. I loved seeing how pissed Lanning got at those late scores and put the first string D and O units back in to finish strong. He is a real deal leader and learning fast on the job. The BYU coaching staff does an awesome job of coaching up players as well as in game decision making and Lanning and staff out coached them all game long. This team is heading in the right direction and heading there fast.

Canes fans are waking up in a Vegas motel room with a raging hangover wondering who the heck they just married last night. And on the day the Lanning era really kicked off. Sorry Miami. No refunds on that 8 mill buyout. Good luck for the next eight years.

UO 22 BYU 20 2, 2, 240

Great breakdown. To me, this looks like a battle between UO's higher ceiling vs BYU's higher floor. That always seemed like the underlying theme between those classic UO vs Stanford match ups. Can't wait for this one!

Seems to be working for me on a laptop with firefox browser..

Great take SnickSnack. Long term, I’m seeing the Big Twelve as the odd conference out. Geographically, they are primed for easy pickings by The BIG and the SEC for the remaining upper tier teams. The Utah BYU rivalry would be an awesome addition. Throw in a Texas team or two (Texas Tech, Baylor, or Houston) and San Diego St and Fresno St and all of a sudden, you have a pretty solid conference.

I think Moore is rated the number one or two QB in this class. I’m pretty sure he won’t feel threatened by a second year guy struggling to start ahead of an average QB. Darren Thomas lead the Ducks to a championship game, then a Rose Bowl victory. He still left early to avoid being replaced by Mariota. When you’re the cream, you’ll rise to the top.

I am curious about the state of mind of BYU fans have towards joining the Big 12. If the Pac 12 invited BYU to join and a yearly rivalry game with Utah could be had, would they prefer that? Do they enjoy conference independence and are disappointed about joining any conference? I'd really like to hear the thoughts of BYU fans on this.

Oops. After watching that video , I now have a wall I need to rebuild!

When it comes to USC and fuskies. I wouldn’t say I root for them as much as I just don’t want them to blow I for the conference.

I’d have to throw USC vs Fresno St on that list. Blowing out Rice and scoring 41 on Stanford has sent the Troy boys shooting up to #7. I need to see what their offense does against a solid D before I consider them a legit top 10 team.

I don’t mean to demean TT in any way and hope nothing but the best for him. That said, he seems like just another guy when on the field. Dixon, Masoli and Thomas all had an it factor leading the team that I haven’t seen in TT. I was also wanting him to get his chance to shine but now I’m kind of whatever about it. Prove me wrong TT please!

Pretty impressive for an honorable mention PAC 12 QB. Yes there is Mario snark in this post!

The Beavs rolled them last year and are better this year. 41 points against Stanford isn’t that spectacular. If OSU can cut that to 31, they should have enough offense to out score them.

OSU will beat USC. This won't be an upset. They are just the better team. I think WSU will beat USC as well.

Lanning got the perfect stress test to evaluate who's who on his team and can now better understand what he's working with and who his real dogs are.

Fresno St beats USC. MSU beats fuskies. Cal covers and possibly beats ND. Book it!

If the fire smoke keeps rolling in like it is now, radio may not be much different than TV!

UO 49-17, 3, 5, 325

That one play pretty much summed up the game. The Ducks came to play and the Dawgs came to compete. Hopefully now they know the difference.

The Ducks could very easily be a legit top 10 team this year that needs just a couple more weeks to have the new system installed and techniques and details understood. I'm not going to underestimate the overwhelming challenge the team had in week one. A top 10 fighter still would have been knocked out in the first round against Mike Tyson. I could see them work things out next week, have just enough to get by BYU, then build momentum for a strong finish.

I think it was the perfect time to play them. Before they’ve had a chance to jell as a unit. The problem was that is was also the worst time for this team to be playing them. Before they even really know the playbook and have jelled as a unit.

Oregon walk in to the absolute perfect storm. Every advantage the Ducks would have had against any other team were turned to disadvantages by Georgia. Lanning's super confusing mint defense? Georgia's offense has seen it everyday in practice for years run by the best D in the modern era. They could have told our own guys when they were lined up out of position. Wonder boy Lanning himself having to go up against the very coach he learned from. You know that is only going to spell bad news. Wonder boy II coach Dillingham and his state of the art offensive concepts going up against the best D in the modern era. And how many times was the ball ever in the hands of a Duck who's played significant minutes for this team before? It was a very steep learning curve for Ducks while going up against the National Champs looking to repeat. The outcome was probably closer to reality than we wanted to believe before the game. Hopefully, Lanning is still the real deal, processes the autopsy of the game, understands his team better and moves them forward the way we all hope.

I think the first thing that needs to be evaluated is how much was Georgia and how much was Oregon. The defense trying to impersonate the D that Georgia's offense sees every day had a huge disadvantage from the jump. That has to be factored in. Oregon's skill players on offense are all so new, they still need name tags to tell who's who. Again, way over matched by UGA's lethal defense. I see this as more of an agonizing initiation ritual than a face plant. I'll hold off judgement until we see the adjustments.

Ducks get blown out by Utah twice and we never see a backup QB. Ducks down 31-3 against OU and again, no backup QB. Ducks down by over forty yesterday and still no backup QB. Three different coaches facing blowouts and none put in a backup QB. Something is telling me that maybe we don't have a backup QB. I've never seen this by any team at any level. I can see the defensive system still needing work and improving. I can see an offense still looking for the alpha dogs to rise to the top meeting an UGA D that just does what it does. What I can't see is the Ducks having zero confidence in putting a backup QB in the game in obviously warranted situations by three different coaches. That to me is the reddest flag I saw.