The Kamikaze Kid

Ouch indeed.

I just hope that SUC is ranked in the top five. It will make their Pop Tart bowl appearance that much sweeter!

I always love these O line breakdowns. Nice to see the youngens are are handling some advanced techniques. Maybe the depth might be better than it looked on paper before the Spring Game.

I think the 4-4-2-2-1-1 format would be great if it were accompanied with a conference post season pitting 1 vs 8 2 vs 7 etc with the winners of those match ups moving on to the playoffs. That way 8th place teams in the power 2 conferences still have a path to the playoffs as would 4th place teams in the B12 and ACC. That would also mean even lower ranked teams would be in contention for that final spot late into the season. This would provide that March Madness type magic that keeps basketball riveting without expanding the playoffs that much. If a 5-8 ranked team in a conference can't win a road game to make the playoffs, then they wouldn't deserve to be in the playoffs anyway. If they can't get that win on their home field, then that higher seeded team showed that they didn't really deserve that spot as well. This system seems perfect to me and I really hope it happens at some point. As for conference champions, that could be declared after the highest seeded team in the conference playoffs wins. If one loses to eight and two loses to seven but three defeats six, then that's the conference champ for that year. This seems like the best path forward to me both in entertainment value (highest viewing ratings possible) as well as for fairness to all the teams in the conferences. This format could help keep conferences from getting too top heavy (same 2-3 teams at the top every year) and let even average teams feel as though they still have a shot.

Not only does the Spring Game provide some welcome football entertainment halfway to the next season, it also provides the fans an opportunity to directly partake in recruiting by showing the future Ducks what a real fan base looks like.

My next day thoughts. The passing offense will be ridiculous. Moga as a periodic wildcat could be lethal. By the fall, the D should be Lanning’s best. 54 yard field goals? Yes please! Many Ducklings look impact ready right now. PS I will never get tired of seeing Rich Brooks being honored on his own damn field!

What a great day. Beautiful weather, nice crowd and some good spring football.

I’m liking how the D has stepped up. Good sign for things to come.

Novo looks pretty good so far.

What a great time to be a Duck fan. Lanning's mix of enough NIL to be competitive plus no nonsense recruiting is building the most solid team in Duck history. I don't really care if we lose five stars that chase bigger bags elsewhere. Personally, I'm a little confused why elite players chase the money at all in college. If my eyes are on becoming an elite NFL player, then the training to get there would be my priority. I don't see moving from team to team, coach to coach and system to system as the best way to get there. The same can be said for taking a big bag to play for a back water team. The average NIL offerings for top talent should be sufficient for a college player, then once properly trained, the NFL contract should more than cover the long term financial goals.

Man am I hyped. For me, the Spring Game at 59 = Christmas at 9! Getting ready to head out and looking forward to seeing which youngsters are ready to take over the two deep this year.

By my count OBD went 7-0 against the top 10 picks and that is with two UM players counting as one loss. Cam Ward gets two losses so it evens out. Anyway, I don't think I've ever seen a similar stat before.

The 70's would not have been the same without Olivia.

Retiring football numbers doesn't seem realistic with how many players are on a team. But the real answer is there is absolutely no reason for OBD to mimic anything being put forth by the Colorado clown show.

Jon writes some of the best football articles on the net and we get them right here on this site. Fantastic! Love the analysis put in to each prediction. Here are my bold conference champion predictions. BIG: Not SUC ACC: Not the Fighting Marios Big !2: Not the Fighting Primes SEC: I'll go way off the board and pick a resurgent Florida. I'm counting down the days to the Spring game. Can't wait!

Deciding between Mario, Maryland, Riley or the coach that spent most of his third year in the business as the undefeated number one team, seems like an easy decision to me.

Moga could easily become some sort of wildcat demon that pops up out of nowhere from time to time for four years and makes it four future NFL QBs currently on the roster.

Great article Jon. I've had the Iowa game penciled in as a big BIG game since I first saw the schedule. These are the games I've been looking forward to since joining the conference. I think even us Duck fans may be underestimating how dangerous our offense could be this year. I see it as being what Herbert in 2019 could have been with with an actual offensive game plan instead of Mario's plod ball scheme. I think every team including PSU in their house will have difficulty keeping OBD below 30 points. Does Iowa have an offense that can put up more than 20 against the Ducks? The only teams that did last year made the playoffs. The fuskies did manage 21 meaningless points in a complete beat down. I'm really hoping the potential of the new D shows out this year and leaves the Iowa fans impressed by the new Ducks on the block.

I can't see any win being bigger than tOSU. Beating the national champs has to mean a little more. PSU in the BIG championship should be #2 with UM #3.

Just because you want in the door doesn't mean you're welcome. Lanning tipped off the Vols about his wandering eye. The way Tennessee handled this, I may become a Vols fan. I'd expect him to land at a place like SUC or the U.

Wow. Demanding 4 Mil a year while sitting out on a 2.4 mil contract. If he's under contract, doesn't sitting out violate that? Who deals with these disputes? The court system? Any type of governing body dare touch this subject? Someone better come up with a true functioning system for all of this soon or the whole wonky system in place may soon break down. Are we going to start seeing game to game or half to half deal renegotiations? Without any system in place how does this not just devolve into a continuous ransom situation. Imagine a guy running back a kick off and the TV cuts away to his lawyer renegotiating his deal before he re enters the game. Yuck.

These will be known as the good ole days for for Beavis and Coug It. I hope they're storing up some fond memories of being back to back PAC football champs and runner ups. In forty years, the grand kids won't believe the legend of these wonderful times!

Can't wait for the PSU Ducks vs Them when Lanning calls time late in the game and shows the team that Green dot in the sea of the white out and wins gut check time to seal the deal.

As fun as it is to contemplate little Beavis as a Spring game punching bag, I think the current format is more productive. I'd rather have more players get more reps and let players duel it out for position rankings. I'd also be nervous about setting up position rankings too early and setting up a possible portal exodus. I'm actually not that attached to a reoccurring game with them. I'd rather use that game slot for maintaining recruiting pipelines (So Cal, Texas). Lanning is so visionary about all aspects of program growth, I think Rob should consult with him about future preseason scheduling.

Glad to see the ladies fight back and make it a game at the end. I think next year will paint the picture of where the team is heading. If it's another middle of the pack season, that's probably where they'll stay. If they rise to the top three or four in the BIG, they should stay there as well.