LADuck

Bo is going to have a huge year. Very talented QB and great athlete. This is the year he lives up to his 5 star rating. A big bonus is he is an exciting player to watch. Really looking forward to this year!

Having USC leave the P12 and SD State potentially join is like a dream come true for me. I really hope it happens. Some comparisons: SD State in very nice neighborhood and crime stats very good. It is one of the nicest parts of the entire San Diego metro. At USC you better hope your navigation doesn't malfunction and send you into the wrong neighborhood. When you find yourself in the deepest of gang areas and someone asks "where you from" it isn't going to be Sheriff Andy Taylor striking up a friendly conversation. San Diego has some fantastic golf courses and one of the best is Torrey Pines. Can you envision yourself having a combo golf/football weekend in 70 degree weather? Wearing shorts in November isn't a bad thing and having to remember to pack sunblock is not the worst problem to have. It will be a drag not to be able to go to John's Liquor store conveniently located just blocks from the LA Coliseum. Although I have to admit I hated their cash only policy for lottery tickets. I just never felt comfortable carrying more than $20 on me while shopping there. Let's go San Diego State ... BIG UPGRADE!

I think we would ultimately be fine. San Diego State was 12 -2 last year and beat Utah. You put them in the P12 and improve their brand the TV market will grow. With the nice new stadium, upgrade in competition, and great location the recruits will come and they will ultimately become a top ten program. I live in Southern Cal and can vouch for the fact that fans jump on the bandwagon quickly when circumstances change. SD State is on the verge of becoming a bigger player. According to stats enrollment 33,000 which is not huge but not bad at all.

Let them go and recruit some new teams to the P12. Let's go San Diego State and Fresno State. Ducks would be fine as the premier program in the conference. I think staying as a team that plays on the west coast with shorter commutes and better weather to play in would be a winning combination. Perfect timing for SD State with nice new stadium coming. We can tell recruits you get to play here instead of that dump the Coliseum! Plus us alum golfers can hit the course on road games in some nice sunny weather. Beats the hell out of going to almost any other B10 location.

I have not looked forward to a season like this upcoming one for a long time. The team was boring to watch and I spent my hard earned dollars to sit on the fifty in Vegas. The team that showed up had a coach with one foot out the door. In the big picture I just have a good feeling that this coaching staff is connecting with the players and knows how to maximize the deep talent this team possesses. I see Bo Nix having an excellent year behind one of the best OL's in the country. Talent all over the field and the opposing defenses on their heels. Going to be fun to watch. Our defense is going to be the best in the P12 so it all adds up to a great year. Get to go to the EWU opener and BYU the following Saturday with golf wedged in the middle. Always great weather that time of year and hard to beat Autzen. Will also be going with a friend that played QB at EWU so hopefully will get a big win there. If we somehow lose that one will never hear the end of it. Dream includes crushing USC in the P12 Championship game!

Seems like San Diego State would benefit greatly from joining the P12. They would be able to recruit athletes to play against better competition and you get to live in San Diego. That in itself is a pretty compelling pitch. Once the quality of the the product goes up due to better talent higher TV ratings will follow. We after all are generally a country of fair weather fans. I like this better than making our players fly all over the country to play in cold weather for what is still only a college football game when you get down to it.

Axel one of your best. Some great lines! I would like to see the Ducks stay in a new version of the PAC12 and maybe add Boise State, San Diego State, or Fresno State. Having the Ducks play across the country to get some added TV dollars just isn't worth it. Plus, what a bummer for the players to fly to road games in the Antarctica to freeze their balls off in the middle of winter. Let's see ... away game at San Diego State or Wisconsin in December! I like away games where I can play some golf and have a few beers. Curling just doesn't have the same appeal to me. Plus, do we want to dine on Lutefisk in Minnesota or enjoy some Pinot Noir and Gruyere cheese while tailgating at Stanford. This whole thing is a joke with no regard for the athletes or the fans.

I live in Long Beach, CA, and don't want to move anywhere as I like the ability to play golf all year in pretty much perfect weather. We like going down to the beaches and hanging out so all good. Also, have great sporting events and entertainment options to choose from. Lots of people moving to Central California around San Luis Obispo due to less crowds and lower crime rates. Nice area but the wind howls 4 months out of the year. But to each his own and most places have good and bad to them. I lived in Indiana for awhile and while the weather is bad the midwest people are very friendly. Plus the cold winters and humid summers make you appreciate it when you get a good day. Oregon is a great place to live and on a nice day hard to beat the beauty. Wouldn't want to live in so much rain but many people are OK with it. Friend of mine is going to keep his place in Tualatin and get a place down here for the winter. Now that's a good idea if you can do it.

Always liked the Plymouth Roadrunner as a little kid ...one of the bigger kids on the block had one. Remember being about 10 years old riding shotgun and him driving like a maniac. Thought it was cool back then. Now I would shake my head and think how unsafe that is!

Lots of good points from people on this topic. Kurt Rambis made me think of how we do tend to ignore the negatives when thinking the past was always better. My Dad and many of his friends were big baseball fans. I am old enough to remember comments about how much better the old timers were like Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio compared to players of that time (early 1970's). My Dad would say "these current players are a bunch of Triple A no talents." In his mind and many others they couldn't compete with what they grew up with and the past was definitely superior. Looking back I never heard one of them say anything regarding how crazy it was that in their era talented black players were not allowed to play in the big leagues. Jackie Robinson didn't debut in the big leagues until 20 years after the famed 1927 Yankees! I met a really good guy years ago while working part time delivering furniture as a summer job many years ago. His name was Joe Dawkins and he was a RB at USC. He was on the team when OJ joined the Trojans. Joe told me it was obvious to him that he was the not "the guy" anymore. Joe decided it was best to transfer to Wisconsin. He became All Big Ten and went on the NFL. My older brother who was a LA Sheriff says that their admin staff used to do homework for OJ back in the day! Anyway, lots of truth that the past was not always better.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think the current system is well thought out either. Just better than players getting zilch. Maybe it will be improved upon but I doubt it. David brings up a good point about the demands on players going up. My view is yes the coaches want this total commitment to win but the cynical part of me knows that these coaches want this amount of effort because wins equal better paying coaching jobs. Anyway, thanks for the thoughts and debate. Very enjoyable!

I think they are being taken advantage of in the current system. Coaches make millions while players don't make anything. Yes money goes to students getting an education (but think of the real cost of letting someone sit in a class versus what they say that tuition is worth on paper). A lot of other money is being spread around. Heck, the conditioning coach at Ohio State made $800,000. Not to mention all of the network broadcasters like Kirk Herbstreit (making $2,000,000 a year). Agree the players did know the deal going in and this one will be a lot more profitable for them.

There are already a limited number of D1 teams from the 125 or whatever the number is that really have any shot of competing for a national championship. The NIL money will just reduce that number by even more as if the dollars are not available you just won't be able to play with the big boys. I am happy that Oregon will be able to compete in this model and it will be interesting to see how the various leagues are reformatted. Agree there are many issues with this new system but the old one took advantage of the kids to a much higher degree. The US Department of Education says college sports are valued at more than $14 Billion and they had free labor! Now that just wasn't right.

I think I like the new model better than the most recent one where everybody makes money except the guys actually playing the game.

Lots of things to be more concerned about in the world than who makes an NFL roster but definitely wish them the best. Sure it is difficult to have such high expectations and then not even get drafted. I think a lot of these kids get artificially pumped up by local "web journalists" that interview them after practice and build them up beyond their talent levels. Agree with the previous comment made that they would have benefited with one more year and possibly better coaching.

Spin by some USC fans down here is that Lanning coaching these 5 is a negative. Says he did not recruit them and anybody could have won with that kind of talent! LOL ... now I have heard it all.

Great way to pull in clicks. He said coach smart would love to whoop him and of course he would like to whoop him in return. This heading makes it seem like Lanning it was one sided. BTW ... who says "whoop" anymore?

5 - 0 lifetime against San Jose State so chalk up another win. As much as it pains me to admit it USC is on their way back. I enjoy watching them struggle and trash talking my Trojan friends so if I had may choice they would stay at the 4 - 8 level. Unfortunately they are pulling in top talent and will continue to get excellent players. The coaching is much improved and they will be a true competitor to the Ducks. Since it is going to happen might as well look forward to some highly rated matchups between the Oregon and USC. Going to fun!

Hope Ty stays at Oregon as I really like his competitive attitude and acknowledgement that there are things he needs to improve upon. In a world where people enter portals and jump from companies when they don't immediately get promoted it would be great to watch someone actually hang in there and achieve his ultimate goal. It might be this year or next but if he stays committed to his development and keeps his positive attitude he can end up as starting QB at Oregon which will be much better than playing at Akron. Hope he keeps working hard and will be cheering for him when he wins the starting job.

Nothing political about that just sharing a story and the logic that if you throw bottles at cops somebody should go to jail. Maybe they will review video and make arrests at a later date. On the bright side the Ducks looked like they have a lot of talent available for this new group of highly qualified coaches to develop. Going with 10 - 2 this year and a New Year's Day Bowl Game. Will also predict SC has a good year but finishes second in P12 South after Utah.

In times before the wide open transfer portal I think it would have taken at least three years to get this team up towards the top of the P12. With the current portal situation I think Riley will accelerate progress. This year will be much better than last year's 4 - 8 record and the 2023 team will contend for a P12 Championship. He will recruit high schoolers/transfers at high levels. There is a lot of talent in his own backyard and he is a good coach. Will be some competitive Oregon vs Trojan games in the near future.

Living in the midst of SC fans I can tell you many of them tend to be arrogant. A large percentage of them come from money and had tuition paid by mommy and daddy and think their education is at Harvard levels. They look down on schools like Oregon and the working class in general. That is why any win over these entitled elitists is enjoyable to me. Of course they think that if a recruit picks Oregon over SC there must have been money or shady doings involved. The reality is that Eugene is a beautiful college town (as our coaches are marketing) as compared to grimy south central Los Angeles. If I could do it all over again I would definitely still go to school at Oregon versus SC. College towns really are hard to beat compared to commuter schools. The Riley hiring has them fired up and will make Duck victories that much more enjoyable!

That is not a good look for a coach. Your team should come first. Not watching another athlete play ... focus on your own team. Bet he does have a nice TV in that $17M house though.

8 five stars, 19 fours stars, and only 3 three stars. They are going to end up with a very good product on the field as talent wins. It might not be a National Championship but they are going to have a lot of success. Crazy what it takes to compete now days but hopefully we figure out how to get the best players out there for 2023. I still like my idea of us true Duck fans starting our own GO FUND ME page to build funds for recruiting!

I agree that culture is overrated. I have worked for the same company for many years and at one point we had a very visible CEO that everybody liked and he had a "culture" that was employee friendly. Sharp person and a good leader. He retired and for the last 5 years we have had a leader that is not nearly as big on connecting with people or having "fun" sales meetings. Some of the longer term associates complain about the lack of the good old days and wish the old leaders were back. I look at the scoreboard and see that we have more than doubled profits under the new CEO. I remind my peers that the object of a business is to make money and we are doing that to a very high degree. If you have good people with experience and a strong work ethic you are going to generally do well no matter who is creating the "culture." Culture can be something overpaid consultants (another topic) talk about but the bottom line is that if you have the right strategy and quality players on the team you have a good shot at winning. As a side benefit of the new leadership we don't have any more of those goofy team building activities.