Desert Duck

So everyone else wants a shot at coming home and a shot at coaching a national championship contender... not to mention making around $6 - $8 million per-year. Except for Justin Wilcox.

And, don't forget, Wilcox also missed out on the T-shirts they had ready to go for the press conference.

Dang... and we were so darn close.

If by "selfish" Leach means self-serving, then sure. But when your coach has bolted for greener pastures, it's a rather meaningless bowl game with an interim coach, and you've got literally tens-of-millions-of-dollars on the line, then I'd have said "Thank You," and hit the bricks in a nano second. Leach needs to stop trying to sell fans on the fact that FBS is little more than corporate America... for the school, coaches, and the kids.

Canzano: "A twist -- Justin Wilcox turned down the Oregon Ducks" I wouldn't call this a 'twist'. I'd call this Cazano-land material pure and utter horse manure. "On Friday Wilcox told Oregon, 'No thanks.'" This is about the equivalent of trying to sell us on today's 40 year high inflation rate, is the "good kind" of inflation. In the classic words of Jack Nicholson: "Go sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here." Possibly my favorite part of Canzano's pretend-land is: "The plan even included T-shirts that would be printed and distributed at his introductory news conference." Wowzaa... all that plus T-shirts --- and Wilcox still turned it down? Who'd have thunk it!

Good comments. I'll concedd regarding MC. But, IMHO,, Helfrich won on Chip's coattails and recruits. Having some kid named Mariota didn't hurt him either. After the training wheels were removed, he fell hard and exited with a 4-8 record. And somewhere in there he forgot to recruit a QB as well... and we ended up having to go the "free-agency" route just to find someone. Willie... Well, he was just a disaster.

Helfrich won on Chip's coattails and recruits. Having some kid named Mariota didn't hurt him either. After the training wheels were removed, he fell hard and exited with a 4-8 record. And somewhere in there he forgot to recruit a QB as well... and we ended up having to go the "free-agency" route just to find someone. Willie... as you said, epic failure. MC - definitely better. I'm willing to concede regarding MC. So, 2 out of 5 were failures.

Go Bulldogs! Go Coach Lanning!

Well... It's not the safe hire... which I give Oregon credit for. Here's to hoping it's the right hire.

Dude is going from making something like $375k per year in 2018, to making millions per year now. Nice financial trajectory.

Admittedly, I can be a bit slow, but I just realized the Oregon @ Georgia is a 1 & done event. From the Oregonian: "The neutral site season-opener will be the third since 2011 for Oregon." Please... who is kidding who here? Playing Georgia in Atlanta is anything but neutral. I thought we were past the 1 & done deals like LSU in 2011 -- let alone like this Georgia deal where the Bulldogs are essentially playing at home. I'm impressed that we're willing to go out there, but like Ohio State, we need to be getting 1 & 1 deals.

Well... 3 out of our 5 last head coaches have been failures. So I'm not a believer in your, "Head coaching experience doesn't matter" take.

And Jim Aiken.

But like both Bellotti & Kelly, Riley was already in the OU system so the transition to HC was dramatically easier.

Chip deserves another chance to recreate the Magic I agree, but just somewhere other than the UofO.

Miami is always being probed by the NCAA... since about the beginning of time. MC walked eyes-wide-open into a crap storm. Good luck to him. And that mythical new Miami stadium? MC will see that at about the same time those pigs fly out of a very unlikely place.

Where does his mother live?

The big programs get experienced, successful, D1 coaches.

I didn't read 'meaningless consolation or exhibition game' into what he said. But CFB has changed dramatically since FBS. The Rose Bowl is still a wonderful bowl, but most of the time it's just not anywhere remotely close to what it once was. And admittedly, some of what I feel is due to the success we've had over the last 26 years as well. Being at the PAC12 Championship game last week and talking to Utah fans, I came to realize how very excited there were at the prospect of going to the Rose Bowl -- and a huge part of that was because Utah had never been there before. Had the Ducks won, we would have gladly gone again, but it was a much bigger deal to them.

I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately, FBS CFB is all just a business now -- for the schools, coaches, and kids. You try to make the best decision available. I'm glad he still had a chair at Fresno State, though, when the music stopped playing.

Remember who we play in our first game next year? To be honest, not until you asked me. Hmmm...

People rise to new levels of responsibility all the time, but there's a lot more to being a HC than calling the plays on Saturdays. Absolutely. I think that one of the reasons Bellotti and Kelly did it so successfully is that they were already in the Oregon program. Already knowing the program, staff, boosters, internal politics, etc, makes a huge difference.

Thank you for saving me the time of having to come up with what you just wrote! Spot on.

I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure Mullens checks out my comments before making any moves or decisions.

Sounds a bit like what we said that last couple times around. Please tell me that we have better management running the show than this.