Desert Duck

"We’re Going to the Rose Bowl" I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but I'm pretty sure we play UCLA in Eugene this year. ;-) But I do like your optimism. Please keep it coming!

Oregon 41-28 3 TOs 3 Sacks 260 Passing Hoping to under promise, and over-deliver.

I remember him well. After Oregon beat then #3 UCLA in Eugene, the Oregon fans were so wild that he was famously quoted as calling us "Deranged Idiots." I think it was about the greatest compliment he could have ever paid Duck fans. Shirts and buttons were printed up with the quote. Obviously, it doesn't matter if God had come in after John Wooden to coach UCLA... It was the ultimate no-win situation. I just looked and Bartow went 52-9 in his two seasons as UCLA head coach... and was promptly fired. Bartow was a very good basketball coach too. Following his two seasons as HC at UCLA, in his 18 seasons as HC at UAB, he never had a losing season.

Gene Bartow... now there a reference for an old guy (and I'm the old guy)

Thanks for the correction. 4 BCS games, with 2 of those being NC games. His winning percentage of 84% while playing in the SEC, is crazy.

Smart is clearly a brilliant coach. There is a very good reason why Alabama made him the highest paid defensive coach in history. And even though Georgia is his first head coaching job, he has been utterly beyond exceptional. By the time he's done, I think he has a chance at surpassing Saban.

Because I’m such a glass-half-full kind of a guy… I thought I would point out that in 2016, Kirby Smart, in his first and only head coaching job, went 8-5 in his first season at Georgia --- which included losing to the likes of Vanderbilt. The next season he had them in the National Championship where they very nearly beat ‘Bama. And they’ve been in the BCS Championship Playoffs every year since (I don’t count the 2020 Covid Season as a ‘real season'). So, there’s my best attempt at providing a glass-half-full outlook.

I thoroughly enjoyed your piece. You and your brother heading outside to throw the football around, reminded me of growing up in Eugene as a kid, and heading outside with my friends to play football (tackle w/o pads) on the grass in front of Spencer Butte Junior High -- the parking lot and concrete sidewalk were the out of bounds lines. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to have grown up in Eugene when I did. At that time, in many ways, it still had a little bit of that "Mayberry" thing going for it.

I start to cringe a bit when we start talking about time zones. I definitely did not hear much about a time zone disadvantage last year when we played at Ohio State, which also happens to be in the EST. And let's face it, it's not like they travel by Wagon Train to get there. I doubt they even shifted to the EDT time zone since they were only there for a few days. And it's also not like we played an early morning game. The game was at 12:30 PDT. But I do think the home field advantage in this case was worth more than three points. Especially early on in the game.

Nope. My bigger concern regarding our QB situation is in regards to the future. Not giving either of our highly recruited and ranked backup QB's any playing time late in the game on Saturday seems quite bizarre, and to me, and raises a lot more questions.

Now that this game is behind us, I'm just hoping that Kirby will "coach-up" Coach Lanning.

They didn't, by chance, also take out a life insurance policy on you, with them as the beneficiary, at the same time... did they?

"I disagree with the premise of this article. I disagree with likening this game to a payout game." Loghaulin - At first I read Darren's piece similarly as I think you did, and I wasn't pleased with the "payout comparative." But then, after my pulse rate slowed down a little bit, I read it again and he clearly makes the point that this was not a "payout game." "Of course, while the Ducks did get paid handsomely to play in Atlanta, this was not a payout game." However, Darren is simply using personal historical reality as a semi-comparative, as I believe poor Darren may have momentarily been overtaken a bit with some major-league, long-time, and often misdiagnosed, "Oregon Duck PTSD." (If this classification is not yet in the ICD-10, I here to tell you that it outta be.) I may be taking some liberties with this comment and adding my own self-projection, but I know that's exactly what I felt on Saturday, and I'm still trying to get over it and figure out what the heck just happened. As of this morning, I think I am making progress as I have stopped cowering in the corner, rocking back & forth while repeatedly muttering, "This is not 1970s or 80s Duck football" :-). My first Duck game as a kid was in 1973: Oregon 0 - UW 58... and yet, I kept coming back. But as Darren beautifully illustrates, not all the memories were bad. The image of Darren heading outside with his brother to throw the football around, brings back some great memories. Sadly, for a short period of time (hopefully short), this past Saturday transported many of us 'seasoned' (read: 'really old') Oregon fans right back to what I affectionately refer to as the "Dark Ages of Oregon Football." But thankfully, with the love of my family, fishduck.com, and some seriously good Duck PTSD therapy, I'm confident I will be able to return to 2022!

While true, this is a very rough comment for Smart to level against the Oregon kids after just crushing them by 46 points. And if this comment wasn't immediately followed with something like, "And the Oregon coaching was just plain subpar," -- then, in my opinion, he was simply being disingenuous and attempting to provide cover for his friend and former D coach... at the expense of our kids.

I truly don't know what to believe regarding this situation.

Yes... this loss needs to be thoroughly analyzed on all fronts. And to the travel comment, you're right, it has an impact to some degree.

I appreciate that but for only being there for a few days, I would think they would have functionally tried to keep them operating on Pacific time. And I could be totally wrong. But I also don't want to start coming up with excuses. Other teams travel 2 or 3 time zones and don't get lambasted by 46. We traveled 3 time zones to OSU last year and won.

I definitely expect us to be competitive the rest of the season. And I'm definitely a Georgia fan through the end of the season as well. GO DUCKS!

If there was a mercy rule in college, it definitely would have been hauled out yesterday.

I don't think that playing at 12:30 PDT was a problem - or at least let's hope it wasn't.

I'm having a hard time seeing how losing by 11 to Boise State, who went on to a 14-0 season and win the Fiesta Bowl, was more embarrassing than a 46 point loss to Georgia.

Great comment. At least at Oregon, Chip Kelly displayed some sizeable coconuts and rallied his team after his opening game coaching disaster. And at least Coach Lanning doesn't have to deal with his starting RB punching an opposing player in the jaw on live tv.

Although Lanning wouldn't allow this new guy to play yesterday, perhaps this kid, or at least one of our other QBs, will get some PT and experience in a future game

No worries from me. And if anything I said came off as snarky, my apologies. I like your comments. And to one of your comments above, keystrokes are definitely a tough way to communicate -- especially after a butt whoopin' like yesterday Onward and upward! Have a great rest of your Labor Day weekend.

Thanks for looking this up. This is a great point.