Mudslide

In the memorable words of Frank the Budweiser lizard, "Let it go, Louie. Let it go!" MC is muddy water well under the bridge. I, for one, really don't care what he does at Miami. But of course...I hope he enjoys that $8 million dollar mansion and doesn't mind the bird sized mosquitos of western Florida.

Thanks for the fine article (again), Joshua. I'll say that a wide open game is more fun for the team and players than a grinding game. And thus...Lanning's approach to fun. I took a quick look at the winning percentages of CK and MC (full seasons only). Chip's teams won at 87%. Mario "The Mansion" had his teams...highly rated recruits and all...at 77%. Don't get me wrong, 77% is not bad...8 million bucks not bad. (At that, I cringe and mutter words that my mother would not approve.) But MC must have bored his players to tears. That gives new meaning to the standard phrase, "grind". Win, lose, or draw, I'm in Coach Lanning's corner. And I cheer the removal of 'pistol' stench too long in my nostrils

His Minnesota video looks like he can run a bit and with good determination. It appears that the Ducks have added a good one. I think ... (my wife always suggests I shouldn't do that) ... we have 87 scholarships now. So 2 to depart still?

Holy smokes. Almost the entire 1st team Georgia defense went in the draft...EIGHT players drafted. And 15 Georgia players were drafted overall. That's an incredible record. Good for them. And hopefully good for us. We can hope that the drafted players' replacements will have a few first-game-starter hiccups on Sept. 3.

Aw....better luck next time.

Wow! almost half the first team Georgia defense was taken in the first round of the NFL draft. McDawg, I know that the quality of the Dawg defense is unknown/suspect for next season. But how were the backups to these 5 gems that left for the bigs ... Travon Walker (no. 1 overall), Jordon Davis, Quay Walker, Devonte Wyatt, and Lewis Cine? That's a huge loss of talent.

Let's see your favorite Duck photos. I'll start with the one that I dearly enjoy. Apologies to the photographer/publisher as they are unknown to me.

Perhaps this is a hint that Emoni Bates is coming the Ducks way. Wouldn't THAT be nice?!

Nor is mine...ultra grey beard, here. Uh...what were we talking about?

Wasn't Allioti all about the bend-don't-break D? I thought he advocated the style.

I'm SO in love with this approach to defense. If I have to watch one more coach aspire to play prevent defense, I might have to become a rugby fan. As published today in Footballscoops.com .... Tosh Lupoi Uses "Dictator" and "Confrontational" to Describe the Vision for his Oregon Defense Tosh Lupoi doesn't want the Ducks secondary walking any kind of fine line. Doug Samuels Dan Lanning filled out his Oregon staff with a handful of really impressive coaches, one of which was his defensive coordinator - Tosh Lupoi. With stops at Cal, Washington, and Alabama, Lupoi established himself as one of college football's best recruiters before jumping to the NFL where he spent the past few seasons working with the Browns, Falcons and Jaguars. The opportunity to step back into a defensive coordinator role at Oregon with Lanning brought Lupoi back to college football, and he shared a bit of his outlook on what the vision for the Ducks defense is. "Confrontational" and "dictator" were two interesting words he chose to use to describe what he wants to build in Eugene. When asked about his secondary "walking the fine line" between being being aggressive in press and giving some space to speedy receivers, Tosh shared they're actually not interested in walking that fine line at all. "We probably don't walk that fine line. We want to be extremely aggressive and confrontational." "We want to play press coverage and operate out of man-match and quarters and Rip / Liz match system in cover three and then compliment that with some zone and do our best to mix up things and offer disguises and pressures out of those looks as well." "We want to be really aggressive. That's the system that I come from and that I believe in, and coach Lanning as well and we really want to be the dictator at the end of the day. So we are going to constantly challenge our players to embrace that."

I wonder if the good will expressed by the Georgia fans will diminish a bit should the Ducks trip up the Bulldogs in Atlanta.

It's always great to see another article from you, Coach. Thank you.

Welcome to the new college sports dystopia. I wonder when personal greed in college sports will outreach team loyalty. Not long, I suppose. But then I'm just a grumpy old man who is getting grumpier while dealing with a dry socket ex-tooth. Ouch.

Thanks for the fine article, Alex. 18 year olds making more money than the school's president. More power in the hands of these 18 year olds. What could possibly go wrong? I'm totally with Santa Rosa Duck's opine. Greed and lack of commitment to the team, the game, and their contracts (by players AND coaches) has driven me from my love of all professional sports. These elements are now entering college athletics. I see things changing much more rapidly than in three or four years. And along with that I include my own attitude toward collegiate sports. College football and basketball will suffer the same downturn in attendance (and concomitant interest) as the NBA and NFL, with the exception that without the help of the Chinese the downturn will be much sharper. Hmmm...maybe college athletics can gin up more interest by crossing country barriers to play teams from ... say ... Columbia or El Salvador. (Are there colleges in Columbia and El Salvador?) Nope, all the major agents for change are in place. Times are already changing. Social events are occurring at a much faster rate than we old grey beards want or even recognize. Me? I detest what my beloved sports have become.

There are currently 5 QBs on the team. The new guy, Sanders, (second year with the team) AJ Abbott (from Houston, TX), Ty, Bo, and Jay. Ty Bo and Jay sounds like a boy band. Or an MMA style.

Fine article, David. Many thanks. How about a 25 yard penalty for targeting with no suspension unless OBVIOUSLY malicious?

Aha...The Bends!

Canzano wrote more about himself than he did sports. My feelings about him departing the Oregonian? YEA!

My turn.... Coach Lanning, carp(e) dium!

Yeah, I'm of the opinion that the coach needs to work harder. I understand that he has had decades of success with his teams and his coaching philosophy. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have his critics and/or alternatives that better suit the players he uses. Watch any Duck game and you'll see a couple of things. First the 'weave'. To me this is a useless offense unless there is better, more energetic movement off the ball AND guys who can successfully drive the basket (think Payton Pritchard). The only guy that appears to have that ability successfully, and only slightly so, is Young. So the 'weave' is mostly a waste of time with this team. It can't create the necessary mismatches because only one player is particularly good at doing so. And driving to the basket...note the distance between the driving player and the pick. The drives usually leave plenty of space for the defender to go over the top of the pick. (For the absolute class of this play, just take a look at any drive by NBA players.) For a recent game, the Washington team does the tight pick MUCH better. Duck defenders had to go under the pick...easy three shot. Second the 3-point and free throw shooting. Do these guys practice? The only muscle memory I see is laying bricks. My wife has better free throw stats than the team. And she's 72 years old! So...the team can't drive to the bucket and can't shoot over zones. What's left for the offense? Third...what's left is the fast break. The Ducks have been out rebounded in almost all of their conference games. That in spite of having two talented 7 footers. More than just energy is required to rebounding. It's coaching to block out and get into position. And to "want to". So this becomes a net losing offense for this team. Rewind the WSU game and watch the WSU players position and drive for rebounds. And fourth...passing is lazy and inconsistent. This I lay on the players as well as the coaches. That leaves defense. (As an aside, the two bigs experiment in the WSU game was an complete failure for multiple reasons.) But watch the play of the teams that have been creaming the Ducks. Defense matters to them. They front and challenge the Ducks. The Ducks idea of defense, coached by Altman, is to lay off every offensive player (except occasionally with Young and Williams) until they're inside the 3-point line. Defensive rebounding poorly executed (see offensive rebounding above) is yet another jab in the throat of the Ducks chances of winning. I'm not a b-ball coach and don't claim to know much. But I did play a lot of the game in my (sadly) lost youth. The game has not changed that much in 50 years. But I'm in agreement with Charles. The coach is throwing shade at his players and really should look in the mirror with this teams' performances. Is he making best use of his players? I say no. You may disagree. It's obvious that the players have loads of talent. Witness the big Top 10 wins. But...................... I'm open to other ideas.

I could have used some of those bricks for a back wall I want to build. After watching (most, definitely not all) that game, I hope i "enjoyed" this game more than the players did. WSU popped the Ducks March Madness Poop Balloon but good. And I'll say this for the 5th time...I detest that weave Altman has uses. And who in the world is teaching the Ducks how to (apparently not) scrape the defender on their offensive picks? Gads...and I thought the last couple football games were bad. On the good news front.....GO GET 'EM Kepnang!

Thanks for the link, Duck '72. It gives rise to all kinds of interesting speculation. My first thought was that if their suggestions are enforced, the Chip Kelly era will return. Teams will be running plays again like it was 2007. Also...how about just dropping one game. It will have the same effect of limiting plays...that expose players to injuries...which is the committee's whole point. It would be one game vs. their suggested ideas that result in a reduction of 1.2 games worth of plays. (To me, that would beat changing a gaggle of rules to the game play.) AND...a real limiting factor will be how this change would affect the commercials count. Losing ad sponsors' money may be more important to them than player safety. (Just guessing, here.) Lastly, if football is to survive, there will always be risks for injury. Unless, of course one wants to join a flag football team. How far are they willing to go?!

Interestingly, the 11-1 season I mentioned above (2001) sported a defense that held opponents to ... ta daaa ... 21 points/game.