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EastBayDuckDad
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Posts posted by EastBayDuckDad
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Fentress has always been the "odd duck" on Talking Ducks with JKent, JoeyH and ANewman, all high level former athletes. Fentress played WR at Grant HS, then PSU, then Pacific but never at a high level. He has done some coaching at the HS and semi-pro level.
Interesting that he likes to be the contrarian in the room about OBD. Maybe because he never got a sniff from Oregon as a player and it sticks in his craw. He certainly has a bee under his bonnet over how Helfrich was shown the door after that dismal 2016 season, leaving a bare cupboard except for Justin Herbert, Troy Dye, Dillon Mitchell, Brady Breeze, La'Mar Winston, Hunter Kampmoyer and some good O-linemen as incoming recruits.
Helfrich was a very good OC and QB developer but overreached his ceiling as a HC. He didn't last long at Chicago as an NFL OC. He did bleed Oregon green (and yellow and black and silver and pink) and maybe Fentress is angry because that homegrown loyalty was cast aside, just as he was never offered the chance to suit up for OBD.
Or maybe AF knows that the best way to generate clicks is to create controversy.
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The RPO game can keep defenses guessing without exposing the QB to the kind of hits that take them out of commission. Gabriel ran that game successfully at OU and I'm guessing that Stein will expand that aspect of the Duck offense some.
MM was the RPO/Zone Read master at Oregon and stayed upright mainly by not being asked to run through the inside gaps.
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On 12/18/2023 at 5:33 PM, Steven A said:
Thank goodness that was prior to my electric shock therapy and it doesn’t ring a bell!
Not for me. Still burns like it was yesterday. I was doing ok this morning, soaking in the Dante Moore transfer before I read this thread. All that therapy and Prozac shot to hell.
If anyone needs to find me in the next few hours, I'll be under the bed in my safe room sucking my thumb.
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Appears to be a good add for the O-line. Ducks needed a guard once the JPJ domino fell.
JPJ to NFL
Pancho from Guard to Center
Bedford to Guard
Hopefully Cornelius will stay and the other interior linemen like Iuli, Silva and Strother as well
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On 12/18/2023 at 8:02 AM, Steven A said:
Has Riley's shine worn off?
Short answer: Yes
Long answer:
Yep, Sí, Ja, Ya, Da, Oui, Tak, Sim, Hai
Ya sure ya betcha
Nelson wants to play now. No way Oregon needs any of that drama. Moore says he wants to be developed and is willing to wait a year.
Not to count the chickens (or ducklings) before they hatch but Moore has some elite skills that just need time and coaching:
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Yikes, who does Beach Crib Lincoln have left once he loses his 5* QB? Looking iffy in LaLaLand. Maybe entering the B1G running the wildcat is his plan.
This Zenitz fellow has put out some brassy predictions in the last 24. My coarser nature hopes he is accurate.
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Getting Savage would be just fine and the quality safety Oregon needs
Interesting side note: Savage faced Gabriel on September 24, 2022. He led the K-State defense with 8 tackles and they beat the Sooners at home 41-34. Gabriel had a good game going 26/39 for 330 yds and 4TDs but was sabotaged by the Okie D (largely Riley leftovers) who got spanked by KSU and Adrian Martinez.
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Thanks to AnotherOD for the transfer QB manifesto. Every elite (and non-elite) team now mines the portal for quarterbacks. Looking back at the last few CFPs, around half of those teams got there with a transfer at the helm.
If there was a team to be concerned about QBs that they recruited going on to star at another school, it might be tOSU. CJ Stroud was homegrown but think Ewers at Texas and Burrows at LSU. Then again, they picked up Fields from Georgia so it would appear to cut both ways.
The perception that Oregon doesn't develop quarterbacks or that elite recruits will avoid the Ducks if they have to compete against a transfer could be applied to almost every quality program in the nation. It will be the reality in CFB going forward now that transfers can play immediately and there is serious NIL money available.
The good news is that by virtue of Stein's prolific offense, Bo's success and the history of elite players like JH and MM, OBD have positioned themselves to not only recruit well at the position but get the cream of the crop in the portal.
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Incredible play call that even worked for a first down against UW, and they probably knew it was coming. With the OL releasing downfield once the TE drifts into the flat, the essential rule is to catch the ball behind the LOS to avoid that penalty that vexed the Ducks all too often this year.
Using the TEs in Stein's offense is a winner from every angle. These plays stress a defense to no end. Every good NFL offense has a TE weapon. Think Kittle, Kelce, Andrews, Hockenson and of course recently retired Gronk. Bowers will be the next in line.
Hopefully we get TFerg back for another year to amp up the Oregon offense and give him a shot at the next level.
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Sorry to see Dowdell transfer but his parent's statement was honest and likely accurate. At the start of the year it looked like Dowdell had the edge on Limar by virtue of size and pure 'bowl you over' running style. Limar seemed more versatile as the the season wore on and certainly got more snaps.
When Noah went down, James stepped up and solidified himself as the #2 rotational back behind Bucky. These young men are always only one torn ACL away from starting and it looked like Dowdell was going to be behind James and Limar when Noah returned.
He will be a stud for whatever program he transfers to, and he may have a ceiling as high as Benson has had at FSU. Oregon definitely needs another depth piece at RB and it's reasonable to conclude there will be either a recruiting flip or quality transfer in the works. Locklyn has established himself as one of the premier RB coaches in the country and the cupboard will be full come spring ball.
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Nice that he might want to follow Gabriel to Oregon. Wait and see.
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On 12/14/2023 at 11:29 AM, Just Ducky said:
Conclusive Evidence that they are scared to death of the Ducks is why they can’t stop talking about us. Soon they will be loosing sleep.
Soon OBD will living rent free in tOSU's brainpan, just like they do now in U$C's.
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On 12/13/2023 at 4:04 PM, DrJacksPlaidPants said:
They had Verone McKinley as a mid to late rounder. He went undrafted. Bo could easily slide with a bad combine performance.
That's kind of apples and oranges, QBs and safeties are graded on dramatically different scales. I just don't see a healthy Bo having so bad a combine performance that he would drop to the 5th.
No one is arguing that he has the elite arm of Caleb Williams or foot speed of Jayden Daniels, but in a QB heavy draft Bo is in the top five. Third in the Heisman, Maxwell finalist, Campbell winner and Pac-12 Offensive POTY. His Wonderlic score will likely be first or second. There are at least ten NFL teams that need to draft a quarterback or a solid backup. I can't imagine them sitting on their hands until the third day thinking "No worries, Nix will still be available".
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On 12/13/2023 at 9:04 AM, EastBayDuckDad said:
Somewhere he can make mistakes and learn from them, where a 7-5 season and a minor bowl game is considered a good season.
Like U$C......
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I think it is possible to get a fair shot and a raw deal at the same time. As has been mentioned, we never got the opportunity to see TT at practice. How he reacted in do or die situations, when exotic blitzes and pressures were thrown at him or what he switched play calls to based on defensive looks. The coaches did.
I'm pretty sure that at the start of the 2023 season when Bo said he was returning, the coaching staff evaluated TT, decided to give him the year to develop into the next starter and told him so. That was the fair shot. The raw deal was that DL and WS decided he didn't develop as hoped and went to the portal again.
Thompson now has the opportunity to go to a program that will start him and let him develop on the job. A luxury he didn't have at Oregon. Somewhere he can make mistakes and learn from them, where a 7-5 season and a minor bowl game is considered a good season.
More power to him. Maybe he will end up in NYC and be able to look back and say "told ya so". I don't predict that but like most everyone on this forum I wish him only the best wherever he goes.
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Taking a deep dive into Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel’s advanced stats
DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM
A breakdown of the advanced passing and rushing numbers for Dillon Gabriel in the 2023...Worth a read for folks that want to take a detailed look at Dillon Gabriel's stats with a focus on the 2023 season at Oklahoma. It outlines his strengths and relative weaknesses in the passing game and throws in a comparison or two to Bo's numbers. It's particularly interesting to look at his success (and occasional struggles) in the RPO, which was run more frequently at OU than at Oregon.
It reads as a nice predictor of his potential in Will Stein's offense, particularly in the mid-field passing game Stein schemes for and that Bo excelled at. With the fast skill players and stout O-line that OBD posseses, Gabriel looks like a good fit.
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On 12/12/2023 at 5:57 PM, DrJacksPlaidPants said:
I think he’s a 2nd to 5th rounder.
5th round? Are there any draft predictions that have him going on the third day?
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On 12/12/2023 at 5:24 PM, Log Haulin said:
Maybe Cayden Green wants to block for his QB
Not a bad idea. Slide Pancho to center and there's room for a quality transfer guard. If he's a winner, Terry will try to get him here.
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Offensive lineman Iapani Laloulu makes True Freshman All-American team
DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM
Offensive lineman Iapani Laloulu makes True Freshman All-American team from 247Sports.I was really hoping to see JPJ commanding the O-line for one more year. You cannot agrue with his decision after winning the Rimington as he is ready to compete in the pros. With his departure to the draft, Pancho is set to fill his shoes at center or slide one position over to guard.
Coach Terry was able to mold this year's group into a formidable line that dominated the trenches in every game except the Pac-12 CG. Even with JPJ gone the talent is there. Pancho is only scratching the surface of how good he will be anchoring the interior. Big kudos to him for being one of the best young linemen in CFB.
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Just watched a 20+ min Gabriel OU season highlight film on YouTube. Granted, a highlight reel is just that, the best of the best, but I was struck by several things.
He has very good pocket presence and seems to know where the pressure is going to come from. He's elusive in the pocket when it starts to break down (which won't happen to him as often with Oregon's better O-line). Keeps his eyes downfield and is looking to make a play even when things are going to crap around him. Uses the dump off/safety valve RB or TE when his #1 and #2 reads are covered. He is very accurate in the short and midfield game. Tough as nails when he decides to take off with the ball and can break tackles.
The biggest negative I saw was a tendency to underthrow his downfield receivers. Sometimes they had to slow down when they had clearly beaten their man. Throws that were behind the WR were touted as 'back shoulder' by the announcers, but several looked underthrown to me with good receiver adjustment, or a blown play by the DB.
He may not be the field general that Bo is, making the right calls at the LOS. There wasn't a ton of RPO but he does appear to read the field well once the ball is snapped and generally finds the right guy in space.
My bet is that Stein's offense will play to his skill set really well, giving him tons of options in the short and mid field while not stressing the long bomb unless it is there for the taking. I think that Oregon fans have good reason for optimism for 2024.
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On 12/11/2023 at 8:25 AM, Lrod said:
I dont think Lanning and Co. cared for Ward.
DL has talked about having a rolodex of potential candidates for the inevitable coaching vacancies that will occur as a successful Oregon program produces new OCs, DCs and HCs.
I'm sure that coaches like DL have files compiled by staffers that look at each portal player at QB. Stats, strengths, liabilities, etc. Adaptability to the offensive scheme as well. They are probably then ranked in order of who can help the Ducks now and who can be developed.
My bet is that Gabriel was #1 on that first list and Ward either #2 or #3. Moore has got to be #1 on that second list. To be complete, the current QB room would be fit in. TT must have been #2 at best if Gabriel or Ward were avaliable.
You go out and get the best player you can to fill a position of need. It's analytics and probabilities. I think DL and staff would have offered Ward if Gabriel had gone elsewhere. Moore will likely be offered as #1 on the development list if he truly wants to be brought into a system where he can be mentored by a great offensive staff and a top notch veteran QB.
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On 12/10/2023 at 5:40 AM, Log Haulin said:
Hope Lanning can develope QB position (yet to be seen) and Akili Smith Jr becomes elite.
I'm going to argue that DL and his chosen OCs have and are developing QBs. Case in point is Bo Nix, who elevated his game in the two years he was here. It took the right system(s) for him to excell but I believe that Nix would be the first to say how much he benefited from the coaching.
Stein is a former player at the position at Louisville and brings a QB perspective as an OC. Although TT didn't work out and hopefully will find success elsewhere, I think we all saw the improvement in his game under Stein. If Moore elects to transfer in, all the mentoring and coaching is in place to develop his considerable talent. If not, Novosad, Moga and then AKS2 are in the wings.
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There it is. All the best to that young man. I'm optimistic that he will be a winner wherever he goes.
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I agree that TT never got the game snaps to fully test his play, and we'll probably never know how successful he could have been at Oregon. It is a raw deal. However even with more snaps this year it struck me that he was not moving well in the pocket and tended to lock on to his primary receiver.
We never got to see how he played in practice. All reports were that he had the faith of his teammates and coaches. Maybe he would have performed well if Bo had gone down. The fact is that Oregon has now gone into the portal to get another experienced plug and play QB and are entertaining adding Moore as well. Fair or not, it speaks volumes about what the coaching staff believes is the future of the Duck QB room.
I would be happy to see TT excel wherever he goes and hope he does.
Podcast: Dan Lanning Building An SEC Team Out West
in Our Beloved Ducks
Posted
Don't think Georgia can do that when they missed the CFP this year, but back to back NCs is still pretty dang impressive, and DL owns one of those.