Wrathis

Let me lead by admitting that I don't follow OBD pumpkin-pushing with the same fervor I do football. However, I do make sure to try and look at stats from every game and at least read the breakdowns. That being said, I have to believe Altman is right and this isn't all on him. His record of success speaks for itself. I believe we're all used to the late season push that accompanies his teams. They work on gelling during the early part of the season and by the time the tournament gets here, they are firing on all cylinders and are a well oiled machine. I have seen none of that this season. They do indeed have some talent, but it's all individuals and not a team. We know the ceiling, but we've also seen the floor and that's a wider gap than normal. This (along with plenty of other clues) leads me to believe it's effort, not coaching. The other thing lacking is (as has been aptly pointed out) is a true leader. I believe Richardson was supposed to be that guy and he's absolutely folded under pressure. Maybe he doesn't want to be "that guy" and if not, then someone else needs to take the reigns. It looks like that person might have been Young, but that's certainly not clear to me. At any rate, I hope they can play to their potential in the tournament and perform well at the NIT as there are better, more deserving teams to represent the sport at the Big Dance...

While I agree that there are some concerning things being said, I'm not ready to turn my cheers to jeers. Truth is that he was a star here who gave us some great games and memories. He helped keep a national spotlight on the program when it could have easily drifted elsewhere. He was a superstar that made Eugene home and made our program increasingly relevant and better. It's my hope that he focuses up (on football), stomps a mudhole in the competition and proves all the haters and doubters wrong!

I don't inherently dislike the Pistol, I believe it can be an effective offense. I don't believe formation was the issue the last few years, I believe it was pace and explosive plays gained from taking shots down the field. So long as we do that, I think we'll fly high. I'm 100% game to watch how KD utilizes it while in Eugene

FishFuskie comes to mind...and rolls off the tongue ever so nicely...

My favorite would have to be absolute beat-down we put on Florida State, but since that's already been covered here I'll add one more: January 3rd, 2013. De'Anthony Thomas catches the opening kickoff and races down the sideline setting the tone for what would become a 35-17 trucking of Colin Klein (Mr. Band-aid himself) and Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl. That was such a fun game to watch and felt like it perfectly encapsulated what the Oregon brand really is...here's hoping we get back to that sooner rather than later!

At the risk of being bland, I know 100% what I want to see from OBD on the field this year: I want to see us be competitive and disciplined in every game, and I want us to absolutely throttle the teams we should beat. No more eeking out a last second touchdown with 2 minutes to go against an inferior opponent! I want an aggressive defense and an offense to match! I want to establish the pass to open up HUGE running lanes where Cardwell gashes their defense for MASSIVE chunks of yardage. I want to utilize our 6'4" receivers and push the ball down the field! I want the D-line to be solid so our BEAST-MODE linebackers can run wild! Maybe I'm not being bland after all...maybe I want too much. At the end of the day what I really want is disciplined aggression and intelligent effort on every down. If we get that and come up short, well then I can handle that...but if we get that I'm willing to bet that coming up short won't be something we have to worry very much about SCO DUCKS!

I believe this is the link... Border Battles: 5 key 2023 recruiting clashes in Pac 12 territory (on3.com)

and here I always thought 'the drip' was something a Dr. was supposed to check out...reminds me of several years ago my niece calling something "ratchet" and the look of utter bewilderment that must have crossed my face. Here I am at 42 and already talking about "kids these days". I suppose it's only a matter of time before I'm yelling at them to get off my lawn.

This may not be the place for this, but I'd like to share a funny story with you all. I believe it was 2008. I was at DFW airport and wearing one of my Oregon hoodies and had called for a cab. I noticed a tall, extremely tan, white-haired man flag down what was my cab. I'm 6'1" and this gentlemen seemed a couple inches taller than I am. At any rate, I walked up to let him know it was my cab to which he apologized for trying to nab my taxi and then asked if I was an Oregon fan. While it seemed obvious, I politely answered that I was a die-hard Ducks fan. He then told me that he was down here from USC to talk to a recruit, and that we were about to have an electric running back that was going to break every rushing record we had at Oregon. I asked in dismay if this new back was going to be more fun to watch than Blount to which he responded, "you won't even remember Blount once this guy gets there". Needless to say, he had been in Texarkana trying to recruit LaMichael James and knew it hadn't gone well but gave me a foreshadowing of what was to come. He wasn't wrong though as James was ELECTRIC, although I still fondly look back on watching Blount absolutely truck people en route to yet another Oregon touchdown.

It seems I've stumbled upon a gathering of loquacious troglodytes here...

Sorry, just coming back from a long weekend in the RV. I really do understand the perspective being laid out here. However, I have to counter with this: Clemson is who they are in spite of their conference, not because of it. They played on the stage with 'Bama and won, period. Oklahoma is the Clemson of the Big12 with one really glaring caveat; they lost (on the same stage Clemson played on) and are rightly being lambasted in this thread bc of it. Perhaps being the big dog in a weak conference is a way to get on the stage, but if you don't win when you get there it accomplishes nothing. Being the big dog in a stronger conference allows you to slip and still get to the playoff, bc a one loss (and sometimes two loss) SEC team is always invited to the cookout...

I'm content to thank MC for his service and let him go. Adding some sort of "revenge game" with Miami really does us no good as we'd assume all of the risk with no real payout that I can see. Miami on the other hand would benefit greatly from this. In my mind, making this game happen would be doing him a favor...and while I'm grateful that he left such a good roster for DL and crew, I have no intention in thanking him by giving him a possible platform to skyrocket from.

Point is, we believe USC is back. There's nothing we can do about that, and putting our fingers in our collective ears and saying it isn't so won't help matters. If I understand your perspective correctly, you'd rather be the top dog in a weak conference while I'd prefer to be a top dog in a stronger conference (ie 'Bama or Georgia). I like the idea of having a stronger conference and not being laughed at as barely being better than a group of 5 conference (which BYU made us look like last year). Thing is, Utah is good, we think USC is back and Oregon is still on the rise. If Washington/Stanford can get their act together (God forbid), then we won't be the laughing stock of the power 5 any longer and a PAC-12 Conference Champion will carry some real weight with it into the CFB Playoff and that's good for all of us...

It's my sincere hope that it's TT. Much as you've already stated, we need to be able to not only recruit top-tier talent, but also groom and coach that talent into an NFL caliber player. We've shown that we can recruit that into Eugene but if we don't develop and play that talent, then we're going to lose the ability to get it here in the first place. I've been over this transfer stuff since the Prukop disaster...