Wrathis

Personally I pulled for the all the PAC teams in their OOC games save for UW. It wouldn't bother me in the least to see them never win another football game. I've never been a fan of USC either, but now they'll find themselves along side UW in that my 2 favorite teams are Oregon and whomever is playing against UW and USC. I have to imagine I feel much like those stoic Duck fans of yesteryear that were alive to see us betrayed back in 1948. As much as I hate to admit it, I might actually detest USC more now than UW since I was alive to see their betrayal happen in real time...

Maybe I missed something, but what 'head coaching' experience does he have that they missed? Park Hill South High School as the special teams coordinator, defensive backs coach, and wide receivers coach. He was subsequently hired as a graduate assistant at Pittsburgh for one season before following Graham to Arizona State as a graduate assistant. He was promoted in 2013 to the on-campus recruiting coordinator. He was hired away to be the defensive backs coach and co-recruiting coordinator at Sam Houston State in March 2014. He spent 2015 as a graduate assistant at Alabama, where the Crimson Tide defeated Clemson 45–40 in the CFP National Championship game. Lanning was hired to be the inside linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator at Memphis in December 2015, reuniting with Mike Norvell who was the offensive coordinator at Arizona State when Lanning was a graduate assistant and on-campus recruiting coordinator. Lanning was hired in 2018 by Georgia as the outside linebackers coach. After Bulldogs defensive coordinator Mel Tucker left to accept the head coaching position at Colorado after the 2018 season, Lanning was promoted to defensive coordinator in addition to his duties as the outside linebackers coach. *information linked from Wikipedia*

Thanks for the response! Not to press, but what would you say is a timeline? And how would you define a Blue blood? Do you have to score multiple championships to attain the status and then play for one every 10/20/30 years to keep it? Just looking for something a little more definitive (and I do understand I'm asking for personal opinions, nothing more). Thanks~!

I get frustrated every year with the Irish. They're constantly over-rated and living on a reputation earned when Beano Cook was still a kid. This however brings up a question I'd like to ask people here on the forum: How long can a "blue blood" be mediocre before losing their blue blood status? The following teams come to mind; Notre Dame, Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Georgia Tech, USC etc... I'd love to hear all of your thoughts on the matter

Good grief! We landed the Jahlil's, and now Martin and Presley...and had Gonzalez transfer in?! Coupled with the best LB group in the conference? So long as the Johnson and company can do their work up front, we ought to be SCARY GOOD on defense!

This is the ONLY way I want to start my Fridays at work. Once again, well done Axel!

I wholeheartedly agree with that! I went to school in Tulsa (Spartan College of Aeronautics) and caught all of the HATE Sooner nation could muster after beating them in large part to two very controversial calls (2006). Of course I still rocked all of my Ducks gear, but I paid for it in snide remarks and scowling sideways glances. Given the arrogance of their fans, I was grateful for all of it. I always found it odd though that there was only one OKST bar in Brookside that I remember, I thought you all would have had a bigger footprint in the area...

I know it wasn't intentional but I take serious offense to you saying the Huskies carry themselves with class and are competitive on the field. If we end up in some sort of merger/alliance, you'll soon learn that neither of those things are true...

I think I still prefer a B12 Alliance with a lucrative streaming contract if that's something that could be worked out...

Most Hated Rival: The Fuskies but USC is really pushing the envelope on that for me. I look at the Beavs as a little brother...more pity than anything and I'm sure that's why they detest us. Worst Heartbreak: Any number of missed calls in the 2011 National Championship game and the 2016 TCU Meltdown that I hope to one day forget... Favorite Moments: Jeremiah Masoli trucking Lance Mitchell , DAT kickoff return against K-State 2013 Fiesta Bowl, and Barner rushing for 300+ and 5 TD's on USC. Favorite Wins: Beating Florida State 2015, Beating Ohio State in the 'Shoe 2021 and beating K-State in the 2013 Fiesta Bowl. What is your favorite recruiting win (and most devastating loss)? What's your favorite Georgia college tradition? What's your favorite "away" game venue? Why can't you admit that Texas BBQ is the best?

I've been concerned this recent turmoil would taint his decision, but so long as he's bought into the coaches and community, we should be fine.

This specific case has less to do with Winston and more to do with my own personal loyalty to LaDuke based solely on his loyalty and integrity/behavior.

I've been thinking this for quite some time now...we sure are comfortable helping Uncle Phil allocate his funds!

I agree in that the best from the PAC, B12 and ACC would be ideal, I don't see the best from the ACC staying in a super conference with us. I think the second their freedom is granted, Clemson/Florida ST/Miami/N. Carolina are GONE to the SEC or B1G and we're left with mud on our faces. I think our safest bet is to merge our best with the best of the B12 and level up from there. Leave the ACC stuck till 2036 and by the time that gets here, who knows what college football (or the world for that matter) will look like. That would put Oregon, Utah, Ok St, Baylor at the top and while that's really pretty daunting to walk out of unscathed, it's far more likely that walking unscathed out of tOSU, Penn St, Michigan and Michigan St...

I'm really starting to think a B12 merger might be the best answer, so long as we could get Amazon/Youtube/Hulu etc to do the media deal. That should still put us at the top of the conference power rankings, with plenty of money to spare via the media deal as well as give us better in-roads to Texas etc for recruiting purposes. Unless we get to Alabama/Georgia/tOSU/Clemson status and beat them, the conference wouldn't be as top heavy, but overall I think it would be stronger throughout the middle than the other 2 super-conferences...

My only issue with this is if we could pull it off. My concern would be that Clemson, Miami, North Carolina and Florida State would run off to the SEC/BIG first chance they got b/c it would still be seen as an "upgrade" over the PIGCC conference that was cobbled together...

Let me start this by saying I LOVE that we're a family school. Whether it's Winston's, Mariota's, Herbert's, Cota's etc, I love that families entrust us with their young men and women! These players see their older siblings come here and they see the experience they had and want to participate in that as well. For me, that's PRICELESS! However, in this instance I find myself on the other side of the fence. In truth, I should want what's best for the team period and if that means Eli'jah transferring in, I'd begrudgingly support that. However, I remember just a few years ago when Noah Sewell signed and we flipped Flowe at the 11th hour. When that happened, they gave Jackson LaDuke the option to withdraw his commitment and he refused. He WANTED to be a Duck and even though he was a blue-chip 4 star that could have gone plenty of other places and probably gotten more playing time, he chose to stay and back up/challenge the 2 best LB's in the class. That's how much he believed in our program and how much he wanted to be here, and for that reason alone I'd prefer to keep him and let Winston finish his career elsewhere.

Thanks for this article. While I don't 100% agree that "settling it on the field" is a wrong notion, the writer pointing out that the lifeblood of college football was its tradition was 100% spot on in my opinion. We're losing that and I think that's why we're so concerned about what's going on. In life, progress can be painful and difficult and doesn't always provide the outcome we think it should. Someone previously in a different post had alluded to Chesterton's Fence and I think that's what we're dealing with here. Not understanding what makes college football great (and in my opinion better than pro football) will lead to it being changed to something other than what we loved. However, I'll always be a Duck and will support them in whatever capacity I find reasonable. Again, thanks for the article.

Aside from yet another EPIC Axel post, this has been my favorite comment to come out of this whole fiasco those Spoiled Children dumped us into. Thanks again

When this bomb first dropped, I was all in on the B1G only b/c I believed that everyone (that matters in CFB) would end up there or the SEC. I felt if you weren't in one of these two super-conferences, you wouldn't be relevant and you wouldn't be able to recruit. I still am sweating what this implosion will mean for all the recruits we hoped to land this cycle (Moore, Young, Wayne etc) and in the immediate future. After having read this board, a Super-sized B12 merger doesn't sound half bad. Part of that is b/c I can be selfish and would get to see Oregon games as I live in the DFW area, but I'm starting to think an enhanced B12 could rival the other 2 conferences. I don't think we'd be as top-heavy as the SEC/B1G (Bama, Georgia, tOSU still lead the way), but if we (Oregon) keep our upward trajectory, then we bully our way into the conversation with those other teams and our remaining teams (Baylor, OSU etc) would damn well stack up against the rest of those other conferences. (I hope that doesn't sound as arrogant as I'm afraid it did, I suppose a better way to put it is that our conference champion would still be involved and have to be accounted for in a play off format.) The other idea I really relish is getting Amazon/Apple/Youtube etc involved as the media player and have them stream the games. THAT to me sounds amazing and worthy of serious consideration. Thanks for the thread as it really helped me see the viability of some other options rather than just running to the B1G begging for admission. Also, I now HATE USC as much as the Fuskies for them wrecking our conference. The Fuskies wrecked a RoseBowl bid, USC/UCLA wrecked our whole conference...

Hehehehe, while these moves typically happen in pairs, what if we spurn the Fuskies once and for all and Oregon/Clemson bounce and join the B10 or SEC?!?! There's a very petty part of me that would laugh my butt off about that while leaving the rest of the PAC and B12 to merge and create a mediocre kinda super conference. Granted, I'd miss Utah but leaving Washington behind holding the hot potato really does make me laugh! "There ya go you miserable butt sniffers, now you'll NEVER be able to keep us out of a Rose Bowl again!" Hahahahahaha!!!

This is true, but it would only keep us afloat in my opinion. It would remain the weakest Power 3(?) conference and I think it would still suffer longevity issues (prolonging the time before the better teams were plucked out of this new conference). Granted, this might be the best bet for these schools as a whole, but I have to think joining the B10 is what would be best for Oregon...and while selfish, can anyone blame us for that during this time of upheaval and greed?

Lol! So play MudDogs Bourbon Bowl football and punt on first down to keep your defense off the field and ours on it...Got it, I'll give Dad Lanning a call and pass on the game plan! I kid lol! I don't think most here have the illusion that we're gonna come out and control the game. I think most of us are hoping to keep it within 2 scores, make a decent showing to the nation and walk away with our pride intact.

I do understand the zone-read, but what's quoted above makes it make sense then. If he wasn't allowed to pull the ball in the past, then it was a crippled play to begin with and would make sense why it looks like he was drawing his own card...b/c previously he wasn't allowed to run it. Granted, I wasn't a part of this refuge back then and wouldn't have seen the article(s), but if he was hindered all season and that shackle was removed for the Rose Bowl, then one can certainly understand the misinterpretation.

I'm as skeptical as anyone when it comes to recruiting...and the commit then decommit lifestyle has got me all sorts of twisted. However, I'm now choosing to look at recruiting in much the same way I've been forced to look at golf: put it behind you and keep looking ahead. After every bad shot, I know I'm still just one good shot from par (Walter Hagen style lol). With recruiting we may lose a Kingsley but bring in a Nix. We might lose a highly coveted recruit but flip a Flowe on signing day. "Three bad shots and one good one still make par..."