OhioDuck

Yeah, Seven has the kind of explosiveness where you want to get him the ball with some room and then that speed can definitely make him a deep threat. If we need depth at RB he can always move back, positions are fluid as coach says. I imagine him in the slot, with the outside guy running a slant and Seven running a wheel rout behind him, who's going to cover that?

Great take Joshua! While there are questions going into a season where we have lost a lot of talented players and have a whole new coaching staff, what amazes me when I look at these questions is how many talented players are in the mix to answer them. In most cases it is not a question of do we have players to play at a high level at these positions, but which ones. A lot of fan bases out there would love to have the questions Oregon has. There's a lot that still has to come together right, but if they do this could be a very, very good team.

Yeah, when I lived in Portland, most people I knew were Seahawk fans. Only a few were Huskies fans. If Marcus goes there, there may be a lot more Oregon fans come on board.

I think there is a lot to be said for this. Get all these guys together, have them bond on campus at UO, and with current players. This could be a big, big weekend for Oregon Football! I know it means very little, but I have a really good feeling about this weekend that several of these guys will end up at Oregon.

If he were to go in and win games Husky/Seahawk fans would warm up very quickly.

I'm not that upset with the rule as it stands, just how it is enforced. Maybe just one simple rule for offensive and defensive players alike. You lead on a hit with the crown of the helmet, it a penalty. You do it on a player in a defenseless position it's flagrant. You do it launching at another players head it's targeting, you're out of the game. Wait, that is pretty much what it is now, except for the first part. In this case if offensive and defensive players both lower their heads to make a hit, they both get a penalty. The first attempts at trying to bring these kinds of hits under control were when I was in Jr. High (yes it was long enough ago to call it Jr. High). We were told the rule change was that you couldn't lead with the crown of your helmet. Why? Because players were breaking their necks doing that, it was to protect the hitter as much as the hittee. For an example of this see Marc Bouniconti. Now we know a lot of players end up with concussions and multiple concussions leave some players brains damaged for life. We need to take that seriously. Maybe a soccer type of yellow card, red card system. You get a penalty and a warning the first time. The second time, even in a later game it's a penalty and expulsion for a full game, even if that extends into the next game. A third time, let's call it a season. I know that sounds tough, but when the alternative is players with dementia at +or- 30 years of age, maybe it should be tough.

As far as Oregon playing WSU goes, I was thinking that Wisconsin might be the first example of a P5 level defense Ward has seen. It will give him a little experience anyway. I really don't see a shoot out with Wisconsin. The offense may not scare you, but defensively they make it tough on you.

Yeah, going up there is always a problem. On the other hand, we will have to see how Ward makes the adjustment to bigger, faster, stronger defenders, coming up from FCS. It may take him a few games. Oregon has linebackers faster than most of the defensive backs he has faced. Of course he will have faced Wisconsin by then, so he will have one big time game under his belt. He has all the tools, but that doesn't always work out. And BTW, I think Oregon got a better transfer QB than WSU did.

Thanks, some good questions to consider and good comments. Just a few of my own to add. I think the question of the coaching staff coming together is a common question with a new coach who brings in new people. It might take a little while (and of course with the first game next season we don't have very long). I also think there is a question of the new staff jelling with the players remaining from the last staff. That one may be more telling. Everything we read seems to be positive, but let's see what happens on the field. I'm not too concerned about the Nix staying 2 years thing and losing both Thompson and Butterfield. If he plays well, he'll have an opportunity to play for money (more than college NIL I think) the next year. If he's playing poorly, I cannot see Thompson and Butterfield not getting their chance to replace him. A big plus is we have a lot coming back on the O line. whoever the QB is and the running backs are there will be protection and holes. Wide receiver is young but talented. If everyone jells with Dillingham's system offense could be fun again! On D the linebackers have a chance to be spectacular! If the D-line is good and the D backs are good (don't have to be great) then the D will be good. I think with Lanning's/Lupoi's system unleashing those linebackers the D could also be very good. Will any of the good possibilities happen soon enough to shock the world in Atlanta in September? That might be a tall order. But I definitely think we can be 2-1 heading into conference play.

Bill Walton is a hoot! I mean that in a good way and a weird way (but I admit I often like weird). I know he's off the wall sometimes, but he often has some good insight and he's certainly entertaining! Put me down as a like!

Prayers for healing and wholeness for Coach Johnson. Hoping for courage, endurance and a return to a good quality of life.

The pistol has some advantages for running backs who have good vision and also allows for more counter kind of action. Yes it does have the draw back of having the running back a long way from the line of scrimmage, and giving defenses an extra step to close a hole, but it also allow for the back to see cut back lanes and to some extent get more to full speed when they hit the hole. Any offense has it's pluses and minuses. My hope is that one formation will not dominate, but the defense will prepare for each play not knowing what formation the ducks will be in. I liked much of the older Malzan offenses because they created so much stress on the defense to defend the run and pass at the same time, but that was before they ran much pistol. In that system you never knew where the running back and receivers were going to be. Creating a situation where the defense is off balance and exploiting that is the most fun for me to watch.

Yes, this is a possibility. Another possible headline at the end of the season, How Miami Head Coach Turned a Heisman Candidate QB into a non-factor in One Season. If they could hide the talent of Herbert, they can certainly hide Tyler Van Dyke's talent.

Nix seems to have all the advantages, experience, actually rated higher than the others as a recruit, existing relationship with OC. He is also coming off an injury and I'm not sure where he is with that yet. If he can't practice fully and play in the Spring and one (or both) of the other guys really impresses, it might be Bo's job to try to win back. I'm not sure what Bo's floor is either. He has had periods when he's been great and then when he's been erratic. I think a lot of that is owed to his situation, but if it's not this could end up a hot competition. There could be surprises in store.

I can see why the Ducks would get some respect. There is a lot of talent still in town, and an exciting new coaching staff. Draw backs are of course there's a new coaching staff. How quickly the players and coaches mesh, how good Mix (or Thompson or Butterfield if one of them beats him out) turns out to be this year, how well the whole flock of young running backs and wide receivers perform are all questions? But if all of these turn out to be positives, I can see the Ducks in the top 10, especially if they can pull off that shocker in Atlanta on 9-3. That'll be a tough one though.

Yeah, they seemed to move him around from the video. I'm not sure of his size, but looks like he could play on the edge too. he has that explosiveness coming out of a three point or two point stance. Would be great to see him a Duck.

Yeah, if they play the way I'd really like there won't be 80 plays. 4 play scoring drives is hard to turn into 80 play games. Play fast, play with explosiveness and speed, get your play makers into a position to make plays. It's the excitement I want to see. It's not knowing what play is coming next unless you've found something the other D just can't stop and you run it until they do. I want to be surprised!

We better be able to do both run and pass. If the offense is working well, some will say the run is setting up the pass and some will say the pass is setting up the run. If one is stressed over the other good defenses will adjust and shut it down. Even great defenses have trouble stopping great offenses when they don't know what the offense is going to do. There should be no tendencies, I think this is what doomed MC's offense to mediocrity.

I haven't thought of identifying curiosity in development, you make a great case and I believe you're right in its importance. Thanks for this thoughtful comment.

A little different story here maybe. I grew up rooting for the University of Virginia. Lean years back then, until George Welch became the coach. I moved to Portland in '99 and lived there for 2 1/2 years. Some friends there were Beaver fans and I went to several games with them. It was the Erickson years so it was a pretty exciting time for the Beavers. I still think his second year they were the best team in the country. but while in Portland I also started watching Oregon. I really liked how they played and kept following them even when I moved back to Virginia. When Kelly took over the offense and then as head coach that pretty much locked me up as an Oregon fan. I loved the spread offense with the read option, lots of play action, speed, speed, speed everywhere and playing the fastest tempo in football at any level. As I became a fan, I learned more about the program, doing things the right way, being innovative, creative and aggressive in every aspect of how the program is run as well as on the field. And I guess there is just that little bit of being the little guy threatening the big guys that I like too. Look out USC's, Alabama's, Ohio State's of the world, here comes Oregon! Now I'm excited about a new coach, maybe not a life long Oregon guy, but neither am I. I think Lanning fits the reasons I became a Duck fan.

Adding Nix is definitely good. A good competition at QB will help everyone in the long run. I expect at least one of the younger guys to stick around, win the starting position this year or not and playing with a guy with SEC experience will be great for those guys. I understand the misgivings of some of us, and I say US because I have some. But Nix is not AB. He is a former 5 star recruit who has had some problems, but at other times looked every bit the part of those 5 stars. He has had the misfortune of not having the same OC for two years in a row during his career, playing for a team where there is a ton of pressure, because they aren't Alabama, but are expected by their fans to be and not always having the same kind of 5 star talent around him that he has. I think the Oregon situation this year may just be the place where Nix can thrive and live up to that 5 star rating he had as a recruit. Here's to the competition at QB. May the best Duck win! Yet one more thing to make the prospects for this season excciting!

And Mercedes Benz Stadium is 2600 miles from Eugene. Hmmm... seems fair to call that a neutral game to me. Actually no, it may not be a home game for Georgia, but it's no where close to neutral!

This sounds great! But don't try to trademark it. As a VCU basketball fan I will tell you, we own the trademark. I love this though. The idea that defense is about disrupting what the offense wants to do, to make the offense not work the way it's supposed to is exactly what I'm hoping for. We VCU basketball fans will tell you that not only works, but it's exciting to watch! This is going to be fun!

Don't know about the 8 game schedule one way or the other. The night games are not good for exposure if you want the exposure to include the East Coast. Here in Ohio, I can't watch a PAC 12 game at 8PM PST. 1 PM PST, 4 PM here games make a lot of sense. People here watch OSU or Alabama and a PAC game comes on right after on the same channel. Hopefully they see Oregon and realize how exciting the football is and become a fan, I did. SC will always get top billing for TV. They are in the largest TV market in the country. The draw back for SC is that they have a lot of competition in their market, Dodgers, Angels, Super Bowl Champion Rams, Chargers, Clippers, Lakers... to a lesser extent UCLA. Oregon doesn't have the giant market, so Oregon has to beat them with a better product. The past 10+ years they've done just that. With Riley that may be harder. But the Oregon brand is national now, it's not just SC, it's Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Florida, Clemson, Oklahoma... why do you think many of those programs adopted a fast paced, wide open spread offense? Oregon was winning a lot of east coast fans because their product was more fun to watch, and even those who weren't fans were talking about Oregon football, is part of the reason. I think this was something MC did not understand. Oregon became a national brand because Oregon football was FUN, FUN, FUN! May it be so again!

Yes, the Georgia opener can change things. Even then if the competition is close, then you can still bring in Nix if things don't go well. Part of what I'm hoping for is that there will not be this awful reality of a QB performing at an unacceptable level and never an inkling of having a back up come in. It would have been nearly impossible for Thompson to have played worse than AB at times (not all the time) this past year. In the best scenario whoever wins the position will play at a high level.