Mic

I'm glad I'm not alone in giving Mario at least a bit of credit (a lot, actually) when it comes to this great O-line Oregon has right now. I was never a fan of his when it came to his head coaching duties and esp. his game-calling and in-game decisions, but he had a good eye for good linemen and he had a firm grasp on how important great lines were to a football team. Im happy he's no longer O's H.C. but I will say I hope Dan Lanning, Kenny D. and Tosh Lupoi are just as good or even better at finding, assessing and recruiting the players we need to fill the huge shoes of these departing Seniors and Juniors. No exotic offense in all the CFB is worth a nickel without the linemen in front to make it all happen.

Can they really do that? Or, better asked, would they really do that? Might that not also hurt the Pac, a sort of 'cutting off our own nose to spite our own face' ?.

I think that's a very fair judgement of his contribution to the defense, Charles. And when you stop and consider he's just a sophomore with two years of eligibility left - you start to really get excited about the young man and his huge up-side potential to develop into a true pro-quality linebacker. He might need a little more muscle mass, but the talent is certainly there. Lanning will teach him what he needs to do to get there.

Things like this happen because football is not, as some would like to think, a game of just X's & O's but a game of heart, mind, body and soul. Down there on the field, facing a monster of a team determined to stop you, well... you just do your best and hold your head up when you succeed or fail. We know how we felt when Auburn won. Imagine how OBD felt afterwards knowing they had given it their very best?

That was a special moment, despite the eventual loss. It showed the nation Oregon was a competitor and wouldn't back down.

Chip's team? Maybe. I can't recall that either. What I was so impressed by was the reaction by center Alex Forsyth when he was asked about it. (We had it on the blog a day or two ago, somewhere.) He replied that he hadn't really thought about it because he was too immersed in the game (focused) with the task at hand to have thought about it. That's Dan Lanning's impact on this team. We also saw it in the noticeable decrease in self congratulatory antics after a big play by a number of the Ducks including Kris Hutson, Chase Cota, Troy Franklin, Noah Whittington and (my favorite) Bucky Irving. Celebration, yeah, but much more subdued and respectable. Guys, these are just my opinions. I don't ever mean to sound like I have the 'scoop' or I know more than others because I certainly do not. Forgive me if I ever come across like that.

!!

Will this make UCLA's O.C. jealous? Hopefully.

Impossible to know for certain. What I see as Bo Nix's best attribute is his competitive spirit, his will to win. Lanning's had to harness that somewhat because it's also why Bo sometimes makes a poor decision - trying to force things because he wants to win so badly. It's also what drives him to throw his body into the fray to get that win. 110% effort on every play. My memory of Anthony Brown is dimming but he certainly had tons of ability, both throwing and running, like Nix. Did he have that near unquenchable thirst (or need) to win? He seemed fearless. He didn't show any reluctance to run when things unraveled or when the play called for it. But was that spirit as strong in him as in Nix? Impossible to know. So, as to how he would have done under Dilly's offense we can only speculate. I think pretty well because of similar gifts and talents. Maybe better. Maybe not. I've often thought about how Justin Herbert would have done. Same answer. Impossible to know for certain.

Ironic, isn't it? THIS was the position our defense was supposed to be most dominant in and at times they are. But not consistently. Chip's offense will know how to attack any perceived weakness anywhere on the field. We'll see exactly where those weak points are when they play. Win or lose, this game will be another important marker for Oregon and another important lesson for the team, just as the Georgia game was.

1st paragraph: I can heartily agree with. 2nd paragraph: I can whole-heartedly agree with 3rd paragraph: I will, eagerly.

Here's a counter point to that (with all due respect to Uncle Phil whom Oregon, Stanford and others owe large debts of gratitude to): Donating $ to OHSU and other research facilities to search for treatments and cures for cancer is golden. Putting pink unis on football players for a National stage to see smacks (at least to me) as a blind corporate publicity stunt. But Nike has to get the $ from somewhere to donate to those centers, right? GO OREGON

There are probably a lot of teams across the country who would think 32 points is a lot right now. But certainly not in the Pac-12, nor the SEC, nor the ACC, nor the Big-10, nor the Big-12, nor the Big Sky, nor the ....

Of course. I can agree with your opinion on the need to give playing time to O's commits but there's probably more reasons for that then just wanting to roll dice for Juco's instead. And here-in lies the rub: "landing and developing kids" (young men, actually). Oregon has labored behind the 8-ball for decades with schools like USC, UCLA, half the SEC and most of the Big 10 & 12 to "land' those kids you reference; ie the top linemen recruits, or what Charles likes to call eagles-in-the-making. Not all these "eagles" are born and raised in the South & East (Ryan Walk and the Jaramillo brothers hail from Oregon) but often keeping them here to play for OSU and UO is harder than developing them once we do get them here. This situation is slooooowly changing, largely due to Nike's infusion of $ (in getting the Oregon brand out there) and the success of Mike Bellotti, Chip Kelly and now perhaps Dan Lanning in getting O noticed by these so-called young eagles all around the country. But clearly Oregon is still in need of transfers or Juco's to be able to compete with the traditional football power houses. At least, for now I think I can speak for a lot of us when I say we'd all love to see Oregon recruit, develop and win football championships with all of our own young men that we bring in, scholarship players or walk-ons. But we're not there yet. We're trending in the right direction I believe, but O still has a long way to go. How does this all relate to Mario C? Well, at least he was smart enough to know that to get Oregon into the Championship circle they needed to build Offensive and Defensive lines like we have now. He wasn't the head coach we needed to ever get Oregon there, but he was at least on the right track on how to get there. At least as it related to the heart of the team: the Offensive line. I'm glad Oregon has Dan Lanning and Miami's stuck with Mario. But I also give the guy a modicum of credit for helping us to build a line a lot more teams than not wish they had. .

It appears this article may be behind a pay wall as well. Unless my browser just doesn't like it.

The same could be said about them needing to stop O's running game, couldn't it? Yeah, I think so. The 'X' factor here would be: Who knows an Offense like ours better than Chip Kelly? The 'Y' factor here would be: Who knows how to stop (or counter) an Offense like theirs better than Dan Lanning? It's going to be an interesting afternoon, that's for sure.

If we beat UCLA it doesn't necessarily follow that we beat Utah. Nor vice versa. Each team matches up differently against others. I should think last year's performance against the Ducks would give you more confidence than that.

Very knowledgeable post Dazed. Perhaps you're not so confused after all! This whole "gotta go get Donte Moore (oK) and this gotta go get Dowdell (really?) thing" has me frustrated because what O really needs right now, (going forward) is more good O & D linemen recruits. In the case of Dowdell, heck we already have more than a roomful of quality running backs and they're all underclassmen! Our O-line is gonna need some real work going ahead, both in the development of our sophomores and two (?) juniors and in replacing these great bunch of seniors leaving. Imo, O is where it is right now largely because of this great O-line, dominated by the seniors soon to leave, and how that's helped Bo Nix perform up to his full potential. Without the line play we're seeing - who knows? Maybe Bo is just Bo, like he was just before he came here. I guess I'm ranting, but I seriously think O needs to put the emphasis on signing more 4-5 star linemen (if they can find them) and get them here.

Thanks for clearing that up. I was misled then by what the announcer said Saturday evening when he was ejected. O will need all their horses for this skirmish.

Nothing as far as I know has been announced yet about CGD but Charles is right - they've been to a team's field before when the game was on FS-1 (we've been told by Joey Mac). Think of it: 6-0 vs 5-1. #11 vs #12 (and vice versa). Chip Kelly vs. Kenny Dillingham (the younger image of himself, almost) and DTR vs Bo Nix. Both teams scoring at a near 50 point clip. CGD would be foolish NOT to consider flying out to Eugene but they may have to leave Lee Corso home for this one. Too much excitement!

Yess-sir-ee! The same one with that "incredible, nation's best 6'5" WR named Mike Wilson"...yada, yada, yada. Should be a very interesting matchup once again with Christian Gonzalez and Jake Bobo..

Not unless Kenny Dillingham, also getting an extra week, has his own wrinkles to contribute. This is (to use an earlier post by someone's metaphor) Luke Skywalker (KD) meeting Obi Wan Kanobi (Chip) face to face. And because of the 'bye' O will be getting Donte Manning back for the whole game instead of just the 2nd half.

This will be another statistic sheet that should be interesting to check out after the ucla game.

At least the uniforms are a nice-looking dark green with only pink numerals, a pink 'O' symbol on the hip and some other pink trim here and there. That's fine, I guess - and it's great publicity for Nike (and U-of-O) to be getting involved in something so important. I'm just glad they aren't the all pink helmet, socks & shoes unis we saw once before - that was a little over the top, imo. GO OREGON!

I've been getting kinda worn out by all this Mario business but I gotta admit I've been getting kinda worn out with all this Mario nonsense lately but ... I gotta hand it to you EastBay, this was a great post. It hits the nail squarely on the head. Well done! And Charles says he's fair game!