AnotherOD

Bryan Bennett Marcus Mariotta Jake Rodrigues Jeff Lockie Damion Hobbs Morgan Mahalak Travis Jonsen Tristen Wallace Terry Wilson Justin Herbert Much has been written about Mariotta finding his way to Oregon; and, it certainly was helpful having Herbert playing football right down the road from Autzen; but, those QBs brought in otherwise? QB is of course notoriously a tough spot to evaluate; but, I would say still safe to question the "great evaluator" tag? Among Rodrigues, Mahalak, and Jonsen, really important spot to whiff. Even in the Herbert year, flipping Tristen Wallace from Ohio State was the bigger splash after Seth Green decommitted to Minnesota (himself an eventual QB washout who ended up as a sort of hybrid WR/RB at UM). Wallace of course quickly ends up in some hot water and turns into a WR at Prairie View A&M. [ If one wants to throw in Daryle Hawkins and Green, you find five recruits brought in for a look at QB who ultimately ended up college WRs, TEs, or hybrid ball carriers (Hawkins, Hobbs, Jonsen, Wallace, and Green). 5 out of 12 QB recruits (42%) turning in college receivers just seems an odd number in evaluating how well someone has done recruiting QBs ] Without VA, it is quite possible Helfrich struggles to even make it to 2016. "Penthouse to the outhouse" style collapse in a single season doesn't appear to have been impossible. 🫤

Nice to see Kwame Evans rebound from 2 points, 4 rebounds, and 0 assists in 20 minutes versus Utah to 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists in 26 minutes versus Stanford. It would be helpful if Evans, former composite five star (#15 nationally), now a junior, could become a reliable 12/8/4 guy this year to go along with Bittle and Shelstad. Former Duke/Ohio State PF Sean Stewart (also a 2023 composite five star and #17 nationally) had a nice game with 15 on 6-8 from the floor to go along with 4 boards. Seems like Texas transfer SF Devon Pryor (who pulled himself out of the NBA draft but was worked out by the Blazers in May) is off to a slow start, 5 points in 27 minutes against Utah and 0 points in 26 minutes against Stanford. Altman should have both a fair degree of talent and upperclassmen in 2025 (plus a pair of international additions). It seems like a tournament bid, with no more major injuries, should about be the floor? Way off?

Oregon's biggest nightmare? • How about "Dan Lanning Hired by Penn State"? • How about "Phil Knight Embraces Scientology?" • How about "Dakorian Moore, Jordan Davison portal to Ohio State"? • How about "Huskies beat Oregon by FG, Join Playoff, Oregon to Play Houston in Alamo Bowl"? Maybe my nightmares are worse than others? In seriousness though: "If Indiana (or any other 'outside' program) does win a national championship before the Ducks, Oregon fans will be left slack-jawed and misty-eyed, crying, 'That should have been us!'." If Indiana, or Vanderbilt, or Texas Tech wins it all, good for them. It would be fine quite possibly enjoyable to see Indiana beat Alabama or Vanderbilt beat Ohio State. It wouldn't have that much to do with Oregon. Oregon would have had its chances and not got it done. It happens. The system has now significantly changed. Someone else adapting faster and getting there first? Sure. Absolutely possible. Good for them. As a Duck fan I have never felt Oregon was inherently owed to be the next "breakthrough National Champion". You have to win it or what's the point? No crying. 🙂

How about $200,000 cash in a McDonald's bag to cast aside your lifelong Duck allegiance and transform Mike Parker style into a huge Beaver fan? You must watch all their games on TV and actually root for them, visit Reeser for at least one game per season, wear their gear out at least once per week (year-round), and regularly talk up Beaver baseball to all your friends and family. You must keep a John Canzano subscription and must bad mouth Nike whenever possible, and only refer to Oregon as the 'ucks?

"Can you imagine where Oregon would be if it fired Coach Brooks before the Rose Bowl?" One of my favorite topics from Duck history that isn't discussed too frequently anymore. Not so much about not firing Brooks, just the many "what ifs/what could have beens" that sort of sank the Duck program in the early 1970s; and, the story of the AD who arguably took an ok program and led it to a decade of futility (35-82-4) followed by ten years of mediocrity (58-56) before the 1994 Rose Bowl season breakthrough. Sort of maybe fits in with the topic of coaching searches, hirings, and firings too. It starts in 1972. The previous 50 years Oregon had been a fair 242-216-28 (with only one losing decade). Jerry Frei, a member of Oregon's staff for 17 years and 5th year head coach, had gone 22-29-2 (but had shown an upward trajectory in 70-71 going 11-10-1 behind the likes of Fouts and Moore) resigned rather than follow the direction of 2nd year AD Norv Ritchey (following pressure from boosters over five consecutive losses to the Beavers) to fire several of his assistants (a story at the time reported in the Register Guard and later confirmed by Fouts). At the time, the Oregon staff included, John Robinson who would go on to win a National Championship at USC and become a member of the college football hall-of-fame, George Siefert who went on to coach the NFL 49s and Panthers (retired with a top 5 career winning percentage among NFL coaches with 100+ wins), Gunther Cunningham who went on to coach 35 years in the NFL including head coach at KC, John Marshall who went on to coach 30 years in the NFL including DC stops with 5 teams, and Bruce Snyder future head coach at Utah State, Cal, and ASU. At the time, the Oregon job wasn't at all viewed as the bottom of college football world, but rather as stuck in mediocrity but a viable opportunity. Oregon had beaten USC in 70-71 and had otherwise been genetally competitive outside a couple paycheck games. Frei had recruited well, and Autzen wasn't even 5 years old. One name that had popped up in the early coaching search (which included over a dozen candidates) was then San Diego State head coach Don Coryell (who of course went on to revolutionize NFL offenses). AD Ritchey had apparently wanted Oregon assistant coach Dick Enright all along, a young former SoCal high school coach with exactly two seasons of college coaching experience (Enright, at 37, was the same age as Dan Lanning was when he arrived at Oregon). Ritchey eventually got his way and Enright was hired. Oregon went 6-16 the next two years and Enright reportedly learned about his firing from a phone call by a reporter. Ritchey then hired Don Read from Enright's staff, whose primary experience had been going 39-52-1 at Portland State from 68-71. He goes 9-24 in three seasons. Oregon' top target in 1977 to replace Don Read was none other than Bill Walsh. The story goes Walsh wanted to be a head coach in the NFL but after getting passed over for the Cincinnatti job, he took the OC job in SD for a season where he learned he had been essentially "blackballed" around the NFL by then legendary but ill-tempered coach Paul Brown. Walsh moved to the college game and picked the Stanford opening over Oregon. The second choice was UW DC Jim Mora, the eventual 15 year NFL head coach, probably most well known for his stay with the Saints (and his "Playoffs? We are just trying to win a game and you are talking playoffs?" rant). Mora was interested but eventually took his name out of the running. Brooks, who had been Oregon State DC in 1973, DB coach for the SF 49s for two seasons, and LB coach at UCLA under first year head coach Terry Donahue in 1976, got the job. Brooks goes 24-49-4 his first 7 seasons at Oregon trying to dig out of the Ritchey, Enright, and Read hole (not helped by the scandal plagued early 1980s), yielding a 12 year run of 38-89-4. Brooks finally goes 28-28 in the five year run up to the 1989 Independence Bowl. John Robinson, George Siefert, Gunther, Cuningham, John Marshall, Don Coryell, Bill Walsh, and Jim Mora coulda been. Or, just stick with Frei and let that staff cook. Instead Oregon got AD Ritchey directing 38-89-4.

Coaches Fired LSU Penn State Florida OK State Arkansas UCLA Virginia Tech Oregon State Colorado State UAB Pending Possible Firings Auburn Florida State Wisconsin Michigan State

I think Bridges was available after being drafted in the 7th round by the Chargers after their last DB spot on their roster was given to 2025 UFA Nikko Reed.

Make that now two Nix-to-Franklin TDs. Nix to Franklin covered by (checks notes) Trikweze Bridges? Flashbacks to 2022 Duck practices?

Decided to further add: Leaving out JCs, OL recruits inside the top 500 over the same period: Alex Forsyth #461 Penei Sewell #53 Steven Jones #246 Dawson Jaramillo #252 Jonah Tuaunu'u #69 Jonathan Denis #303 Kingsly Suamataia #32 Bram Walden #66 JPJ #183 Josh Conerly #8 David Luli #191 Gernorris Wilson #388 Iapani Laloulu #347 Shaq McRoy #95 Fox Crader #247 Devin Brooks #443 Ziyare Addison #102 Zac Stascausky #154 Douglas Utu #161 Leaving out TF and DM from the first group and FC, DB, ZA, ZS, and DU from the second group (too soon to tell), roughly the "pan out" rate of each group is: Inside the top 500: 9/14 = 64% Outside top 500: 1/16 = 6%

I think its less about four stars and more about the numbers of "developmental" mid to lower three stars filling these bigger classes. #603 Logan Bathke #571 Jacob Capra #1538 Sam Poutasi #941 Cody Shear #822 Christopher Randazzo #903 Justin Johnson #611 Loga Sagapolu #529 Jaylan Jeffers #801 Faaope Laloulu #714 Marcus Harper #804 Jaylen Smith #600 Michael Wooten #524 Jonah Miller #818 Kawika Rogers #1000 Bruce Boulton #796 Lipe Moala #954 Trent Ferguson #503 Demetri Manning Here is a list of the mid to lower three stars brought in on the OL this last decade (#500 or lower nationally). Harper turned out to be ok and Ferguson and Manning still may turn out to be playable; but, this isn't exactly a strong list supporting investing a lot in "developmental" guys. Save the years of resources to hopefully have a hit on a lower rated guy and instead get an experienced fully developed guy for a year (or two). No one listed performed at the level of Pregnon. Harkey moved to RG for a number of snaps against Rutgers and I think the spot on the OL that has been graded as most problematic this year looked much more solid. I think DL already is ahead of the curve on how it is dividing up its resources. There will obviously still be a fewer lower ranked guys the staff likes; but, by and large, I think using the portal will be viewed as both less risky and and more "resource efficient" as long as most of the current rules remain in place.

The 2015 season, always a good year to find some interesting historical numbers. That year, Oregon's defense gave up 742 yards and 37 first downs to 6-7 ASU (in a win). In Oregon's two OT games, it's defense faced 108 and 105 snaps (the most faced so far this year has been 69). 6 of the 13 games the defense gave up 500+ yards (including 742 and 641). This year so far the most it has allowed has been 326 by Indiana. That Cal game was Jared Goff's first game at Cal after going over 10,000 career passing yards. Oregon rushed for 477 yards, 180 for Royce (6.2), 101 for Brooks-James (14.4), and 94 for Benoit (11.8). VA had 300 yards passing and 4 TDs (but had the odd stat of having two passes intercepted in the endzone).

Yeah, just trying to guess at what makes sense? I could see Stein getting one of the 200 jobs opening up and taking Novosad to help jump start installing his offense. Keeping open the option of a second redshirt year ends up being a tip of the cap to both guys. Moga must have a lingering injury they don't want risk unless absolutely necessary. Could completely be wrong 🙂

I don't know, do we know this? He had a nice run in one of the spring games (plus some further flashes), and 5 passes and 3 rushes combined at the ends of the first 3 games. As a QB outside the top 30 national prospects as a HS senior, I don't know how many FBS program (P4 or otherwise) would know enough to strongly recruit him for anything more than the position he already has at Oregon (most likely number 3 or 4 QB with an outside shot at 1 or 2). Recruit him because he went to Oregon? Oregon spits out its share of Ty Thompsons, Braxton Burmeisters, and Jeff Lockies. He could transfer to a place and get in the mix for a starting job, but I don't know if even much of FCS is even a complete lock. Montana State's QB was a transfer from Stanford. Tradition powers North Dakota State and South Dakota State both plugged in 5th year seniors from inside their program into open starting spots. There would seem to be plenty of benefit to playing him now. There have been like 5 games where there have been whole forth quarters for a backup to show (to a degree) how his skills look against FBS teams still playing a lot of starters (he might even be so good, you have confidence to add 1-2 plays outside of "garbage time" using him). Two Duck coaches and one Tulane coach (through a fall camp) thought Ty Thompson was a #2 who might be capable of being a #1 someday watching him in practice. It was through stepping on the field they all realized they were playing a future back-up TE at QB. I just don't see how a guy with 5 career passes and 3 career rushes would receive "limited benefit" from playing?

Novosad makes sense. It opens up the possibility of an extra medical redshirt season down the road. Moga must be hurt. I think if you can get a rFR QB 100+ snaps as primary backup, most places do it. Even though he doesn't have a ton of snaps, Novosad was a former top (#126 nationally, #10 QB, with listed visits to Oregon, Ohio State, and Baylor) who has sat behind some very good QBs. Opening up a possible 6th year might be a nod to a guy who has been behind two current NFL starters and a possible future NFL 1st rounder. Moga was a more developmental prospect (#516 nationally, #33 QB, with only an Oregon visit listed); and, it would seem more beneficial to push his development now to see where he is at if the opportunity is there (rather than an abundance of concern over 2029). That isn't a slight on Moga, it is the more regular college path to future meaningful pt. Even if he had fallen behind Thomas, there probably was a series or two available for him at Rutgers. Having almost nothing on film since high school for a former #516 recruit doesn't help finding a top transfer destination either. A guess but hurt (something like a lingering shoulder or hamstring) makes the most sense here.

Josh Pate updated his college football playoff predictions Wednesday and had Nebraska sneaking in as the 4th B1G team. Minnesota 24 and Nebraska 6 tonight.