AnotherOD

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.

AIf there ever was a week to expect Indiana to come out and sleepwalk a bit, this would be it. Possibly the biggest regular season win in school history, distractions giving the head coach a huge raise, etc, etc. But I couldn't pull the trigger on that bet. With Childs being questionable and all the negative vibes surrounding their 3 game losing streak, I couldn't even recommend the -27.

I went back and watched the interception that sort of ended the game. There were over six minutes remaining and it was only 27-20. This play sort of summarizes the day for me. The Indiana DT plows into one of the B gaps and the DE loops around him stunting and fills the spot left by the DT. Harkey picks up the DT and shoves Luli back to pick up the looping DE. This should look pretty familiar to the Duck OL from practice (as the Duck D has been doing the same thing regularly this year). I'm not sure if the shove from Harkey is the usual way the OL trades rushers, but the shove is so hard it actually pushes Luli several steps and spins him (you can see he actually is all the way over to where the ball was snapped) and he is now facing Dante Moore instead of the Indiana rush. That leaves a big gap for the looping DE to run through untouched. Dante is looking for Dakorian sort of slanting in at about 8-10 yards, that might have been there without the free rushing DE. Moore almost has no way of not seeing the rusher -- if he isn't totally staring down the WR from the snap. The announcers say something like "I'm not sure who got their big paw up there on that"; but, it looks more like the defender throwing his arms up and knocking it high in the air because of a surprise reaction to a ball coming right at his chest or face. The previous 1st down play is almost as bad. WRs overloaded right, it looks like a bit of misdirection where the OL pushes all their DLs left and the play is to the right, which they all do except Harkey who gets turnstiled by his DE. Moore avoids him and steps up but as the whole OL has gone left, there is no pocket to step into. Moore gets sacked by four arriving Indiana defenders (two LB who just sit on the play, one DE who gets off a Sadiq block, and one DT who spins out of the block by the Duck RG). It looks like the WRs are there mostly to run off their defenders (and block downfield if the play gets there) and the pass is to the RB coming out of the backfield (from what I can tell); but, Harkey's man is on Moore so fast, there isn't even time for a throw (or even for the RB to get to where he is trying to go), nor anywhere for Moore to really go as Harkey's loose man prevents him from rolling or drifting right. I don't see any actual run option, and it doesn't seem like a deeper route as there is no pass protection. Misdirection, overload set, TE in motion, all for one option to try to get the RB in the flat out of the backfield? Maybe if someone else watches it they can tell me if it supposed to be something else (6:23). In the end there is an illegal shift penalty on the offense and the thing wouldn't have counted anyway. That is why I say microcosm of the day. Simple slow developing play with a lot of eye candy but not a lot of options, blown up by a missed OL block, that wouldn't have counted anyway, followed by an interception where the Duck OL "friendly fires" one of its own leaving a free rusher the QB fires the ball right at, while he is staring down a single WR.

I am going to climb out on a limb and suggest the Duck coaching staff knows this and have been trying to do it (Conerly Jr., Laloulu, maybe Luli). It just hasn't had the same success with OL as its had at other positions. It has filled in with some still reasonably rated talent but it appears the "hit rate" has been a bit low. It happens. I am pretty sure it would love it if guys like Wilson, Rogers, or Crader were so good they could play them meaningful rotation snaps right now. I am going to go out on a limb and say it has nothing to do with not understanding how important the OL is, nor not grasping what "big time" programs do, nor not trying to develop guys.

Yes, we can talk about Julian Sayin being "developed" by Ohio State, but how does that square with other recent highly rated tOSU QBs? Julian Fleming (five star #4 nationally), Kyle McCord (four star #49 nationally), Devin Brown (four star #44 nationally), Lincoln Kienholz (four star #138 nationally), Air Noland (four star #61 nationally)? If it is simply about coaching development, what went into deciding not to really develop these guys? Fleming transferred out and hasn't played and now has some legal trouble, Kyle McCord was pretty much ran out of town, Brown transferred to Cal and almost immediately lost the starting role to JKS, Kienholz is burried behind Sayin and likely will be out in January (St. Clair stays), and Noland is sitting behind LaNorris Sellers (a sophomore) at South Carolina? Shouldn't Fleming have been named starter at Penn State, McCord should never have left Ohio State, Brown should be starting at Cal, Noland at South Carolina (as Sellers is currently #48 in NCAA passing efficiency), and Kienholz really should be more "developed" than Sayin and thus their current starter? Not that you still don't want the best prospect as possible at QB; but, generally I see the position as still largely a crapshoot. With tOSU's defense looking dominant this year, Sayin may not be asked to do a lot most of the season. If indeed a game turns up where their offense needs some plays to win, I could see the possibility of of some freshman there. I guess we will see.

Former Duck and NFL OL Geoff Schwartz has said his review of the film doesn't show the giant mess on the OL that many people have purported (throw me in there too). I don't know anyone I've regularly read more qualified to break down OL film than Geoff (and while I like some of their stuff, that definitely includes Addicted to Quack). Sort of contributes a bit to a different narrative; but, it overall should be taken as a positive moving forward (and I can spoil the ending now, in a couple days ATQ will report huge error rates for the OL and pats on their backs about their "transfer portal OL effect". Obviously playing 3 younger OL who the coaches have barely trusted to put on the field this year was the stronger play). 🙄 From Schwartz: -Moore was routinely fooled by where the sim pressure was coming from. If he thought it was coming from the right it came from the left. Indiana was able to isolate their LBs on RBs in pass pro and it worked well. In previous games Moore/Stein adjusted protections but yesterday they did none of that. -Credit Indiana. Moore was never comfortable in the pocket even with plenty of clean pockets. Just never moved off his first read. Did not play well. -Not as many open guys as I expected. A few times but this is an issue against good zone defenses spanning a few seasons now (Rose Bowl). Indiana was dialed in. -OL was fine. -I know everyone is going to hate this but just the truth. Few individual breakdowns but 4 of the 6 sacks were on the RB/Moore. First play of the game OL didn't handle a twist + RT got beat late. Then on a designed rollout the RT got beat across his face. Plenty of clean pockets with chances for success. (I'll take that analysis over OL "error rates" which either intentionally or unintentionally are subject to confirmation bias from the grader, who is also writing the article)

Geoff Scwartz had some intetesting takes on X.

I see the point but in terms of this statement by McAfee? I am going to have to again say nope. His statement wasn't "against good teams Oregon's defense has allowed too many redzone trips and allows a very high conversion percentage." That probably would be an interesting stat to see. Somebody really wanting to make that argument, if they want to use it as evidence, should actually probably do the work and produce the stat. I'm curious too but I don't particularly want to do the work and look the number up right now either. What is a good team, 10 wins in a season? Since Lanning arrived: Georgia (22), Wash (22), Utah (22), Oregon State (22), Wash (23), Wash 2 (23), Liberty (23), Boise State (23), Ohio State (23), Illinois (23), Penn State (23), Ohio State 2 (23), and Indiana (24). So redzone trips per game allowed and scoring percentage from Oregon. Then do at least 3-5 other top teams and 10-15 games each against 10 win teams and produce a comparable number, and I think we have a great discussion. Instead it was something to the effect of, "I found a little stat, so far Oregon has allowed 100% of its redzone attempts to score, so I think that's a sign Oregon will lose." Well, Indiana had given the exact same number. So, pointing out Oregon is giving up 100% scoring in the redzone is smart and a huge key but Indiana giving up 100% scoring in the redzone isn't a key stat that matters? I see that as a very odd interpretation. It isn't even very logical. So far both team have kept team out of the redzone, but when both teams have allowed teams in there, they each have allowed 100% scoring, so one team will probably lose because of that but the other team is fine? The good news? Finally, after 6 games Indiana got its first (and still only) redzone stop of the season when Sappington doinked a short FG. So, based on a bad FG kick, we probably have a new point of data to suggest really anything about Indiana's defense? I'd like the point and if someone wants to do the work I am here for it. The way McAfee did it is the "I don't actually care enough" garage sale/low rent version of the same thing.

Indiana did a great job with pressure. OL was a concern and I don't this kind of game was outside the realm of possibility. First time I've noticed some flashes of UCLA from Dante. 41 yards of offense before garbage time in the second half? Seems like he was feeling pressure at the snap and well, looked a bit panicked. Gun shy yes, but worse. In the game thread I joked I blame Chip. Maybe I've gotten a bit spoiled with Nix and Gabriel? Got the pick 6 playing at home with momentum yet the game never shifted. I would have liked to have stuck with Davison at RB. Good thing Ohio State showed us a loss here doesn't mean too much. The OL though. It's a veteran group (and should be trending the other way).

A lot of empty seats at Michigan State trailing 38-13 to UCLA. They just added 6 (missed PAT) after UCLA put up 38 straight.

Old Miss not looking too excited about being #5. One has to think they pull away but WSU hanging around.

I always think about that horrible McAfee "trial" antivirus you have to immediately remove when cleaning up a "non tech savvy" family member or friend's pc: "Your pc is infected." "Did you know your pc is infected?" "Aren't you going to do something?" "C'mon man, can't you see you are infected!" "How many times do I need to tell you that you are infected?" 🙂

Immediately as well, I thought, wait, how many red zone trips have the Duck defense faced this year so far? Went to the NCAA site but the search query comes back "No stats available." So had to dig elsewhere. Probably some intern tasked with finding a stat for McAfee to look well informed, when the intern really didn't really have the full knowledge to interpret the number? McAfee didn't bother to look further either; but, you know, entertainer and all. Looking else where, you find: Redzone defense scoring conversions allowed: #127 (tie) Indiana 100% #127 (tie) Oregon 100% #127 (tie) Missouri 100% #127 (tie) Utah 100% #127 (tie) Utah State 100% #127 (tie) Oregon State 100% #127 (tie) Virginia Tech 100% #127 (tie) South Alabama 100% #127 (tie) Rice 100% #127 (tie) Charlotte 100% However, fewest redzone scoring attempts per game allowed: #1 Indiana: 0.8 #2 (tie) Oregon: 1.3 #2 (tie) Utah: 1.3 #4 Oklahoma 1.5 I would say this would be more the proper way to present this stat? I mean, why single out it as a negative for Oregon when Indiana has the exact same number and rating?