AnotherOD

"The Ducks have been doing that and it might be just what they need. Adding a body but not committing a body." Seems like a work in progress? I see Theineman with 16 total tackles so far in 4 games. Mostly it seems like his tackles have been more in his traditional role rather than crashing the box (but I could be wrong, and I do think he has been very good). Singleton, Allen, and Allar had 29 carries for 283 yards and 2 TDs at 9.8 yards per carry. The Duck offense won the day; but, it put up 45 and I don't think PSU has ever given up 45 at home (so a repeat offensive performance would indeed be historical). I was thinking about another big body in the box and maybe sometimes a safety crashing. If the defense slows the run and makes Allar to complete 25+ passes and make maybe 8-10 tough throws (without Warren to throw to), and your offense isn't able to save the day, maybe you feel ok tipping your hat and thinking about a rematch?

In the regular season last year the Duck front was only described as being "pushed off the ball" a single time I saw, against Penn State. Penn State returns three of its best starters from that game, gets back a starting RT who was lost for the season in game 10 who is now a RG, in large because the guy who replaced him is returning at RT after being so good in the playoffs he won the spot. They also appear to have a strong blocker at TE and some OL depth. Plus, two future NFL RBs. Their OL pushed the Duck DL in part through effective use of double teams, and often got bodies comfortably into the LBs. If somebody with a more accomplished eye would like to comment that would be appreciated; but, at least to my eye, making moves to "load the box" has been a step the Duck D has largely been reluctant to regularly commit to. I'd like to think steps like "better run fits", "improved eye discipline", etc, etc fixes the gap from last year but don't know it will prove that simple. Overwhelming an opponent with really good players and taking an easy 4+ yards all day I won't say is undefeated (but goes a long way). Taking out a sack and a kneel down, I think 20 of PSU's 32 rushes last year went for 4 or more yards, including 10 plays of 10 or more yards

Beavs at 106 yards offense at just about 4.0 yards per play. 3 completions. Arguably didn't necessarly look super duper but fair results.

Back in the day when RBs were king, Willhite was thought to potentially be a Hershal Walker, Marcus Allen, Eric Dickerson level recruit. He was named the HS player of the year over the likes of Marcus Dupree and Bo Jackson. Some services, back in the Prepstar, Superprep, Parade days had him #1 not just at RB but overall. Shocked the college football world flipping to Oregon on signing day. He had run a 10.5 100 meter and 20.8 200 meter in high school and apparently had dreams of running in the 1984 Olympics in LA, planning to pursue both football and track. Track was not near as big at UW and apparently there was some question whether Don James would really allow Willhite out of Spring practice to fully participate. Stories go when there were rumors Willhite was wavering on his UW committment, the Huskies sent their top recruiter down to Sacramento to lock things up on LOI day (Al Roberts) and he arrived at 7am to a Duck assistant coach (Jim Skipper) already there. Roberts reported asked Skipper why he was there and Skipper told him "He never told me no". Anyway, the short version of the rest of the story is he badly injured his hamstring as a high school senior running track and reinjured it at the opening of his first camp. Couldn't run for months and missed both his freshman football and track season. From there, battled injuries, struggled with "conditioning", and the dreaded "attitude" questions. Never recovered his speed with a top 10.92 100 meter time before leaving track, and ended up a fullback at Oregon, playing more finally as a senior where Brooks himself remarked he "had become a pretty good fullback for our team". Ended up his Oregon career with 182 carries for 731 yards (4.0) and 2 TDs. I think I put Willhite at the top because it was during a period of Oregon football I guess is sometimes referred to as "the suffering" from about 1967 to the Independence Bowl in 1989. Oregon went 89-146-6 over the period and without a bowl. The decade prior they had gone 59-38-5 with a Sun and Liberty Bowl. Willhite in 1982 was supposed to be the level of recruit that was going to turn things around. Rich Brooks famously was quoted during a preseason press session in 1987 ending his period of questions with, "Today is the first time in six years I haven't had a Kevin Willhite question." (After the laughter apparently died down, Rich went on to say, "I'm here to tell you Kevin Willhite is a graduate of the University of Oregon and I'm proud of that. He was not a total failure like some writers have said in the past several years." The Willhite saga was a pretty huge deal.)

It certainly will help if the Duck offense comes out and scores TDs on its first three drives like last season. It would take quite a while to look up; but, I'd imagine that isn't something Penn State gives up at home often to anyone either.

As a Duck fan, I was pretty happy to escape the 2024 B1G Championship game with a "W" and no major injuries and at the time mostly looked forward to the playoffs rather than read a bunch of post game discussion. I recall some talk (including here on OBD) that was essentially "exactly how bad is this rush defense?" Penn State indeed ran for 297 yards on the Duck defense at 8.7 ypc. 10 of their 34 rushes went for 10+ yards, including rushes of 41, 32, 26, 24, and 22. That's with Harmon, Caldwell, Burch, Uiagalelei, Tuioti, Boettcher, and Washington in its front. That's against a Penn State offense that wasn't exactly hiding what it wanted to do. On the year, it was going to run one of their two RBs: Allen or Singleton (or run TE Warren); or, throw a pass to one of those 3, a fairly remarkable 64.5% of the time (581 out of their 901 running attempts or completed passes were to Warren, Allen, or Singleton). In the championship game, that hit 74.1%. Despite entering the 4th quarter down 14, PSU didn't exactly abandon the run, keeping a roughly 50/50 split. Does the defensive scheme look like it will approach PSU differently this year? Does the talent so far look much better with the Duck box defenders? PSU had more success moving Oregon's front with double teams last year than any other opponent, will that repeat itself? Does the staff appear less loath to commit more resources to the box if it needs to than in the past? Many questions.

The Smart/Lanning approach seems to work best with a monster elite 330+ pound future NFL NT. While far from an unknown last season, I still felt Jamaree Caldwell was a bit of an unsung hero last year. This year the defense has three young guys who fit the profile but are still finding their way. The staff didn't seem to love anything in the portal at NT above the young guys so maybe that is promising. Maybe some of it is simple growing pains. The rise of the Kirby Smart defense was (obviously) greatly aided by having 6 future NFL defenders to put in the box. The Georgia staff finding how to best leverage that advantage might have been much of their "secret sauce" rather than anything scheme (and that isn't at all a put down, rather good coaching). Penn State obviously has a pair of good backs. Allen so far is 34-273 at 8.0 ypc. Singleton is 41-179 at 4.4 ypc. (Penn State so far has been 51% run). Maybe "mildly concerned" if Penn State can methodically rush the ball and put together long drives, keeping the Duck offense on the sidelines. I'm sure Penn State will be happy to try to play a game limiting Oregon to 2 possessions per quarter and not shoot it out.

I just realized I haven't seen A'Mari? (Edit) There he is next drive.

Oregon 49-9 2 TOs 4 Sacks 303 Yards

Has to still be Kevin Willhite (1982), no?

Well said. Though some might argue UCLA having Sam Gilbert and a lucrative NIL program as early as 1964 helped too 🙂🙂

Cristobal's 2020 class. It still has 5 guys in year six of college ball: • Robbie Ashford (Wake Forest) • Kris Hudson (Arizona) • Justin Flowe (UNLV) • Jaylan Jeffers (UCLA) • Jonathan Denis (Louisiana Tech) Very mixed results for a class ranked #14: Noah Sewell seems to be doing well with the Bears, TJ Bass is a backup OG for Dallas, Harper and Manning were contributors at Oregon, I think Bennett Williams is playing in Canada. I think like 17 out of the 22 commits either transferred or washed out.

"In what capitalist enterprise does an entity that invests more money in its product and receives a better return than those that invest less agree to split its share equally with less successful competitors? Where and when this model has been tried out, entire economies have failed." I've always viewed team sports a bit differently. When you go full capitalism, you tend to end up with a few big winners capturing the market and maybe a few small niche or bargain brands gobbling the crumbs. Sports at its root is about competition and if that is nearly destroyed by allowing a few top schools have insurmountable resources, the other 120 schools will become the Washington Generals. With college sports people pay to enjoy that competition. With a stapler, no one is paying to enjoy the stapler manufacturing companies battle it out to see who can build the best stapler, they just want their papers stapled together dependably as cheaply as possible. Under Riley, Oregon State had some good teams. They actually were even decent as recent as 2022. Excessive media influence, NIL, and the portal have reduced Oregon State to a unwinnable game against Oregon next week. I mean, its nearly impossible to come up with a scenario Oregon loses this game. Just keep give more resources to the top teams and college football is going to be 8 Ohio States, 8 Miamis, and 120 Wake Forests. An alternative is recognizing top teams already have a huge advantage and work towards "a rising tide lifting all boats". NFL style. The top college football programs seem to be doing fine right now. Everyone else? Go check out the Oklahoma State forum and see what they are thinking their next decade is going to look like. With no balanced ownership, no true partnership with the players, or meaningful governing bodies, its easy to see the tendency for a money grab.

It would have been more than just an amazing block. On Nov 17, 2012, Dakorien would have been 5! (Sorry couldn't resist) 🙂🙂

I am sure there will still be a few growing pains here and there. I am more worried that DM is going to be so good (with a so far mixed predicted NFL QB draft class) that the NFL is going to come hard at him. Before the first snap, a good season and a return for 2026 seemed a possibility. Already it seems much less likely.

Was Skattebo for Dillingham as Penix was for DeBoer?

I guess this goes pretty deep into the "holding a small grudge" category; but, haven't been a huge Kirk Ferentz fan since 2004. Bellotti and staff went all out recruiting that year. For the time, Oregon really pulled out all the stops, pursuing top recruits all over the country, big "recruiting weekends" (I think this was the year Oregon using the private jet for recruits became a thing). Oregon went on to finish #12 in the country largely behind the De La Salle group, a huge success at the time; but, it was in on a number of top kids that would have really caused a stir if Oregon landed them (I am remembering names like Marshawn Lynch, Phillip Mbakogu, Chilo Rachael). Well, Oregon had gone all the way to Iowa and gotten interest from consensus five star LB Kyle "Bonecrusher" Williams and another highly rated recruit (I am thinking DL Ryan Bain). Prior to LOI day, Oregon was producing a bit of a buzz in the college football world, being in on so many top kids. A journalist even contacted Ferentz and he went on record in an interview saying something pretty close to (this is a paraphrase): "I don't know what they are doing, coming all the way out here talking to "our" kids, wish we had that kind of money to burn". Now this was before either kid had committed. "Our kids" just meant kids from the state of Iowa. Like it was crazy for any program outside of the "blue bloods" to even dream of recruiting nationally. Now, given what happened with "Bonecrusher" (to this day listed as Iowa's highest all time rated recruit), a series of violent assaults in 2006 that landed him 37 years in prison, maybe it's time to forgive Kirk? To Kirk, it appears Oregon "thinking big" in recruiting was apparently almost absurd. That decision seems to have worked out ok for Oregon.

Oregon 44-9 1 TO 4 Sacks 281 Passing Yards

Benson certainly could be a huge wild card, that might pay unexpected dividends this year (and possibly even next if he gets his second JUCO season back). Lily Crane even wrote an article for SI.com called: "Oregon Duck's Malik Benson: One of College Football's Most Overlooked Players?" For those unfamiliar, Benson played every game for two season for JUCO powerhouse Hutchinson CC in Kansas. He caught 97 passes for 2,152 yards and 21 TDs there, and emerged as the #1 overall JUCO recruit and a mid four star committing to Alabama. His first year there he played in all 14 games but only ended up with 13 catches for 162 yards and 1 TD in a role as sometimes WR3. He transferred to FSU, presumably looking for a bigger role, then hurt his foot in their Spring game. From there he played in all 12 games of FSU's unhappy 2-10 campaign. He was their second leading WR with 25 catches for 311 yards and 1 TD (with the highest per target success rate, second highest yards per target, and second highest explosiveness rate among their WRs). As Solar points out, he ran a blazing 10.4 in high school and I've found a couple places giving him praise for "polished route running". Other reports have used: "explosive", "a slippery open field runner", "good balance and the ability to break tackles", and "a special athlete with major big-play ability". His somewhat limited impact so far at the FBS level? Described as being behind Jermaine Burton (Cincinnati) and Isiah Bond (Cleveland) at Alabama (and possibly not the best fit for the offense Alabama was running for Milroe); and, just being caught up in everything going wrong at FSU. I also found one note from FSU in 2024 (for whatever it is worth), similar to what was sometimes expressed in regards to Evan Stewart last year, that he often appeared on film to break open in the deep field, but for whatever reason, seldom received a target.

I just read over on Yahoo Sport's Misery index (Dan Wolken) describe DeBoer's huge 2023 season at Washington as: (an) "Entire season played on the knife’s edge with a series of Houdini-esque escapes thanks to the brilliance of quarterback Michael Penix."

"How wonderful to see Bama go down. I’m still flummoxed as to why DeBoer is struggling there." Could it be as simple as Penix? The right guy in the right system at the right time? Some success with Haener in 2021 and McMaryon in 2018 but not quite like Penix. I was a bit surprised to see DeBoer go with Simpson (an Alabama recruit) rather than Mack (from UW) or Keelon Russell (five star and national Gatorade player of the year and DeBoer recruit). If he is gonna go down, he might as well do so with one of his guys running his system. I guess Simpson was not terrible but a bit of a "mixed bag" in the FSU game.

Taco Dowler quietly having a good day. Up to 7 catches for 59 (8.4 ypc).

Bedford (#77) banged up? Edit: he was in that drive.

Oregon 38-12 1 4 288

A unnecessary guide to the three minutes from the last scrimmage (starting about the 4:00 minute mark) shown in the video, for those of us looking for any bit of information to pour over from fall camp: • Dante Moore (#5) runs out to start the scrimmage • Dante Moore (#5) with what looks like about a 30+ yard strike down the sideline to Dakorien Moore (#1) covered tightly by Ify (#9) • Jordon Davison (#0) punches in a short TD run • Novosad (#16) throws a deep ball to Kasper (#3) that is knocked away in tight coverage by Finney (#4) • Novosad (#16) with a first down pass to Cooper Perry (#17). Somomon Davis (#15) in on the tackle • TD run in the corner by Jay Harris (#22) • Novosad (#16) to Kasper (#3) tackle by Offord (#14) for what looks like about 10 yards • "Mater Dei tackles Mater Dei", Davison (#0) tackled by Aydin Breland (#42) • Theineman (#31) tackles Kasper (#3) on a short pass, knocking ball away • Nifty screen to Dierre Hill (#23) for a TD • What looks like maybe a TE screen to Jamari Johnson (#9) who rumbles for what looks like a big gain. Douglas Utu (#55) out ahead blocking. Moore (#5) and Ponch (#72) excited on the sideline. Finney (#4) makes the final stop • LB Jerry Mixon (#54) makes a stop • Limar (#27) gets stopped for no gain then gets caught behind the line by (#55) Matthew Johnson right after getting the hand-off • Moore (#5) completes about a 10 yard pass to McClellan (#11) • Moore (#5) completes about a 10 yard TD to Bryant (#2) who toe-taps in the back of the endzone • Novosad (#16) completes what looks like about a 20 yard completion to J.Johnson (#9) who makes a great grab staying in-bounds • Novosad (#16) completes about a 10 yard TD pass to Kasper (#3) over being blanked by Offord (#14) right on the endzone sideline • Aaron Flowers (#21) blankets then knocks away a Moore (#5) pass to Sadiq (#18) in the endzone in single covetage • Moore (#5) comes back to Sadiq (#18) for the TD fitting a pass between 3 Duck defenders in Ify (#7), Mixon (#54), and I think Mothudi (#33) • Lanning and Pregnon (#75) end the scrimmage with some positive words