Jon Sousa

That was an impressive catch! And he made it look routine.

OK, I'm a little late to the party here. I read this earlier in the day and have been chewing on it for a while. When I first read down through the information here, my only thought was that since the forum started it seemed like people were trying to start a bunch of threads just to start threads. I see now, that this was by design. Charles wrote in the original thread: --If a ton of new stuff is not posted every day, then readers go away nearly overnight; we saw this earlier this week when I took a few days off from this forum. (So somebody has to be posting stuff throughout the day) I disagree. When you have a bunch of new stuff that is posted throughout the day you have looks but you don't have interaction because it's stuff that people aren't that interested in discussing. Look back over the last couple weeks and see how many posts have 60 to 90 looks but there are no comments, or maybe just one, because someone feels they have to "prime the pump". Posting stuff throughout the day just to hold onto readership is trying to "prime the pump." In my view, it's not very smart way to build what we all want here, which is a safe place to discuss Ducks stuff. The fact of the matter is, we don't have to "build" the safe place to discuss Ducks stuff... because it is already built. It is what we have right now. It seems that Charles thinks that we have to have zillion hits every day to be successful, and we don't. We don't have to try to "hold on to" readers and contributors. If Charles puts the site into "moth balls" for an undetermined amount of time there will be exactly zero readers and contributors. Charles states that his volunteer moderators all resigned. He didn't say why, but I am guessing that the job required more time and energy than they were originally envisioning it to be. One thing I have noticed is that the moderators were often the people posting a bunch of new threads and were often the only ones responding to the threads that no one else was commenting on. What is wrong with not posting anything unless you are really interested in posting it... to share valuable and fun information and/or to get feedback from others? What is wrong with allowing the forum to grow naturally over time as likeminded Duck fans gather to share their thoughts without the vitriol that is present on other sites? What is wrong with having fewer threads and fewer comments if that means we won't wear out our valuable volunteers? On a normal day, when I am not too busy, I check in here 2 to 4 times a day to see if there is anything that interests me. I have only posted a new thread once, and I don't usually comment on even 1/5 of the threads I read. I do try to give a thumbs up or a "thank you" to encourage some of the posters who have no comments or reactions. Most people are too busy to hang out here just waiting for someone else to post something new... so, why do we want to keep posting new things throughout the day just to keep people here??? We don't have to be the most visited Ducks site in the world, we just have to be the best... and that is what Charles has created here.

This is one reason that Alabama has had a lot of recruits down through the years - Highly rated recruits that after a couple years don't think that they we make it after all (along with great recruits that did make it and declare early - Oregon will be getting more of these openings as time passes). For the above reasons, great recruiting schools continue to be able to recruit 25 every year in spite of an 85 total limit. Being able to recruit 25 every year, of course, helps you stay in the top 5 of the recruiting classes. Not all elite recruits turn out as elite players on elite teams. The high end recruiters therefore get more high end recruits to sift through to find those who can truly contribute.

I thought stuff was enough.

I find myself thinking the same. We could get into the playoffs this year and next, but best chance to win it all comes in 2023 and beyond. My reason? For the team to be truly MC's team, he has to be recruiting for at least 5 years. Also, if the coaching needs an upgrade somewhere, it gives 3 years for that to happen. Downside to 2023 thinking: I like our chances with Moorhead, and he could be gone by then if the right job comes knocking.

I remember that during the first couple of games last year, that the announcers were saying how Shough was a "true duel-threat QB." At the time I thought, "What a joke!", knowing that he was always considered a pro-style. O-Live has an article out today that says that all of the QBs recruited under MC have been pro-style.

We can certainly hope that is the case. Nothing to see here guys!

What makes a pro-style different than a dual threat? The pro-style guy has to leave the pocket now and then. What does he do? He avoids tackles. He learns how to juke a defender. Maybe a pro-style is pro-style just because his HS coach doesn't want his QB to run... especially when he doesn't have a decent back-up. The only difference I can see is natural ability. A true dual-threat has speed and a natural ability to avoid tackles. In most RBOs and "reads" the QB pulls the ball and runs for daylight. He doesn't have to juke anybody, especially if that side of the field is cleared out by the WR. Any pro-style guy can do this. In a RPO style offense, the QB has to run sometimes, not to gain 100 yards per game, but to keep the defense honest. If the defender is "staying home" to watch the QB, that is one less guy available to chase the RB. I see no problem with our recruiting QBs. I also think that in this case and for as long as he is at Oregon, Moorhead will have a big say in who they recruit at QB.

I don't think any coach is going to look past the Ducks. They will get the most recent videos and they know Dana Altman. With so many new pieces every year, little wonder it takes a while to get the team playing like a team. It seems like the buy in was a lot faster this year by the transfers. They came to Oregon to make a run in post season... and they knew that Altman's the guy to take them there. With guys in the NBA, and especially with PP, who was under Altman for 4 years making the most noise, buying in ASAP makes sense.

What I'm thinking is, how do we trust any of these polls? 17 teams above them have a worse record. Recent performance (10-1) counts?

So the Ducks just one the PAC 12 regular season. There are two teams in the PAC 12 in the AP top 25. The PAC 12 regular season champions are not one of them. The Oregon Ducks have a better record than 16 of the teams in the top 25. They also have the exact same record as BYU, a team that is also outside the top 25, but garnered 26 more points than Oregon. Any thoughts? Oregon won 10 of the last 11 games. Does that count for nothing?

I, for one, am glad he is not back. (I never thought I would ever say that.) However, Chip had/has his problems. The biggest one is recruiting. We were all afraid when he went to UCLA because (if he was a recruiter) UCLA is a lot "easier" to recruit to. Another problem is his people skills. Not only do the press not like him very much, but more importantly, he didn't know how to schmooze the donor base. During his years there was a lot of rumblings among the higher echelon of the fan base (I am not talking about Uncle Phil) that his people skills were lacking. Last, but not least, many fans did not like his ego and stubbornness in play calling and many other areas. Looking back it is easy to remember "the good old days", and much harder to remember the things we didn't like about them. The most important thing, of course, is winning... and that is why the stuff folks didn't like were tolerated. If CK was winning big, we would be ruing the fact that he didn't come back to the Ducks. Right now I am pretty happy being ranked with the #4 recruiting class in the country (Rivals) instead of #32.

So.... we will have to wait and see.

Narbonne High here. There were 1500 in my 10th grade class. I don't know how many of them graduated because I graduated early. We were told that we were the largest class in school history.

After saying this line, several times, he added this: "Eugene, from Eugene, in Eugene, for Eugene."

And Russell Wilson lost to the Ducks in the Rose Bowl.

On a normal year, I totally agree with the sentiment. The reason is that in a normal year they are playing a lot more warm up OOC games. This year they scratched games together where they could. Will all the new freshmen as well as transfers, there were not enough games for Graves to see who fit together the best. They were deep into conference play when Graves finally said publicly that he needed to tighten up the rotation. Then he didn't/couldn't tighten it up very much. If the ladies had more games they would be in better shape and more like the team we expected by now. Just another thing to blame on COVID.

Good game. Very close most of the way. Bruins had a good hot streak in the 2nd half. Soon after Walton asked, "Can they sustain it?" the Ducks made their move. Happy dance.

Rebuilding. Five 5-star recruits do not a championship team make in their freshmen year. One thing we have to remember is that if Oregon was in a different conference, we wouldn't be looking at so many losses. Before last Sunday, Oregon had only lost to top 10 teams. The problem and the advantage that Oregon has is playing in this conference. Its a problem because you lose more games in a rebuilding year you look and feel worse than you are. It's a blessing because every year Oregon gets to play against a lot of top tier teams, which can only help them in the Dance. Oregon State is a very good team with a very good coach. They are also normally in the upper stratosphere of teams. It is no shame to lose to OSU. Oregon is sitting at 13-7. If they are in a different conference they would be sitting 19-1, ranked perhaps 2 or 3, and unfortunately not at all battle tested for entering the Dance. We fans would be expecting a final 4 and we would no doubt be very disappointed and wondering how they could fall apart at the end of the year. Much better for everyone on the team to be in this conference, sitting at 13-7, with a realistic view of where they stand nationally. It helps everyone involved to work harder and strive to be their best selves. Where do they stand nationally? Realistically, I think somewhere between 7 and 12.

I expressed this desire a while back when the first mocks came out. While it's a long shot, trading up for Sewell is a great long term investment. I say GO FOR IT!

This says something about Big Play VA. Good on both of them.

Hayward Field is definitely BIG TIME!

What a great listen! Two things that stood out to me: He told us the why behind why he had the backfield empty, then having the RB motion into the backfield and often immediately back out. It looked almost silly to me during the game (and exhausting to the RB) but it made sooo much sense listening to the explanation given. The other thing was he explained, to a great extent, what happened against Iowa State's defense. What Iowa state did in creating a whole new defense. mid-season, built around the personnel they had. Very interesting.

I think JS is one of the very best coaches in the PAC. I TOTALLY agree with you here.

This was a difficult game to watch. We had some moments.