Nevada Dawg

I've enjoyed what I read in this thread and there is indeed reason to be optimistic. But OBD have not yet played a very good team and it is hard for me to be over the moon at this point. The "meat" of the schedule is ahead of us folks! I am almost certain what Lanning is telling his charges don't look beyond the next challenge, in this case Stanford. You have to keep chopping away every week and take nothing for granted. If he can keep hem focused week to week in this way, they have, in my opinion, a far better chance of being able to get to the point where the big goals actually become realistic. .

My take on the subject of this thread, if anybody cares, is that the Colorado game forced people to take a closer look at the Ducks. I am on the record, here and elsewhere, that Oregon is much improved over last year on both sides of the line of scrimmage. This kind of reminds me of the giant improvement Kirby's Dawgs made from an 8-5 year 1 to the natty game in year2, a game I believe they should have won IMHO. Yet, I do agree with Desert Duck that OBDs haven't faced a really good team yet. Want people to really notice and get excited about Oregon. Have them kick the snot out of USC in Autzen in November and waddle into Seattle to whip the Huskies, whom I believe are a really good team. Do that and not slip up elsewhere, and people will be forced to take ODD seriously!

Prior to the game, I had posted on the talkin Dawgs site that I expected Oregon to expose the deficiencies in Colorado's O-line and we know that this is exactly what happened. I didn't hear Friday's Dawgnation Daily podcast. The host there always previews big games for the weekend and makes predictions. This guy is known for a couple major misses every week and often picks against Pac-12 teams. But, much to my surprise, he said pretty much exactly what I had said about the game and I am reasonably certain he had not seen my post. Now the guy likes Lanning and his analysis was that coach DL was putting a pretty fair team on the field on both sides of the ball, whereas Colorado's team was suspect on both sides. He thus suspected that the game could be ugly. Of course, it was pretty ugly for Buffs fans. It is going to be interesting if the Buffs fare much better at home against USC, I am again predicting a loss, but given the way the Trojans struggled on the road against a mediocre Arizona State team, this game could turn out to be closer than most people expect. I can't really see this happening but my good Ducks buddy stopped by the house today and educated me about the Ducks' history of upsets at the hands of Stanford. OK, I get it, but lose to a team that was spanked at home recently by Sacramento State.

With a little help from Touchdown Gosh, ND just might take down the Bucs. That's one I'd love to see.

I expect Bama to improve as the season wears on but they have problems other than in the QB room. Former Tide QB Greg McElroy ( a stand up analyst IMHO) has said as much and is more than concerned about the Tide's season, possibly foreseeing multiple hiccups. Speculation is rampant to the effect that Saban will choose to hang it up after the season and that Alabama goes after "Pirme" as head coach. I am not buying either speculation Nick Saban has always been a uber-competitive guy, and I don't see him bowing out with his tail between his legs. I always had thought that he wanted one more natty and then he'd retire. That path will not be easy in the foreseeable future however. I also fail to see, in the event of a Saban retirement, that a proud program like Alabama would hire a second-year coach whose charges may get their butts kicked multiple times in the Pac-12 this year. Ain't gunna happen!

I can see why the decision might have been made to place on PAC-12. This is apt to be a very noncompetitive game. Stanford is dreadful. n fact, I heard they lost to Sacramento State over the weekend. Can that really be true (I haven't verified yet). I guess every conference has to have a doormat, but Stanford has really declined in recent years, or so it seems to me. Speaking of disrespect though, I saw an article, maybe it was the one on most overrated teams, that Colorado (the most overrated) was likely to get its comeuppance against USC on the 30th, with no mention of that likely happening against Oregon on the 23rd. Sometimes, I don't see how some of these ESPN guys continue to draw a paycheck and, in fact, even though they are worthy of attention, I'd almost place the Trojans among my most overrated teams for this year.

Fresno State is a sound football team, but damn ASU 29-0?

This memory goes way back and excuse me if I don't get this exactly correct. In the days of the Pacific Coast Conference, the Rose Bowl was a mismatch as I recall, largely because of the vast discrepancy in scholarships allowed in the Big-10 versus the PCC schools. The story I heard and logged away in my 10-11-year-old mind was that there were virtually no limits. other than financial ones, on the number of scholarships in the Big-10. Ohio State played a game against the Ducks in a Rose Bowl (maybe 1957) where they had twice the number of scholarship players he Ducks had. Much of the disparity between conferences was that the PCC member schools had agreed on a relatively small maximum number of scholarships allowed, at the insistence of academic administrations who weren't buying the educational value of money spent on college football. Hence the Rose Bowl became a yearly contest between the "football factories" vs. the "athletically disadvantaged". This is what I remember and I probably have some details wrong (hey, I was a kid who believed what I was told). But if there is any truth to the tale, Oregon did pretty well in the mismatch I mentioned, losing to the Ohio State bullies by a score of only 10-7, and I remember sitting there rooting for the Ducks to prevail until the final second. So Jon Joseph, how far off am I in my memories above?

This is not a defense of USC; i don't care for them either. But I think some of you may be a bit guilty of a recency bias. I go back to the era when USC pretty much ruled the PAC conference and it was a big deal when anyone else broke through. Back when the conference was the PAC-8 and snow-white Jon McKay coached the Trojans, the conference was derisively labeled by sports writers in other regions as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and when I lived in Ohio in the early 70s the mantra was if "SC wasn't in the Rose Bowl, bet the farm on the Big-10 champ". And both coaches John Robinson and Pete Carroll had mini-dynasties as well. So the arrogance has a long and somewhat understandable history. Now a question for you guys. When OJ Simpson and the #1 rated Trojans came undefeated into Oregon and lost a night game in the mud 3-O, was that game in Corvallis or Eugene? I think the year was i967 or 8, and all I remember about it was reading the result in the latest Sunday edition of the San Jose Mercury and being shocked at the outcome. Glorious game for either the Beaves or Ducks whomever got it done. I do remember comments coming out of Southern California that the field was not fit for play and the match should have been postponed. Now that's some serious sour grapes that cheapens a glorious outcome for the victors, be they Beavers or Ducks.

Dawgs have lots of offensive skill players (e.g., McConkey, Bowers, Kendall Milton Dajon Edwards) seriously slowed for this one. Others are really going to step up for the Dawgs to cover on this one.

Hey Jon, did ya forget he Dawgs and Chickens in Sanford?

My information is old and this update is discouraging. I had been confident that Baker was coming to Eugene. Other recruiting tidbits. Breland is scheduled to be in Athens for the Georgia game. If he doesn't show, that will be great news for y'all I think. Somebody mentioned Seaton out of Florida, Don't know his status but that would be a great pickup.

I thought that the secondary did enough to keep from being embarrassed on Saturday, but TTU hardly the kind of offenses that they will be facing soon. My first date to circle is the 23rd when I believe Colorado comes a-calling. As I was blacked out on ESPN due to the big media pis-ing contest, I got to see two games in which an incredibly accurate QB, S. Sanders, was dropping dimes on at least three swift and talented WRs. Our CBs had better be able to run and safteys offer support or there's likely to be trouble. As I'm confident the Ducks will move the ball on the Colorado defense, I am hoping this one doesn't become a shootout. With Washington, WAZZU, USC, and the Beaves with DJU on the schedule, we'll have ample opportunities to hopefully watch the secondary grow up and become formidable. Final iconic point: I laughed at the desert lizard analogy as I pictured an ungainly waddling duck trying hard to catch a zippy little lizard.

Jon I am certainly not doubting you but it is really hard to believe that Finebaum would jump ship so quickly and anoint the coach of a team that could lose three games in the PAC-12 as king of one of the most exalted seats in all of college sports. Deion has coached two games, albeit impressively, at the Power-5 level for gosh sakes!

I think it almost incomprehensible That DL would want to move after two years. What do we know, if anything, about the family's adaptation and sentiments about Eugene and the Pacific northwest? The only thing that would give me pause is if there was information that the wife and/or kids were not crazy about the environment--rain really gets some people down, for example. When I left junior college in the Santa Cruz area (beach town and surf mecca), I transferred to a really rainy climate in Arcata, California enrolling at Humboldt State. Humboldt was grey, rainy much of the time, and my private theme song that first semester was the Animals hit "We gotta get outta this place." But I adapted and hopefully the Lannings have too.

Pac 12 way up this year IMHO because the top contenders all have experienced and talented QBs at the helm, and I amincluding the Beaves in this count. By contrast, the SEC is down this year IMHO because they lack this QB experience. Other conferences: This is the year to make hay in the playoffs .

Feel free to disagree but I had some impressions from the first Duck game I've watched very closely. I want to say that my criticisms are meant to be constructive and that I want to see the Ducks improve as much as you do. First, there were entirely too many stupid penalties At one point in the first half, a graphic showed the Ducks with 5 or 6 times the penalty yardage as TT, and at least a couple of those miscues prolonged drives. The Ducks' defense is very much still in the making and cannot afford to be prolonging possessions. Second, while Nix was money at the end of the game when it counted, he kept trying to force too many balls in the middle of the game to receivers who were having difficulties getting any separation. So unless the Texas Tech back end is exceptional, The OC is going to have to find ways of scheming receivers, who didn't look all that dynamic to me, to open creases in the field. That is one of the things that made OC Todd Monken at Georgia so valuable in the Dawgs run to successive Nattys. The route trees for receivers were complex by design to befuddle DBs and ensure that somebody was going to be uncovered. I thought Oregon's routes were rather predictable. One knock I have on Bo is that he often opts for the high risk throw when easier routes to yardage are available. My take on the major reason Oregon won this game came in the possession right after TT went ahead 30-28.I told my Duck buddy that Bo needs to take no big risks here, take whatever the Tech defense gives him, and put up some points, even a field goal' while taking at least 4 of the five minutes or so left in so doing. Points were absolutely essential here, and to his credit, Bo begin to throw to check down receivers, moving the ball in 4-6 yard advances, with a couple of calculated scrambles along the way, to get in easy field goal range--though I wish he'd have taken 30 seconds more to get it done. But that was a masterful drive at crunch time by a very experienced QB. Then we all had to sweat out that last minute when Tech started down the field aided immensely by an unnecessary roughness penalty that put tech in position to throw the ball into the end zone. Of course the pick 6 had made an 8-point rather than a 1-point lead, but even so, that is still tempting fate.in a road game. After the win had been sealed, I told my buddy that I was surprised that more Duck fans did not have ulcers--I had held his hand during the collapse in Corvallis last year as well. He told me "yeah, I've had nearly six decades to get used to games like this!".

How about misuse of definite articles a vs.an. So many people, even those in media, don't know the rules and have pretty much stopped using "an". Drives me right up the wall. Incidentally, my young great grandniece uses a and an appropriately. She hasn't yet become corrupted by the ignorant.

Jon is right. It is a miserable commute from campus in Coral Gables to where the games are actually played. Plus, there are too many interesting diversions in Miami to divert student attention from football games. A now dearly departed friend from high school attended school at Miami for a couple years and said he usually got distracted by girls in skimpy outfits who definitely were not getting on rooters buses to go to the stadium. I think he told me he made one game in two seasons.

Well in my last few years of professor-ing (how's that for a new verb?) I begin to see whole new paradigms for writing the English language. I wish I had written down the couple hundred examples I encountered. Some were truly hilarious without intending to be. Sign of the times I guess, or that I've become an intolerant old codger.

I am kind of surprised that more of you haven't engaged Red Raider with questions about Lubbock, the Raider team, places to eat etc. Maybe because not many Duck fans are traveling?? Over the past several years for OOC games of some consequence, a fan of the opposing team will get on the Dawg forum, ask questions, respond to Dawg fans' questions, and these end up as fun discussions. Some of these inter-fan exchanges have gone on all week, They are really kind of cool and always seem to quite civil. Most of the fans brave enough to hop on the opposing team's forums are typically quite knowledgeable about their team and can be valuable sources of information. Try it sometime, You might just like the discussions that ensue.

For the record, I have never been high on Jaden Daniels. And quite frankly, I was surprised at FSUs physicality. They reminded me a bit of two of the physicality defensive beasts of the SEC's Georgia and Kentucky.

Prior to 2020, Clemson always seemed to have dynamic WRs and QBs (e.g. Watson and Lawrence) who made the best use of them. The pass game is a major reason why Clemson's run game worked. During DJU's tenure at Clemson, those dynamic WRs were not in evidence and the run game was not great either. So I thinks Clemson's offensive shortcomings in recent years were hardly all DJU's doings, I'll let you guys tell me how good the Beaves receivers are (they looked more than adequate to me on Saturday) and I am told that running the rock is an offensive specialty in Corvallis. I may be totally wrong in my assessment, but should DJU continue to develop and to show the poise he displayed in week 1, OSU may well give anyone in the conference a run for their money on any given Saturday. I'm just glad that the Ducks have them at home this year. Once again, I'll apologize for going a little off-topic for the thread.

Good point. I stand corrected. I still stand, however, on the premise that DJU will make the beaves' offense more fun to watch and harder to defend.

David, I share your sense of Meh-ness about B1G football, particularly on offense. My hope is that the West Coast schools spice up that league and help to overcome the yet lingering "3-yards and a cloud of dust" mentality that still lingers a bit over many B1G programs. As for OSU and DJU, the team and the QB looked pretty damn good this afternoon. DJU accounted, for five touchdowns, three by air and two by land. I know the opponent was SJSU, but he threw the ball very well and I fear he would be big trouble if he had better receivers than he does. My prediction is that OSU pulls at least one major upset in the PAC-12 this year. Take them lightly at your own peril. I love the first couple weeks of the season. Lots of interesting outcomes for fans to get excited about until the season gets going in earnest, .and we begin to separate the wheat from the chaff.