Nevada Dawg

I posted the target article to Charles because I knew it would generate discussion and raise a few hackles. I grew up in California and was a lifelong fan of the PAC-12 and its predecessors (Remember Snow White and the 7 dwarfs) and have watched its gradual slide in the football arena over the past 20 years. There are several reasons for that in my opinion but that is beside the point. Given the system we have, two few teams have a realistic shot at the playoffs. Sure an Oregon or an SC will occasionally break through and land one of the coveted 4 spots. But recruiting out West is going to have to be a lot better for that to happen consistently. Comparing talent on rosters of Pac 12 teams begs the issue. Dudes want to play with dudes, and this is why Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Texas A$M, Clemson, Notre Dame and (formerly) Oklahoma were so darned attractive to recruits. You don't build championship rosters with a few 4- and 5-star recruits. You need bunches of them in all your recruiting classes. I love college football but it is becoming a bit stale. I want to see more conferences represented (especially the PAC-12) and the 12-team playoff format is a way to get that ball rolling. The cool thing about that proposal is that the first-round four games would be played in the home stadiums of the higher seeded teams, with the top overall four seeds getting a bye. Talk about juicing fan enthusiasm! If more recruits see more teams in the playoff picture, this should help to diminish the view that "I have to go to one of the 5 or 6 schools listed above to have any chance of my team being relevant." Over time, this may level the talent playing field and eventually give more schools a realistic shot of winning a Natty now and then. Every one of my points can be counterargued, but the status quo is not good for college football. Oh, and I get the indignation over the "lead the meek to water" quote in the target article. I felt it as well.

Couldn't agree more with this post. Beating Georgia, which has an experienced and top notch coaching staff, in Mercedes-Benz no less, is, in my opinion, a far more impressive feat than winning in the Horseshoe last September. A win there gives momentum that's hard to beat, last year not withstanding, and gets the Ducks serious playoff attention that will be invaluable if they can win the PAC-12, even should they stumble once along the way. I also believe that barring catastrophic injuries, a Duck team that can beat Georgia in Atlanta will cream Utah later in the year, provided that they continue to improve, which Lanning will preach. Having said all this, there is the small task of actually beating the Dawgs.

I think that Nix is head and shoulders above Emory Jones.

Lots of guys on the Bulldawgs recruiting blogs really want Malik. Should be a good one, but Georgia is trending for several top wide receivers I am led to believe, owing to the rumors that top rated QB Arch Manning may be committing to the Dawgs.

One thing I can guarantee about the game on September 3 at the Benz is that Dan Lanning runs the Ducks on the field with a plan for winning that contest. The second thing I can guarantee is that Kirby knows this, will not take the Ducks lightly, and will not let his players be guilty of that sin. I am expecting a fun and competitive game, and yes, honesty compels me to believe that the Dawgs will find a way to "get er done". Having said this, I think that if the line continues to favor Georgia by 15 points, I may be tempted to place a small bet on the Ducks, perhaps to win back part of the dinero I may have to shell out to a scalper to get into the game.

Lots of people still say "whoop" down South.

Big shout out of congrats to Kayvon whose play I admired very much.

Not McDawg but the defensive cupboard is well stocked with talent. The lack of experience here almost guarantees a drop off on defense, but Georgia's unit is always very good and will be again this year. I am most concerned about the interior linebacking crew which is very inexperienced. Kirby will probably challenge that group a great deal this summer with one of his catchy slogans like he used this year, i.e., "You're either elite,...or you're not"!

Thanks for the compliment Charles. I love this forum because, unlike others I visit and enjoy, there is none of this bull of posters going after one another in ridiculous pissing contests that can absolutely slay an ongoing thread. I feel perfectly comfortable commenting on others' posts here because the people here are all about college football and not at all about protecting their ego. Man I hope that it will stay that way.

Good to hear that Lupoi wants his guys to be confrontational--Lanning's style exactly. I'd love to see the body language among Duck defenders that characterized Georgia last year-one screaming "You can't move the ball on us"! Back that attitude up with clean aggressive play and no trash talk is ever necessary.

Jon, I wouldn't have taken you for a southerner but your comments (and from Aiken no less) have convinced me. I second McDawg's point about Dawg fans lovin their spirits. In fact, the leading Dawg blog even has a Bourbon thread which I enjoy very much. Sure wish McDawg had told us where the beautiful vista from his house was located. Looks like the view from my cabin that I had when I lived near Blairsville, GA. Y'all may get more of us Dawg fans on the forum as the game in Atlanta draws nearer. Most who bother to visit will be very cordial and are serious college football fans. One of my best friends is a Duck grad and fan. We hope to head East for the game in September. On the subject of H & H series, Georgia has scheduled a number with football powers for the next 10 years, and I know many Dawg fans who would love to travel to Eugene for a game. So you never know what could happen.

Agree that Bowers is more of a hybrid. Georgia has a freshman Bowers-type clone TE who also got mega-Reps in the Spring owing to Bowers and Washington's injuries. He looked sensational and got enough Reps to contribute this season as a true freshman. His name is Oscar Delp. I know I sound like an overbearing "homer", but I truly believe that the Georgia tight end room is the best position group on the team and just possibly the best tight end grouping in college football history. Barring injury, all four of these dudes will play, and play well, in the NFL in the years ahead.

I fully expect UGA will have some growing pains early on defense in 2022. The question is: Will the Ducks' offense be far enough along under a new staff to exploit them? Fair warning: I also expect UGA's offense to be better than last year's edition which averaged just under 40 points per game. Also, expect to see at least some 3 tight end sets if necessary, as the boys manning that room are huge, fast, have great hands, and are demons as blockers. So CDL's charges had better be good to stay in this one. Don't get me wrong. I am not dissing the Ducks--I actually expect them to be at least as good as last Year's edition if they can avoid the glitches that teams show early on under a new staff. Shoot, Georgia had its share of hiccups in Kirby's first season at the helm.

In replying to Drake's comment above, I am sure that I speak for the vast majority of Georgia fans in wishing Dan Lanning success wherever he might have landed, even at GA Tech or Auburn. The reaction to the successes at former assistants Sam Pittman (Arkansas) and Shane Beamer (South Carolina). have been very favorable. I root for both coaches except on the Saturdays in which they take on the Dawgs. Knowing what I know about Nick Saban, who was called Satan by some of the more volatile posters on the bulldawg blogs, I suspect that he takes great pride on the achievements of his many successful assistants, two of whom (Jimbo Fisher and Kirby Smart) have won their own Nattys. On September 3, Kirby will be rooting for a strong showing by your Ducks, even though he will be doing all he can to beat them while the teams are between the lines. Great coaches are wired like that.

As someone who has followed recruiting very closely since I retired, I can tell you that the recruiting agencies are really not anywhere near the gospel on a players likely success in football, at least. At Georgia, the staff pays far more attention to the staff's evaluation of players, which are often at wide variance with the agencies. Case in point: Bulldawgs defensive linemen Jordan Davis and Devonte Wyatt will be first-round picks in the NFL draft on April 28 after having entered Georgia as middle of the road 3-star recruits. Tray Scott, Georgia's defensive line coach, went to bat for both of them over much higher rated prospects because he thought sky was the limit for the each of them. Plus, the pay recruiting sites pull all sorts of crap like stealing a recruiting star from several 5-stars who were already committed to elevate uncomitted 4-stars to generate "clicks" from fans of the teams in the running for these newly arisen 5-stars. The ability to generate "clicks" is one primary means by which recruiting analysts are evaluated The top teams do indeed trust their own evaluations of players.

No quarrel with Riley's offensive credentials. I do question his defensive acumen and would bet that the Ducks will have the better defense next year and probably for years to come. Here is something to consider: For all the success that Riley has had, he has not won a playoff game, similar to Brian Kelly at Notre Dame (now LSU). So while both guys are darn good football coaches, I'd hesitate to place either of these 100 million+ coaches in the elite category.

I'll say it again: there is a lot to like about this guy!

In my opinion Nix has very good but not elite skills as a QB and something even more valuable for a winning season--EXPERIENCE in the toughest college conference there is. Your younger QBs may be super talented ( (I don't know) but I'd bet that new HC Lanning will strongly favor a very good, versatile, and experienced QB over relative novices. I doubt that Nix was promised a starting job to get him to come (the Georgia coaches have never made that promise to anyone I am told). Your younger guy is getting first team reps in the Spring to keep him engaged, and hopefully the coaches will play him in second halves of games that the Ducks have in hand so that he can develop. I too agree with the posters that Oregon undoubtedly have been more formidable last year had they had Nix rather than Brown at helm.

What a Freudian slip! I meant to say Bo Nix, not Jackson, in my above comment. Sorry.

Bo Jackson left Auburn largely because the new head coach created a dumpster fire there and the program no longer seemed to have a sense of direction.

One more point about Lanning and defense. At Georgia, competition was stressed in all position groups and I am told that practices were extremely physical. But so too was the TEAM ethic. Kirby and Lanning got the defense to always pull together and move to the ball in systematic ways. In fact a good friend, who is a big Alabama fan, paid Georgia's 2021 defense an immense compliment by saying that that unit played like a well-coordinated organism. Lanning was not the only brain child here. Kirby's defenses at Alabama played like that, and Georgia also had the good fortune to have Will Muschamp, a stellar defensive coordinator everywhere he ever was, as a planner and defensive analyst. So commentary in this article suggests to me that Lanning and Lupoi are working to install exactly that kind of climate in Eugene. He is a players coach and, if the if team leaders like Sewell and hopefully the alpha players on offense buy in, the rest will take care of itself.

I agree and will simply add that Bo was a proven QB in the SEC who can make all the throws, run the rock a little when necessary, and he loves to compete. I don't know what the QB room looks like in Eugene but whoever is the incumbent should have a battle on his hands. sec

Yeah Noah was coveted by Georgia and I think we would have landed him had it not been for the existing family connection in Eugene. I have watched a fair amount of Duck football over the past two years and followed along with Noah when the Ducks defense was out there. He is great when the play unfolds in front of him but a bit sluggish many times going side to side. Lanning will get him over that in a hurry, I suspect, and make him the pro prospect that he hopes to be (although he will never go as high as his brother).

My dawgs beat Bo and Auburn all three times they faced him. BUT it wasn't easy and Bo is a player who earned my respect. Tough guy. Oh and thanks for the helmet Mr. FishDuck.

Second reply (don't know where the first went) I am good friends with a big Ducks fan and we support each other's team. After the first Utah debacle this season past, I tried to bolster his sagging spirits by noting that ...if Mario is worth his salt as a coach, the staff will analyze this game, make adjustments, and the rematch in the Championship game should be better. Sad to say I was wrong and the rematch looked like a replay of the first. It looked to me as if the coaches' heads were elsewhere and that they had quit on their team. I am glad that my team's coaches did not do that in its rematch with Alabama. My Dawgs were in a defense they hadn't used much all year and got hammered in the SEC Championship game. It is a bit of an oversimplification, but they adjusted by going back to the attacking defense that they had used so successfully all year and pretty much handled the Crimson Tide. The good news here for the Ducks is that Dan Lanning had a lot to do with this adjustment, convincing other coaches to revert to what his guys do best.