2002duck

If you are a 5-star and you do not get drafted in the first round of the NBA draft after your freshman year, something went seriously wrong.

I thought King was extremely solid. So was Troy Brown Jr. The issue is Oregon (or Altman's coaching talents) is not a school for centers. We need to stop chasing centers, and go after 5-star small forwards that have NBA bodies out of high school. Also, we need tall shooting guards that have NBA bodies out of high school as well, or can at least shoot lights out. No more skinny centers no matter how high they are ranked. This should be easy to do, right? King: " Named to the Pac-12 all-tournament team … Selected as an all-Pac-12 honorable mention … Member of the Pac-12 all-freshman team … Was the No. 2 freshman scorer in Pac-12 games at 14.5 points per game … Overall, led Ducks in scoring (13.5 points per game) and rebounding (5.5 rebounds per game) ... Scored in double figures in all but two Pac-12 games … Appeared in 31 games with 28 starts ... Led Oregon with 16 points in the Sweet 16 game against Virginia … Netted 16 points in the NCAA Second Round versus UC Irvine … Dropped in 17 points (3-of-3 3FG) in the NCAA Tournament versus Wisconsin … Had a great Pac-12 Tournament where he reached double digits in all four games"

Yeah, well that's kind of my issue. We're smack dab in the middle of the I-5 corridor in Oregon, so it's not like many, if any, of these players are coming closer to home. And if we're touting their abilities so much, why would they be scared of 17, 18, and 19 year-olds taking their spots? If it's about NIL money, then that's fine by me. I'm not paying those bills, and their time is ticking- they need to perform to make it to the NFL with two years of eligibility left to prove it. When it comes to super seniors, it makes a lot of sense for me to check something new out if you aren't getting drafted. Travis Dye isn't getting drafted, and neither will Cam McCormick- in my opinion. But I don't want those type of guys through the portal. I only want guys that are using the Ducks to get a better path to the NFL. So, getting guys from somewhere like Fresno State makes sense, because we are high profile. Getting guys from South Carolina that have already proven themselves is more confusing.

When we get these portal players it would be nice to be able to read about why they entered the portal. It seems to never be included in news blurbs.

UCLA is not a football school. There's likely no changing that. They might do well in basketball, though. They have been underperforming for too long. If the NBA goes back to allowing high school players to go to the NBA right away, UCLA's athletic program will be in trouble.

I'm not buying that USC can not be a top dog in the B1G. Michigan has made some great strides the past few years, but since 2000 they have not exactly been living up to a "Blue Blood" program. Oregon has out-performed Michigan and USC in that time frame, and I eagerly await our invitation and gracious acceptance to the B1G. Like Andy Dufresne said, "Get busy living, or get busy dying."

Well, I was being a little cheeky with the 5pm ABC spot, but an alternative of streaming on ABC would be the exact opposite of a win for exposure. Again, Oregon does not need to be a guinea pig in regards to streaming. Streaming is not there yet, not even close. If an entertainment company wants the rights to our games- fine- as long as there is crystal clear language in the contract that 10 of our games are aired on ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, ESPN2, OR FS1. If they want rights to stream those games as well, that's fine. I understand that streaming helps Duck fans that live around the country, but it does help Oregon gain exposure, recruits, and National Championships. You're not going to get passive viewers to use a streaming app to watch a random Oregon Pac-12 game, and we need those eyeballs.

Someone here posted our roster a few weeks ago, and asked who could possibly leave, and I took 10 minutes looking at each player's eligibility status, number of games played, etc., and Isiah Crocker was on my very small short list of players that I could see going. Except for our walk-ons, most of our players have lots of eligibility left, were fairly highly rated, and have actually played a fair amount.

The interesting thing for me was that I thought that this was something the California schools pioneered, became mainstream elsewhere, and that this could be done at any point in time. I was not sure on specifics, just that if a player was given a scholarship to play football at UC Berkeley, for example, they would get to keep their 4 year scholarship even if they didn't pan out on the field. I suppose a difference between what I thought had become the norm from institutions and this "new coach" rule, is that the coach can demand a player to leave to football program, where as in the policy I mentioned, it would be up to the player to decide to leave (and stay to study). So, if a player enters the portal, and loses their spot, the worst case scenario would be to stay at their original school to study tuition free.

Ah. That's a great point. This is also where I will say that it's more important to me that Oregon seeks out the best national exposure for Oregon, and I don't care as much about the rest of the PAC. There should be no good reason why either a network channel, or FS1 or ESPN would not *want* to air all of Oregon's games (except for cupcakes). It's also why I want to go to the B1G as soon as possible. American exceptionalism is taking a beating in the modern era, but heh, I have no problem with Oregon going on a conquest to join the forces of SEC & B1G Powerhouses. 5PM on ABC every Saturday would be nice.

I very much prefer Oregon and the PAC-10 not to be the guinea pigs of streaming games as their top tier. Whatever is going to get us the best presence for voters, future recruits, recruits, parents of recruits, the average lunch pail Joe in Ohio, etc- that's what we need. And that is not Amazon's Prime TV.

I still have traditional cable (and PrimeTV, and all the other streaming services except for Disney+) and I find it a nuisance to watch NFL Thursday Night Football on the streaming app. Is it too much for me to take the 20-40 seconds to switch from the stream back to cable when there is no live action? Yes, absolutely. I like cable, and I like channel surfing. Honestly, I find myself on Thursday evenings at 7pm wondering what to watch, and I invariably say, "crap, Thursday Night Football is on, and started two hours ago!" If it were on a national broadcast or on ESPN I would have not missed kickoff. So, you can count me in on the anti-streaming crowd for live sports. I mean, go ahead and ALSO put it there, just make sure it's on a national broadcast or ESPN/FS1.

Charles, it's no longer "the Ukraine"! Hasn't been for a long time. It could get you in trouble saying such things out loud on public transportation! "The Ukraine" is incorrect both grammatically and politically, says Oksana Kyzyma of the Embassy of Ukraine in London. "Ukraine is both the conventional short and long name of the country," she says. "This name is stated in the Ukrainian Declaration of Independence and Constitution." The use of the article relates to the time before independence in 1991, when Ukraine was a republic of the Soviet Union known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, she says. Since then, it should be merely Ukraine. "After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukrainians probably decided that the article denigrated their country [by identifying it as a part of Russia] and abolished 'the' while speaking English, so now it is simply Ukraine. "That's why the Ukraine suddenly lost its article in the last 20 years, it's a sort of linguistic independence in Europe, it's hugely symbolic."

Oregon can give him NIL money in lieu of a scholarship. $30,000 for one year seems like a fair offer. I suppose we could give him up to $50K. It would seem like a good insurance premium to me. A scholarship opening should be worth $50,000 at Oregon, in my opinion. I have no idea what tuition costs these days, to be honest. I was on scholarship until my senior year in 2001, and the tuition then was about $4,000. I already finished two majors by junior year, so my scholarship was ended. $4k was well worth (my parents) paying for another year of not being a real adult working in an office.

You misspelled Justin Herbert.

Coaches already get paid way too much (like CEO's). But that is what the market will bear. Don't feel sorry for them. As long as signees can enroll in winter terms or quarters I don't care what date is chosen. I would prefer it if the bulk of the incoming players already have many months under their belts before the Spring Game. They should be competing for starting spots, having been enrolled in the school for a while and hitting the pavement already. So, basically players need to be signed at some point in December. Not sure how the new Playoff situation will affect the calendar, though.

Literally...huge get! The CBS story linked said that Burch will get to test his wares when Oregon plays Ohio State next year! Umm, that's in 2032 (or sooner if we go to the B1G).

This is interesting, as I thought new OC Will Stein is known for using TE's quite a bit.

Another advantage could be to tell him he can play any position he wants.

Unless I'm missing something, there's not many of those. We were a young team. I see WR Isiah Crocker (junior) only played 4 games, WR Kade Wisher (junior walk-on) DNP, kicker Alex Bales (junior walk-on) played in 4 games, OL Steven Jones (junior) started 2 games, played 3, Nose tackle Popo Aumavae (super senior) is seeking an NCAA waiver and wants to come back to Eugene, DL Taki Taimani (junior) didn't start but played in 9 games, plus he already entered the portal to come here last year from UW, ILB Micah Roth (senior walk-on) played 5 games..... And... that's it. Everyone else at the bowl game was a starter or played a lot, or were sophomores or younger. 40 players on that chart were walk-ons, for the record.

Well, considering our facilities and the Nike presence are a big draw for high schoolers considering Oregon, I would say that OBD will be winners in this new trend of testing future portal waters. Years prior, they might have not have considered Oregon at all because it's too far away from Florida, for example, but now they'll remember us from their free visit. Of course this works the other way around too, where may lose players to the portal who bolt home to USC, but if we are winning- that shouldn't happen. As for keeping in touch, coaches can only speak with recruits in open recruiting windows, and for roster players- they can only interact if a player has officially entered the portal. You can't just text player you missed out on on Saturday evening's in the fall, saying "hey, I saw you on TV today. On the bench! Just letting you know we still think you're great! Did you see we are ranked number #1 in the first CFP rankings? TTYS."

The 1st round of the 2022 NFL draft averaged 10.04M viewers, while the average viewers for the NBA Finals was 12M, 10.87M for the World Series, and 4.6M for the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. That's all you need to know. 10M viewers with no game being played. Personally, recruiting is much more interesting to me than a generic game where the Ducks are favored by 21. In ideal situation, John Canzano would be enamored with the Ducks, and his children would have gone to the University of Oregon instead of Oregon State. He would have a Ducks Football and Basketball recruiting hour on his radio show, year-round! I'm not holding my breath that any of that will happen. I'm exactly the guy that would rather hear about a random sophomore high school prospect over the happenings of Portland State, UP, or whatever else is out there in the fringes.

If we are going by what refs have decided over this season, I'd say that there should have been a targeting penalty enforced against TCU at the end of the Fiesta Bowl. Michigan got hosed there (and several times before), but I am fine with the penalty not being meted out, because it did not affect the play, and because it was iffy and in an important moment. Which gets me to what I think about targeting... 1) The punishment is usually too harsh 2) If nobody is hurt, it should be a 15 yard penalty at best 3) If a player is somewhat hurt, or if the targeting was "on purpose," then the league should suspend the player for one half after they scrutinize the aftermath after the game 4) If a player targets another player in an extremely dangerous way, and the injured player is carted to the locker room, the offender should be tossed from the game, and subject to further punishment by the league after the game, but not exceeding 1 game 5) Video replay refs should have instructions where the "tie" goes to the player being accused of targeting 6) Field refs should be instructed not to be "quick to throw a flag for targeting," if they didn't see it clearly- no call 7) Coaches should be given one targeting challenge flag per half for times the field refs missed the call, and video refs can not send an alert to review to the field judges if there was no whistle on the play

The Heisman website also says the trophy is awarded to the most outstanding player. Note- not the most valuable player. I would agree that Duggan is more valuable to TCU, but that Williams is more outstanding. If you everyone wants to just point out numbers, Bo Nix beats out Duggan in multiple categories: passing yards, pass efficiency, rushing td's, and QBR. Also, Nix only had 1 less passing TD than Duggan. Williams trounced these guys. He deserved the Heisman. No doubt. And obviously the voters agreed. Props to Duggan for making it to the NC.