mikethehiker

SEC is 2-7 in the playoffs the last three years against other P4 opponents. Both wins from Texas in the '24-'25 playoff against Clemson and ASU. The SEC hasn't beaten a BIG opponent in that stretch.

And don't forget, the SEC now plays 9 conference games. No more padding wins. Half of the SEC will have an additional loss leading to 2-3 less ranked teams. Perception will finally start matching reality.

A few of my observations: As other have noted, we have a very early bye this year (Week 5) along with UCLA. Only Northwestern has an earlier bye (Week 2 yuck). There is only one bye this year for the first time since 2023. There is no incentive to play in the conference championship game after playing 8 weeks in a row. When conferences were smaller and included divisions, conference championship games were rarely headliner affairs. Now, they are extra playoff games with seemingly no upside (unless you need the automatic bid). Illinois is the only team that gets extra time before playing Oregon (UCLA and Oregon have the same bye) - much better!! All non-west coast B1G teams have exactly one road trip to the west coast in 2026. West coast teams will make 3-4 trips back east across two or three time zones. Ohio St. has a nice trap game at USC prior to hosting OBD and coming off a bye after @ Indiana. Oregon catches a bit of a break with only three B1G trips back east and we get to play all three west coast teams, but didn't do ourselves a favor with the OOC Oklahoma St. trip. Hope it helps with recruiting.

The play I questioned was on 3rd down (and 5). You still get the field goal on 4th down to go up by 6 if you don't get the first down. The point is that you do everything you can to win the game on 3rd down instead of handing the ball off into a loaded box. Play action with the ball in Mendoza's hands to win the title vs handing the ball to Miami with plenty of time to steal your championship. The last Miami drive could have ended very differently for Indiana - don't give them that chance.

I noticed the same thing during the game when Indiana called that timeout. Great move to get reorganized and spell your pass rushers. However, I did take issue with Cignetti on Indiana's previous drive to not put the ball in Mendoza's hands to get the first down (throwing). Whether Indiana fails throwing or running, they still kick the field goal and Miami gets the ball with 1:42 left. With that much time on the clock, I feel the timeout is low impact in college football with clock stopping on first downs. Indiana should have done everything possible to get that first down instead of the lazy handoff to burn Miami's last timeout. Willingly giving it back to Miami with 1:40+ remaining was a huge mistake in my opinion. Fortunately, it didn't cost them.

A-. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for one of the younger rosters in college football. The minus is for Dante and coaching staff not making greater strides and adjustments after a very promising start. Thinking back to Lanning's success, had Bo Nix not been injured near the end of the 2022-23, OBD would have likely survived Washington and ran the table to the playoff as the #3 seed. The "only losing to national championship game participants" would have held true for all four years under Lanning. Remember #4USC was primed for a playoff berth had they beaten Utah for the PAC12 title. That should have been OBD pounding USC and we would have jumped TCU who lost the BIG12 title game.

Ohio St. not having the luxury of Caleb Downs will have a massive impact. Generational player.

I can't remember one season since our Final Four run where we have not had to deal with a significant amount of injuries to at least one key player. We have also lacked "grown men" who can put the team on their shoulders and deliver when it matters most. The lone exception and outlier to this was Payton Pritchard during the last half of the 2018-19 campaign and the 2019-20 season that was cut short, robbing all of us of what could have been an epic run. Couisnard came close, but was still inconsistent and didn't have enough veterans around him.

We are in an outstanding position! Every fan forum in the country is trying to figure out how their team is going to take the next step next year. Even Indiana needs to figure out how to retain their momentum. For OBD, the next step is for Dan Lanning and the team to finally win "a big game". In our position, it's the national championship (since we only lose to national champions). A Big Game(TM) for most other schools may be beating Florida St., Texas Tech, Washington St., or even Oregon. That's why we're here. To help Dan Lanning and co. figure it out. Without us, they'd be spiraling into another USC.

When we are facing a team with equal or better talent levels (1-2 games per year) and that team is mentally locked on to us, we can't seem to get over the hump. No doubt Lanning has the team motivated. But it takes more than motivation and talent to win it all. It takes coaching X's and O's and recognizing what the other team is doing. I'm convinced we don't have the right coaching experience in the room to get us over the hump which is why I'm also disappointed that we didn't go externally for new coordinators, especially if Lanning knew in advance that Stein and Lupoi were looking to take off. I'm also convinced that it takes a perfect storm to win the national title in the CFP era. Ohio St. had a boatload of experience, a chip on their shoulder and generational players on both sides of the ball in Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs. Indiana is unlike anything I've ever seen in college football and will lose a massive amount of experience next year. Maybe next year will be our perfect storm with all the players returning. Will it be enough to overcome our lack of coaching experience?

Thank you. That could make sense, especially with Lanning's close relationship with Dillingham.

I don't understand how or why we ended up with Raiola instead of Sam Leavitt. Leavitt is a proven winner for a rebuilding program. He has playoff experience. He seems to possess a bunch of intangibles like Bo Nix did and he has roots in Oregon. Maybe that's another sign that Dante Moore is returning, because Leavitt likely wanted to play right away.

As many have said, it’s not the loss - it’s the way we lose that’s so dispiriting. It’s hard to bounce back as fans and it has to affect the players and coaches as well. Any member of an outstanding fan forum like this invests a lot of emotional and analytical energy into the team each year and to be honest, I’m not sure I fully bounced back from last year’s Rose Bowl loss. I’ll save my thoughts and analysis for another day but that’s what we do here. It’s therapy. You have to feel for the players and coaches and fans who traveled so far to participate in this game. Why can Oregon fans not travel? Does our brand still not resonate? Imagine the players looking in the stands and 90% or more are rooting against you at a neutral site. We’re always outnumbered, but it’s usually closer to 60/40, maybe 70/30. Tonight was much, much worse. That has to take a toll and it will always be a disadvantage for OBD in this terrible post season format.

Dakorien Moore. If he is healthy, we need to hear his name a lot tonight.

DAK has to show up in a big way and Dante has to throw downfield. Oregon 31-24 1 BIG turnover 3 sacks 315 passing yards