mikethehiker

Colorado made the move that finished the PAC off. DL's comments were ill advised (likely out of frustration as well) but largely accurate. They were here for a dozen years, contributed very little to raising the PAC's national prowess, and then bounced to grift off another conference. Colorado, USC, and UCLA were all so terrible for so long while Oregon, Stanford, and Utah carried the torch for the PAC. If I'm Oregon and a fan of Oregon, I'm still more motivated against Colorado.

Great thing about Colorado's early season surge is that it will give Oregon the first opportunity to knock them off and notch a Top 25 win while they're still ranked. I don't want to see Nix running the ball more than 1-2 times a game when necessary, because I want this to be a special season, not an almost special season. There are still plenty of options in the running game including incorporating more tight end sets like Dilly did last year. Also haven't seen offense connect on any good seam routes yet.

These are the Enchantment Mountains outside Leavenworth. A 20 mile circuit with 5000ft of climbing and 7000ft descending all in one day. All 16 lakes along the way were picture perfect! And the whole time I couldn't wait to watch the Duck game (I don't look at the scoreboard until I watch recorded games).

Great, great thoughts on the game. I watched the game over a day late, because I was enjoying beautiful alpine lakes. Major kudos to TT for fighting extremely hard after a demoralizing loss to Wyoming. Major kudos to Oregon for winning essentially their first real game in an extremely hostile environment making far too many mistakes. A few thoughts and silver linings: -Oregon lost this game without losing this game. We were blessed with an enormous amount of learnings without paying the price of an actual loss. We now have experience that Washington, USC, UCLA, and Oregon St. don't have this year. -Do you think Dan Lanning made a mental note of TT going for it on 4th and 2 from inside their own 35? -TT front seven resembled Georgia from a year ago. They were fast and left everything out on that field. I felt they did a great job disguising what they wanted to do on D. Nix rarely ever had time and was scrambling far too much. Our O-Line did not have a great day and will be blessed with a long, hard look in the mirror. -However, it was clear that TT was selling out against the run and bringing extra defenders. Our coaches needed to make adjustments and shorten up the routes. I know Stein loves to have all 3 wideouts on the field and get the ball to the playmakers, but we should have seen more 2 tight end sets to get hat on hats instead of the confusion on blocks we saw. It would have given us bigger bodies out there and caused TT to hesitate more when your blockers are also receivers. -I wish TT nothing but the best for the rest of the year and hope they win the Big12 title. I really like Shough and the humility he brings to the game. Hope he crushes it the rest of the year.

Ha, sorry Charles. I didn't even see who the author was. It took me a long time just to find the article. Trust me that I believed it too! And I believe it will be improved this year as well - but that means the coaches have to get more out of the players and put them in positions to be successful. I believe the players we got in the transfer portal are more versatile than those we lost. My prediction is 14-1 with a national title. No one is getting through conference unbeaten. However, we'll win the title and our experience at QB will be the difference against Ohio St., Georgia, or Alabama for the title.

For the record, I think 12-0 is bold and achievable. The bold part of the equation is avoiding injuries and overcoming the psychology of going unbeaten. You have to play with a chip on your shoulder every week. Being ranked #15 and picked to finish fourth in the conference should eat away at the team all season long along with Kirby Smart's infamous remark, "We have better players." The psychology of a perfect season is so fascinating. Having one loss takes a lot of pressure of the mind and one loss can teach so many lessons and grow a team in a way that 12 wins just can't. Either way, I want to win the PAC12's final season, whether that's 1, 2, or 3 losses.

I almost brought our defensive coordinator up yesterday and decided not to, but it's a valid perspective. I remember last year we thought the defense was going to carry the team based on the most impressive front 7 Oregon had ever assembled on paper. It wasn't that it wasn't as good as we all wanted, it was the reality that we didn't see the improvement we should have seen over the course of a season from a defense with an outstanding coordinator who could diagnose issues and mitigate shortcomings with great scheme.

I usually don't boo, but sometimes there are circumstances leading up to a game that warrant a fan's boo. Maybe it's a taunting player, a condescending opposing coach, or a team leaving a conference for more money . I would not applaud or in any way make a visiting team feel welcome in our stadium, unless they have a) no chance of winning or b) no fans that showed up. Usually they have their own smattering of fans to cheer. Remember, that team is running out onto the field to take something from you and your team - a victory. I see no reason to encourage them in any way until the decision is final.

Great article Josh! With so many great QBs and offenses in the conference this year, points will swell as teams try to keep pace with each other. The 30-10-10 number should be easily reachable, especially if they pile up a few in the OOC games. Last year, that dilemma also caused some poor 4th down coaching choices as one stalled drive could cost you the game. Coach Lanning will face more of those choices this year, but hopefully an improved D will give us a little more confidence to get stops. So glad it's finally kickoff time! Everyone has hope! The best part of each year!

I wonder if Dante Moore is rethinking his commitment to UCLA now that Oregon is joining B1G. In Oregon, he likely gets the brand he wanted and still get to travel near home for B1G road games. Don't be surprised if any shakeups (bad season, injury, coaching change, NIL opportunity) cause him to land back at Oregon in the future. That being said, I still loathe the new penalty-free transfer rules. Players and coaches should have to sit out a year if they "transfer" from one P5 team to another.

Last year our leadership was supposed to come from the linebacking corp, but they simply didn't produce and couldn't get their job done. It's hard to expect more from everyone else, when your position group was being exploited all season. Hoping for a much different outcome this year from on field leadership.

Prior to Nix's injury, Oregon was simply unstoppable on offense last year after the Georgia game. There's a strong argument that they could have returned to the playoff over TCU had they run the table. Oregon State may be the only team to field a defense in the PAC12 this year to slow down Oregon and we get them at home. Ducks will see the most upside on defense this year and hopefully it will lead to just enough stops. The conference will be brutal this year, and I don't think anyone finishes unbeaten. However, if anyone can run the table, it will be Oregon for the first time since 2010 (the only time it's ever occurred in the nine game format). Wow - so much rich history for this conference. The fall of the PAC12 is such a tragedy! Let's leave a lasting statement on who owned the conference when we all left.

Great article! Unbelievable that the BIG 12 had no revenue sharing disincentive to keep badgering another conference I would like to understand more why CBS and NBC were never an option. We know they pay for SEC, Notre Dame, and the NCAA basketball tournament. They could have brought both linear and streaming options to the table with CBS/Paramount and NBC/Peacock.

Thank you. That would make a lot more sense to target those 12:30pm and 4pm (Pacific) timeslots. I guess it's going to hurt the teams flying back east even worse. West coast teams could be home by midnight or 1am that night. Teams flying back home to the east will get home at 4am-5am or require 3 full travel days.

And a terrible collection of presidents with their heads buried in the sand from the least to the greatest. While commissioners in other conferences did the bidding of their members, PAC12 presidents outsourced the media rights strategy and negotiations to the commissioner due to constant turnover, campus politics, lack of understanding, or because they simply didn't want to deal with it. OSU and WSU share just as much of the blame living fat and happy for years knowing LA schools wanted more. I do agree with the lower-stakes sentiment for this new west coast conference - whatever that looks like. It's a great time to test a streaming partner, maybe in combination with ESPN. Prove the concept and take it to Fox in the next round. If there is one region slightly more primed (pun intended) for streaming and ripe for cutting traditional cable, it's the west coast. Then again, we also make up a much less passionate football fanbase. But the future is a la carte streaming apps and services even if the suits couldn't see it.

Yes, they will play every year. The main thing FOX and B1G see in adding the west coast schools are 7pm+ start times. USC/UCLA should count their blessings that Oregon and Washington have joined. Otherwise they were staring down almost every single home game starting after 7pm, although there will be a lot of pushback from east coast fan bases having to stay up until 10pm before their beloved team kicks off on the west coast. That's a looooong time to maintain gameday energy - LOL. In turn, this will increase the number of 7pm+ and 9am (Pacific) start times for Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA. In addition to the travel, the game start times will have sharp contrasts. Playing each other every year helps reduce that and gives more opportunity for afternoon football games. I'm sure this is all part of the revenue sharing negotiations to help reduce travel costs. Another pro to this is that east coast will HAVE to pay more attention now to late games out west directly impacting east coast teams.

If I'm the remaining members, I'm going to try to hold onto PAC-whatever and maintain Power 5 status if the landscape will allow it. I wonder what the chances of PAC8/10/12 remaining through expanding with schools originally frowned upon. If Oregon St., Washington St., Cal, and Stanford all hold together and expand to include San Diego St., UNLV, SMU, Boise St., and Fresno St. You could reach out further to include Colorado St., Utah St., and Nevada. Although it's a longshot, holding onto Utah would be HUGE for PAC.

One would also have to think there is a lot of creative revenue sharing options being thrown around as well - at least over the next couple of years to hold the conference together. For some schools it may boil down to reduced revenue to keep the conference alive vs join the MWC. For others who may be threatening to bolt (Arizona, ASU, Utah), they may be allocated a larger share over a couple years to prove the streaming concept. There may also be carrots for reaching the PAC12 title game and the playoff. With the playoff expansion, the incentive is very real and the opportunity more likely in the PAC12 vs other conferences.

I know we give out pretty decent paychecks for FCS and Group 5 teams to come to Autzen. I wonder if we get discounts or pay $0 for the opponent in this home and home scenario. Gets us a free, higher quality opponent? I agree, I'd rather have a big name B1G, SEC, or ACC opponent, but I'm not sure we want 3 of them. Just thinking out loud...

I'm really looking forward to seeing improvements on defense this year and seeing more intangibles from our grizzly veterans and new transfers. This conference is wide open to a team that shows up with a veteran defense playing with great instinct under a solid scheme. That has been Utah in the recent past and shifting to Oregon State last year. Let's hope Oregon take a huge step forward this year!

As much as I hate to see it, I don’t see how this keeps from spiraling out of control. Any additional signs of instability just crushes any negotiating leverage GK thought he had. It’s a desperate situation now and PAC12 will sell media rights for pennies on the dollar which will scare more members out. There has to be a counter move now!

Thanks for sharing this insight regarding Tez Johnson. Perhaps this is the possession receiver we so desperately need, which in turn takes more pressure off Nix having to run for first downs.

I think Ty is likely a great talent and hope he excels at whatever and wherever he chooses. It has to be 80-90% mental for Ty and only he knows where his headspace is. The coaches have to discern and decide. Many times, it's extremely difficult to overcome those mental hurdles and bounce back from previous experiences without a drastic change of scenery.

I hope you're right, but I have 3 question marks. Team speed on offense, a go-to possession receiver, and QB depth. 2012 and 2014 were extremely fast teams (not just tempo) with quick, agile lineman and breakaway speed at skill positions. At the receiver position, we need a man among boys to go get the football and move the chains even when scheme is covered. I hope this receiver is on hand now and will take huge strides this year. We all understand the QB situation and I hope Ty has a breakout year. Our 2011 team had Darron Thomas, Brian Bennett, and Marcus Mariota all on the same roster.

Appreciate your thought Jon. Although we’d all like to see aggressive opponent scheduling, I have a feeling this new format will lead to conferences trying to minimize conference losses. Unless all conferences go to 9 conference games, this number will reduce to 8. And why play a conference championship game and give your 2nd best team an additional loss? Now that automatic qualifiers are in place, the goal isn’t one playoff team, but 2 and possibly 3 teams from your conference. This could backfire on the super conferences where it gets more difficult to crown a sole champion without a championship game.