OregonDucks

I completely agree with this. The wide receiver bubble screens do not work against faster, more athletic defenses and Coach Stein hasn’t shown any counters off of them, if the secondary is being too aggressive. When the wide receiver bubble screen gets blown up for a loss on 1st down it puts our offense behind the chains.

It’s a fine line though. You want your team peaking heading into the playoffs. With extended layoffs, it’s not easy to keep the momentum going and if you start resting players before that, it becomes even more difficult.

That’s a good decision and must not have been an easy decision. He’ll need to transform his body in the offseason. Wishing him the best.

I personally believe that Ohio State would win 7-8 games out of 10 on a neutral field. They have the superior roster almost across the board (look at the mock drafts or recruiting rankings over the last 4-5 years) and more experienced coaches. Autzen is a special place and was magical on October 12, 2024.

Agreed. Oregon is not Georgia, LSU, Texas, or Ohio State. Those programs have fertile recruiting grounds and/or lots of history/tradition. As Josh Pate, pointed out, Coach Lanning could coach another 13 years and still be younger than Nick Saban was when he won his first national championship.

I’m really interested to see if Dakorien Moore can make a splash next year, as a true freshman, which isn’t typical but he looks like a special player and a physical specimen.

Perhaps. IMO, Stewart needs to prove that he can produce on the intermediate routes. I love DG but feel that he locked on to Tez too frequently (not that I can fault him too much given what Tez could do with the ball in his hands in the open field).

Now, I’m not saying that he’ll be able to replicate Bucky’s success but he has put up impressive numbers at the lower level. Makes complete sense for him to want to prove himself at the highest level before getting a shot in the NFL. Bucky’s success this year for Tampa Bay certainly can’t hurt with his recruitment…

Watching his highlight videos, he seems like he’ll be a good possession (slot?) receiver. Benson makes tough contested catches but doesn’t seem to be super elusive or have breakaway speed (of course I could be wrong). Should be a good compliment to Evan Stewart.

I think that’s a good decision. He needs to become more consistent before heading to the League, as he disappeared for long stretches this season. He certainly has the talent. Hope he puts in serious work with Dante Moore this offseason to develop that chemistry!

Watching Makhi Hughes highlights remind me a lot of Bucky Irving. He has good vision, sets up his blocks nicely, makes good lateral moves and runs much tougher than his size. Might be a home run addition to the offense and, even if James comes back, he would be a good compliment to James’ running style.

I’m just amazed at the job Coach Lanning and staff do from a recruiting perspective both high school and the transfer portal. They are relentless. As I mentioned in another post, I’m a little concerned about the OL transfers out, as that is one of the key position groups that we need to upgrade and it’s hard to rely on the transfer portal (see Colorado and USC). Hopefully those were mutual decisions between the coaching staff and players. Love to see USC on the list of “losers.” Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.

Thank you for your posts. I hope that you become a regular contributor over here. Good luck the rest of the way. Ohio State certainly looks like the best team (I have no idea how the heck you lost to Michigan and it’s probably the worst thing that could have happened to the Ducks and other playoff teams). Just wish OBD could have waited until the final to play the Buckeyes, so we’d have a few more weeks of football.

I’m a little concerned with the OL transfers, as that is one of the positions groups that we need to upgrade the most and it’s difficult to rely on transfers (see Colorado). Hopefully they were mutual decisions.

Thanks for sharing. I respect the heck out of Josh Pate and believe that he’s one of the best college football analysts. “Dan Lanning could coach another 13 seasons and he would still be younger than Nick Saban was when he won his first title.” Dan Lanning was a home run hire and the best Oregon could have expected. I’m sure that he has exceeded all initial expectations. The Oregon Football Program is on the right trajectory, under Coach Lanning’s leadership, and needs to continue to upgrade the talent on the roster (as they are doing) to compete with the best of the best in the post season. Remember, fellow Oregon fans, we will always be fighting an uphill battle since we don’t have a state rich in high school football talent, are not based in a major metropolitan area and do not have the history and tradition to fall back on. If Coach Lanning can win the first national championship at Oregon it would be way more impressive than winning at USC, Alabama, Ohio State, et al.

I also believe that Coach Lanning is instructing his OCs to limit QB runs and the potential for injury. Will Stein had a super athletic QB, Frank Harris, when he was the OC at UTSA (see clip below). Harris rushed for: • 2020: 528 yards and 9 rushing TDs • 2021: 566 yards and 6 rushing TDs • 2022: 602 yards and 9 rushing TDs Harris did miss substantial time due to injury earlier in his career (not sure if it was the result of him running the ball). Of course, I also believe that you have to allow your QB the ability to make critical plays in critical situations (Masoli running over the Oregon State defender for a critical first down) and that especially applies to the post season.

Coach Lanning seems to be more invested in the University of Oregon for the long term. He has said that he is tired of moving his kids around and, like Coach Bellotti, the longer they stay the deeper the roots will become in the community. Hopefully his kids and wife are happy in Eugene. Most knew that Coach Kelly was interested in the NFL and would bolt as soon as the “right opportunity” came along.

They are in for a culture shock. It’s definitely different down south.

I believe that Notre Dame was ranked #3 in the final regular season poll but Ohio State and Penn State would both have been at risk of being left out of the 4 team playoff and those two teams may play against each other in the final. It would have been really interesting to see who would have been the fourth team selected this year between Texas, Ohio State and Penn State. I’m assuming that they would have passed over ASU but they do like their conference champions…

Losing Saban to retirement certainly hurt the SEC. How many championships was he accountable for at Alabama and LSU over the past decade?

Thank you for posting your observations. Obviously, Ohio State is well coached and has tremendous athletes across the board. My only question is - why wouldn’t Oregon have had its best cover corner - Jabbar Muhammad - shadow Smith and play a safety over the top, if necessary? I would say that someone else is going to have to beat us.

I guess that the coaches did not watch the Tennessee game or believe that Ohio State would be aggressive 2 games in a row.

LOL. Makes you wonder what those same fans will say if Ohio State wins the national championship… Time to change their usernames?

Has the most yards from scrimmage amongst rookies heading into the final regular season game. Man, we really missed him this year. Such a fun player to watch. The Tampa Bay crowd was chanting “Bucky! Bucky! Bucky!” after his 25 yard run.