spartan2785

It's too early to say, seems like players if they are good enough can find opportunities, you look at Matayo and Tuioti the last two years as examples of players who played early and have been extremely important, some other players are maybe on schedule but not quite ready. Receiver is the position where I wonder if we might begin to see some drop off in recruiting if those incoming players don't see a lot of success. All our best guys this year are transfers in that position. Dickey does not seem to be getting to where he needs to get to, and we've had numerous recent receivers transfer out after getting beaten out by incoming transfers. So we'll have to see how Moore and Wilson do.

The only thing that really makes me a bit concerned about this team is the rebounding, I think they have enough offense and defense to do a ton of damage this year, but the defensive rebounding is what might cause them some problems. If we could get consistent with this aspect then we'll be a top 3 team in league and I think a top 4 seed in the tourney with upside of a possible 2 seed. Looking at the next 5 games I could see Oregon pulling into it's matchup with Purdue at 15-2. They certainly have a good shot at 16-1 if they can get some of the guys out their shooting slumps. You do have to say that Barthelemy is probably not going to continue shooting 83% from three in away games. In general though the return to the mean for shooting averages would suggest that Oregon is due to start getting better shooting overall as a team from 3. Once this happens, I hope they'll remain committed to pounding it inside with Bittle, Angel, and Cook. Our bread and butter should be getting to the basket, that's what our strength is I think.

I'll be honest, I actually have appreciated this break so far, I like being able to begin to take in other sports, I always feel bad for these other teams that get so little attention since the fanbase seems to be only about football a lot of the time, just look at basketball and volleyball attendance compared to some of the universities back east. I'm also a sports nut who follows multiple teams in different sports...so I have Liverpool FC to watch right now on weekends, I've got movies to get caught up on, I really enjoy watching the basketball team this year. The wait time is a pretty normal amount, it's no different than most bowl games, so it doesn't seem strange in any way.

I get what you mean, but Okie St. just went 0-9 in a very mediocre conference, this is not the cowboys of past years. Overall it's a very very easy schedule, a bit like Texas this year. Penn St. in a whiteout will be quite the tough trip, but we should be favored in every other matchup.

Sounds like a good fit, we'll also have two redshirt freshman who might be ready to contribute, along with another frosh in Ploog. 5 TEs should be enough for next year I would think, I'm sure they wouldn't turn down one more though.

Like... I don't really have a problem predicting that game, I mean, yeah, I could see that happening, Texas is a good team, Georgia is a good team, but in no way would that be the "best" matchup. What does that even mean? Is it the most intriguing matchup? No because one team has already won twice. Is it the most exciting matchup? No, because neither side has shown much in the way of offense, and the last game was dud when it comes to actual play. Does it bring some sort of history to the matchup? No, because there isn't really any connection to the two programs other than they played twice this season. The best matchup is probably Oregon-Georgia. It has the Lanning-Smart connection, Oregon is an exciting offense against a very good defense, SEC vs. B1G, most dominant program of the last few years vs. the team that has looked the best for most of the season.

Nah, college students will do what college students want to do, we stormed the field against tOSU like we were some unranked team. I doubt we will not storm the court if something similar happens.

UCLA's a good team, that won't be a bad loss last in the season, Cronin is one of the better coaches out there, he'll get his guys to 20 wins I think.

We got the call on the goaltending against Bama so I'll just see this as karma, we probably deserved to lose one of these games where we got down and then had to fight our way back. We continue to play incredibly well in crunch time. Not really bothered at all by this loss, UCLA basically played their best game of the season, shot better than have the entire season, and won on a banked in 3, it happens. Still think we're poised for a top 4 seed type season. Bamba who has been one of our better players basically did nothing in this game, and we still should have won if it wasn't for a fluky shot. Bittle and Shelstad shot better, Barthelemey might be the best backup guard in the nation, Angel is incredibly productive, just an incredibly balanced team who will be trouble for everyone this season. We do need to rebound better, that's probably the one thing that I really think we might be lacking, other than Bittle we don't have great rebounders, Angel has been pretty weak as a rebounder in his career for being 6'9.

He's been awful forever, it's not just that he always seems to have a rooting interest, it's that he's just plain wrong a lot, he adds nothing in terms of analysis, Nessler is awful as well. If I'm the SEC I'm delighted that they traded Nessler/ Danielson for Fowler/Herbstreit.

I do have to say, I think we got a bit lucky with the refs, it's probably one of the first games this season where I feel that, also got a little lucky with the fumble from Gabriel, but we just edged it out in terms of who I think deserved the W. Obviously the defense will need to play better, but it is so good to see the offense get back on track and continue the good play from the Washington game.

They should get in, but they'll talk about how Bama has better wins and ignore the fact they got boat raced by a bad Oklahoma team while also losing to Vandy.

Never under estimate the power of the brand, I think SMU will be left out.

Great game by Gabriel, delivered throw after throw. Stayed so calm in the pocket, moved to the spots where he could get the ball out, just an awesome job where we needed every pass we got form him. Offense obviously stepped up in the last two games.

Can we at least at some point fake the WR screen, because it makes no sense to continue to give up 2-4 yards on 1st down when it's so obvious their game plan is to stop that play.

Whole defense just looks inept defending the run, we'll lose in the playoffs if that's how it is, D-line getting bullies, LBs and safeties just making horrible decisions, no ability to get off blocks, embarassing.

Terrible time management there by Lanning, what are you doing just allowing that much time to go off the clock. What are you doing!!!!

Weak, that's what are defense looks like, very very weak upfront, getting beaten up front, Harmon and Caldwell are losing a lot of money out there right now.

Defense has to start bowing up, this is not good, getting bullied out there, DTs have to start doing better.

I hope the students that are staying in town have a way of getting tickets at a reduced rate, it would really suck if the university just says to them "oh well, sucks to be you"

Funny thing about SMU is that they are basically getting nothing in terms of money from the ACC, they bet on themselves that they would step up and succeed, and by gawd they've done that this season. I think it's sort of Ironic that during this year where we truly see the new world of college football with NIL and conferences being upturned it's SMU the one program that got the death penalty coming back to prominence. I can only imagine how much their oil baron boosters are loving this.

I really like that. I have to say I don't really want college football to become a place where this sort of thing doesn't happen. Of course I want Oregon to get as many great players as they can, but it's nice to know that for some guys staying home and playing for the hometown team still means something.

Pretty amazing that according to 24/7 we have the highest average ranking in the country just above Texas. We don't have as many recruits, but it's a pretty incredible haul, we didn't really lose many guys, and we picked up a ton as it went along. One guy that I think isn't getting talked about as much as he should is Jordan Davidson, it's been a while since we picked up a high school RB with his size. James and Bucky have been really tough runners, so it isn't like we've been soft there, but there is something to having 220+ slamming into a defense over and over again. I remember with Stewart and Freeman just how beat up the opposing team would be at the end of the game.

Bama lost by 21 to a bad Oklahoma team, that right there excludes them from any playoff discussion, you can not lose by that much to a 6-6 team. At the very least I think Ole Miss is more deserving than Bama, they beat Georgia and SC decisively, and while they do have a loss to Kentucky, none of their losses were by 3 TDs!

You have to remember if we do beat Penn St. on Saturday, they will most likely fall out of the #5 slot, who is put in there depends on who wins in the other various games. I really wouldn't complain until we see the entire bracket. The biggest thing I find outrageous is Bama in the playoff, they have no business being there, Ole Miss and Miami are more deserving, no team that lost to Vandy and got destroyed by a bad OU team has any business being in the playoff. At least Miami's losses were close, I'm not one to defend Miami, but I really don't think we should be rewarding programs for having 3 losses of which two are to really mediocre teams.