spartan2785

I will say that both basketball teams have been snake bit with injuries the past few years. I think Campbell is a big part of the reason why we've began a decent into mediocrity, I also wonder how players have taken in Graves' coaching style. Personally I've never really liked his demeanor on the court. Just seems like he doesn't really push them to be better. I've never seen him really get into a player for their mistakes or take the team to task when they're committing errors. I'm not saying I want someone who acts like a maniac or is constantly yelling at his players, but there is a time for holding players accountable and getting into them to be great, become as perfect as they can. I really wonder if some of these players are transferring because they don't feel like they're being pushed. I'm hopeful this year Gray and Van Slooten can push this team back into a tourney team and take some Ws against these top ten teams. It's just sad to see so many programs pass us by, and it makes me wonder if a change is upcoming.

His raw numbers aren't that bad, it's just the pressure kicks where it seems like he gets the yips. Generally if it's a chip shot he make it, this year against Texas Tech he had two chippies that he made in the 4th quarter. Last year he had a 41 yard FG to take the lead with 11 minutes to go against Utah. In 2021 he had a chippie to take the lead against Fresno. Had basically an extra point attempt to win the game against WSU in his freshman season. Hasn't really had that many kick attempts in the 4th quarter overall in pressure situations overall. Which probably is more about our coaching staff's propensity for being aggressive in 4th down situations, but might also say something about their actual confidence in Lewis to make a pressure kick outside 35 or so yards. He's probably better than I have given him credit for in the past, but it's also that fact that he doesn't look very confident either. His kickoffs have also been very up and down, he'll boom one, and then he'll kick one out of bounds. It's always hard to tell if he's being told to try and directional kick so that we can maybe get a good coverage tackle or if he's just shanking it.

Real shame our Ducks aren't a part of that, pretty big decline from the Sabrina years, have to think Graves seat gets a little toasty if he keeps losing players to the portal and not replacing them with upgrades. Paopao was pretty big loss considering she's now the starting PG for the best team in the nation, this isn't to mention the other former 5 star recruits who got better when they left for better teams.

I'll give Dillingham a lot of credit, he is doing everything he can to try to get wins, they haven't had the QB talent to really get going, they're down at pretty much every position, they never even had the motivation to get a bowl game, and he's done better than I thought he would considering all the things going against him. Not sure if he'll end up as the answer there, but he's at least thinking outside the box.

It has the potential to be a top 8 or so job. Unlimited resources, huge pay, ripe recruiting grounds, plays in the SEC, huge stadium with reliable attendance, the thing you don't have is it doesn't matter what you do, you'll always be considered number 2 to Texas, it doesn't even matter if you are the better team, you'll always be number 2 to the lead university in the state. I would get it if Lanning decides to leave, I'm always wondering about how coaches that are not from the west coast are going to react to the different culture around here, everything doesn't revolve around football in this part of the world like it does does in Texas or the Southeast or even parts of the midwest. This isn't mentioning the political climate. I'm not as worried about him leaving as I was Mario or Willie though since he isn't returning to a place he knows. I think it's going to be Elko or Traylor, barring those two I would look at Leipold.

He's just a very weak minded player, never has kicked a FG longer than 40 yards when there is any real pressure late in a game, always shanks it, almost threw the game away in the bowl game on the extra point, you just can't trust him with anything other than a chip shot, and even then I'm holding my breath.

Really it might be a good thing for us, Utah is playing on the road, and as long as Oregon beats UW it makes that win look better. I really think we need UW to be undefeated going into that championship game.

Based on what I've seen Penn St. is not what you think of when you think about a 8-1 team. Probably one of the worst offenses I've ever seen for a 8-1 team. Just awful, Allar might have a been a 5 star, but he's plays like a 1 star against anyone with a pulse.

Let's be honest, most coaches wouldn't allow this, Smith wouldn't allow this, Willingham wouldn't allow this, heck whoever the coach at Middle Tennessee St. wouldn't allow this, can't imagine not watching film and hoping to get better.

I don't think we should cancel those games that we already have set up, smacks of cowardice to me. Now if both teams agree to it in the new college football world we live in and there is no fee for canceling the games then I might be more up for that. I certainly see the point of it though, our schedule is probably a bit harder than it was in the P12, it's sort of hard to tell right now since we haven't seen it play out. I think it's probably harder for all the teams in the league, when we look at what Michigan has had this season they're certainly going to have a wake up call when all of a sudden they're traveling across the country to play the Pacific coast teams. In the future we'll have some spots open up due to games that we scheduled in the future against B10 opponents, personally I would like to see us set up games against some of the schools from the former P12 since it would be nice to retain some ties to old foes, plus we do enough travel as it is now, set up some games against Cal or ASU, retain those recruiting grounds.

Seems like the injury bug that sometimes plagued the football team has moved on to the basketball team the last few years, still seems that we haven't found the cure for it either, since Dante, Cook, and Shelsted have been hobbled as well as the new transfer from Georgia. I just hope Dana has finally found some shooters, I don't know if I can go through another season of just putrid shooting wasting the years of the best center we've had in a long time.

I have to say if I wasn't having to work the game for a fundraiser I would be stoked about having a night game, I don't really mind having one or two a year, seems like forever since we had a true night game. Just hope the Pac12 after dark doesn't bite us in the butt.

They just don't have the horses, I think Wilcox is actually a pretty good coach, he just isn't the recruiter that they need to succeed at a high level. Cal has terrible facilities for a P5 school, and he hasn't really seemed to get assistants that are high level recruiters as well. He's a better DC than a HC, I don't think he would have been a disaster at Oregon, but we certainly would be headed to a lot of 8 to 10 win seasons with the occasional 6 win year, not exactly what Oregon is looking for to say the least

Yeah, to me it looks more difficult in some ways because it feels like we're playing all these power 5 OOC games instead of just simply a regular conference schedule. When I see Michigan St. or Wisconsin it's sometimes hard to equate them to the teams they are right now, in my head I still think about the teams we had battles with when they were of a higher caliber. I am excited to see all these teams though, I don't think I'll miss seeing Oregon playing in the desert that much or playing in front of some paltry crowd in Palo Alto. Then again I don't travel to away games, so I'm not having to deal with the weather, and I actually like watching games in bad weather on Tv .

One thing that hasn't been mentioned in all this that much is the importance of Washington winning out until the championship game, if they do, then that win over UW is as impressive as any other in the country, it sort of negates I think a Georgia birth in the playoff if they lose to Bama, same thing for either tOSU or Michigan depending on who wins that game. Finishing strong is usually extremely important in the eyes of the committee, if you look impressive at the end you can much more easily survive a loss from early in the season. I get the feeling that Oregon as long as they continue to look impressive in their wins they'll get in regardless of what happens, it probably helps actually that we are going to be a part of the B10 next season that we already are probably getting a bit of a buff to our perception already. We're already considered the strongest 1 loss team, I think if we continue to win it's going to hard to have a team lose and stay ahead of us. I think the narrative will become for Michigan and Georgia will be that they lost the one game that matters if they lose to tOSU or Bama, like they haven't played anyone of consequence other than those teams. I don't think anybody really puts any stock into Penn St. or Tennessee, they aren't bad teams, but I don't think anyone see them as better than Utah or Oregon St. The one team that I think could put a wrench into Oregon getting in is Texas, if they avenge the OU loss, then along with the Bama win, plus it being Texas could maybe knock us down, especially if they look impressive in their win over OU. This is why as much as it pains me to say it, I'm hoping UW wins out until they play us, I'm that confident that we'll beat them in Vegas if we continue on the track we are on right now.

I'm very excited, but it's kind of funny, maybe it's because everyone saw this coming for the last couple weeks, but the excitement of this is nowhere close to where it was when Cam Colvin or De'Anthony Thomas committed, it might be because they were skill guys. Just seems like this might become the norm each year instead of the exception, I sort of expect now to get a five star or two, amazing where the program is with recruiting.

USC is the team you want to play right now to make yourself feel good about your offense, I think we got a bit lucky in that we got Utah maybe at a good time, they're a bit puffed up from beating the Trojans, they just lost their best LB. We also got a good bit of film on Vaki so that wasn't a surprise at all. In hindsight it feels like Utah expended the last of their bullets against USC, and didn't have much left against us. Credit to us for preparing to expose the holes that were there though!

First off, I was very skeptical about our defense going into the year, in years past I would get excited about the preseason talk about improvement/new players/new scheme, and then eventually see that we were either slightly above average to below average. We might do some good things here and there, but overall it wasn't like people ever talked about the defense other than maybe talking about how it was a bit improved or about a special player here or there (Thibodeaux for example). This year I will hold my hands up and say I was wrong about the defense, it's a very good unit, it has the most depth this program has ever had, the players are simply different on a man to man scale compared to previous years, Lanning knew what he was looking for and he went out and got it. D-line is simply incredible when it comes the depth and the versatility that it has. To have the horses to go from a stout run stopping front with a Taimani, Popo, or Rodgers on the inside with Dorlus or Burch setting the edge. To edge rushers with the young bucks (Matayo U, Tuioti, and Purchase) or older vets (Fune) with with the inside rushing or Dorlus, Ware-Hudson, and Popo, is just scary. Nobody looks tired, nobody seems to be selfish, just a unit that seems relentless right now. LBs are probably a little behind what Lanning ideally wants, but man these guys can run, and the tackling is so much better overall. Secondary is again scary when it come to the depth. When Bridges is your backup you have some good backs, Bridges isn't amazing, but a ton of teams around the nation would love to have a guy like that as a starter. I have to highlight the tackling, which is just such an improvement over the last ten years or so. These guys just don't seem to let guys get more then what they should on any catch. One question I have for those who might chart the games or just simply have more knowledge than me: Are we blitzing our secondary more than we have in the past, I can't seem to remember a time when we've had as many sacks or pressures coming from our CBs as we have had this season. Are we just being more effective with the blitzes and I'm just noticing it more since it's been more impactful?

To be fair to Utah, they're missing a lot more than just Rising, they're missing their TEs who are crucial to their style of offense, their best RB, best LB, a few others as well, probably the most injury bit team in the Pac-12 this year. I think Oregon still wins by 2 scores with all of them present since Oregon is just super impressive right now.

I would say it's the biggest game we've had in a while in terms of must win, we really need to win this in order to take the next step in Lanning's progression, we've had some good wins, we now need a great win which this will be. I have greater faith than the last time we went to Utah, better QB, better coach, better defense than back then, have to believe that our lines will be up for this.

Quit worrying about the computers. I really wouldn't worry about it, if we're 11-1 about to play UW for the Pac-12 title, and the computers say we still only have a 50% shot at getting in with a win, then I might start to sweat a little, but really these things usually work themselves out.

Sooooooooo a normal USC crowd then I guess.

Brats, brats all day long, love a good sausage with mustard. Morning tailgates I'll go with biscuits and gravy, but it's pretty hard to get a great biscuits and gravy from my experience. Side dish I would say cornbread, which should NOT be sweet. Then again I pretty much only like my mom's family recipe for that so if I'm at a friends tailgate I'll probably be disappointed.

I think one thing that really helps us now as opposed to previous years in the Pac-12 is that we are still in the driver's seat to get to the Pac-12 championship game, and now we have the motivation of getting revenge. I think we'll see a very focused team on Saturday and I wouldn't be surprised if we bulldoze through the rest of the league.

It's honestly very very encouraging that Oregon only slipped one spot, yes we're behind Texas who also has one loss, but Texas has a better win than us, so that's fine, if we win out I'm still fairly confident we'll get into the playoff. If we win out we'll have some good wins, could have used WSU not cougin it last night, but Utah, OSU, and UW will probably be enough.