I know we have written about it many times, but the level of knowledge or familiarity of Oregon by the rest of the country still amazes me in how little they knew of us.

David Marsh pointed out another example yesterday in the forum concerning the inept actions of the current coach at Miami. He did the same stuff here, and we were shouting about it at the time....but nobody back east were even aware. Even when he was hired there, and Oregon writers were warning 'Cane fans....they did not believe us.

It goes to show again that the time-zone-thing is REAL. The majority of the nation had very little interest in Pac-12 football, and with the games on so late--we were rarely watched back east. I know many would want future games set up with old Pac-12 teams at night....but 75% of the nation will NOT watch them.

When Oregon went 12-0 last year....they realized they knew nothing about us, and perhaps gave us too much credit? Now we lose a game to the No. 2 team in the nation, and the Ducks are an afterthought?

More proof....they don't know us at all. They think they do, but not like teams in the east because the few things they know about Oregon from the past are the uniforms, and that Chip Kelly started the "No-Huddle" here.

I especially believe this is true with all the pundits who write, and do broadcasts. So many times the things they report has a tone of "surprise" in their voice. And what do you want to bet that NONE of them know....even now, that Oregon was the No. 1 Athletic program in the Big-10 last year? (EIGHT outright conference championships) in our first year)

It makes me wonder....how LONG is it going to take for them to actually be familiar with Our Beloved Ducks?

I travel quite a bit and am currently living on the East Coast.

Oregon football is known from coast to coast. I’ve had people yell “Go Ducks!” at me DEEP in SEC country. We are known for our flashy uniforms and electric offenses. Coach Lanning is respected nationally. People know that we are a good team but, fair or unfair, question whether we can get over the final hump and beat one of the traditional big boys to win a national championship game.

Hopefully Coach Lanning can continue to put us in position and we eventually break through. Our team is certainly built differently than the last few times we played in a national championship game. We just need the pieces to all fall into place.

6 minutes ago, OregonDucks said:

Oregon football is known from coast to coast.

Known of, yes. But do they really know us? Have they really followed us over the years? No.

I'm just glad the young kids were paying attention all those years.

Always love hearing when recruits say "Oregon's been my dream school since I was a kid. Grew up watching __________ (insert LMJ, DAT, Mariota, KT, etc.)

We seem to be the B-2 Bomber of the football world. We aren't under the radar; we are known it is just radar doesn't pick us up (hopefully until it is too late).

Oregon has been so close but can't get over the hump. Last game with IU is the perfect example. Game Day in town, media ramped up, crowd fired up and Oregon lays an egg.

Seen this scenario or similar types play out too many times over the years. Last year they win the B1G then flop in the CFP.

How many times have they been so close but failed to follow through?

I think thats the team most outside of Eugene know. So close but never finishing.

Hard to want to follow them when the hype doesn't fit the end product often enough.

Okay, I’ll play Captain Obvious (because I’m good at it?): Fandom is the finely tuned art of Provincial Tunnel Vision. In other words, what you know about the other guy (unless you have a passionate, focused expertise which I do not) is only because they threaten your guys. Anything past that is purely by accident, top ten envy, or because you put a lot of time into sports media (which I do not).

When it comes to M.C., I’m no different than your average Miami fan. I wanted to believe he was as much our savior when he took over from Willie Taggart as they wanted to believe when he took over from Manny Diaz (there were probably people at Alabama who could have told us Cristobal was not head coaching material had we bothered to ask).

But, that’s not how fandom works. When a coach or player is failing at another school, it’s schadenfreude; you’re just happy it’s not happening to you. But when that same coach or player transfers to your school, a page or leaf has turned in their career, and fate has brought them to the place where they’ll succeed.

So, as an average fan, I’m not surprised at others knowing so little about Oregon because (unless they’ve gotten my attention) I know so little about them, or really care to. It’s my Ducks that I’m tunnel visioned on.

1 hour ago, Washington Waddler said:

Fandom is the finely tuned art of Provincial Tunnel Vision.

That is a GREAT term, and so true. Me? Guilty!

1 hour ago, Washington Waddler said:

I know so little about them, or really care to. It’s my Ducks that I’m tunnel visioned on.

Amen Duck-Brother. You are a great fan...

There are 136 FBS teams in the US. These teams are primarily spread across three time zones, and if you’re still living in the land of denial, wake up… because in regard to CFB, being out on the Left Coast is a big, natural, geographic, disadvantage.

We have been living in the Southwest for 15 years now, and I am still shocked at how huge, and even somewhat beloved, the Oregon brand is down here. I travel a few times a year to TX, NM, AZ, UT, NV, & CA, and, for the most part, people either like, or even have a strong affinity, for the Ducks. I come across very few detractors. OregonDucks is spot on about this.

In the last 25 years, Oregon football has won a LOT of games. We’ve provided the nation with a lot of highlight reel material. We came oh-so painfully close to winning it all in 2011. Got beaten up in the NCG in 2014. And got clown-stomped again last year by that same evil team when it mattered most (‘they who shall not be named’).

We’ve done everything… except that one detail known as winning the entire enchilada. Or, more commonly referred to as The National Championship.

Don’t get me wrong… in the eyes of the college football world, we are about as entertaining and fun as it gets. We are exciting to watch, we are extremely competitive, we have one ridiculously loud stadium, great fans, and the best football uniforms in the history of uniforms. Heck, we were even on the cover of Sports Illustrated once, where they said: “Dazzling Ducks… Rich, Cool, & 4-0.”

But until we win the NCG, and preferably two, I’m afraid we’re going to have to be satisfied with dazzling, rich, and cool.

Until then, to the rest of the nation, we’re primarily going to be that exciting team out there somewhere near the end of the Oregon Trail.

However, win it all, and the familiarity will finally follow.

7 minutes ago, Desert Duck said:

“Dazzling Ducks… Rich, Cool, & 4-0.”

Thank you for the memory!

2 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

Thank you for the memory!

Such a great memory. We were riding high after coming off of a huge home win against a strong Michigan team.

Then that damn SI curse hit 😉

My business allows me to talk with people in most parts of the country........with the exception of the northeast. Without exception, all who are sports fans know about Oregon football........not so much the other sports.

On 11/4/2025 at 11:51 AM, OregonDucks said:

Oregon football is known from coast to coast. I’ve had people yell “Go Ducks!” at me DEEP in SEC country.

Agreed. I wore my Ducks hat to an Ole Miss game earlier this season. Several of their fans — students mainly — gave me a “Go Ducks!”. Charles is right, they’re likely only superficially familiar with the program, but you gotta start somewhere. And at least now even casual CFB fans know how to pronounce Oregon.

I have to tell this story about the reach of Duck familiarity. Five years ago or so, my wife and I were in England, where my daughter and son-in-law were serving with the U.S. military. While we were there, we drove down to Cambridge and spent the day at the beautiful and legendary Cambridge University campus--"punted" on the Cam River, the whole nine yards. It was early June, warm and sunshiny, a bank holiday in England. We stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant with an outdoor dining area overlooking the river. There we were greeted by your classic British maitre'd--very proper, towel over his arm, white apron, portly.

I had on a white Oregon baseball cap--plain white with a green "O," no other ornamentation. When we finished our lunch I went to the outdoor cash register, where the maitre'd took care of the bill. He handed me the receipt and then, just as I was about to leave, leaned over and said in my ear, "Quack ! Quack!"

I almost died laughing.

I saw a picture of a kid in an Oregon sweatshirt on the Facebook page of my home town in Connecticut. Duck fans are everywhere. 😊

We're global. I took this in a South Sudan years ago.

19 hours ago, Otis Day said:

And at least now even casual CFB fans know how to pronounce Oregon.

Now how do we get the memo to the broadcasters and commentators?!

49 minutes ago, OregonDucks said:

Now how do we get the memo to the broadcasters and commentators?!

They bounce from shiney object to shiney object.

17 hours ago, Utki said:

We're global. I took this in a South Sudan years ago.

I'm surprised you didn't see any 2010 or 2014 Oregon Ducks National Champions shirts.

4 hours ago, DrJacksPlaidPants said:

I'm surprised you didn't see any 2010 or 2014 Oregon Ducks National Champions shirts.

Hopefully, those never saw the light of day anywhere 😉

The photo was taken in Upper Nile State in 2011 just after the formation of South Sudan. The guy was utterly confused as to why a random white guy was walking around his remote village and why I wanted to take his photo.

Here's the deal with me.

I graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and I'm a VCU basketball fan.

I also lived in Portland for several years, wish I had never left. As one of my Portland friends told me when we moved back east, "You'll be back, you're not one of them anymore." He was joking but there's also some truth in there. I am a strange critter in that I actually root for both of the Oregon power conference schools, I don't say that too loudly on this forum. I am sick over what has happened to the PAC and how OSU has born the brunt of that. Gradually I trended more toward the Duck, because I love how they do things without a box, not outside of the box but the box simply doesn't exist.

So, I'm a Ducks fan for the past twenty or so years and will be the rest of my life.

Here's my point. I'm also a VCU basketball fan and we don't have a football team, so I can be all in on the Ducks. When we VCU basketball fans talk football, we can't talk VCU football, so we talk about other teams and how we are fans of other teams.

As far as I can tell of the several hundred fans on the RamNation forum, I'm the only Oregon Duck fan, but for those who follow college football with some knowledge of the game the Ducks are pretty well known and respected. It's the casual fan that formed their opinions decades ago and will never change them that really don't get what is going on in Eugene, Oregon right now.

The ducks are a national power now, and they are here to stay.

In a year or two Indiana will lose a coach, they will go back to being Indiana... 'nough said. But Oregon has gone through coaches and continued to improve, to innovate and build a solid program and a very solid athletic department overall.

I believe Dan Lanning is here for a while, but if he left, we'd make another good hire and the program would continue to be a national power.

We know something about that at VCU, where we go through bright young coaches and launch them on their careers elsewhere regularly, but we keep winning a lot of basketball games. We've come to believe it's as much VCU as it is the brought young coaches. Oregon is the same. Yes, the bright young coaches are great, but IT"S OREGON!

Finally Oregon is at least on the verge of being a destination job. Why not? You can coach at a national power and live in Eugene. Who would want more?

Short addition:

It is real though, but it's part of East coast - West Coast stuff about life in general. The east coast doesn't get the west coast and frankly the west coast does get the east coast and that's why they moved to the west coast. Hope you understand what I'm saying. Ad in that when the east coast thinks of the west coast 99% of the time they are thinking LA, ugh! The PNW is virtually non-existent.

I live on the east coast in South Carolina. All week on local and national radio all I’ve heard is callers and hosts bashing the Ducks. I do not understand, other than the light schedule strength, why Lanning and this team get so little acclaim.

Because of it I hope our Ducks overwhelm and dominate the Hawkeyes today, even adding style points.

Go Ducks. Smash Iowa.