Duck Fan 76 No. 1 Share Posted September 7, 2022 Hindsight is 20/20 but so too can be introspection. I can see now that what we saw at the end of last year wasn't just a motivational downturn due to perceived coaching exits. What was exposed by Utah was instead a real structural weakness in the teams mechanics & composition. I was blinding myself to this reality with the notion that spring & fall camp would give the coaches time to correct what they saw and turn out an Oregon team meeting its full potential. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was the 2021 Oregon football team, plenty of effort was in the ground before DL's staff got to Eugene and began diagnosing fundamentals. How I thought the new staff would be able to come together, establish their program, install a new offense & defense and then coach the flaws out of the 2021 team in that short of a span was in hindsight, naïve. These players have several years of development (and habits) already and in some cases underdevelopment has lowered their potential. We can't flip a switch and correct all of these points in a 4 week fall camp. After the Georgia game freed me of my illusions there was the usual emotional down turn. Having read more than a few posts on this site and others I think we as a fanbase are in a better place with the 2022 season and importantly we are focused on continuing to lend support and encouragement to the new program. Classes start after the Washington State game and at that point the players will be restricted to about 20 hours a week (I believe) of official team practice time. Until then the program has their full attention and will be working hard to build the core fundamentals they need to not only be successful this season but in the next and the next... This is indeed a building year. I believe we are going to have a successful season and likely much better than the 50% mark. I have real hope for the offense and I believe the defense will make strides with pass protection. They now have a clear focus on tackling fundamentals and scheme adjustments that allows for bigger defenders to find success against the pass. I've stopped worrying about the top tier of CFB for this season and I'm going to take it one game at a time and one play at a time. I'm going to learn to love to watch the team grow. That means I'm going to accept some bad plays and dumb throws (please God, not too many!) and focus on watching players develop over the season. That seems a healthier relationship in general with CFB. 1 2 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 2 Share Posted September 7, 2022 On 9/7/2022 at 10:03 AM, Duck Fan 76 said: After the Georgia game freed me of my illusions Me too, only they were delusions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
