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What is Oregon Football’s Standard?

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Oregon finished the regular season with a record of 9-3 with losses to Georgia, Washington and Oregon State. Most programs would kill for a 9-3 record, but to Oregon fans, this feels like a lost season in which the Ducks failed to meet their own standard. Oregon is not a blue blood; we have never won a National Championship, but ...

 
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Oregon finished the regular season with a record of 9-3 with losses to Georgia, Washington and Oregon State. Most programs would kill for a...
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2 of those 3 ranked losses, as we all know, should have been wins. This team was on the cusp of a Pac12 title and a playoff birth. If "up" is the trajectory for Dan Lanning, then this is good.

 

Take care of the baby blue Tarheels and 10 wins looks pretty good.

 

So, for now... "Wolverines!" 😂 

 

Cheers.

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For me, our "football standard" is playing disciplined and to the level of our talent.  In terms of recruited talent, I believe we were #7 in the country...that means meeting expectations is a #7 ranking, plus or minus 1.  Anything short of that by seasons end was either a learning experience or failure (if we fail to learn from it).

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Lanning met my standard for a freshman coach against seasoned coaches. 

 

Lanning beat Whittingham, that is a huge win, and under appreciated. Losing to two coaches who are experienced hurt, but it wasn't like we lost to Jimmy Lake, or some of the clowns the beavs have had coach their program.

 

I also don't think you can just add up stars, and rating of individuals and create expectations. Too many programs do this and lose their focus on what it takes to build a program. Lanning is, now, building his program.

 

It takes years to create a culture where the Seniors and Juniors help with the coaching. It also takes years to get in place the players you want leading the team. You might get lucky and inherit a Justin Herbert, and a Troy Dye, but that doesn't always happen. 

 

I think it will be appropriate to talk about standards in year three, and agree 10 wins would be a pretty good floor for any program.

 

 

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Simple for me, win the games your supposed to win and be competitive in the ones your not. So I guess this year can be quantified as a disappointment. Although I like the trajectory.

 

 Beating Utah was the bright spot for me this year. Two good teams with injured QBs that played their guts out.

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This is a tricky question and I’m not sure it can be quantified by win-loss ratio. For me it comes down to “am I proud of their effort and determination,” which is incredibly subjective. Add to that no team in recent history has won all 9 conference games. Then throw in the opaque nature of college football injuries and player status and often what is going on with the team is a guessing game.

 

For me this year would have been a success with a win against the Beavs where we were up by several scores with a ESPN win % over 99%. That loss reminds me too much of past collapses by poorly lead Oregon teams. So to me this was not a successful year or perhaps more accurately a year where the team didn’t play to their potential. 

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My feeling going into this season was that I hoped for 10 wins.  I did not predict it or anything, because I was not sure Oregon could win 10 games with a new staff, and I did not feel good about predicting less...just as an intense fan.

 

I do think 10 wins has become standard in a way, because if you win 10 games...you are a good team, and you know everyone recognizes that and respects the Ducks.  Ten wins in the regular season can usually get you into a good bowl, although I think the Huskies (Alamo) might disagree with that this year.

 

It makes this Holiday Bowl SO IMPORTANT for Dan Lanning in terms of his perception with the recruits, the fans and the media.  Gotta get that 10th!

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Mr. FishDuck

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In addition to an improved defense next year (and a good-to-great qb), I'm hoping to see an improved special teams unit. A kicker with the power and distance of Gus the Mule would be nice for starters. Improvements on kickoff and punt coverages, and kickoff and punt returns (though I'm fine with a fair catch, when it applies, that gets us to the 25 yard line) would be great too.

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     It’s difficult to grade a first year head coach who is going through a ‘sorting-out’ season, characterized by establishing his own culture, and allowing the safety net (otherwise known as the transfer portal) to catch those who perhaps are realizing they’re now going to have to work harder for their stars than previous head coaches had demanded of them. Because that process affects team focus, I’d give DL an A for effort, and a solid B for results. 
 

     Does make me yearn at times for the cultural stability of the Brooks/Bellotti years when players knew what to expect and felt they could trust it to stick around. Hope we get to see something akin to that again!

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On 12/7/2022 at 10:04 AM, cartm25 said:

Lanning Grade: B to B+

I'd agree with this for this year. 

 

I do think how bad the defense was is something that Lanning is taking personally. It really looks like that he is working on cleaning the roster by pushing players into the portal so he'll have the room he needs to get the player he needs for defense. 

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On 12/7/2022 at 8:17 AM, Charles Fischer said:

I do think 10 wins has become standard in a way, because if you win 10 games...you are a good team


If Oregon schedules a directional school, instead of Georgia, we have 10 wins. 
 

To me, given Oregon’s resources, Oregon should compete every year for a conference championship. What made this season so disappointing is that we were one quarter away from playing USC in the conference championship and we blew it with a combination of really bad play and questionable coaching decisions. 
 

I would be happy with competing for conference championships every year, winning them more often than not. With the expanded playoff, if we can accomplish the above, Oregon should be in the mix for a birth in the playoffs, regularly.  If the stars align, we could make a deep run and potentially win the whole dang thing. 

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The only problem with being 9-3 this year is who we lost the last 2 to.

Especially the last one.

 

As poorly as the defense looked at times, perhaps 9 wins is a better record then we know.

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