Get Real: Ducks go 1-11 in Pac-12 Network Play?

Mike Merrell Editorials

If you didn’t know Oregon routinely goes 1-11 in Pac-12 Network replays, you aren’t watching the same Pac-12 Network and its drive to preserve revisionist history that I’m seeing. I haven’t bothered to talk to anyone at “everybody’s” sports network, but it appears that they are rotating prime time by school; that is, Monday might be ASU night, followed by …

Time to Pac-Up: Should Oregon Follow the MONEY?

Mike Merrell Editorials

How do you fit five pegs into four holes? The obvious answer is, “You don’t.” You leave one out. AZcentral.com and SEC born-and-raised Andy Staples have another solution. You whittle one of the pegs down to nothing, pick up a few of the scraps and glom them onto one of the four remaining. Naturally, the one that gets carved up—according …

There is No Magic Wand for Pac-12 Football

Mike Merrell Editorials

It’s no secret that the Pac-12 basically lives in the basement of Power Five football: inferior television contracts, generally the first of the Power Five to go uninvited to a four-team invitational called the Bowl Championship Series, and conference bowl tie-ins that might better be called bowel alignments. Imagine—giving up the Rose Bowl every three years for the ongoing privilege …

Was Oregon Softball Too Much Fun?

Mike Merrell Editorials

I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But I have to wonder. Let’s start with some facts. Under Mike White, Oregon Softball never won a national championship. His teams consistently got to the Women’s College World Series, where they consistently lost games they were favored to win. Last year, they beat Washington in its own kennel three games in a row, and …

Ducks Shouldn’t Stand a Chance Against Huskies

Mike Merrell Editorials

Saturday the Washington Huskies will march into Autzen Stadium with a fourth-year starting quarterback who guided his team to the College Football Playoff two years ago as a sophomore. In senior Myles Gaskin, they have the school’s all-time leading rusher. They are third in the nation in scoring defense, giving up a stingy 13.7 points per game. The Huskies were …

Why Coach Mario Cristobal Won’t Outsmart Anybody

Mike Merrell Editorials

Predicting the number of wins for Ducks football this year is a tough call. One thing I can’t buy is that there’s an issue of whether Oregon’s coaches can game-day coach or not. First of all, if you’ve got a Mario Cristobal-coached offensive line, a Jim Leavitt-coached defense, and a Heisman-candidate quarterback–you’ve got some options that can make you look …

The O-Line Relay: Cristobal’s New Weapon to Win the Pac-12?

Mike Merrell Editorials

Anyone who’s ever had to compete single-handedly against a relay can tell you that it’s not a level playing field. Could this concept be formulated into a strategy that Coach Mario Cristobal utilizes to win and, ultimately, dominate the Pac-12? Let’s look at some unknown aspects of the offensive line and see if we can determine the unique new tactic …

Flash in the Pan: Oregon or Chip Kelly?

Mike Merrell Editorials

It was only a year ago that Oregon fans might have just have had confidence in Rob Mullens‘ and Phil Knight‘s ability to deal with the challenges that were on the plate with the football program. After all, Mullens is one of the top athletic directors in the country. And Phil Knight is the most successful athletics-related businessman in the …

Oregon Football 6-6? No.

Mike Merrell Editorials

As a general rule, nobody likes to be wrong. There’s a growing consensus that the 2017 Ducks are looking at a 6-6 season. In the past week, both Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News and Andrew Greif of Oregonlive have joined our own Mr. FishDuck, Charles Fischer, in assessing the Ducks as the acme of mediocrity. If the …