Little Brother Ducks Will Strike Back

Mike Merrell Editorials

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out The Oregon Ducks certainly came out the “little brother” against the Utah Utes Saturday night. Being branded a little brother smarts. And no matter what happens, you will be reminded from time to time that you are the little brother. That creates a bit of an attitude that you will live by — like it or not. …

Season’s First Quarter Reveals Hypocrisy, Lies and Hope

Mike Merrell Editorials

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out It’s incredible and yet it’s still surprising. Beating Georgia State, 61-28, using a generous helping of second, third and fourth stringers just wasn’t enough blood for too many fans. What seems to be forgotten is that September 19 is still fairly early in the season. We’re still only half way to the selection committee’s first way-too-early declaration …

Fans’ Response Tarnishes a Solid Road Performance

Mike Merrell Editorials, FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Adversity develops and reveals character much more than pleasant trips to the beach. That’s just one of the inconveniences of living on Planet Earth. So when your team loses on the road by a field goal to a top five team, what do you do to show the world who you are? For too many Oregon fans, …

Ducks’ Schedule Stacked for Winning

Mike Merrell FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Duck fans saw their fondest dreams and deepest fears unfold Saturday night in a victorious offensive battle against FCS Eastern Washington. The Ducks tied the NCAA record for most consecutive games (69) with at least one touchdown pass. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only passing record involved in the Saturday night scorefest. Eastern Washington receiver Cooper Kupp broke …

USC and ASU: The Mouths that Roared

Mike Merrell FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out By this time next week, half of the teams in the country will no longer be undefeated. As the season progresses and more teams fall, reality will set in for more and more fan bases — and coaches. Positive, confident outlooks are to be expected, but there are good reasons for coaches to know how far to …

Teams Ready to Take a Dive: 2015 Swimsuit Edition

Mike Merrell Humor

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out This is the third annual preseason report on teams that I don’t think are going to live up to the hype. Why bother to read another preseason projection? So far — for 2013 and 2014 — I’m 5 for 6 in picking overrated teams. And this is the swimsuit edition. Or is that “addition” — hard to …

2015 Football Playoff Projection — A Feast of Revenge

Mike Merrell Editorials, FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out The wonderful thing about August is that every D-1 football program is undefeated, so dreams of what could happen have yet to be tainted with reality. The door for pundits to put together their Top-25’s and final fours is wide open. With not a whole lot of objectivity to go on, a certain amount of subjectivity is …

USC to Win Pac-12? Not Happening

Mike Merrell FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out In the 2012 preseason poll, the media picked what turned out to be the 7-6 University of Southern California Trojans as the top team in the land. It took three years to recover from being burned by their compulsive love for USC, but like a battered wife who can’t figure out that her prince just isn’t all that …

Duck Football Poised to Fly Higher

Mike Merrell FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out It was just a year ago that many fans were crying “now or never” for Duck football. After all, it was going to be the last year for Marcus Mariota, Hroniss Grasu, Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, Arik Armstead, Erik Dargan, Tony Washington … and the list goes on. “Now” didn’t quite happen, but in the aftermath, it hardly seems …

What We Can Learn From the SEC

Mike Merrell FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out For Duck football fans, it used to be about beating the Beavers and the Huskies. Then it moved on to being about winning the Pac-10/12. Now with a Heisman in the trophy case, there’s just one bridge to cross to garner total respect: a national championship. That brings up a new group of rivals, most notably Ohio …

Athlon’s Preseason Final Four Prediction Escapes

Mike Merrell FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Ordinarily, when a reputable football news source publishes bowl projections or preseason rankings, you’d say the predictions were “released.” This past week, Athlon Sports published its preseason Top-25 and final four lists, and there’s no way these things were released, not even with a locked-on ankle bracelet. Athlon tabbed Ohio State, Auburn, Alabama and Baylor as its preseason …

Broncos Plot to Replace Cougs

Mike Merrell FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Mike Merrell’s Three and Out A recent article posted on obnug.com declared that the Pac-12 could make a “butt load of money by dumping Wazzou [sic].” It’s an idea that has some merit. There’s no way the Cougars could be bringing in their share of revenues – although that doesn’t stop them from taking their share of the pie. But there …