“They are very, very athletic.” – Arizona Coach Rich Rodriguez, describing the Oregon Ducks, who had just de-clawed his Arizona Wildcats, 51-13 in the 2014 Pac-12 Championship Game. Rich Rod got that one right, and it’s something for whoever matches up against the Ducks in the first-ever College Football Playoff to think about. If you read the comments section to …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Over the past week or so rumors have swirled that Ohio State’s injured quarterback Braxton Miller may be transferring to Oregon. David Piper of SB Nation thinks it would be great for Oregon, but risky for Miller. Agreed, on the surface Miller’s services would be a sexy hire for the Ducks. But don’t hold your breath, because …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out To nobody’s surprise, the present four-team playoff system is proving to be at best a Band-Aid to stop the bleeding until a real solution is in place to crown a national champion in Division I-A football. Right or wrong, there seems to be a semblance of consensus over the top three teams, but it’s a train wreck …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Acting is a big part of football: the pump fake, the play action pass, the fake punt, fake extra point kicks or field goals, flea flickers, the Statue of Liberty, and regrettably, fake injuries. When done well acting is an art form, something you have to appreciate even when it’s some other team doing it to your …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out With the success of Oregon football this season, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and fail to notice some of the life lessons that abounded this past week in college football. The vaunted SEC West, for example, once again proved the value of being a big frog in a small pond. Mississippi State and …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Yes, this flag is dirty, worn out, and a good part of it is cut off — sort of like the idea of a two-team or four-team college football playoff decided by beauty pageant judges. It didn’t take long for the four-team playoff idea to get as dirty and worn out as the BCS Championship Game that …
From the Visitors’ Locker Room Coach David Shaw had a simple explanation for Stanford’s 45-16 loss to Oregon Saturday night. “We played one of the best teams in the nation tonight,” Coach Shaw admitted. “We had to play a near perfect second half and we didn’t do that. Over the past few years, we’ve been evenly matched, but this game …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Television as we know it today exists only because major corporations are willing to pay for the privilege of telling people how and what to think. From the Buick ads with the annoying music to the AFLAC Heisman Award to the Amway Coaches’ Poll to the Rose Bowl Presented by Northwestern Mutual, college football carries no exemption …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out More so than most years, this college football season has produced much which, on the surface, just doesn’t make a lot of sense: home teams frequently losing, hardly anybody staying undefeated, a log jam of one-loss teams that threatens to be impossible to sort out, and yes, even players’ names. Making sense of players names, home team …
Since the previous week featured so much condemnation and in-fighting among Duck fans, a win over a ranked UCLA team was just what the doctor ordered to settle down some heated feelings. It appears that it isn’t just Duck fans who have trouble getting along when their team is losing. UCLA coach Jim Mora blessed us with quite a show …
Besides being disappointing to those who came out on the short side of the upset stick, this weekend had to wreak havoc with the playoff selection committee members’ digestive systems. At this point in the season it is hard to imagine that four teams are going to distinguish themselves as being truly above the rest. Settling it on the field …
It would be kind to say that a four-team playoff is an improvement over the BCS Championship that it replaced. But what we have isn’t quite the same as trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It’s more like trying to fit five square pegs plus a few splinters into four round holes. What could go wrong? …
