Featured image courtesy of Kevin Cline photography. As the summer months grind along, anticipation for the new football season begins to build among fans everywhere. Recruiting, pre-season watch lists, conference media days, and even the annual release of the football video games all have a way of adding fuel to the fire. At this time of the year, every team …
Are the Ducks in for a Letdown Season?
On paper, this Oregon Ducks football team looks strong. Marcus Mariota, DeAnthony Thomas and Josh Huff all return as starters. The offensive line looks tough, as does the defensive secondary. In fact, there isn’t a single position that looks particularly weak, yet there are some vulnerabilities that should be troublesome to Duck fans. One of the issues Oregon fans should …
Post NCAA Decision, What Lies Ahead For Recruiting?
Today, June 27th, 2013, marks the first day in a new era of Oregon Duck football. The Chip Kelly saga, bowl-ban hype, and 2-year NCAA investigation are now officially over with. This teams past is no longer making headlines, coach Kelly is on the other side of the country, and mystery man Willie Lyles is MIA. While it seems as …
Gut wrenching times with Chip Kelly
With the new era of Helfrich football just over the rise, I thought it would be a good time to look back at the Chip Kelly era. Specifically the most gut wrenching parts of it. As we are all huge Ducks fans, some of the most vivid memories we have over the last four seasons are the losses. Chip Kelly was such a …
Oregon Recruiting Blueprint: The Sales Pitch
This is the conclusion of a 9-part recruiting manifesto. This piece looks at the sales pitch, an important piece to any recruiting blueprint. Below are the previous parts of this manifesto: Part 1: What Happened in 2012-2013 Part 2: What Went Wrong Part 3: What Went Right: The Oregon Brand Part 4: A Philosophical Shift Part 5: What the Future …
Rodrigues or Lockie: Both look to back up The Man
On Saturday, Oregon fans got their first glimpse of the two men vying for Oregon’s backup quarterback spot in Jeff Lockie and Jake Rodrigues. While both men impressed statistically, one thing became even clearer during the game: The incumbent, Marcus Mariota, is getting even better than last season. Despite playing against the second-unit defense, it’s hard not to salivate at …
Oregon Recruiting Manifesto Part 5: What the Future Holds
This multi-week series will attempt to take a reasonable, logical and unbiased look at Oregon’s recent recruiting successes and failures while analyzing the program’s recruiting philosophy under Chip Kelly. The series will then look at how that philosophy already has and may continue to evolve under Mark Helfrich before ending with a detailed breakdown of the author’s ideal recruiting blueprint. …
From Helfrich: “Why We Closed Practices”
I am disappointed with coach Helfrich’s decision to close practices, but it is fair that I give his side of it a bit more than I did in my earlier article. I wish to emphasize that while I made a joke of how we were shut out whether it was Chip or Helf, the persona of MH is vastly different …
Will Helfrich unleash the beasts?
Featured Photo © Kevin Cline Photography There are a couple of players on Oregon’s roster that make people scratch their heads. Not the players themselves, but the way they have been utilized; or underutilized, as the case may be. For some reason, coach Kelly liked to keep some of his more high profile players like an ace up his …
The Secret I Could Not Tell…Until Now
“The media in this state HATES Chip Kelly.” I could not believe my ears as I was talking to a former television anchor sportscaster in Oregon. He was in my office in the fall of 2011, and what he told me was depressing and astounding. Remember — at that time I was just beginning to produce what now has become …
OREGON RECRUITING MANIFESTO Part 4: A Philosophical Shift
This multi-week series will attempt to take a reasonable, logical and unbiased look at Oregon’s recent recruiting successes and failures while analyzing the program’s recruiting philosophy under Chip Kelly. The series will then look at how that philosophy already has and may continue to evolve under Mark Helfrich before ending with a detailed breakdown of the author’s ideal recruiting blueprint. …
Notes from around the college football nation: Spurrier jabs ESPN and Johnny Manziel makes headlines…again.
Spring football is here but I still can not shake the March Madness. Seeing the playoff atmosphere for the college basketball scene gets me even more pumped for when the college football playoffs arrive! Here is a full list of when practices begin and spring games will occur…something to help plan out your spring break. Let’s get into some news …
