You may be familiar with the name “Johnathan Loyd” if you’re an avid Oregon basketball fan. And if you were in attendance for the highly-anticipated spring game, you’ll remember chuckling as the voice of Autzen, Don Essig, introduced the freshly-tackled first-year senior with the quip: “Welcome to football, Johnny Loyd.” It’s been awhile since Loyd stepped onto a football field and …
Thanks to my friend, Charles Fischer, I have had the great opportunity to write about many of my favorite offensive schemes here on FishDuck.com. From the Zone Read Bubble to One Back Play Action to Packaged Tempo Plays, these analyses have been about concepts that are the heart of my own personal offensive philosophy. One of the few core spread …
Let’s face it. Athletes are a rare breed. Bigger. Stronger. Faster. And, quite logically, hungrier. Have you ever wondered what kind of appetite you’d have as a Division 1 athlete practicing every day, sometimes twice a day? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be that same athlete and go to bed hungry? I consider myself a …
Anyone hungry for seafood? If so head on over to Tallahassee. I hear they are just “giving” it away. On top of that fun story you have Nick Saban actually being happy with Lane Kiffin, the SEC setting forth a better way of scheduling, and some beef with how things are going to be done with the college football …
Mike Bellotti raised a lot of eyebrows in 2007 with the relatively uninspiring, no-name hire of someone named Chip Kelly out of Division IAA New Hampshire. Result: Oregon has been among the nation’s leaders in rushing since. During that span, perfecting the zone read has not only turned quarterbacks into de facto running backs, but it has made talented running backs even …
When all you have to talk about from the past week of action is people arguing over uniforms, coaches trolling schools, and players apologizing for trash talk … then it’s a slow week. We did have one big thing, though, with Northwestern’s football players taking a private vote about whether or not to unionize. That story will be the main talking point …
When Pharaoh Brown called his mother on graduation day, he sounded calm. Jeannetta Smith assumed her son was pulling another prank, but this one angered her. “This is not how you play,” Smith said. Brown wasn’t joking. His friend, Fred Zuber, had drowned hours earlier. He sounded calm because he was in shock. Brown, Zuber and three […]
Is it football season yet? I will have to ask that question every week until kickoff in August. Right now, all we get to hear about is police reports and coaches kissing pigs. We at least have the spring games going on, giving us a chance to speculate on how our teams will do come Fall. Let’s get to the news …
There is a reason that the Pac-12 is known as the “conference of quarterbacks,” and the talent present in the conference this year are a testament to that title. The conference lost only two starting quarterbacks in Keith Price and B.J Denker to the NFL and most teams return their starters. This will only add to the intense competition expected in …
By now, we’ve all heard of the unfortunate ACL injury Bralon Addison suffered in Spring practice, and it appears to be season ending. Injuries are an unfortunate reality of sports, especially football, and everyone has to deal with them. While there are plenty of reasons to be upset about Oregon losing their best and most accomplished receiver, don’t start writing …
The departure of Kiko Alonzo and Michael Clay after 2012 made last season a rebuilding year of sorts for the Duck linebacker corps, and some maintain the Ducks’ run defense suffered accordingly. The numbers reveal that the Ducks gave up 169 ypg on the ground, up from 142 ypg the year before. How much that attributed to the extra loss …
When the Ducks travelled south to play Pac-12 rival Stanford, there were predictions of a Duck victory. De’Anthony Thomas predicted the Oregon offense would put up forty points, and many others had Oregon at least securing the W. Vegas even had the Ducks as a 10+ point favorite. The Duck faithful had high hopes, and with good reason. Leading up …
