Ducks’ Chance for Directors Cup Goes Swimmingly

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Mike Merrell’s Three and Out Sport for sport, the University of Oregon is one of the most successful athletic schools in the country. Cross country and track & field national championships — or at worst, high top ten finishes — have become the norm. Championships in football, softball, baseball, women’s volleyball, men’s basketball and golf have been close enough to …

Offense Wins Championships

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Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out It used to be that the teams that specialized in getting those three-and-outs were the ones that won championships: offense wins games – defense wins championships. No offense, but times have changed. Tonight’s national championship game will pit two of the country’s top offensive teams against each other, while the top defensive teams sit at home, watch …

Rose Bowl Exposes Lies; Jimbo and Jameis in Person

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Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out The 101st Rose Bowl was in the books. Most of the press had not yet made it to the room for the post-game conferences, so I greedily claimed a front-row seat, wanting to be as close as possible to those whom I viewed as the biggest villains in college football: Jimbo Fisher and Jameis Winston. I couldn’t …

FSU: Fans Accept Glory in Winning at Any Cost

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Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Throughout history, entire populations have been duped into following charismatic leaders with no scruples whatsoever. The unwitting populace draws power from the promise of the spoils of war, and celebrates the exclamation that they are the chosen, that they are the master race, that they are better than everybody else. Under these leaders, hubris and disregard for …

2014 Florida State Seminoles: Undefeated and Enigmatic

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Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Florida State’s ability to win close games this year is an enigma. Is it a team strength that the Seminoles always seem to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Or is it a weakness that they find themselves needing to often enough to give their fans ulcers? In 2012 and 2013, Stanford was that sort of …

Big 12’s Big Problems Could Impact Pac-12

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Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby wishes someone would have told him ahead of time that his conference would be punished for not having a championship game. It’s a sad fact of life: Some things you just have to figure out for yourself, and that one shouldn’t have been too difficult. The truth is, the Big 12 tried …

College Football Drama and Elephants in the Room

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Mike Merrell’s Three and Out Despite a mid-season hiccup that had bandwagon fans clinging for their dear fan-lives, the Oregon Ducks are in the first College Football Playoff as the Rose Bowl home team facing the Florida State Seminoles. It’s a great matchup: East vs West, North vs South, this year’s probable Heisman winner vs last year’s Heisman winner; and, …

Oregon Sexy: Kelly, Helfrich and Braxton Miller

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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 …

College Football Playoff: Perils and Pleasure

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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 …

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of College Football Bad Acts

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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 …

Dropped Balls and Other Life Lessons

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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 …

F’s for Football’s First Final Four

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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 …