Measuring Up: Ducks vs. the SEC and other BCS powers

Josh White FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Arik Armstead at 6’8″, joins 6’7″ DeForest Buckner, and 6’9″ Stetzon Bair on the D-line
courtesy Amazing Moments Photography

As the 2013 off-season grinds along, it’s high-time to take a look at how the Ducks spring roster stacks up against 24 other programs in the country.  After all, the 2012 Fiesta Bowl champion Oregon Ducks were among the very largest in the country a season ago, but has that changed?  For reference, this list is assembled using roster data from ESPN.com, Foxsports.com, and identifying a “large” player as an individual 6’5″ or taller and/or 300 pounds or more.  The numbers represent the total number of large players on the teams’ respective roster.

Keep in mind that in virtually all respects a 6’4″ 299-pound player is certainly big, but this list attempts to focus only on the very largest.

It might also be interesting to revisit this topic again when more accurate fall rosters are released.

Here are the numbers as they stand today:

Florida State Seminoles

26

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

26

Oregon Ducks

24

Georgia Bulldogs

24

Nebraska Cornhuskers

24

Alabama Crimson Tide

22

Stanford Cardinal

22

Michigan Wolverines

22

Ohio State Buckeyes

21

Clemson Tigers

21

Virginia Cavaliers

20

Texas Longhorns

20

Oklahoma Sooners

20

Texas A&M Aggies

19

Tennessee Volunteers

18

LSU Tigers

17

Oregon State Beavers

17

West Virginia Mountaineers

16

Northern Illinois Huskies

16

Florida Gators

16

Washington Huskies

14

USC Trojans

14

Arizona State Sun Devils

13

Boise State Broncos

7

UCLA Bruins

6

For the second straight season, Florida State has the highest total number out of the 25 selected schools.  Also, the Ducks again hold their own in a three-way tie for second.

The items that stood out in my eyes were:

- Oregon’s first road opponent, Virginia, is right up there with the very biggest teams in the country with 20 players.

Jim Mora, Jr.

– UCLA, with just six, had the fewest players of the 25 schools that were reviewed.

– Last season’s BCS buster/road kill, Northern Illinois, has the same number of these players as Florida and West Virginia, and more than USC and Arizona State.

 

New 2024 FishDuck Publishing Schedule….

During the off-season the FishDuck.com publishing schedule will consist of articles on Mondays and Tuesdays. Do keep checking as new articles could be published during the week when a writer has something to say.

In mid-August of 2024, we will go back to the seven-days-a-week of articles during the football season as we did in the football season of 2023.

The Our Beloved Ducks Forum (OBD) is where we we discuss the article above and many more topics, as it is so much easier in a message board format over there.  At the free OBD forum we will be posting Oregon Sports article links, the daily Press Releases from the Athletic Department and the news coming out every day.

Our 33 rules at the free OBD Forum can be summarized to this: 1) be polite and respectful, 2) do not tell anyone what to think, feel or write, and 3) no reference of any kind to politics. Easy-peasy!

OBD Forum members….we got your back.  No Trolls Allowed!