As a fantasy football player (and 2024 league champion), I have to follow teams and players that I do not care about, such as the Cincinnati Bengals who have two elite wide receivers. Receiver 1A is Ja’Marr Chase, while receiver 1B is Tee Higgins.
Occasionally, Chase goes on a mini-slump while Higgins simultaneously lights up the state line, which gets people thinking, “Hmmm… perhaps Higgins is the 1A and Chase the 1B.”
And like clockwork, whenever those murmurs begin, Chase goes out and puts up a 200-plus yard game with three touchdowns and puts to rest any doubt about who the top receiver is.
Leaving his doubters to humbly say, “Maybe not.”
After the Ducks beat the Buckeyes in October it appeared that Oregon had become the B1G’s 1A team while the Buckeyes slid down to 1B.
Then the Rose Bowl happened, leaving all Duck fans to say, “Maybe not.”
During Mario Cristobal’s time as head coach, fans tolerated his lack of coaching acumen because he was recruiting at an elite level Oregon had never seen before. Dan Lanning has built up on that and it continues to get even better.
Now that Oregon acquires talent at an elite level, they need to have elite coordinators. Like Cristobal, Tosh Lupoi is a top-notch recruiter, but is he a top-notch coordinator? One bad game does not define a tenure, but Will Stein had no counter-punches to the Ohio State defensive scheme.
Nick Saban did not hire the likes of former problem children Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian because he is a humanitarian and devout career rehabilitator; he did it because they are both excellent X’s and O’s coaches, and as a bonus he looked like a loving and caring guy.
I mean, think about it. Ohio State has Oregon’s greatest football coach, Chip Kelly, as a mere offensive coordinator. Time for the Ducks to think big in their next step to becoming not just an elite program, but a top-tier elite program.
There is still work to be done.
The Ducks need the best of the best at coordinators. (Photo by Steven Chan)
Time to Reprogram Our College Football Brains
For years we have been programmed to believe that the regular season is everything. And, for good reason, it was everything. To have any chance at the national title you had to play a near-perfect regular season. Go undefeated and win your conference championship game and you literally made the final four.
On January 1st, Oregon fans learned the hard way that is no longer the case.
College football has now become like college basketball. Winning the conference championship is nice and cute, but it really does not mean anything. It is all about peaking in the playoffs. Ohio State, who came in third place in the B1G, is peaking at the right time and is the overwhelming favorite to win it all.
If the Ducks could do it over again, they probably would have chosen to sit key players and lose the B1G Championship to have a home playoff game, avoid rust, and have an easier path to the final four.
This season was bad timing for the Ducks to have their best regular season ever.
A Couple of Thoughts
Ohio State: All that talent and future draft picks came to play in the Rose Bowl. I believe this Buckeyes team would beat the Ducks 9 out of 10 times. The game in Eugene in October was Oregon’s one.
Fool’s Gold: That October victory over Ohio State gave the Ducks the false belief that they were better than they were. The team that barely beat Boise State and played horrible defense against Penn State was the real Oregon team. All the other games were against inferior opposition who the Ducks could simply out-physical and out-talent.
Darren Perkins
Spokane, WA
Top photo credit: Steven Chan
Natalie Liebhaber, the FishDuck.com Volunteer Editor for this article, works in technology in SLC, Utah
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Darren Perkins is a sales professional and 1997 Oregon graduate. After finishing school, he escaped the rain and moved to sunny Southern California where he studied screenwriting for two years at UCLA. Darren grew up in Eugene and in 1980, at the tender age of five, he attended his first Oregon football game. His lasting memory from that experience was an enthusiastic Don Essig announcing to the crowd: “Reggie Ogburn, completes a pass to… Reggie Ogburn.” Captivated by such a thrilling play, Darren’s been hooked on Oregon football ever since. Currently living in Spokane, Darren enjoys flaunting his yellow and green superiority complex over friends and family in Cougar country.