During the offseason of 2024, a repeated theme among college football pundits was wondering how the four new teams from the Pac-12 would respond to the more “physical” nature of B1G football. Mr. FishDuck took some time from his fun at Nomaspin casino to ponder this very interesting midwestern assertion with me.
The Pac-12 had always been known as a “finesse” conference, with high-powered offenses, questionable defenses, and a lack of size and strength in the trenches. “They just don’t grow them very big out west.” And, certainly, when recruiting season came around, there was some hard truth to that.
Meanwhile, the B1G was a more meat and potatoes, “pound the rock,” type of conference with massive offensive linemen that would own the trenches and grind down your soul. The thinking was these West Coast teams would not be able to score as many points in the B1G because the physicality of the conference would cancel out a lot of their finesse offense.
Hence, physicality equates to less offense, which explains why the B1G has never been known for its offenses.
But, after watching Oregon play six B1G conference games, I do not believe physicality leads to less offense. In fact, I do not think physicality has anything to do with the poor offenses in the B1G.
Here is my shocking declaration (you might want to be seated) to college administrators, coaches, fans, and players in the B1G Conference and around the world:
Bad offense leads to bad offense.
The Ducks have been physical and good on offense. (Photo by Naji Saker)
Currently
It has not helped that the three historical blue-bloods are a little “off” this year. Michigan is in rebuild mode, Ohio State is not as potent as in recent years, and Penn State, well, Penn State is just Penn State.
To make matters worse, the three other Pac-12 alums not named Oregon have also backstepped offensively. Washington, like Michigan, is in a rebuild, UCLA is a trainwreck, and USC no longer has their Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback as Lincoln Riley pads his fraud file. Even the Ducks have been disappearing on offense in the second half. Is the B1G rubbing off on Oregon?
The offenses Oregon has played against so far this season make me reminisce about the days of Mario Cristobal. Cristobal took a potential offensive juggernaut with a quarterback (Justin Herbert) who should have been a Heisman Trophy candidate and turned it into the most ordinary, coached down, ho-hum group of boring offensive underachievers ever seen in the Pac-12.
And, remember, with Cristobal, it was in the name of “physicality.”
Cristobal would have been a perfect B1G head coach. Physicality brought Oregon fans that “classic” 7-6 victory over, ironically, Michigan State, in the 2018 San Francisco Bowl. Cristobal single-handedly turned Levi’s Stadium into a torture chamber for Oregon fans in attendance and watching from home.
Utah was the closest thing the Pac-12 had to a “physical” B1G type of team. When you are good at it, like Utah generally is, it can work. Otherwise, you look like a poor-boy version of Utah, which is what a few of the Ducks’ B1G opponents have looked like so far this year.
At least in the Pac-12, teams in the lower half of the conference generally had a puncher’s chance because they were still capable of scoring points. But, in the B1G, that does not seem to be the case.
People, it is time to put an end to this “cute” little game of semantics. It is not “physicality,” it is simply “bad offense.”
Case closed.
Darren Perkins
Spokane, WA
Top photo credit: Eric Becker
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.