In my last article, Oregon’s New Edge on Defense, we went over the importance of setting the edge in run defense. Building on that, I am creating a mini-series on how to improve run defense, to give people a look at the fundamentals necessary to play the run well, and at the same time, examine the fundamentals missing from the …
The Ducks have to get better on defense. Coach Willie Taggart knows this, Coach Jim Leavitt knows this and the fans know this. Besides getting better players how do you do this? Good defense starts with taking away or limiting the opponent’s run game. The easiest offensive play is to snap the ball and hand it off. If an offense …
For years the Ducks have been a “bend but don’t break” defense. The problem is, in 2016, they finally broke. In this article, I will be focusing on the pass defense and the immediate changes Oregon fans will likely (and hopefully) see this season. The first thing that must be eliminated is the No Man’s Land technique. This is where the …
Oregon’s biggest problem, as all Duck fans know, lies with the defense. The unit is ranked in the bottom 10 in the country, for a variety of reasons. I have faith that Jim Leavitt can get things fixed, but he is going to need help if the Ducks are going to return to double-digit wins. I believe a strong offense can be a great …
The Spring Game this year was a party for the program. It showed how much progress has been made since the end of last season. A lot of big-picture developments in recruiting, team building and coaching philosophy have been gleaned from it. After reviewing the film a few more times, I wanted to use some Spring Game material for some discussion points about …
If I could describe the 2017 Oregon football spring camp in one word it would be “Leadership.” Not only from the obvious coaching changes last December, but the emphasis and cultural change to put the players in a position to lead one another. This is their team, and the results on the field will come directly from their work and …
When a football team scrimmages itself, it is a zero-sum game: if either the offense or defense has success, it automatically makes the other team look bad. For this scrimmage review, I will analyze why one team was successful rather than just say the offense scored a touchdown so they must be good or the defense gave up a touchdown so they must be bad. Three …
My friends, this article marks the beginning of a new phase for the site where we are replacing many of our writers with Coaches who write articles and give their opinions about Oregon football. Tomorrow it is an analysis article, while today it is a Coaches’ Opinion article by Coach Ruskin. What you will read are three major observations and …
My friends, a play that Oregon seldom ever ran and I lusted for, (in a most football kind of way) was the Counter Play. I love how this is Power-Football, and fits the larger Offensive lineman profile that Coach Taggart and Cristobal are recruiting. Coach Ruskin has been studying the South Florida offense and will have a few analysis treats for …
The cool thing about a coaching search for your favorite football team is it tests what you as a coach, or fan, hold as your priorities for a coach. Generally, there are three types of coaches: The CEO type recruits well, sets the general culture of the program and delegates. A good CEO Coach hires coordinators they trust and then delegates the …
Oregon football is having a down year, one the likes of Duck fans have not seen since 2004. College football is cyclical, competitive and a zero-sum game. So ‘down’ years, although tough to go through in present time, are going to happen. It is what a program learns and adapts to that make those downturns minimal. One program that has been …
As most know, Oregon is known for going for surprise two-point conversions during the usual PAT process. The recent game against UC-Davis provided some superb examples for us to learn what works and why, along with what does not work, and why. While I (Charles Fischer) am writing parts of this article, the primary analysis segments are provided by new …