It is rightly said that adversity brings opportunity. And when you are a cutting edge, forward thinking, innovation spewing machine like the University of Oregon, you don’t let adversity bring you down, you let it propel you to greater things. Beloved Ducks, there shall be no further whining and crying about the decision of Willie Taggart to leave. After all, …
As I’m sitting here writing this, Willie Taggart is still the coach of the Oregon Ducks, but that could change at any minute. After just one successful, culture-altering season at one of the top programs in the country, Taggart is the top candidate for the blue-blood power Florida State. And it’s looking like he’s going to go. Welcome to the …
With that very first play from scrimmage — a ten yard completion from Justin Herbert to Dillon Mitchell — you could feel Duck Nation let out a collective sigh of relief, as if to say: “Our long offensive nightmare is over.” Good times are here again as the flash n’ balls of the Oregon offensive showed up for the first …
Good ole’ figures of speech such as “going down swinging,” “take a roll of the dice” and “gotta’ be in it to win it” didn’t apply to the Ducks on Saturday. The Ducks offense was the equivalent of a baseball team whose batters stood at the plate all game long with the bat firmly resting on their shoulders. They were …
It could have been worse. It could have been 2007, on the heels of Dennis Dixon’s knee injury against Arizona, when the Ducks stumbled into the Rose Bowl and couldn’t score a point, losing 16-0 to a hapless and free-falling UCLA. Though the Ducks had national championship aspirations that year, which had vanished in Tucson the week before, they still …
Protect the quarterback. It’s Football 101. It’s football gospel. If football had ten commandments it would be etched into one of two stone tablets, just like the original Ten Commandments. But apparently protecting the quarterback in Eugene has gone the way of that mysterious 3rd tablet, as illustrated by the classic Mel Brooks movie The History of the World: …
If only Saturday’s loss had been to USC, Stanford, or Washington — against one of the Pac-12’s better programs — I’d feel much better about things. I could say that the Ducks are a legit top-25 team, that they scratched and clawed to the bitter end against one the conference’s premier teams, and almost pulled it off. I could say …
As the final gun sounded on Saturday and the usual post-game mad scramble took place across the field as the head coaches tried to find each other for their customary handshake, I half-expected the ending music to the movie “Rocky” to kick-in. After all, a relatively large underdog (13.5 points) had gotten the tar beat out of it early on …
Southern Utah should be an easy win for the Ducks. A practice game really. The Ducks have questions, and let’s say guys step up and address these questions in a positive way. Does it really mean anything against such an inferior opponent? Being a star against Southern Utah and then getting shutdown a week later against Nebraska would mean that …
SPECIAL EDITION: Please tell us your predictions below in the comments section This past week, two of FishDuck’s finest made their regular-season predictions on how many games the Ducks will win this year. On Monday, young (OK “middle-age approaching”) and fatally cocky Padawan Jedi Darren Perkins predicted that the Ducks would party like it’s 2005 and win ten games. While …
Sure, the Ducks should be better in 2017. But 10 wins? No way. Yes, Willie Taggart has brought the enthusiasm, the recruiting magic, the superb coaching staff and the Harbaugh moxie (Jim took Michigan from 5-7 to 10-3 in his first season). He may well be the next “it” coach. But it sounds as if the overly optimistic author of …
As one of the top football programs in the country, and with undeniably the country’s loudest fans, it’s no surprise that Oregon football has one of the best tailgating scenes as well. In fact, in 2015, Scout.com had ranked Oregon the No. 1 tailgating school in the country. Go Ducks! Thirty years ago, the idea of Oregon being the top …