Everyone wrote off the Pac-12 in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The highest seed any Pac-12 team was given was Colorado at No. 5. As a result, all five Pac-12 teams were underdogs and the four remaining in the tournament will continue to be underdogs, and that’s absolutely perfect. The Pac-12 is the underdog conference after all; not supposed to …
Justin Herbert was the NFL’s 2020 Offensive Rookie of the Year. His first year in the NFL with the Los Angles Chargers was a resounding success and silenced his doubters. As Oregon fans, we all knew his potential but even we were surprised by just how good he was in his rookie year. Herbert showcased a set of abilities in …
Another year, another coaching hire at Oregon. This is starting to become an unwelcome trend. Every single year of Mario Cristobal’s tenure has come with new coaching hires and is unlikely to stop any time soon. Hiring assistant coaches and coordinators can have a massive impact on a program, and Cristobal has done a fine job in hiring coaches that …
Oregon and USC seem primed to be the top two schools in the Pac-12. Both have top ten recruiting classes for the 2021 recruiting cycle according to Rivals and both teams are already projected to win their respective divisions. In terms of raw talent, Oregon and USC are miles ahead of the rest of the conference. It wouldn’t come as …
Mario Cristobal is building something special at Oregon. He is taking a school that sits at the physical and metaphorical fringes of the College Football world and elevating it into a football power. Now, none of this would be possible without the prominent coaches who came before him: Rich Brooks, Mike Bellotti, Chip Kelly, and Mark Helfrich. All these coaches …
With change comes opportunity. As Andy Avalos leaves Oregon to take the head coaching job at Boise State, there is an opportunity for Mario Cristobal to evaluate the Oregon defense and elevate the defense to the next level. Coach Eric Boles was kind enough to give us his most recent list of top five defensive coordinator candidates, which shows us …
Dear Mario Cristobal, I, like many Duck fans, have appreciated the recruiting revolution and the defensive reinvigoration brought during your tenure. The back-to-back Pac-12 Championships are a major step accomplishment for an Oregon program that bottomed out in 2016. It has been a fast rebuild back to the top of the Pac-12, and for that we are appreciative. There is …
This year was marked by an underachieving defense from the outset. However, it is worth reiterating that a great deal of the defense’s underachievement came as the result of Jevon Holland, Brady Breeze and Thomas Graham opting out. At the end of the season, though, we can say that this is the start of a new era for Oregon’s defense. Mario …
In my very first article for FishDuck, I wrote about why Oregon would be the team to save the Pac-12 Conference. I wrote that this would require Oregon getting to the playoff and making it to the National Championship Game. But this year, with all of the unexpected setbacks from COVID-19, we have to settle for a non-playoff New Years …
2020 has not been a good year for Pac-12 football, and has become a major disappointment for Oregon fans. COVID-19 has taken its toll on all of NCAA Football, but the Pac-12’s decision to start late has left the conference truly undecided heading into championship week. To complicate matters, only one team has actually played all its scheduled games this …
Oregon has yet to put a solid four quarters of play together this season. Against Cal, it was Oregon’s offense that lost the game, where in the previous week against Oregon State it was Oregon’s defense. The defense this past weekend, despite a terrible first half, put together its best performance of the season. The defense obviously needs to continue …
After four ugly games, it’s safe to say Oregon’s defense has failed on every level. Oregon has the most talented roster in the Pac-12 on paper, and when you assess each player individually, this is true. However, football is a team sport, and instead of putting a cohesive defense on the field, Oregon has eleven players just running around. A …