In 2024 Oregon head coach Dan Lanning seemed to have broken football. He found ways to exploit rules to his advantage, and the result was not one but two B1G blue bloods going down to the new blood Ducks. While one of these exploits got the most media attention as it resulted in a one-point win over the eventual National …
The NCAA has a new slate of rules for 2025. I am going to summarize what these rules mean for the game and then give them a rating between 1 and 5 where 1 will be awful for the game and a 5 should be an amazing addition. ESPN published an article reviewing these new rules, which can be found …
A few years ago the University of Oregon acquired a home for their Portland Campus, the former Concordia University campus in northeast Portland. I personally have a connection to this campus, as I received my Master of Arts degree in Teaching from Concordia University in 2015, and as an Oregon alum as well, I find it strange that the University …
Deion Sanders is making news in the off-season once again, but this time in regards to how Spring Games should be actual games played between teams. In this case I agree with him, and I have even written about how the Spring Game should be a real game. The Spring Game is typically a glorified scrimmage, and even if two …
Dan Lanning came to Oregon when the transfer portal was in full swing and NIL was in its early years. Unlike many other coaches, he opted to retain most of the Oregon roster he inherited from former head coach Mario Cristobal, though he was aggressive in the transfer portal and not afraid to acquire players who were clearly upgrades to …
Will Stein has introduced a new Power Formation for the Oregon Ducks when they played against UCLA last season. The old jumbo formation may be on it’s way out because the Ducks just don’t have the extra experienced offensive linemen to trot onto the field. But this new formation makes use of a different personnel package, and when deployed against …
Sometimes it feels like Oregon’s defense is cursed. While the offense has consistently performed well over Oregon’s history, it always feels like the defense is letting the team down. This last season, the offense performed well, if not up to the 2023 levels (I have outlined in previous articles the decline of the 2024 run game and passing game), and …
If this article was written a month ago it would be rather uncomplicated, but Chip Kelly recently took a shot at his former team and Dan Lanning’s absolute brilliant 12-man on the field play that sealed the Oregon win over Ohio State back in October. In saying that Oregon needed 12 players to beat them, it diminished the success and …
Last week I wrote about how Oregon’s running offense needs to find an extra spark to generate more explosive plays. But the passing game also had its faults this season. It feels strange to pick apart a 13-1 season, but the reality is that the Oregon offense performed worse in 2024 than it did in 2023 as the team averaged …
Oregon’s run game in 2024 was good. At 13-1 with a B1G Championship under their belt, the Ducks were a very good team this year. However, the run game, like much of the offense in 2024, took a significant dip from 2023. That needs to change for 2025 as Dan Lanning and the Ducks will look to maintain their hold …
The Rose Bowl was the most embarrassing game of Dan Lanning’s career. Even if Ohio State goes on to win the National Championship this year, this game will leave a sour taste in the entire Oregon community’s mouth. Unlike Lanning’s opening loss to Georgia in 2022, this one just stinks. Against that Georgia team, the Ducks were massive underdogs and …
The 12-team Playoff is here and let all fans rejoice! That is, until Round 1 began and we saw just how large the disparity is between the highest-ranked teams and those lower in the bracket. The results were rather clear cut across this first round. The better rosters destroyed their lower-ranked roster competition. Coaching and game prep had very little …