Oregon just signed an outstanding recruiting class, No. 7 as of now, and did it by pulling players from a who’s who of legacy programs. Add that to Dan Lanning’s recruiting wins last year and we know that he and his staff can persuade top players to come to Eugene. Which brings us to Wednesday’s bowl game–and the other half …
Ronnie Lee has a nice belly button. That’s what I remember from an April afternoon at Mac Court in 1974. I got a good look at his navel maybe a dozen times as he leapt above or flashed past me. He wore a dark t-shirt that rode up when he jumped, revealing said belly button, which spent a ridiculous amount of …
We interrupt all this talk about football to alert you to something you might be missing. Oregon women’s basketball is roaring back from a two year slumber. For the first time since Sabrina Ionescu’s 2019-2020 team, the Ducks are consistently playing hard and smart. These young Ducks are 7-1, ranked 16th and beat Oregon State on Sunday to go 1-0 …
The howling and post mortem accusations have ripped around for 72 hours. In times like these I go another way, pulling out a memory I’ve fixed in amber and consulted many times over the last two decades. Here’s the story. I had held a ticket to Oregon’s home game against USC in 2001, planning to fly to Eugene from my …
Despite the what-ifs and criticisms about decisions made in Saturday’s game, the outcome is a true reflection of this team. Oregon lost not because of a penalty here or a fourth-down decision there—or because the boys didn’t play hard. They lost because their defense is porous. Harsh as it sounds, this defense isn’t worthy of a playoff team, and maybe …
Oregon’s offense under Bo Nix and Kenny Dillingham is the best in the school’s 130 years of football. No team before this one has done more with the ball in hand. Stats show that it isn’t even close. With Nix at quarterback, the Ducks have scored on two-thirds of their drives. None of the teams under Mike Bellotti, Chip Kelly, …
At midseason, a couple of bleacher bums are going to evaluate Dan Lanning. He gets an F. Quarterback Bo Nix said the same two weeks ago, and if you watch the Oregon sideline on these Chip Kelly-like romps through conference foes, you see it. Lanning gets an F — for fun. “Nix is having a blast,” a friend texted after …
From a couple of bleacher bums, here’s a revelation that every Oregon head coach should consider: if you jump ship for a new head coaching position, you won’t last three years there. You can look it up. Going back through 128 years of Oregon football, not one Oregon head coach who traded up to a better gig has survived more …
The opening riff of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll song in history was written and played by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. “There’s something almost mystical about it,” Richards said of his start to Gimme Shelter. “When hit in the right way at the right moment, a cheap ride to heaven.” Say the same for the dazzling offense Kenny Dillingham …
A blowout loss like the Ducks suffered Saturday gives two false indicators: The winning team isn’t truly as good as it appeared and the losing team isn’t as bad. Kirby Smart knows that sports axiom, which is why he is working to suppress thoughts that his team is ready for the next Natty. And Dan Lanning is trying to keep …
A few random thoughts from a random guy in the bleachers before the season begins and we have actual football to chew over. USC’s scramoose from the Pac-12 reportedly comes with a desire to take a break from the Ducks, which at the moment means keeping them out of the Big Ten. Some Ducks fans find that outrageous, but it …
We judge new head coaches by first-year wins and recruiting. But Duck fans need one more metric for Dan Lanning: show us your quarterbacks. Here’s hoping that Bo Nix has a Heisman season, but what we really want to see is what the coaches make of Ty Thompson and Jay Butterfield. For three decades ending with Marcus Mariota in 2014, …
