In press conferences, Defensive Coordinator Don Pellum referred to “doing something different” in the Alamo Bowl, while high school coaches that have attended spring and fall Duck football practices whisper about “Oregon’s New Defense.” Hype and puff — or is there some fire under the smoke? This is the last summer analysis before the season starts and you know I …
It is fun to go down memory lane involving not only our beloved Ducks, but also members of the FishDuck.com team. In 2009 at Stanford–Oregon trailed as Jeremiah Masoli led a furious comeback but we came up a little short. There was a TD pass play where Masoli threw a 32 yard TD to a streaking Jeff Maehl who barely kept his …
“I clicked the switch. We are LIVE!” After reading that line in the email from Web Developer & UofO Honors Student Michael Tomcal, I pivoted over to check, and sure enough FishDuck.com was online that August 7th of 2011. Was anyone going to read our articles? We were structuring our writing to fit the older professionals that we were, yet ignoring …
I am not a “professional,” per se, as I refuse to write the usual “blah-blah” that you’ll see from other media outlets, but then that is why this site began. I wanted more information, and to learn — and our readers have agreed. This Oregon Football Media day was like going down memory lane … in how similar it was to my …
I tell everyone that a “FishDuck” can’t fly, but my nephew, TJ Fischer, almost does at 150 miles an hour! I am very proud of my brother and his wife (Stephen & Viki) in how they have raised a talented and humble young man who was an “A” student in high school, and yet had the talent to play college football …
Mr. Hondo Carpenter of the website SpartanNation.com contacted me for an interview about the upcoming Michigan State-Oregon football game on September 6th. This website has a network of television and radio stations it is associated with. There are improvements I can make, but considering I am not a radio professional — I thought it went well. My game plan is get interviewed …
There are some interesting defensive tactics that appeared in the Alamo Bowl win in addition to the continued emergence of DeForest Buckner on the defensive line. His star has been rising and the trendline of his growth manifested itself again in the Oregon Spring Game. Let’s look at what he is doing so well, and how Defensive Coordinator Don Pellum …
One of the great unknown elite match-ups of the 2013 season pitted the UCLA All-American and 9th pick in the NFL draft, Anthony Barr against Oregon’s Tyler Johnstone. As the game approached, I was worried about the protection of Marcus Mariota’s blindside, and yet I knew it would be quite entertaining to examine in slo-mo later. Barr was picked early …
The window for us fans that is the Spring Game revealed much more this year than many would believe as I too had a hard time fathoming what I was seeing on the field from Head Coach Mark Helfrich. Just as he has been aggressive in recruiting and charging ahead faster than previous coaches in pursuing recruits–he is doing the …
By Charles Fischer and the “Grizzled Ol’ Coach” Mike Morris We have ALL been fooled by Spring Games of the past, as players who starred in these May games would not ever see the light of day on the football field in the fall – or they transferred out. Yet other times they have shown us glimpses of the potential some of …
The name tag at the Oregon Coaches Clinic simply said, “Charles Fischer,” and the staff kind of smirked at me as I picked up the intro packet before the first speaker began. I was surprised at the brevity of my ID considering that all the other attendees had their name, and the high school they coached at, written on their …
Every team has a “Trap” play in it’s offense, and as a high school offensive lineman I loved to pull in a “Tackle Trap” and nail the first defensive lineman who showed up in front of me. You blast them from the side, and usually you have caught them by complete surprise. It seemed like such a natural play for the …
