from Video There wasn’t a single upset amongst the top twenty teams in college football last Saturday, with the only losses by teams in the top twenty (#15 Washington, #16 Northwestern) coming to teams ranked higher (#5 Stanford, #4 Ohio State). The best chance for an upset came Saturday in the Georgia-Tennessee game. Trailing late by a touchdown, the Bulldogs …
Cliff Grassmick Despite already being two games into conference play, it could be said that the Ducks were concluding their preseason with Saturday’s matchup against Colorado. Oregon faced two rebuilding programs in consecutive weeks to start the Pac-12 schedule following non-conference play, leaving many to assume that Oregon would complete nearly the first half of its schedule without ever facing …
from Video I am not one to suffer losses to inferior coaches well. This tends to stem from the perception that when a team wins, unless there is a significant disparity in the quality of the two teams, the belief is that the team that won that game was, and will always be, the better team, and not that they …
Craig Strobeck Stop me if this sounds familiar: Oregon plays its Pac-12 opener against an improving program led by a first-year coach with a reputation for running a prolific offense who comes to Autzen Stadium, only for that team to fall victim to a blowout loss by the Ducks on the backs of a standout performance by the Oregon defense …
Amazing Moments Last Monday, I addressed the cracks that were beginning to form in the SEC’s mantle atop college football. Saturday’s games helped to widen those cracks, as the conference saw member schools challenged by programs such as North Texas and lose a game to Rutgers. The conference that had enjoyed a long-standing reputation as college football’s best now has …
Craig Strobeck It has been labeled as the top conference in all of college football. That is the reputation the SEC has been adorned with, largely on the back of its member schools having won seven consecutive BCS National Championship Games; something the conference has no problem buying ad time to remind you about: Amazingly, that streak has been accomplished …
Andrew Shurtleff From a fan’s perspective, the Ducks have had a great start to this year’s schedule. They play three home games before October 1st, but don’t play any of them at home in the next consecutive weeks – which is crucial for maintaining fan stamina and spreading out the fun. Some fans may not like having an FCS team …
Craig Strobeck The first game for any new coach is bound to be challenging, but for the head football coach at Oregon, it has been historically very difficult. In fact, only one head coach in the last 65 years, Mike Bellotti in 1995, had won his debut game[1]. On Saturday, Mark Helfrich would try to match Mike Bellotti and do …
Kevin Cline On Monday, we looked at who could potentially crash the National Championship Game, but we all know that is not happening. It’s going to be two of the five teams below that play for a title. But who has the best chance? Let’s find out, unlikeliest to likeliest. 5) Stanford The last three years, the Oregon-Stanford game has …
It used to be the Top Ten. A team had to start the season ranked tenth or higher if they wanted to win the national championship, as every team since 1990 had done. Then along came Auburn in 2010 who cheated lowered the bar, (as they did in so many other areas[1]) of what a team’s preseason ranking needed to …
Their presence on television may be dissipating, but you still see them every once in a while. No, I’m not referring to Huskies football games in primetime, I’m talking about the memorable series of DirecTV ads that have run over the last year trashing on cable companies. (“Don’t have a grandson with a dog collar…“) While the ads are memorable, …
In a long offseason, these are the slowest days. The sports world mirrors the working world: everyone’s on vacation, but when we check in, we find little going on. For a sport with as much coverage as college football, the length of the season itself is quite short. To make the offseason more manageable, fans celebrate small milestones to break …