John Giustina I received the Mighty Oregon DVD as a Christmas gift from my fiance, who knew as well as I, that I would need some Ducks football material to get through the dog days of summer (and neverending baseball broadcasts). I am just about halfway through the 4-DVD, 7-hour set, and just watched the summary of the 1989 season. …
Here’s what we know about the 2013 version of Oregon’s defensive line (Hart, Keliikipi, Heimuli, Armstead, Buckner): the group is likely top-ten nationally. Here’s what we know about the 2013 version of Oregon’s defensive backfield (Ifo, Patterson, Mitchell, Hill, Jackson, Dargan): the group is likely top-five nationally. Here’s what we know about the 2013 version of Oregon’s middle linebacking group …
It’s 2013, and statistics are ubiquitous in college football: yards per play, 3rd down conversion rate, points per game, defensive efficiency, time of possession, attractiveness of fake girlfriends, turnover margin, blah blah blah blah. We’ve got all kinds of “objective” statistical methods to “measure” how “good” a football team “is.” This clearly ain’t Knute Rockne’s football. The problem with all these objective …
National Signing Day is, by now, a distant memory. We silently fist-pumped (probably at work) as preps across the nation used something called a “facks machine” for the first (and probably last) time to send their NLIs to Eugene. We looked over the tremendous haul of new Ducks recruits, nodded in approval, and said things like, “THAT KID IS A …
In the Fiesta Bowl, even though the Ducks began closing down the running game in the first half, Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein piled up short completions to his receivers, most notably former Duck Chris Harper. As the Cats converted first downs via short completions again and again in the first half, I could almost hear the collective groan from Duck fans: …
Early in the Fiesta Bowl, Collin Klein and the Kansas State offense had success with short throws to help put together some lengthy drives. My article last week described how the Duck defense stuffed the K-State option game when it counted in the first half, helping Oregon score three unanswered times to build a comfortable lead. Once the Ducks began piling on points, …
(Note: I’ve previously helped Charles with his defensive tutorial series, and written a few articles, one if which really riled up our friends in the SEC. I’m very excited to now present some written defensive analysis for FishDuck.com.) “C. Klein rush for no gain…C. Klein rush for 3 yards…C. Klein rush for 1 yard…C. Klein rush for 4 yards…C. Klein …
Well, Duck fans, we’re smack dab in the middle of the bittersweet period known I like to call the “Bowldrums.” Sure, we’ve got a great matchup ahead of us, but as Tom Petty once said, “The waiting is the hardest part.” So here we are: waiting for January 3. What are our coaches and players doing? In short: studying film. …
As an astute extremely-part-time football analysis writer and extremely-full-time football blog peruser, I would like to say I have my figurative finger on the figurative pulse of College Football Nation. I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of fans of other teams across the nation are – how do you say – drinking Haterade. (I think that’s what the …
Over in EssEeeSee country, the “company line” is that the Pac-12, chock-full of spread-offenses and speed-based defenses, is full of sissies. Yeah, I said it, sissies. The Pac-12 “powers” can beat each other with “finesse” and “systems,” but when they come down to the South to play some “real football” (the term may be “footbaw,” as yet unconfirmed), the West-Coast-latte-drinking-spread-offense-running-hippie-non-croakie-wearing …