Ducks Face Undefeated QB in Jameis Winston

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You can criticize Jameis Winston for many things as a player and person, but the one thing that remains intact is his ability to win. The quarterback’s perfect 26-0 college record is in elite company among college football’s best. His Florida State Seminoles are the only undefeated team in the inaugural College Football Playoff. Maybe that can be explained by …

Oregon’s Title Chances of the 21st Century

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With another National Championship at stake, the 2014 Ducks are attempting to accomplish something that no team before them in program history has done successfully. Under the new College Football Playoff system, the Ducks are one semifinal win away from returning to the title game, which would be their first appearance since 2011. Although that 2010-2011 team was the first to …

Despite Recent Imbalance, Civil War Still Matters

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Oregon State hasn’t defeated Oregon since 2007. In the seven years since, the programs have gone in entirely opposite directions. The Chip Kelly era took the Ducks to new heights as they appeared in four BCS bowls, including one national championship game. The Beavers, on the other hand, have been inconsistent. 9-4 records in 2008 and 2012 have been their …

Mariota Poised To End Oregon’s Heisman Drought

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The Heisman Trophy is by far the most prestigious individual award in college athletics. A few former Ducks, including LaMichael James and Joey Harrington, have been good enough in years past to contend for the award, but no one has ever won the Heisman in the team’s history. That should change at the end of this year, because Marcus Mariota …

Is Royce Freeman the Next ‘X-Man’?

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I made a mistake the last time I addressed the Ducks’ running back group. It was early August and everything I was hearing pointed to a two-way race taking place between Byron Marshall and Thomas Tyner for starting running back. I wrote an article for FishDuck about the battle and predicted that Tyner would take on the feature back role. …

Parallels Run Deep Between Oregon and UCLA

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Oregon and UCLA were considered the favorites in their respective PAC-12 divisions going into the 2014 season. Now, a little over a month into the season, the loser of the Saturday contest between the two teams may have to kiss college football playoff aspirations goodbye. As far as the similarities go between these two teams, though, that is just the …

Bye Week Comes at a Fortunate Time for Injury-Decimated Ducks

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The Ducks narrowly escaped Pullman, Wash. with a road win against the Washington State Cougars last Saturday on a day that will be remembered as “Survivor Saturday.” Along with Florida State, Alabama, and Oklahoma, the Ducks faced an opponent inferior on paper, yet all four of the nation’s top teams legitimately looked like an upset was very much in the …

Collegiate Programs Can Learn From the NFL’s Ray Rice Situation

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Note: This article contains graphic information regarding domestic violence. Read at your own discretion. An already nasty situation grew worse on Monday when new video surfaced of now former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his wife Janay in an Atlantic City casino elevator. If you’ve been unfortunate enough to see the video, you know how disturbing Rice’s actions …

Ducks — and Fans — Must Rediscover “One Week at a Time” Approach

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It began in 2009, when Chip Kelly, in his inaugural year as head coach, took a Ducks team to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1995. The 2010 season followed with a national championship appearance, and 2011 saw the Ducks end their 95-year-long winless drought in the Rose Bowl. The triumphs of those three seasons combined brought the …

Johnstone’s Setback Comes With an Important Lesson

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When the news broke on Tuesday that left tackle Tyler Johnstone re-tore the ACL in his right knee during practice, Duck fans could do little else besides shake their heads in disbelief. It’s the latest loss to an offense, which had already lost their best receiver – Bralon Addison – to the same injury in April. Losing either a No.1 receiver or starting …

Time to Take Off the Training Wheels — Let Thomas Tyner Run Wild

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The running back duo of Byron Marshall and Thomas Tyner have made headlines together lately as each player was named to the Maxwell Award and Doak Walker Award preseason watch lists earlier this month. But it’s their much-hyped battle for a starting backfield spot opposite Marcus Mariota that is making for an even more intriguing story line this summer. The …

As Inaugural College Football Playoff Season Commences, Ducks Timing Is Perfect

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When the four-team College Football Playoff was formally approved by the NCAA in June 2012, teams, analysts and fans alike rejoiced in the reformation of the BCS — a system which had been previously criticized for not being fair to all teams. The Playoff, which runs through the 2025 season, reduces the likelihood of a deserving team getting left out of …