Every great trilogy needs a bad guy. Star Wars had Darth Vader. Scream 3 had Ghostface. The Final Insult had … well, you get the idea. In January 2017, three Oregon football players were hospitalized with acute overexertion rhabdomyolysis (rhabdo). On January 9, 2019, one of them — Doug Brenner — filed an 11.5-million dollar lawsuit against the University of …
Ask recruits in Mario Cristobal’s remarkable, star-studded 2019 class why they considered Oregon and I’d bet first and foremost they would trace it back to the glorious Chip Kelly tenure of their formative years. That success was astounding— not just a fluke year (such as can occur in a “wonder year” among Willamette Valley Pinot Noir producers), but a succession …
On Championship Saturday, after all the games had concluded and the festivities died down, uneasy fans of Georgia, Oklahoma and Ohio State waited in angst. Three playoff spots had already been locked up, and all that was left was a single slot for three worthy contenders. How could Georgia — a team that gave the overwhelming favorite Crimson Tide everything …
The Mike White situation, as recently described in the R-G, immediately brought to mind a similar situation with the women’s basketball program, when Jody Runge was dumped after the 2000-2001 season. In both cases, there were communication breakdowns between the athletic directors (Bill Moos, Rob Mullens) and the coaches, with the fallout resulting in many unhappy U of O fans. Prior …
Both Oregon men’s basketball teams played this weekend. On Thursday against Arizona, you saw the one with heart that ran down every missed shot and made the extra passes to create easy shots. That team won. On Saturday, the team full of “athletes” couldn’t shoot the ball into a swimming pool. Horrific shooting — again — 26% in the second …
Since the National Championship game, college football analyst Joel Klatt has been making the sports talk-show circuit (Undisputed with Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless and The Herd with Colin Cowherd). He shared some amazing insights on both shows about the game — specifically, about several differences between the Clemson and Alabama football programs. Klatt shared a statistic that might warm long-time …
You needn’t have been clad from head-to-toe in Duck gear, hoisting locally-brewed libations, and screaming at a wide-screen (or the field) to have noticed a pond-change in the 2018 Duck football team’s persona. Actually, it shouldn’t take any deductive or visual attention at all— the new head coach, Mario Cristobal, was very clear: the Ducks needed to get bigger, stronger, …
Oregon’s offense underachieved in 2018. The offensive unit had a variety of issues throughout the season, and those issues were alarmingly prevalent in the Redbox Bowl against a feisty Michigan State defense. Although the Ducks earned a hard-fought victory, it wasn’t because of their offense, which struggled to establish any sort of rhythm throughout the game. Oregon finished with a …
It’s a wonderful time to be an Oregon Ducks fan. Justin Herbert and nine other starters are set to return on offense, so 2019 could be a special season. But what will it take for the Ducks’ talented trigger-man to take the Ducks to the next level? Let’s explore the qualities and attributes that make a great quarterback, and see if Oregon’s …
The Oregon women’s basketball team is marching toward a Pac-12 title and a high NCAA tournament seed. Meanwhile, we’ll call what the men’s team is grinding through the learning year. As if being riddled with injuries and lacking a number one scorer isn’t enough, Oregon’s lack of experience is now showing up as they fail to to close out late leads …
Oregon will be in the 2019 playoffs, as some of us here have been talking about 2019 since early in the 2017 season. We discussed how after a steady rebuild, and if Justin Herbert came back for his senior season, we’d have a chance to play for championship. Given the performance of 2018, and the level of player and coaching …
I forgive you for thinking that the Ducks would return to glory in 2018. I forgive you for thinking that they would be Crist-o-ballin’ back to the Rose Bowl or maybe even the playoffs. And I forgive your twitter hyperbole and article comments of anticipatory grandeur, despite the fact that it was delusional to expect such a drastic turnaround in …