Slowly but surely, professional sports are coming back. NCAA sports, who knows? But pro sports are coming back. The PGA Tour and NASCAR have been up and running — with no spectators — for a few weeks now. The National Hockey League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball all have plans to resume their seasons in July or August. …
Yes, I know. And I will happily embrace the name change you might be thinking of: Lou Farnsworth should now be known as “Homer Duck.” So with that preliminary bit of honesty settled, let’s look at the data, which actually gives objective support to my claims of a dynasty in this article’s title. I recently wrote about our chances of …
Oregon fans, don’t despair. Yes, the monster games against North Dakota State and Ohio State at Autzen Stadium as part of the Ducks’ pre-conference schedule are no longer on the table due to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases across the country. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott made the official announcement restricting the Pac-12 football season to conference-only games on July 10, …
2016 was the last year the Oregon Ducks fielded an elite offense. Justin Herbert was one of the best QBs in Oregon history, but constantly finding himself in shootouts kept the young player from achieving greatness in his inaugural season. UO’s era of elite offense started in 2007 when Dennis Dixon had the Ducks on the precipice of the BCS National …
Oregon experimented with graduate transfer quarterbacks in both 2015 and 2016 and—needless to say—both years left a bit of a sour taste in Oregon fans’ mouths. Was Oregon truly unable to recruit and develop a quarterback and forced to dip into the graduate-transfer pool to find a signal-caller? Twice! Now, in 2020, Oregon, with a completely different coaching staff, is …
The blog Bear Insider published this article to preview each Pac-12 team, and it included some interesting comments about Oregon concerning the 2019 season and the upcoming 2020 campaign. I thought it would provide us some information about the other conference teams going into the season and some discussion points about Oregon’s prospects this fall. (I list their bullet points …
Few things have impacted the game of football like the spread offense. The revolutionary concept of spreading the field to dictate the box count and to get athletes in space wasn’t widely accepted by the football community at first. But now, it’s the base offensive system for nearly every team at every level. With offenses rarely employing multiple running backs …
A recent report by sportsbettingdime.com shows that, with the COVID-19 pandemic, college football attendance could drop by an average of 74 percent. At Oregon, a 74-percent decline means an average attendance of 13,933. Yikes. Imagine a rip-roaring, louder than hell Autzen Stadium only playing at 25 percent of its capacity. That is like taking a sold-out Matthew Knight Arena and …
Seriously, have you ever thought about what it would be like to shoulder the responsibility of opening Autzen Stadium for the 2020 football season? Everything is new in this COVID-19 afflicted world we live in. We have not been here before and there is no blueprint to follow. There are suggestions and guidelines for managing exposure to COVID-19 coming from …
The Ducks need a star to emerge at wide-out in 2020. The 2019 Oregon Ducks had a versatile and effective ground game complemented by a receiver-by-committee air attack. However, despite the passing attack being orchestrated by veteran signal caller Justin Herbert, no single receiver was able to eclipse 1000 yards or catch double-digit touchdowns. Although those receiving metrics aren’t necessarily …
The Fascination Factor with new offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead is through the roof for Oregon fans with tidbits gleaned from interviews and articles on this site about the new assistant coach, plus some analysis of his offense previously run at Penn State. Oregon’s new OC has operated out of the Shotgun Spread Offense in the past, and he puts the quarterback …
What if the Ducks’ success boiled down to a single play? Let me take you back to a moment that changed the trajectory of Oregon football. It was the fourth quarter. No. 6 Oregon trailed No. 8 Wisconsin 27-21 in the Rose Bowl game. Quarterback Justin Herbert already had two first-half rushing touchdowns but struggled to find his passing rhythm. …