What We Learned: The Marcus Formula

Josh Hall FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

The Concept of Tempered Steel If you aren’t a huge science guy (I for one am not), you might mistake the process of tempering steel for hardening a metal. While increasing steel’s strength, tempering is actually all about softening a metal through the use of heat to make it more flexible. In season three of Oregon’s best quarterback in school …

Mike Leach Unplugged — on FishDuck.com

Jason Fowler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

The narrow loss to No. 2 Oregon wasn’t considered a statement game, according to Cougar head coach, Mike Leach, but “a step in the right direction today.” He went on to say, “I think we just need to focus on practicing and improving, but I thought we played extremely hard the entire game.” WSU dropped this well-fought battle by a score of …

College Football Nation: JW — Foot-in-Mouth Disease? and Tide Rolls

Jeff Hostetler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

These are the weekends we live for as college football fans. The drama off the field this week, however, was just as good as on the field thanks to Jameis Winston. This week showed a lot of top teams struggling for the victory while others took care of business. Let’s get into the Top-25 action from this weekend. 1. Winston needs …

Happy With Mark Helfrich?

Charles Fischer, Mr. FishDuck FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

What a difference a couple of games makes in our impression of the Ducks and Head Coach Mark Helfrich!  With the losses to Stanford and Arizona, along with the poor momentum at the end of last season–it all pointed to a big make-or-break year in 2014 for Coach Helfrich in the eyes of many fans.  I heard it often … the …

Ducks Run Defense Will Be the Difference Maker of the 2014 Season

Rob Liggins FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Having a Heisman-hopeful, such as quarterback Marcus Mariota, is always exciting for a team. However, the timeless saying “Defense wins Championships” has been proven correct time and time again. With that being said, the Duck defense — which is arguably the best it has been since the departure of Defensive Coordinator Nick Alliotti — is possibly what could finally land …

Chip Kelly Update: Dominatin’ Ugly

Mark Saltveit FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

The Philadelphia Eagles are playing terribly. Nick Foles has been blind to wide-open receivers and throws erratically when he does spy them. LeSean McCoy, 2013’s leading rusher, has yet to reach 80 yards by land in a game. Four of the seven offensive linemen and three of five interior linebackers (if you count ILB/OLB Travis Long) are out injured and …

Stock Up, Stock Down — Pac-12 Edition

Pat Pannu FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

We are a day away from the fourth weekend of college football and every weekend reveals high and low points for teams. Both teams listed on the low side of the chart last week turned it around (for the most part) and played much better in Week 3. Let’s see which team’s stocks are looking especially high and low this …

Oregon’s No. 2 Ranking … and What It Means For Recruiting

Jason Fowler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

It’s still too early in the college football season to know the future of the Ducks, but all the same, it’s exciting they have a chance to be in the top four reaching the playoffs each week. But for Oregon, that isn’t the only thing to look forward to, and the increasingly positive rankings could have even better side-effects. This …

A Fishy Examination of the History of Washington State University Football

Kim Hastings FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Hello Ducks! Our boys take to the road this week, opening Pac-12 play with a trip to the Papoose, or whatever they call the part of Eastern Washington that Washington State University reluctantly calls home. We have discussed Mike Leach’s unfortunate description of his players’ lady friends as fat little girlfriends while at Texas Tech. To be fair, beyond a failure of …

Opponent Analysis: The Covert Claws of the Cougars

Rory Davidson FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

OK, get your laughs in now. Joke about how terrible the Cougars are, including their defense. The usual: “My 6-year-old brother’s Pop Warner team could beat WSU.” You guys got the giggles out? Good. Now we can move on to business. Washington State isn’t the joke you may think. They have a proven head coach, Mike Leach, in his second year …

College Fantasy Football Week 3: Can’t Go Wrong if His Last Name Is Hill

Caleb Couturie FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

For the third consecutive week, my college team has put up huge fantasy numbers. That was thanks in large part to my starting quarterbacks, Kenny and Taysom Hill (not related) of Texas A&M and BYU, who scored 34 and 31 points respectively. Connor Halliday led the way for all quarterbacks, scoring a miraculous 45 fanatsy points. His week by week totals …