What Oregon Did For the First Time in Six Years, and Other Thoughts From Saturday’s Game

Nathan Roholt FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Craig Strobeck Thoughts from Oregon’s game against UCLA last Saturday: Saturday’s Win Was Much Bigger than People Realize The Ducks had 21 points going in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game.  Since Oregon beat Cal 15-13 in 2010, the following have been the results of games when the Ducks had 21 points or fewer to start the fourth quarter: L, …

Visitors’ Locker Room: UCLA “Not There Yet”

Mike Merrell FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Kevin Cline If you’re expecting UCLA Head Coach Jim Mora to be happy about being tied with Oregon at halftime, forget it! “This was a very disappointing loss,” Mora declared.  ”We didn’t come up here to play close.  We didn’t come up here to lose.  We came up here to win and we didn’t get it done.”  When asked if …

College Football Nation: Saban to Texas(?) and Duke Football Outshines its Basketball Team

Jeff Hostetler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

  We had the usual big teams win today but a few upsets, as well, to make it another good Saturday of college football.  There is nothing new from the top four teams — I think they are headed into a four-way tie at this point, but each of these teams are looking to win big.  I feel sorry for whoever Alabama, …

Duck Defense Dominates Da Bruins + Recruiting & Game Notes

Chris Charbonnier FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Kevin Cline Great teams make good teams look average.  After last night, there’s no doubt that Oregon is a great football team.  The Ducks beat the UCLA Bruins, 42-14, in a game that showed the nation they’re more than just an offensive juggernaut.  After Saturday night, those left questioning Oregon’s championship credentials are few. With all due respect to Coach …

The Fishwrap Pregame Analysis — Brawlin’ with the Bruin — UCLA vs Oregon

Bob Laws FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

This Saturday at 4 pm, UCLA comes to town, licking their wounds after being manhandled by Stanford, and, as they say, there’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded bear.  On paper it would seem that the Ducks are way over-matched on the lines, with the DBs and that UCLA should win the war of the trenches. But that’s on paper. …

To Avoid a Blowout, 4 Ways the Bruins Must Defy All Odds in Autzen

Josh White FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Kevin Cline ESPN College GameDay will be on hand for the 8th time in Eugene Saturday, to showcase a matchup of two top Pac-12 contenders in 3rd-ranked Oregon and 12th-ranked UCLA.  On paper, there are many reasons to believe this will be a compelling game. The game sets up as a showdown in several interesting ways for the two programs, including: …

Chip Kelly Update: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Foles

Mark Saltveit FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

from Video Two weeks ago against Tampa Bay, Nick Foles was the best quarterback in the NFL.  He was the NFC Offensive Player of the Week, throwing for 22-of-31, for 296 yards and 3 TDs, and even ran in a touchdown.  His QBR (ESPN’s quarterback rating) was 89.8, and he was leading the NFL in completion percentage (at 58.3%) for …

The Oregon Ducks, America’s favorite team?

Bob Laws FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

from video In 2012, I had the honor of watching the football season with about 50 US Military Veterans.  As the calendar flipped from August to September, the ratio of fans in that little group was about ten-to-one in favor of NFL ball over college.  These were simply not college football fans, and to them, college was just not as much fun to watch as the more polished NFL. By the …

UCLA Brings Knowledgeable Fan Base — and Decidedly Average Team — to Autzen

Kim Hastings FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

www.camping-bourgogone.com Everything that I tell you folks is true.  Some things may be a little truer than others.  The conversation that I am about to share with you is, I swear, the gospel truth.  It was Monday morning about 8:45 am.  I was talking to a UCLA fan about the upcoming game.  He said, “You guys wouldn’t be any good …

Recruiting Update: Top Tight End Loves Oregon

Mark Flores FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Kevin Cline Football Recruiting Visits Oregon’s definitive 62-38 thrashing of Washington State Saturday night put the Ducks in recruiting command of one of the top athletes in the nation.  The No. 2 ranked tight end and top Oregon big board prep Bryce Dixon (4-Star/Ventura, CA) was on hand to take in the sights and sounds of Autzen Stadium.  He was …

Alabama, Florida State and Oregon Top Initial BCS Standings

Bryan Holt FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Craig Strobeck The first official BCS standings for 2013 have arrived, and with no surprise, the undefeated and reigning national champion Alabama Crimson Tide is at No. 1.  However, the rest of the field saw significant change, as upsets and the notorious BCS computer calculations once again took over the world of college football. Florida State nudged out Oregon for the …

Top 5 Takeaways From Saturday for the Neo-Duck

Josh Hall FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Craig Strobeck We’ll cut to the chase: 1.  Gary Campbell is a coaching superhero.  Forget all about Thor, Ironman or Tony Robbins, I want running backs coach Campbell as my life coach and mentor. Remember those early season complaints that Byron Marshall didn’t have the vision, patience or explosion to stay ahead of Thomas Tyner on the depth chart?  I predicted …