We are less than a month from kickoff and I am SO excited for football season, you?. So many questions will start to be answered once the ball has left the tee. Will the SEC win yet another national title or will someone else finally steal the spotlight? Will another Heisman winner show up out of the blue? Come the …
Good morning Ducks of Good Will and Hearty Spirit. Today marks the beginning of a three part series focusing on the fall practices of the other teams in the so-called Northwest Championship…and may God strike me dead if I validate another Rick Neuheisel invention. Today we look at the hopes and dreams of those Palouse Powerhouses, the Cougars …
feature photo by Jimmy Kempski Training camp finally opened for the entire Eagles team, and Chip Kelly faced adversity almost immediately. First, injuries: not one but TWO ACL tears in the first three days, by #2 receiver Jeremy Maclin and newly acquired linebacker Jason Phillips. Maclin is a big deal for the Eagles, despite criticism for softness (some call him “self-tackling”); …
Photos courtesy of Kevin Cline In most of the close games and eventual losses during the Chip Kelly era, a common theme seemed to surface consistently. An opposing team that was able to slow the run game enough force the Ducks to throw would sometimes find that Oregon couldn’t. The 2012 game against Stanford aside, we saw opposing teams like …
In 2010, it took 12 wins, 6,986 yards of total offense, 37 takeaways, 49.6 points per game and 2,790 pushups for the Oregon Ducks to make it to the national championship game against Auburn. With August now upon us, it is hard not to draw comparisons between the 2013 squad and its nearly undefeated 2010 counterpart in anticipation of what …
The Seven Wonders of the World – The Pyramids, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the statue of Zeus at Olympus – were built with grandeur in mind. Move over Zeus, Phil Knight, Nike magnate and Oregon philanthropist, also thinks big. His latest wonder is a 100,000 square-foot temple to football, a $68-million dollar edifice intended to take Duck football to …
Football Recruiting News Oregon’s marquee pre-season commitment is undoubtedly running back Royce Freeman (4-Star/Imperial, CA/Rivals250). Nonetheless, Head Coach Mark Helfrich & Co. remain vigilant and are hot on the trail of another 2014 speedster; all-purpose back Tony James (4-Star/Gainesville, FL/Rivals250). A master of motion plays, James models his game after another player with his namesake; former Oregon tailback LaMichael James. …
feature photo courtesy of Amazing Moments What is it about sports? What is this drive humans have to want to cheer on a team? Few fans personally know any of the players on their favorite team, so it isn’t as if there is a personal connection to cheer for. So why? Why do fans invest so much time, money, effort …
Sanctions. You either love them or hate them. We love them when the teams we hate get leveled by them, and hate them when teams we love get the same treatment. Ironic, isn’t it? But there is something inherently unfair about the way sanctions are carried out, no matter what team we are rooting for. I began thinking of this …
Have you heard the great expression about winning the late rounds of a prizefight? In the post-fight interview you’ll often hear a boxer talk about how he took the “opponent into deep waters and drowned him.” No-huddle offenses want to do the exact same thing, combine speed and conditioning to push a defense past its breaking point. The elite level …
“Recruiting rankings don’t matter”. Typically, this is said by fans after their favorite team picks up a commitment from a two or three-star player who is “underrated”. So, is it true? Do recruiting rankings act as a good predictor of on-field success? I defer to Matt Hinton, who wrote a great five-part series called “Star Power.” A part of the …
When someone mentions the Oregon Ducks, most people think of a fast-paced explosive offense that leaves defenders in a whirlwind searching for their own jock straps as the band strikes up “Mighty Oregon” and the Duck starts doing pushups. Lost in the offensive storm is a secret scarcely ever uttered east of the Oregon-Idaho state line: Oregon has a nationally prominent defense as well. While there are some …