(My friends, we have a “blast-from-the-past” as we have an unpublished article about star defensive tackle DeForest Buckner from 2015. He has gone on to a career with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL, but I thought it would be fun to see some highlights of him while with the Ducks during the long off-season. Enjoy!) Charles Fischer ——————————————————————————————————— The …
Expectations weigh heavily on the Oregon offense this year, no sense shying away from it. The meteoric rise of Oregon football in the early 2000s was fueled by innovation, executed at a blur-like tempo and presented in uniforms unlike anything ever seen. This overload of stimuli throughout the “Golden Era” of Oregon football (2009-2014) has cast a shadow over the …
Elite offensive line play will always be the foundation of Oregon football under Mario Cristobal. The former lineman is one of the best in the business at coaching and developing pro-ready players at the position. That showed in 2018 when three of the Ducks’ five starting linemen made Pro Football Focus’ All-Pac-12 Team, with perhaps their best tackle Penei Sewell …
Few things excite old-school football purists more than a well executed power run. The simple play encapsulates everything that they believe the game of football represents: strength, toughness, brute force and sheer determination. But there’s more to football than bone-crushing blocks and head-rattling collisions. Someone should tell Mario Cristobal. The Ducks’ coach is still under the flawed belief that straightforward …
Coach Dana Altman filled a big piece of the Ducks’ roster on Saturday. Eric Williams Jr., a 6’6″ shooting guard/wing is transferring immediately to Oregon from Duquesne. The left-handed Williams averaged 14 points and over seven rebounds per game for the Dukes. A Michigan native, he once scored 50 in a high school game and led his team to the state …
One of the most exciting and nerve-racking scenarios in football is third and long. You know your team has to put the ball in the air, and the opponent knows it too. Just how difficult is it to convert in these situations? To start, let’s put such a situation into perspective by looking at how difficult it is to convert any …
The start of spring football marks a critical point on the recruiting calendar. It’s one of the busiest times of the year, as prospects use this time to travel across the country and see what each program has to offer. The Ducks have already kicked things into gear, with over a dozen prospects expected to make the trip to Eugene …
Throughout a long off-season, I often find myself thinking of different plays I’d like to see added to a team’s playbook. Today I want to follow up on my last article with three new plays that I would love to see included in the Oregon Duck offense in 2019. Do I expect these exact plays to be added in the …
Anyone who has ever laced up or called plays knows that feeling – when a defense aligns itself as if it knows exactly what play is coming. Sometimes, opposing players and coaches even call out the play as if they were in the offensive huddle. And then there are times when everything is aligned just right, and it seems like the …
For most of the season, we heard how the Pistol was the sole culprit of a dwindling run game. While I do not believe that the Pistol is responsible, I do believe that the manner in which it was used, is. It is possible to be creative with the formation. There’s more to the Pistol than the Inside Zone and …
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 …
The Oregon Ducks signed the best group of linebackers in school history December 19th, as the National Letter-of-Intent early signing period came to a close. Certainly the headliners are Under Armour All-American Ge’mon Eaford from Florida and Polynesian Bowl selection Mase Funa from Southern California. However, the Ducks inked a Junior College linebacker that is further along in his development …