One of the premier non-conference matchups of the season is a rematch from last year. This time though, the Ducks are traveling to East Lansing to take on the Michigan State Spartans. Last year’s matchup at Autzen set the Ducks on the path to the National Championship Game. This year’s game could have the same ramifications. Now something you might notice in …
Philadelphia Eagles fans have two main emotions. The most common one is irascible doom-mongering. “The team sucks”; “I loved the guy they got rid of”; “that was the stupidest decision ever.” As Brandon Lee Gowton of Bleeding Green Nation puts it: Some people are not happy unless they’re not happy. #makesuthink — Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) August 8, 2014 Chip …
Wow, are you fans ready for another season? I know I am. It is going to be hard to top last season, as we had the Heisman Trophy winner, won the Pac 12, and went to our first annual College Football Playoff Championship. The only way the season could have been better was if we had gone undefeated and won …
As a flagship program in college’s premier sport, football, Oregon faces consistent media scrutiny. If a team is able to find success, it is expected to maintain it. Oregon is no different, and in a year when the team loses arguably the best player it has seen this century, members of the media are eager to write Oregon off. ESPN.com releases an annual …
I walked into my local Costco a few days ago to help my grandmother with her shopping needs. After showing the entrance employee my membership card and being granted admittance into this wholesale world, I met an older man wearing a beat-up yellow Oregon Ducks hat. We got to talking, and little did I know that this conversation would spark …
Two weeks of training camp are done, and Chip Kelly‘s Eagles play their first preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Meanwhile, injuries are starting to accumulate. Kelly plays it safe, with no tackling to the ground at all in the preseason outside of actual games, and the team is making great efforts to handle inevitable injuries with its “reconditioning” …
Understanding the game of football can be a complicated process, but just being a fan and sitting down with your friends and family to cheer for your favorite college football teams on Saturday afternoon is simply fun. There are many words a football coach in Kentucky could use to describe the Oregon Ducks, but the one word that I always equate …
Over the past several years college football has become a faster-paced game with a pass-first philosophy. Teams are using this style strategically in order to recruit the best athletes, which lends itself to the ultimate goal: a birth in the College Football Playoff. The success of the Oregon Ducks is heavily dependent on these concepts: unpredictable running plays within a series, taking advantage …
Offensive tackle Jake Fisher may end up leaving a legacy at Oregon far beyond winning a ton of games; he may have changed the perspective and attitude of the Duck offensive line forever. Tyler Johnstone said it well in a Chris Dufresne article for the LA Times. “He’s not a ‘win-one-for-the Gipper’ guy. He doesn’t give speeches. He’s just a …
In my last analysis, I took a look at the linebacker position, giving some thoughts on why backer play was inconsistent in 2014 and why I believe it will be better in 2015. In that analysis, I discussed how linebackers are taught to “read” keys to help them diagnose and react to the play. Let’s quickly review these reads and how …
In his first two years as an NFL coach, Chip Kelly was a whirlwind of change, challenging the conventional wisdom on everything from players’ food to game tempo to the team schedule (giving his team Monday off after Sunday games instead of the usual Tuesday). And while Kelly’s “college boy” style was mocked at first, much of the NFL has …
When it comes to the NFL Draft, Chip Kelly heeds the advice of Horace Greeley: “Go West, young man.” In Kelly’s three seasons as the Philadelphia Eagles head coach, the team has used nine of its 21 draft picks on Pac-12 prospects. For this reason, it was unsurprising that Kelly decided to go west with USC receiver Nelson Agholor in …