Throughout life you run into certain people who encourage, uplift and inspire and those who do the opposite. When I was first getting involved in journalism I make a point to ask the veterans in the press box how they made it, what to do and what not to do. ESPN’s Peter Gammons, the Oregonians George Pasero, the Seahawks Pete …
Thank god for the College Football Playoff. The Ducks would have been left out of the national championship if the BCS system was still being used; the same goes for Ohio State. In the first year of the playoff, it has already been proven that the BCS was a faulty system. Next thing you know, the playoff is going to …
When Chip Kelly left Eugene for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013, he left two major voids in the Oregon football program. Kelly had not just been the face of the Ducks, he was also the play-caller for the renowned high-octane spread offense. As much as head coach Mark Helfrich deserves credit for leading the team to a national championship game in just …
You may have heard the city of Oregon, Ohio. Yes, there is a city named Oregon in Ohio. One resident wants to change the city name on January 12 and be known by something different than Oregon. One suggestion under discussion for a new city name was “Buckeyeville.” Yeah, that’s real creative. I like “Urbania” better. How about changing the name …
Score, force a turnover, repeat. That seemed to be the game plan in what was perhaps the most exciting, yet simultaneously shocking, half of football I’ve ever seen in my young life. The Ducks steamrolled Florida State, utilizing a second half where Oregon scored 34 unanswered points and FSU turned the ball over on five of six straight drives. It was …
Loss of a Leader With All-American cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu out for the Rose Bowl, do the Ducks still stand a chance? Long time College Football analyst, Tim Brando, and host of “The Tim Brando Show” on SiriusXM Radio thinks they do: “Tony Washington and the Oregon secondary have been overshadowed by Ifo.” Essentially, Brando feels that the rest of the Ducks defense has not been …
With Oregon on the verge of what could be the greatest season in the history of the program, I’d like to take you back to the biggest game that the Ducks have ever played in. Let’s go back to that 2010 season. The Ducks smashed and destroyed everyone in their path, going 12-0. Oregon led the nation in scoring at 47 …
Royce Freeman and Marcus Mariota have been the talk of the sports world leading up to the first college football semi-playoff game. The Ducks’ offense thrives on being able to run the ball in order to control the pace of the game as well as keep pressure off of Mariota. However it is the receivers that are going to do …
The Philadelphia Eagles under Chip Kelly keep reaching for the stars. They encourage fans to hope for a Super Bowl run with unselfish teamwork, clever schemes on both sides of the ball, and emerging young talent. Then reality slaps them back down to earth, as the Eagles lose to the top level of NFL teams: Green Bay (at Lambeau), San …
When the Oregon Ducks stifled the Top 20 offense of the Arizona Wildcats in the Pac-12 Conference Championship game, America saw a side of the Oregon defense that hasn’t been there all year. This was the focused, well-coached defense that played 59 minutes and 55 seconds (The last five seconds is when Arizona’s third-string quarterback ran into the end zone …
Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day, in front of 20 million TV viewers nationwide, Mark Sanchez had a game, in fact a single play so humiliating that it has its own Wikipedia article: The Butt Fumble. This Thanksgiving, he carved up the Dallas Cowboys like a slow-cooked turkey and rebuilt his legacy in front of an equally large audience. Sanchez …
In 1894, the biggest football games were played on the East Coast between a handful of Ivy League teams. A few thousand miles away, in the middle of seemingly endless Oregon farmland, two teams were preparing for their first football game, lacing up their shoes on a field best described as a “cross between a duck pond and a hog …