“It’s an awesome day because we have a wonderful opportunity to go out and play this weekend. There are a lot of people that are not playing, and we have the opportunity to play. So we’re really fired up about it,” said Coach Don Pellum, the Ducks defensive coordinator. Insightful words of wisdom coming from a cool-handed Pellum in reference to this …
Uncharted Territory on the Path of Unfathomability
It is a run of historically unprecedented success for the Ducks. Five straight eleven-win seasons. Seven straight ten-win seasons. Four consecutive BCS bowl appearances during that run. Yet in every season going back nearly a decade, Oregon’s success has often come in spite of its play in November rather than because of it. Consider these November speedbumps: 2006: 7-2 after …
Helfrich: ‘Revenge’ not key part of preparation for Arizona
Jordan Ingram reporting for FishDuck.com from the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex Sunday night about the Coach Mark Helfrich press conference. After celebrating a lopsided victory over Oregon State in Corvallis, the Ducks turn to face Arizona in the Pac-12 Championship game. Following Oregon’s back-to-back regular season losses to the Wildcats, the rematch between these two teams now holds much heavier implications, most notably, …
Two Big Questions Going Into the Pac-12 Championship Game
Last night was one intense game to say the least. The 2014 edition of the Civil War featured a dominant performance by the Ducks as shown by QB Marcus Mariota throwing 367 yards and RB Royce Freeman gaining 135 yards. Plus, let’s not forget about the one and only RB/WR Byron Marshall recording 131 yards on six catches. The Beavers, however, couldn’t get anything going …
Duck Football Successful So Far, But Many Steps Remain
The closer it gets, the more fathomable the dream of a title becomes. Win the final two regular season games against arguably the conference’s two worst teams. Get healthy, then a neutral-site matchup against whoever emerges from that clustered South division in a stadium that the Ducks are the only college football team to ever win a game in the …
Could Injuries Affect Oregon’s Hopes of Reaching the National Championship?
During last Saturday’s game against Utah, the Ducks suffered some significant injuries to some key players. Cornerback Ifo-Ekpre Olomu left early in the game with a bad toe injury, while center Hroniss Grasu went down with a devastating knee injury late in the game. However, the most serious injury that occurred was that to tight end Pharaoh Brown, who was eventually …
Catching up with Ducks Assistant Coach Tom Osborne
It can be both a good and bad thing when a team has a bye week. For the Ducks, it’s more of a good thing as they were pretty banged up going into the Utah game last Saturday. Against the Utes, it seemed as if the “injury bug” continued biting Oregon’s key players such as center Hroniss Grasu, cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu and tight end …
Catching Up with the One and Only SuperMariota
Marcus Mariota is clearly the best of the best in terms of quarterbacks throughout the College Football League. Last Saturday when the Ducks took on Stanford, Mariota looked and played fantastic. Going into the game, Oregon, especially Mariota, knew that Stanford had a stupendous defense that always seemed to stop the Ducks’ up-tempo offense in the past. Obviously, that wasn’t …
How to Properly Complain About and Fix an Officiating Problem
There are a few rules to complaining about officiating: Do So Sparingly. There are varying timelines regarding how long people want to discuss a game’s officiating and its effect on the outcome, from those with zero tolerance on its discussion to those who will talk until they’re hoarse, but the one constant is that some point everyone will fatigue on …
Ducks Success Hangs in the Balance
“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony.” – Thomas Merton After attending college for three years now and absorbing as much enlightening knowledge as a naive 21-year-old is capable of, I feel that I can say one thing for sure. Life is about balance. Balance of work and play. Health and vices. Pleasure …
Arizona Wildcats: “Lightning Strikes Twice”
The Arizona Wildcats upset Oregon for the second year in a row Thursday night, and coach Rich Rodriguez was exultant after the game. “I don’t know if anybody picked us. … Not on the road. Lightning doesn’t strike twice. In fact, [the end of] our video we showed our guys last night actually showed a guy getting hit by lighting …
Opponent Analysis: Preventing the Wildcats’ Big Play
Thursday is known as “upset day” in the Pac-12. Be wary of Thursdays! Oregon State shocking No. 1 USC comes to mind. So does Washington surprising No. 8 Stanford in 2012. And, of course, there was Stanford’s takedown of the Ducks last year (sorry for reopening that wound). But these are just a few of the upsets that have occurred on …