It’s only year two of the Chip Kelly era in Philadelphia, and the Eagles have already overhauled their receiver group. They released three-time Pro Bowler DeSean Jackson and veteran slot receiver Jason Avant. They re-signed Riley Cooper and Jeremy Maclin. Then, they traded up in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft to select Vanderbilt’s Jordan Matthews, but the front …
Oregon Football Recruiting Analysis: To Flip or Not To Flip
Oregon wants just one quarterback for the 2015 class and Notre Dame should be worried. After visiting Eugene several days ago, the long time Notre Dame commit, Blake Barnett, may have second thoughts about the Fighting Irish. Almost immediately, Barnett opened his recruiting up by de-committing from Notre Dame and listing his top two schools of interest as Alabama and …
Complex Colt
I hope things work out for Colt Lyerla and he makes it in the NFL – does that make me a bad Oregon fan? He was one of our most promising athletes to come out of the state of Oregon in years, yet his college football career unraveled right before our very eyes. If you search “Colt Lyerla” on Twitter, you will see …
A Developing Rivalry: Stanford University Cardinal
The Oregon-Stanford football rivalry might not be the oldest or most polarizing, but for the last few years it has been the one with the most on the line for both teams. The rivalry is not new, only recently becoming intense enough to warrant the level of dislike and hatred between the teams and fan bases for it to be called a …
The Black Mamba Enters Prime Time
This past weekend marked the all-exciting NFL draft, where dreams came true and hopes were shattered, as player after player, each hoping to turn his passion for the game into a career, waited anxiously for his name to be called. The seven-round NFL draft is loaded with strategy as teams strive to improve their rosters. Players who may have dominated …
Chip Kelly Update: A Draft Pick, Broken Silence and an Army Hero
In my last column, I wrote about Chip Kelly’s long post-season silence, even amid the controversy over releasing star WR DeSean Jackson. The weeks since January 4th have felt like an eternity of baseless speculation, what-ifs and angst over every conceivable draft pick. There have been so many mock drafts that a bunch of writers in Philadelphia have started an #MDMD …
Position Change Makes Johnathan Loyd One Rare Duck
If there are any Duck fans out there still skeptical or on the fence about Johnathan Loyd’s place in Oregon Duck athletic history, Dana Altman’s first recruit just gave you another reason to get on board. Already the winningest player in the long history of Oregon Basketball, Loyd, like so many of the Oregon fans this time of year, has …
With Bralon Addison Gone, Oregon’s Margin for Error Shrinks
Injuries happen every year, to every team. In a game as violent as football, players are injured in every scrimmage and every game. Most of the time these injuries are bumps, bruises, stingers and sprains. But the teams that contend for National Championships are either able to weather those injuries or manage to escape major injuries to key players. Oregon …
Oregon Football Recruiting Analysis: It’s Still About the Offense
The Oregon football program is not regarded as a defensive juggernaut. An elite defense wasn’t the catalyst behind the evolution of the Oregon brand. In this new era of Oregon football, where fans expect championship runs, the offense seems almost to have become an after-thought. Improving the defense has become the focal point of radio pundits and TV personalities. Let’s …
For Oregon Football, the Time is Now
For the last half-decade, Oregon football has been one of a handful of teams that has been, at some point during each season, a true contender for a national championship. For a variety of reasons they have fallen short of attaining this goal. They have come very close on multiple occasions, but have failed to close the deal. In each …
DAT’s Replacement by Committee
As Oregon’s 2013 football season came to a close, the majority opinion was, “the sooner the better.” It’s a testament to how high the bar has been raised at Oregon that another double-digit win season, capped with a bowl victory, was cause for disappointment. However, amid the gloom, hope for next season came when quarterback Marcus Mariota and his teammates, …
Chip Kelly Update: Eagles, Ducks and Chemistry
The NFL off season is completely different than college football’s in one significant way: the NFL team gets to pick its players through the draft, the trade and free agency, and fans get to speculate endlessly over who they should or shouldn’t choose. For a college team, it’s more like being an old-fashioned high school girl at a dance, trying …