Steve Francis With a returning offense capable of ridiculous stats, expectations run high across the college football landscape for Oregon’s 2013 campaign. New head coach Mark Helfrich and his team have set a high bar for themselves, and as is the natural tendency for sports fans everywhere, the Duck faithful also have soaring hopes for their team. While perfection is …
Kevin Cline This officially will be the last article I write for Fishduck.com . . . before the season starts!! I can hardly believe it is upon us. My excitement as a young boy the night before Christmas is one of the few things in life that rivals the feeling I get for Ducks football. The feeling is giving me …
Oregon Football is often defined by one word: Speed. Whether it is the grueling tempo that the offense uses, or an individual player racing past an entire defense, the Ducks do it fast. Over the last few seasons, observers would see LaMichael James, De’Anthony Thomas, or Kenjon Barner breaking a long touchdown run on the highlights and might assume …
Kevin Cline “The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings This year is one of the most important years in the history of Oregon football. During the years of Mike Bellotti, the football program was solid – very successful, but never quite reaching the …
The Oregon-Stanford game this upcoming season will surely be one of the best games of the year between two of the best teams in the country. An early prediction: the Ducks will win. Now, there are a million reasons why this result might happen. Maybe Stanford suffers a bunch of costly injuries leading up to the game. Maybe Oregon will …
The names of the top Oregon offensive players since 2010 are easy for even casual Ducks fans to rattle off: James, Barner, Mariota, De’Anthony, Darron Thomas, Maehl, Tuinei, Paulson, Lyerla. Others can certainly be put on that list, but those nine are probably the most recognizable. Receiver Josh Huff doesn’t get quite as much hype as those guys, and while …
On paper, this Oregon Ducks football team looks strong. Marcus Mariota, DeAnthony Thomas and Josh Huff all return as starters. The offensive line looks tough, as does the defensive secondary. In fact, there isn’t a single position that looks particularly weak, yet there are some vulnerabilities that should be troublesome to Duck fans. One of the issues Oregon fans should …
De’Anthony Thomas almost went to USC, but he eventually chose Oregon and has helped the team win two straight BCS bowls. The Trojans have lost a combined eight games these past two seasons. The Ducks have lost seven games since 2009. Those three sentences aren’t intended to be rubbed in the faces of USC fans (ok, they kind of are) …
First it was Nick Saban, then Florida coach Will Muschamp. Now, the latest high-profile coach to bash the spread offense is new Arkansas coach Bret Bielema. Three successful, smart, influential coaches, all of whom are calling for rule changes to slow down the spread offense and give defenses a better opportunity to substitute, get a breather and avoid injury. So …
Marcus Mariota’s omission from the Heisman finalist group last season wasn’t the biggest travesty in world history, but he definitely should have been there. In fact, he played just as well as Heisman winner Johnny Manziel. Unfortunately, two things – both out of his control – prevented Mariota from getting the Heisman finalist spot he deserved: the team he played …
For every Marcus Mariota, there is a Dane Ebanez, J.R. Maffie and Axel McQuaw. For every first-round draft pick there are scores of players who come to practice every day, hitting the trenches and working just as hard as the stars. Yet these players pass quietly through the hallowed halls of Oregon with little or no acclaim, sometimes without scholarships …
Recently, I had a conversation regarding which former Ducks would excel in the current version of the Ducks offensive attack. It surprised me initially at just how quickly we could rattle off a handful of names and began discussing why each would or wouldn’t be a good fit. Deciding to write a few of these down, the list began as an attempt to identify which former Ducks …