It could have been worse. It could have been 2007, on the heels of Dennis Dixon’s knee injury against Arizona, when the Ducks stumbled into the Rose Bowl and couldn’t score a point, losing 16-0 to a hapless and free-falling UCLA. Though the Ducks had national championship aspirations that year, which had vanished in Tucson the week before, they still …
Sure, the Ducks should be better in 2017. But 10 wins? No way. Yes, Willie Taggart has brought the enthusiasm, the recruiting magic, the superb coaching staff and the Harbaugh moxie (Jim took Michigan from 5-7 to 10-3 in his first season). He may well be the next “it” coach. But it sounds as if the overly optimistic author of …
At the University of Oregon, football is a great tradition. The Ducks are now known to be a powerhouse in the Pac-12, finishing second with a record of 9-3 last year. The Ducks have produced special players since the beginning of the football program in the late 1890s. Every year Oregon recruits players around the country with hopes they will take the team far …
Even though Oregon has had a lot of success at the quarterback position over the last 15 years, Vernon Adams will be the first Duck senior QB to make it to and start on Senior Day for Oregon since Joey Harrington. Here’s a look back at each QB that followed Harrington and who failed to play in their Senior Day game. After Joey’s successful career, …
Great players come and go through every program, but eventually they have to move on. The hole they leave is oftentimes the most talked-about topic of the off-season. This off-season it is an especially hot topic, after losing the best player ever to come through this program. The most asked questions around Eugene are “Do you think Jeff Lockie or Vernon Adams …
When talking about the head coach who started Oregon on its winning ways in the modern age, people often think of Chip Kelly — he is the one who built the program, many would proclaim. While Kelly did certainly have a lot of success at Oregon, Mike Bellotti is the man who first set Oregon on course with a culture of winning. …
This past year we witnessed something special. For the first time in the history of Oregon football we had a Heisman trophy winner. Coming into the year, we had little doubt that Marcus Mariota would be taking home the hardware. However even as historic as this landmark was, Mariota should have been the second Heisman winner at Oregon. Way back in …
Oregon quarterbacks do not have the best track record when it comes to production at the NFL level. Since 1999 and prior to Marcus Mariota, Oregon had five quarterbacks taken in the NFL Draft, two of which were 1st-round picks – Akili Smith and Joey Harrington — two in the 5th round – Dennis Dixon and A.J. Feely — and Kellen Clemens, who was taken …
At this point, it is no secret that the biggest question mark for the Ducks as they head toward the 2015-16 season is who will be under center come September 5th. But when considering recent history, we already have the answer: the starting quarterback for the Oregon Ducks this season is Vernon Adams, Jr. In some ways this is unfortunate, because you want …
At Oregon, we have grown accustomed to outsiders disrespecting our players by calling them “soft.” Even Marcus Mariota was not safe from such descriptions, as critics in the national media called him a mere by-product of a successful system. Many Duck fans believe the labels of “soft” and “by-product” of the system started with Dennis Dixon and when the spread …
The Oregon football program has ascended to the top of the college football world. The Ducks have reached the national title game twice in five years, won four other bowl games, and haven’t finished outside the Top 10 in that same five-year stretch. The Ducks are now elite, and it’s very hard to argue against that fact. But how did Oregon achieve …
“We just have to put our heads down, work hard, play our best and take one game at a time. Then we’ll look up at the end of the year and see where we’ve landed,” says every college football coach at one time or another, usually during an early- or mid-season interview. As an avid fan of two teams, I …