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 …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out In a gag-me-with-a-spoon move coming from two time zones away, ESPN’s Adam Rittenburg dished up an unappetizing morsel about the professionalism of Jim Mora and the UCLA football program. Mora, it seems, runs his organization like an NFL team. Since Rittenburg went to Northwestern and is currently rumored to be living just outside Chicago, he is a good …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out My first direct contact with a big-time football coach came in fall of 1966 when John Robinson — then an assistant at Oregon — blessed us incoming freshmen swimmers with a pep talk. It was all about what a great athletic family the Ducks were. With a fist waving in the air, Robinson declared that when you …
Mike Merrell’s Three and Out It stands to reason that the top football recruits will inevitably make for the best teams. Three of the four teams playing in the 2014-15 National Championship Playoffs — Alabama, Ohio State and Florida State — habitually have top-five recruiting classes. But the fourth — yes, our Oregon Ducks — don’t even come close. In …
After the much heralded visit to the University of Oregon by FCS superstar quarterback Vernon Adams, everyone must now hurry up and wait. Adams has a big decision to make: transfer to a top-tier FBS school that won the Rose Bowl and finished second overall last season, or finish his career in the FCS with the Eastern Washington Eagles, where he has …
*Please note that this story is completely fictitious, and meant to be nothing more than a satirical look at the Conference of Champions. Any and all references, conversations, and situational humor is strictly fiction, and in no way depicts any actual situations that have occurred in real life. This was done as a collaboration by FishDuck.com writers Caleb Couturie and …
Pasadena, Calif. — Welcome to a sunny, special addition of FishDuck.com’s “From The Locker Room.” Due to UCLA players taking longer in their locker room postgame than a twelve year old daughter getting ready for school in the morning, the FishDuck reporter on site was able to gain insights from both the UCLA and Oregon perspectives. Obviously after this contest …
Oregon and UCLA were considered the favorites in their respective PAC-12 divisions going into the 2014 season. Now, a little over a month into the season, the loser of the Saturday contest between the two teams may have to kiss college football playoff aspirations goodbye. As far as the similarities go between these two teams, though, that is just the …
Remember when teams used to fear us? Well those days are pretty much behind us. There are those who would suggest we would be better off remembering the olden days, when the Civil War was the be-all and end-all after a season of getting mauled by our betters. NO! NEIN! NYET!いいえ!Walang! I’m not willing to go there just yet. So, …
Kevin Cline If you’re expecting UCLA Head Coach Jim Mora to be happy about being tied with Oregon at halftime, forget it! “This was a very disappointing loss,” Mora declared. ”We didn’t come up here to play close. We didn’t come up here to lose. We came up here to win and we didn’t get it done.” When asked if …
Kevin Cline ESPN College GameDay will be on hand for the 8th time in Eugene Saturday, to showcase a matchup of two top Pac-12 contenders in 3rd-ranked Oregon and 12th-ranked UCLA. On paper, there are many reasons to believe this will be a compelling game. The game sets up as a showdown in several interesting ways for the two programs, including: …
Google Images Last weekend, a couple of friends and I went camping at a remote lake in the Cascade range. After arriving at our site, we noticed a beaten journal that appeared in a spot most strange. Not hidden in the dense bush, nor buried under mounds of dirt. Instead, it was sitting right there on the picnic table; as …