It was 1993 and I was a senior in high school playing running back for the South Salem Saxons. I wore No. 43 before Darren Sproles made it cool to wear the number. The Ducks running back in 1993, Sean Burwell, finished with 457 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns on the season. Last season, Oregon ran for 301 yards in …
Throughout the Oregon Ducks’ football history, they have provided some incredible NFL talent. Despite being criticized as a program that “does not prepare players for an NFL offense,” Oregon has produced some incredible NFL players. To prove this, I compiled a starting lineup of Ducks throughout history based on their NFL production; do not expect to see Marcus Mariota, Joey Harrington, LaMichael James, or …
The college football off-season has seen an immense trove of educated guesses as to how the Oregon Ducks football program will adjust to life without Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Marcus Mariota. Today, we are exactly 1/2 year away from opening kickoff. Never too early to start counting down is it? #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/bA1eWYQyTc — QuackCave (@QuackCave) March 6, 2015 Indeed, the future looks bright …
A 4-star QB prospect, Seth Green, had already committed to Oregon when he moved and enrolled in Allan High School in Dallas, TX, which is the same high school that 5-star QB prospect Kyler Murray attended. Clearly, Green has no problem filling big shoes. For more on that topic, check out Andrew Nemec’s fantastic article for OregonLive.com. What I found most interesting is the fact that …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Though some firmly deny it and others don’t dare to hope it, it’s just a matter of time. The Oregon Ducks will win a national football championship, more likely sooner than later. But first, a matter that is just a tiny bit off the subject. I received some news this weekend that can only be classified as …
I made a mistake the last time I addressed the Ducks’ running back group. It was early August and everything I was hearing pointed to a two-way race taking place between Byron Marshall and Thomas Tyner for starting running back. I wrote an article for FishDuck about the battle and predicted that Tyner would take on the feature back role. …
The Oregon football program has an extremely impressive resume when it comes to running backs, especially over the past 10 or 15 years. Among the greats that have come out of the Duck backfield are Maurice Morris, Jonathan Stewart, LeGarrette Blount, LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner. However, there is a new Duck in town who has the potential to be the …
The Oregon Ducks’ success in recent years came at such a fast pace, that it hit Duck fans maybe too rapidly and just as hard. Their program went from zero to hero as fast as you can say, “We should have been in every National Championship since 2010 but let it slip in the most painful way to watch.” It …
It is the marquee event of NFL Draft process: the NFL Scouting Combine, or the “Underwear Olympics,” to which it has been casually referred, of which four years of college production can become virtually ignored in favor of a limited sample of data collected in the form of physical measurements from arbitrary tasks. So why would college football fans care about this NFL …
In football, a strong and fast offensive line is key to a team’s success. The entire front must be strong enough to block for the backs, creating running room and giving the quarterback enough time to think. Especially in Oregon’s renowned spread offense, where it’s a physically daunting task, and easily taken for granted by many fans. All too often, spectators …
Along with the growing success of the Oregon football on the field over the past two decades has been increased success off field with high profile recruits attracted to Oregon. Those highly rated recruits carry increased expectations, and with increased expectations there can be a heightened sense of disappointment if one of those recruits fails to achieve potential. The latest Oregon recruit to …
I have often wondered how big-time schools like USC can get so many five-star recruits, and limit them under their star potential. For the most part, players earn their stars for a reason, but it is up to the coaches to make them realize that talent. I would like to highlight some ups and downs of past Oregon five star …