As a general rule, nobody likes to be wrong. There’s a growing consensus that the 2017 Ducks are looking at a 6-6 season. In the past week, both Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News and Andrew Greif of Oregonlive have joined our own Mr. FishDuck, Charles Fischer, in assessing the Ducks as the acme of mediocrity. If the …
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 …
In an upcoming season that combines equal portions of unknowns, shaken confidence and renewed optimism, it is difficult to come to reasonable expectations for the 2017 Oregon Ducks. There are those – possibly trolls – who claim that six wins would be a success. Then there’s Athlon Sports — possibly the premiere preseason pigskin prognosticator – that ranks the Ducks …
That’s really what it gets down to, isn’t it? Oregon State and Washington State will have a say in who dominates the Northwest from time to time. But it’s Oregon and Washington opening the pocketbooks to buy a camping spot at the top of the Pac, with aspirations for national titles. The Huskies believe they hired the perfect cure for …
The Pac-12: The Conference of Champions. Conference ambassador Bill Walton inserts it into every basketball telecast he ever does – and for good reason. The Pac-12 is the conference of champions in all of athletics, and it’s not even close. On May 28, the conference won its 500th championship, followed by the B1G with 307, then the SEC with 220. It’s …
The argument goes something like this: Since the state of Oregon produces so few elite athletes, when they do come along, they simply must become Ducks. Otherwise, the Ducks are in big trouble, with all of the huge recruiting disadvantages they have to try to overcome. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great when an in-state athlete works out well. I’m …
We can point to just a few plays this last season that would have resulted in a winning record, a bowl game and likely the extension of the Mark Helfrich era (for better or worse). Let’s look at the season and our five stages of fan grief: sadness, depression, denial, disbelief, and finally, blame. To say this last season was …
If I could describe the 2017 Oregon football spring camp in one word it would be “Leadership.” Not only from the obvious coaching changes last December, but the emphasis and cultural change to put the players in a position to lead one another. This is their team, and the results on the field will come directly from their work and …
Football Recruiting Amid a flurry of offers and developments along the recruiting trail, Oregon has scored a major “victory of the future” and is now in the driver’s seat for perhaps its biggest recruiting get to date. Top-ranked dual-threat quarterback Michael Johnson Jr. (4-Star/Eugene, OR), son of newly minted Oregon receivers coach, Michael Sr., has transferred to Sheldon High School in …
When a football team scrimmages itself, it is a zero-sum game: if either the offense or defense has success, it automatically makes the other team look bad. For this scrimmage review, I will analyze why one team was successful rather than just say the offense scored a touchdown so they must be good or the defense gave up a touchdown so they must be bad. Three …
I am often surprised by these Spring scrimmages, but this one was for different reasons than you might think; this is a new offense, and the defense is improved and frankly things are progressing faster on both sides of the ball than I anticipated. Oh, sure – after freezing in Eugene last week from big pelting raindrops and hail – …
My friends, this article marks the beginning of a new phase for the site where we are replacing many of our writers with Coaches who write articles and give their opinions about Oregon football. Tomorrow it is an analysis article, while today it is a Coaches’ Opinion article by Coach Ruskin. What you will read are three major observations and …