It’s no secret that the Pac-12 basically lives in the basement of Power Five football: inferior television contracts, generally the first of the Power Five to go uninvited to a four-team invitational called the Bowl Championship Series, and conference bowl tie-ins that might better be called bowel alignments. Imagine—giving up the Rose Bowl every three years for the ongoing privilege …
Predicting the number of wins for Ducks football this year is a tough call. One thing I can’t buy is that there’s an issue of whether Oregon’s coaches can game-day coach or not. First of all, if you’ve got a Mario Cristobal-coached offensive line, a Jim Leavitt-coached defense, and a Heisman-candidate quarterback–you’ve got some options that can make you look …
Anyone who’s ever had to compete single-handedly against a relay can tell you that it’s not a level playing field. Could this concept be formulated into a strategy that Coach Mario Cristobal utilizes to win and, ultimately, dominate the Pac-12? Let’s look at some unknown aspects of the offensive line and see if we can determine the unique new tactic …
My friends, a gift of having this site are all the wonderful Duck fans around the nation who have helped us all as writers and editors at FishDuck.com. A number of us Greybeards stay in touch by discussing our beloved Ducks by email and having some laughs along the way. Like so many of you–they have highly spirited opinions and have …
Sigh. This happens every summer. It’s a recurring football-less pain made worse this year by the 70-21 drubbing, last year. The silver lining to that humiliation was that this loss, in our house no less, accelerated the onset of Alamo Bowl amnesia. Of course, I’m referring to the Dawg Daze of Summer, when Duckland is either in a euphoric daze …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out No doubt about it. Oregon football 2016 is a mess. Whether it’s football or anything else in life, there’s a point where you’re better off to just call it hopeless and start over. Unfortunately, many see Oregon football as being at that point. The good news is that these “many” with their pitchforks and torches aren’t the …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Any team this determined to shoot itself in the foot should not wear fluorescent orange shoes. It makes it just too easy. They should wear green shoes that match the color of the turf. Or if they HAVE to be exotic, they could go with camo. Anything to give the poor feet a sporting chance. Besides that …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out After a rousing win over the Idaho Vandals this past weekend, our purple friends of the north moved up two places in the Coaches Poll to the # 9 slot, while maintaining the # 8 position in the AP Poll. Oregon continues to get mixed, minced, sliced, diced and chewed for imperfections, but the pollsters just keep …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out In Mark Helfrich’s short tenure as the Ducks head football coach he’s taken a team to the national championship game, developed a Heisman winner and turned a dismal 3-3 start into a 9-3 regular season finish. Yet who gets the kudos as top Pac-12 coaches? Stanford’s David Shaw you can understand. Utah’s Kyle Whittingham? Well, he’s done …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out With the changes at FishDuck.com, the Three-and-Out hasn’t gone away. It’s just been laid up with Christmas, a hernia and bowl games. And that’s the subject of this week’s Three-and-Out. 1. Christmas. On my last trip to the bank, the teller innocently asked me how things were going. I told her, “Nothing fatal.” She laughed until the …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out If you had to pick three sore spots from 2015 Oregon football, quarterbacks, defense and the lack of a championship run would have to dominate the list. Those sore spots and what they mean moving ahead are the subjects of this week’s Three-and-Out. 1. Quarterbacks. The Oregon program has been criticized for bringing Vernon Adams in from …
Mike Merrrell’s Three-and-Out The path to the national championship is teeming with eastern teams leaving bones of cupcakes in their wake. The conference with the toughest, deepest competition is relegated to being the only of the Five Power Conferences with no more than a single “New Year’s Six” bowl. And the Heisman Trophy will undoubtedly go to the best player …