Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Mental illness is nothing to be taken lightly but like any other classification of illnesses, there are degrees — and as college football fans we (some more successfully than others) struggle to maintain our mental health through the ups and downs of the seasons and the withdrawals of the off-seasons. Like any other group of people, some …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out For many Duck football fans the dream season would have been a Heisman (check), a national championship (close — but no cigar) and a number one draft pick for Marcus Mariota. While the draft pick thing is still up in the air, the national noise seems to be shifting in favor of Jameis Winston — and well …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Memory loss is something we all suffer from time to time. It can be everything from entertaining to life-threatening, but for most of us it’s usually just embarrassing — the times we can’t quite put the name with the face fast enough — or frustrating — Now what did I come into this room for? But when …
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 …
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 …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Lost in the excitement of the returning stars and the hope of stars to come is the quiet backbone of any football team. For the most part, these are the guys who didn’t grab the headlines their freshman years. They’ve been in the program for a year or two or three, possibly redshirting, biding their time behind …
Every football program and every coach wants to win. Unfortunately, the way the game is structured, there are always going to be as many losers as winners. So, we fans should be happy if our team wins more than half the time, right? Well… no! This might work for some: Colorado, California and Wazzu would see it as at least …
Mike Merrell’s Three and Out Sport for sport, the University of Oregon is one of the most successful athletic schools in the country. Cross country and track & field national championships — or at worst, high top ten finishes — have become the norm. Championships in football, softball, baseball, women’s volleyball, men’s basketball and golf have been close enough to …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out It used to be that the teams that specialized in getting those three-and-outs were the ones that won championships: offense wins games – defense wins championships. No offense, but times have changed. Tonight’s national championship game will pit two of the country’s top offensive teams against each other, while the top defensive teams sit at home, watch …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out The 101st Rose Bowl was in the books. Most of the press had not yet made it to the room for the post-game conferences, so I greedily claimed a front-row seat, wanting to be as close as possible to those whom I viewed as the biggest villains in college football: Jimbo Fisher and Jameis Winston. I couldn’t …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Throughout history, entire populations have been duped into following charismatic leaders with no scruples whatsoever. The unwitting populace draws power from the promise of the spoils of war, and celebrates the exclamation that they are the chosen, that they are the master race, that they are better than everybody else. Under these leaders, hubris and disregard for …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Florida State’s ability to win close games this year is an enigma. Is it a team strength that the Seminoles always seem to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Or is it a weakness that they find themselves needing to often enough to give their fans ulcers? In 2012 and 2013, Stanford was that sort of …