Oregon’s Unexpected Achilles Heel for 2021

Charles Fischer, Mr. FishDuck Editorials

This is a ponder-point that I’d love your feedback on, because it has so many dimensions to it and has such wide-reaching ramifications for the team. If you are starting an inexperienced corner … even a highly rated one, you are in trouble. And in the pass-happy Pac-12, that is especially true. No matter how good the rest of the …

Does Oregon’s Andy Avalos Have a Mastermind Personnel Plan?

Mike West Analysis

From the angst-filled opener in Dallas, to the dramatic finish in Pasadena, Duck fans marveled over Andy Avalos‘ 2019 Oregon defense. No amount of glowing anticipation could match the outstanding improvement Avalos’ troops demonstrated in just one year. With only two key additions, Oregon’s defense garnered 97 tackles for loss, 41 sacks, 20 interceptions, 42 quarterback hurries and yielded only …

Forget Next Year: Oregon CAN Win the Natty in 2020

Mike West Editorials

Chip Kelly arrived in Eugene as a virtual unknown from the University of New Hampshire. From 2007 to 2012, Kelly changed the landscape of college football with his blur offense, transforming Oregon into a national title contender in the process. Following a lull under Mark Helfrich and Willie Taggart, Mario Cristobal started restoring dreams of a “Natty” in 2018, inciting FishDuck’s …

Andy Avalos’s Lethal Weapon: The Five-Man Front

Mike West Analysis

Before Andy Avalos introduced his brilliant defensive schemes last fall, Oregon’s glaring weakness was its inability to defend players in space. Ducks defenders often looked like ghosts pursuing pac-men all over the football field. Former defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt shored up some of the weaknesses, but it was Avalos who put a stop to the flow of embarrassing big plays …

How Einstein Avalos Saved Roller Coaster Arroyo in the Rose Bowl

Mike West Analysis

There was much dismay among Ducks fans when Andy Avalos’s Boise State defense overwhelmed Marcus Arroyo’s offense in the 2017 Las Vegas Bowl. FishDuck fans across the nation fretted over Arroyo’s up-and-down, “roller coaster” tendencies. Little did we know it would be Avalos’s defensive brilliance that would redeem Arroyo’s roller-coaster offense just two years later. Even when Coach Eric Boles …

The New Oregon Defense: Quarters Coverage

Coach Eric Boles Analysis

New Oregon Duck defensive coordinator Andy Avalos prefers that his defense stay multiple and mix up its coverages, but quarters coverage may be his most dependable scheme on the back end. Avalos plays quarters in a more aggressive fashion, allowing his corners to play closer to the line of scrimmage in order to jam receivers and knock them off their routes …

Oregon Football: Cornerback Verone McKinley III

Mike Kelly Talent Evaluation

The Oregon Ducks signed a very good group of defensive backs in the 2018 recruiting cycle, and certainly one of the most heralded was national recruit Verone McKinley III from Hebron High School in Carrolton, Texas. Hebron (Hawks) High School is a medium-sized institution with an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students, playing at the 6A (large school) level in Texas. …

Turnovers: the Existential Threat to Football Success!

Steven Smith Editorials

A key component to winning or losing on the football field is turnovers! TOs can play a huge part in any football game, for good or ill. Types of Turnovers Fumbles: dropping or losing hold of the ball when in play. Interceptions: A defensive player catching a pass intended for an offensive player. Muffs in the kicking game: on kickoffs or …

The Long Road to Eugene: Cornerback Haki Woods Jr.

Mike Kelly Talent Evaluation

New Oregon Ducks cornerback Haki M. Woods Jr.’s long, meandering journey from his hometown of South Bend, Indiana to Eugene, Oregon took over four years of his life. The route included a stop at Indiana State University and Tucson, Arizona, where he was a Junior College All-American at Pima Community College. Haki grew up in a tough part of Indiana’s fourth …