“My friends, I wish to introduce you to Zach Pierson, a new analyst who employs a much different style than we have had from our analysis articles in the past. If you are willing to put in the time — you will learn an enormous amount, even if you do not understand all that is in the article. His writing …
Coach’s Opinion: “How BIG should the PLAYBOOK be?”
My friends, legendary coach Tony DeMeo offers wisdom about planning your team’s plays for coaches, allowing fans to observe what coaches should be striving for. This is part of our ongoing football education, and it is fun to ponder these morsels of football truth. Charles Fischer The single greatest lesson that I have learned in coaching is not how many …
Who’s Chicken? Top-10 Teams are Ducking the Pac-12
Every conference touts their league as great: SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC. We will examine why the Pac-12 is far and away the most difficult, challenging league of them all. Coaching. Pac-12 coaches have impressive resumes. First-time California head coach Justin Wilcox (defensive coordinator at Boise St., Tennessee, Washington, USC, and Wisconsin), second-year USC head coach Clay Helton (Duke, Houston, and Memphis), UCLA’s Jim Mora (San Diego, New Orleans, …
Recruiting on Fire: A Conversation with David Kelly, Director of Recruiting Operations
With 22 verbal commitments across ten states, it’s apparent that the new Oregon football coaching staff could sell Hummers during a gas shortage. Four months remain before the early signing period, yet there are only about a half-dozen slots to fill. And make no mistake, those who have committed are players with very impressive credentials. This is early quantity of high …
OVERMATCHED: Winning as Goliath
My friends, Coach Tony DeMeo continues to share his 40 years of coaching with our readers (both fans and coaches). This time he writes about when your team is highly favored going into, say, a Southern Utah-type of game. It will be a while before Oregon is back in the position of being a Goliath, but those games appear every …
Oregon Receivers: the WORST EVER for a Season Opener?
The dilemma I describe in this article is not Coach Willie Taggart’s fault. Oregon’s first-year head coach inherited a very difficult situation at receiver this year at Oregon. My belief is that the defensive line, while thin, is highly underrated, and it will become evident in 2017. So will the best depth at running back perhaps ever at Oregon. The …
Oregon defense is recycling. It’s grow or die time
Innovation. Creativity. Transformation. It can all be applied to The Oregon Defense. “We have an extensive library of defensive schemes, formations and plays that are absolutely groundbreaking and virtually unstoppable.” Brent Pry, Associate Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach, Penn State – from The Onion® VOL 52 Issue 47 12.2.16 The quote is not from Oregon. Sorry, but we’re not the innovators on defense. …
The Dark Side of NCAA Recruiting Rules: Unofficial Visits
Willie Taggart and Company’s recruiting success is impressive by any measure. But once you understand how the NCAA stacks the deck, Oregon’s 2018 class ranking becomes jaw dropping. One of the reasons we love football so much is that there are clear rules about victory: the team with the most points wins. But even in athletic competition, the means of …
Oregon Pass Defense “Coachable Moments”
This article by the Grizzled Ol’ Coach, Mike Morris, has been edited to conform to our protocol on the site. Words and punctuation have been added or changed to match other articles, hence not all of what you read below are precisely his words, but match his intent. Charles Fischer The Oregon defense showed excellent improvement defending the run in …
Six Games to Define Ducks’ Season
The top and bottom of the food chain is fairly easy to predict. The shark eats the minnow every time. Predicting what happens in the middle of college football’s food chain, however, is another matter. And this is the first season in ages that Oregon fans are entering with general expectations to be somewhere in the middle. Not a minnow. …
3-4? 3-3-5? 4-2-5? Understanding Oregon’s Defensive Fronts
Charles Fischer [the head man at FishDuck.com] keeps telling me that many fans, and he, are confused about the configuration of the Oregon front 7: the defensive linemen and linebackers [LBs]. So let’s have a look. At first glance, Coach Jim Leavitt’s most used/base front, appears to be a typical 3 [linemen]-4 [LBs] defense. But the devil’s in the details; …
Oregon’s Countdown to a RECRUITING RECORD
You are as stunned as I am. We as Oregon fans cannot believe what the Willie Taggart staff is doing with football recruiting, as we are experiencing our own recruiting Nirvana, Valhalla, Duck Elysium or whatever your description for a result often dreamed of, but never thought was possible. Our beloved Ducks have 22 verbals on August 6th, with 11 of …












