When the Rose Bowl kicks off tomorrow, the Oregon Ducks will be 8.5-point favorites over the undefeated Florida State Seminoles. Oregon has been favored in every game this season, but the underdog role is a first for Florida State. In fact, the last game Florida State was the underdog in was September 24th, 2011, when the then 2-1 Seminoles faced …
For Duck fans, Rocye Freeman is now a household name. The freshman phenom burst onto the scene to replace the injured Thomas Tyner, and with Byron Marshall moving to the slot, Freeman took over as the Ducks‘ primary back in Week 4. Since then, he amassed at least 75 yards in every game on his way to 1,299 yards and 16 touchdowns, …
There are many reasons to believe Oregon will defeat the Florida State Seminoles this Thursday in the Rose Bowl, but how premature would it be to predict the game’s result based on each team’s conference records this Bowl season? Well if I did it certainly wouldn’t be pretty, because among the 11 conferences with teams playing in College Bowl games, the …
Principal’s Note: Instead of the usual analysis of Oregon, I felt it important to focus this week upon the opponent we are facing. Rory Davidson has done an outstanding job teaching Duck fans what to look for in the other team, and this week is no exception. I will be back next week, but do look for a short joint …
Excluding one minor slip up, the loss to Arizona at home, the Ducks have dominated their competition. Their average margin of victory this season, not including the loss, is just over 26 points per game. On the flip side, an undefeated FSU team struggled against many ACC foes on their way to an 11.7 average winning margin. More importantly, when FSU …
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 …
Last week, I listed Florida State as the biggest villain Oregon has faced in recent memory. When their pairing with the Ducks was announced for the playoff, Oregon fans rejoiced at the ultimate matchup of good versus evil. As I sat down to write this week, I was fully prepared to crank up the hate machine and fire off a …
We are only six days away from watching our Ducks run on the field in Pasadena, CA to face the Florida State Seminoles in the Rose Bowl. All of the players got to go home to spend some time with their families last week and then departed to California on December 25. Although I am sure that this upcoming semi-final …
Everyone understands Marcus Mariota is, to borrow baseball great Reggie Jackson’s famous quote, “the straw which stirs the drink” in terms of whether the Oregon Ducks will beat Florida State and advance to the championship round. Yet we all realize too, that other players on both sides of the ball will need to elevate their level of play. These are …
It may be a sad realization Duck nation, but Marcus Mariota is not coming back. If he were to do so for some reason, he’d be making the biggest mistake of his life. Mariota is coming off not only the best season of his career, but perhaps one of the best years in College Football ever. The redshirt junior accounted …
Along with a berth in the first college football playoff, the Heisman — with this year’s recipient being Oregon’s own Marcus Mariota — has cast the spotlight on the “team that could” from the upper left hand corner of the country. So how will this affect Oregon football’s 2015 recruiting class? Mariota bringing the statue back to Eugene should make …
If you recorded the Heisman Trophy ceremony, and your recording ran long (a highly recommended practice, by the way, given that the ceremony always goes over in time), you would have caught the first few minutes of the ESPN documentary “The U Part 2“, a follow up to the 2009 documentary (obviously titled, “The U”) about the University of Miami …