Devon Allen, along with the rest of his team, has been through a lot recently. The two toughest defenses in the Pac-12 in back-to-back weeks would cause a lot of wear and tear for anyone, but for the Ducks, Stanford and Utah packed a special punch. If the injuries to Pharaoh Brown and Hroniss Grasu weren’t enough, the Ducks have …
Duck Football Successful So Far, But Many Steps Remain
The closer it gets, the more fathomable the dream of a title becomes. Win the final two regular season games against arguably the conference’s two worst teams. Get healthy, then a neutral-site matchup against whoever emerges from that clustered South division in a stadium that the Ducks are the only college football team to ever win a game in the …
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of College Football Bad Acts
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Acting is a big part of football: the pump fake, the play action pass, the fake punt, fake extra point kicks or field goals, flea flickers, the Statue of Liberty, and regrettably, fake injuries. When done well acting is an art form, something you have to appreciate even when it’s some other team doing it to your …
Future Star: Dillon Mitchell Plans to Play Both Basketball and Football
Four-star football recruit Dillon Mitchell, who committed to Oregon earlier this year, announced yesterday via Twitter that he plans to play basketball for the University as well. Mitchell, the speedy Junior WR is highly touted for his football skills, but many argue that his true value is actually on a basketball court. The junior stud has 25 touchdowns and 2,238 all …
The Top Three Teams That Threaten the Ducks’ Championship Chances
Let it be said that a team is not going to beat the Ducks by being defensively-oriented. Stanford, the second best defense in the country at the time, lost to Oregon by 29. The Ducks beat the best and the second-best pass rushing teams by a combined 49 points. An opponent simply can’t just have a good defense and expect to beat the Ducks, it’s not …
Could Injuries Affect Oregon’s Hopes of Reaching the National Championship?
During last Saturday’s game against Utah, the Ducks suffered some significant injuries to some key players. Cornerback Ifo-Ekpre Olomu left early in the game with a bad toe injury, while center Hroniss Grasu went down with a devastating knee injury late in the game. However, the most serious injury that occurred was that to tight end Pharaoh Brown, who was eventually …
Mariota Poised To End Oregon’s Heisman Drought
The Heisman Trophy is by far the most prestigious individual award in college athletics. A few former Ducks, including LaMichael James and Joey Harrington, have been good enough in years past to contend for the award, but no one has ever won the Heisman in the team’s history. That should change at the end of this year, because Marcus Mariota …
Three Takeaways from Ducks’ Bye Week
Bye weeks have always been considered a good thing for any sport team, and this bye seems to be exactly what Oregon needs after a brutal game against the Utah Utes. The Ducks suffered significant injuries during the game — the biggest and most saddening was Pharaoh Brown‘s. The TE went down with a devastating season-ending knee injury. Plus, well-respected …
Bye Week Blues? Five Reasons Why a Weekend Without the Ducks Can be a Good Thing
It’s Friday. Up here in Alpine Nirvana, you know, five hours straight north from the home of the Gonzaga Bulldogs, a gaggle of Ducks fans sit, fidgeting nervously, wondering what to do with their new-found free time this weekend. Yes, we — Ducks fans that is — are everywhere, even in Kaslo, British Columbia, a tiny, isolated village that’s like …
Catching up with Ducks Assistant Coach Tom Osborne
It can be both a good and bad thing when a team has a bye week. For the Ducks, it’s more of a good thing as they were pretty banged up going into the Utah game last Saturday. Against the Utes, it seemed as if the “injury bug” continued biting Oregon’s key players such as center Hroniss Grasu, cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu and tight end …
Doug Brenner Looks to Seize a Great Opportunity
In an interview for FishDuck.com Thursday, I spoke with Oregon’s offensive lineman Doug Brenner at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex. Football is rough and rugged. It will often leave you with scars, sore muscles and bruises. In a season that has been full of injuries, no team knows that better than the Ducks. Although Oregon’s record indicates that they’re 9-1, which has them at …
A Closer Examination of the Ducks’ Jump over Florida State
As Duck fans we are biased. We’re also fanatical, Hawaiian-crazy, freshmen-frenzied football fans who are in the midst of watching one of the many great Duck teams and Duck players of all time. Watching Marcus Mariota slash and gash defenses for touchdown after touchdown is not something we should get used to since players as good as he is only come around …