Mike Leach Unplugged — on FishDuck.com

Jason Fowler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

The narrow loss to No. 2 Oregon wasn’t considered a statement game, according to Cougar head coach, Mike Leach, but “a step in the right direction today.” He went on to say, “I think we just need to focus on practicing and improving, but I thought we played extremely hard the entire game.” WSU dropped this well-fought battle by a score of …

A Fishy Examination of the History of Washington State University Football

Kim Hastings FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Hello Ducks! Our boys take to the road this week, opening Pac-12 play with a trip to the Papoose, or whatever they call the part of Eastern Washington that Washington State University reluctantly calls home. We have discussed Mike Leach’s unfortunate description of his players’ lady friends as fat little girlfriends while at Texas Tech. To be fair, beyond a failure of …

Opponent Analysis: The Covert Claws of the Cougars

Rory Davidson FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

OK, get your laughs in now. Joke about how terrible the Cougars are, including their defense. The usual: “My 6-year-old brother’s Pop Warner team could beat WSU.” You guys got the giggles out? Good. Now we can move on to business. Washington State isn’t the joke you may think. They have a proven head coach, Mike Leach, in his second year …

College Fantasy Football Week 3: Can’t Go Wrong if His Last Name Is Hill

Caleb Couturie FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

For the third consecutive week, my college team has put up huge fantasy numbers. That was thanks in large part to my starting quarterbacks, Kenny and Taysom Hill (not related) of Texas A&M and BYU, who scored 34 and 31 points respectively. Connor Halliday led the way for all quarterbacks, scoring a miraculous 45 fanatsy points. His week by week totals …

Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out: The Greatest Blunders of 2013

Mike Merrell FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

It was a long, long time ago that I first saw a team totally snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. Unfortunately, the team doing it was our own beloved Oregon Ducks. As I say, it was long ago, so I may be mistaken on a detail or two. Anyway,  the way I remember it, the Ducks were down …

Superman — Not a Cartoon — Still Airs on Saturday Morning

Nathan Roholt FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Following the big win against Michigan State last week, much of the ink spilled focused on Oregon’s suddenly clear path to the College Football Playoff. The Ducks had defeated their best opponent they would face in the regular season, and by the transitive property of college football, will win all games thereafter. Of course, Saturday showed why making such assumptions after the …

Collegiate Programs Can Learn From the NFL’s Ray Rice Situation

Will Denner FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Note: This article contains graphic information regarding domestic violence. Read at your own discretion. An already nasty situation grew worse on Monday when new video surfaced of now former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his wife Janay in an Atlantic City casino elevator. If you’ve been unfortunate enough to see the video, you know how disturbing Rice’s actions …

Rough Start to a Legendary Season: A Tribute to Rich Brooks and the 1994 ‘Gang Green’ Ducks

Joey Holland History

Ducks 2, Opps 0 — Bring on the Cowboys! As exciting as this time of year always is, 2014 is going to be special for more reasons than one. The Ducks boast one of the most talented rosters in school history, headlined by seniors Marcus Mariota, Hroniss Grasu and Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, the myth of SEC “superiority” is officially in jeopardy, …

College Fantasy Football Week 2: Halliday a Dud, Ajayi a Stud

Caleb Couturie FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Stanford: bested. Michigan State: handled. Ohio State: surprised (they miss Braxton). What a week of college football! In a bye week that had immediate Heisman favorite Todd Gurley of Georgia watching from his couch, I, along with many, thought this might be a boring week of college football. Well, now, don’t I feel stupid? Besides the Oregon and MSU game, …

Playoff & PAC-12 Update: Ducks jump Bama

Evan Gilges FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

The Classic Autzen Counter-Punch Lands Oregon at No. 2 After a early back and fourth battle, Oregon pulled away thanks to 28 unanswered points as they went on to beat the Michigan State Spartans 46-27. As reward for their signature win, the Ducks passed Alabama to secure the No. 2 rank in the latest AP poll. What does that mean? If …

Mike Merrell’s Three-And-Out: Where Have All the Villains Gone?

Mike Merrell FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Before getting into this week’s Three-and-Out, I have one comment that I haven’t seen anywhere else about the big MSU game: Of Oregon’s 46 points, 38 were scored by underclassmen. With Jeff Lockie looking much improved from a year ago with 11-of-12 passing against South Dakota, don’t worry about 2015. There will be life after Mariota. Now, on to the …

What Mark Helfrich Has That Chip Kelly Didn’t

Nathan Roholt FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

At some point during Michigan State’s 20-point run in the second and third quarters, I recalled a forgotten worry of many Oregon fans: “Wait, did the Ducks ever solve the ‘teams with great defenses shut Oregon down’ perception?” Turns out, they hadn’t. That had been the nightmare that had haunted Oregon for the past five seasons, that its offense looked …