It’s going to come up in tomorrow’s game against the Washington Huskies that, according to last year’s silly rules due to COVID-19, Washington “won” the North. Last year I wrote a whole article proclaiming the Pac-12 Championship game being a sham, especially if Washington backdoored its way into the game while not playing Oregon. Washington’s head coach Jimmy Lake proclaimed …
The Oregon Offense: Double Pull Power RPO
The Oregon Ducks currently sit as the number one scoring offense in the Pac-12 conference. They have done so behind a well balanced attack orchestrated by Coach Joe Moorhead. Though the passing game continues to improve with each passing week, it is the run schemes that have caught my eye. The Ducks are doing exactly what Coach Mario Cristobal set …
Oregon Becoming the Team We Expected
After playing two great quarters last week against the UCLA Bruins, the Ducks put together a more complete game on Saturday against the Colorado Buffaloes. Granted, a weak Colorado team is not the best measuring stick, but the Ducks appear to be turning into the team that Oregon fans thought they should have seen from the start of the season, …
Moorhead Must Remain in the Coaches’ Box
For the last two games, OC Joe Moorhead has called the game from the box rather than the sideline. This has corresponded with a significant change in Oregon’s passing offense, as the past two weeks have also come with the best two games for QB Anthony Brown. Brown still has a long way to go in terms of becoming a …
Oregon’s Best Uniforms of 2021
Here at FishDuck, we’ve been tough-but-fair with our team. This season has been a “mystery” in many instances with the ups and downs of a youthful team, which couldn’t fit in more perfectly with a season than Halloween. The underlying question of that mystery is guaging how much of the young talent we have that’s been realized already, and how …
The Ducks Are Halfway There
For two quarters on Saturday, the Ducks played like the team fans knew they could be. There was rhythm, flow, and the wide receivers were heavily involved in the offense. Meanwhile, the defense was stuffing the vaunted UCLA rushing attack. The Ducks outscored the Bruins 27-3 during the second and third quarters, which brought on flashbacks of their monumental, early-season …
Cristobal Has Spoiled Fans By Winning the Off-Season
Mario Cristobal will be Oregon’s head coach in 2022. The only way this doesn’t happen is if he opts to leave for another program, which is highly unlikely. Fans are conflicted in how they feel about Cristobal because he is an amazing off-season coach, routinely “winning” the off-season in terms of recruiting and hiring. With each of these off-season wins …
It’s Okay to Be Disappointed With Mario Cristobal
Mario Cristobal has led the Oregon Ducks to back-to-back Pac-12 Championships. He has accumulated more talent than any coach before him in Eugene. And this year, his Ducks are still very much alive in the College Football Playoff race. All of these statements are undeniable. So is this one: The Oregon Ducks are a massively disappointing football team right now. …
Ducks Must Rely on Defense
As Oregon fans, we have been spoiled over the years with exciting and high-powered offenses. In the best of those years, the offense was paired with what could be described as a “bend but don’t break” defense. Oregon was not a recruiting power during the Kelly-Helfrich era and therefore did not have the talent to put together a dominating, lock-down defense. Well, …
Oregon’s Offensive Spark Comes From the RB
In football in general, the quarterback is the most important player on the field. He is the only player, besides the center, who has the ball in his hands on every snap. As a result, he is the leader and the face of the offense. When a team needs an offensive spark, it is often up to the QB to …
Brave New World of NIL, College Athletes and Kool-Aid
Did you know that Alabama freshman cornerback Ga’Quincy “Kool-Aid” McKinstry signed an endorsement deal with, wait for it, Kool-Aid? Yup. It’s a new era of college football. For the first time ever, collegiate athletes are able to receive financial compensation for their name, image and likeness, or NIL, opening up a flood gate of cash for advertising and endorsement deals. Let’s be …
Oregon’s Route to the College Football Playoff’s No.4 Seed
Despite losing to Stanford this past week, Oregon still has a legitimate shot to make the College Football Playoff this year. I know many of you may assume it’s time to pump the breaks on this notion, and as we have talked about at FishDuck for a fair bit now, the Oregon community buzz is falling away from the program …