When Pharaoh Brown called his mother on graduation day, he sounded calm. Jeannetta Smith assumed her son was pulling another prank, but this one angered her. “This is not how you play,” Smith said. Brown wasn’t joking. His friend, Fred Zuber, had drowned hours earlier. He sounded calm because he was in shock. Brown, Zuber and three […]
College Football Nation: Free Food and Spray Paint
Is it football season yet? I will have to ask that question every week until kickoff in August. Right now, all we get to hear about is police reports and coaches kissing pigs. We at least have the spring games going on, giving us a chance to speculate on how our teams will do come Fall. Let’s get to the news …
Pac-12 Power Positions: Quick Quarterbacks
There is a reason that the Pac-12 is known as the “conference of quarterbacks,” and the talent present in the conference this year are a testament to that title. The conference lost only two starting quarterbacks in Keith Price and B.J Denker to the NFL and most teams return their starters. This will only add to the intense competition expected in …
Duck Down … Next Man Up!
By now, we’ve all heard of the unfortunate ACL injury Bralon Addison suffered in Spring practice, and it appears to be season ending. Injuries are an unfortunate reality of sports, especially football, and everyone has to deal with them. While there are plenty of reasons to be upset about Oregon losing their best and most accomplished receiver, don’t start writing …
Duck ‘Backers Set to Flock to the Ball in 2014
The departure of Kiko Alonzo and Michael Clay after 2012 made last season a rebuilding year of sorts for the Duck linebacker corps, and some maintain the Ducks’ run defense suffered accordingly. The numbers reveal that the Ducks gave up 169 ypg on the ground, up from 142 ypg the year before. How much that attributed to the extra loss …
A Solution for Stopping Stanford on 3rd Down
When the Ducks travelled south to play Pac-12 rival Stanford, there were predictions of a Duck victory. De’Anthony Thomas predicted the Oregon offense would put up forty points, and many others had Oregon at least securing the W. Vegas even had the Ducks as a 10+ point favorite. The Duck faithful had high hopes, and with good reason. Leading up …
College Football Nation: FSU Accident and Happy Valley Makeover
As the off season progresses we will have to do two things. One, keep an eye on FSU, because it seems every week they are making headlines for all the wrong and right reasons. Two, Northwestern and their unionization is not going away as quietly as the NCAA would hope for. While all that is going on, we still have some …
Inside the Crystal Ball: Autzen Expansion and Oregon’s “You vs Yesterday” Mindset
Quick, answer a seemingly impossible question, “What will Oregon’s football program look like in 10 years?” What about these, “Who will be the powerful programs within a conference as up in the air as the Pac-12?” ”How long will the college playoff system remain at only four teams?” (Some might even predict that the NCAA won’t even be around in a …
Who Will Be Josh Huff’s Heir Apparent on My Desktop?
If a picture is worth a thousand words, I should stop typing right now and just post a pictorial of Josh Huff’s Oregon football career. With nary another word, it might win me a Pulitzer in the sports writing category — if there is such an honor. Put it this way, no Oregon player from 2010 through 2013 graced my …
Can You FORGIVE Mark Helfrich?
We, as loyal and dedicated Oregon fans, are all still going through a mental transition from Chip Kelly to Mark Helfrich, and for most of us it has been difficult and even illuminating our true nature of being an Oregon fan, learning about ourselves within this conversion. Never has Oregon had such a charismatic and successful coach who went on to storm …
Danny Mattingly: The Next Big Hitter
What does it take to be a dominant linebacker? Strength, agility, competitiveness and leadership, all of these qualities in combination set the great apart from the journeyman. Additionally, strong linebackers help set the tempo on that side of the ball and become the “glue” of the defense. Oregon redshirt freshman Danny Mattingly is an exciting linebacker ready to contribute this …
Draw the Line
Peppered with talent, various levels of success, and featuring a new man calling the shots, it’s time for Oregon’s defensive line to draw the proverbial “line in the sand.” We’ve all heard the knocks on Oregon’s teams over the past few seasons, critics talk about their perceived lack of physicality; if you slow the game down, their neon jerseys just …