The spring season has come and gone in the college football world, it was a teaser sticking around just long enough to leave everyone wanting even more in typical George Costanza-style. It’s often hard to project success or failure based on a few spring practices, and in terms of scheme, most spring games are as bare-bones as it gets. That being said, …
The Black Mamba Enters Prime Time
This past weekend marked the all-exciting NFL draft, where dreams came true and hopes were shattered, as player after player, each hoping to turn his passion for the game into a career, waited anxiously for his name to be called. The seven-round NFL draft is loaded with strategy as teams strive to improve their rosters. Players who may have dominated …
College Football Nation: SEC dominates the Draft … Again and Kentucky Goes All In — For Football
With spring ball over, football fans have now turned their attention to the NFL Draft. This is a special time where schools and conferences can brag about who’s going to the NFL, while still on the recruiting trail. We then have Kentucky going all out for football … which is a first, since it is known more for its basketball. Finally there …
Welcome To Football, Johnny Loyd
You may be familiar with the name “Johnathan Loyd” if you’re an avid Oregon basketball fan. And if you were in attendance for the highly-anticipated spring game, you’ll remember chuckling as the voice of Autzen, Don Essig, introduced the freshly-tackled first-year senior with the quip: “Welcome to football, Johnny Loyd.” It’s been awhile since Loyd stepped onto a football field and …
Empty & Full: My Favorite Play of the Oregon 2014 Spring Game
Thanks to my friend, Charles Fischer, I have had the great opportunity to write about many of my favorite offensive schemes here on FishDuck.com. From the Zone Read Bubble to One Back Play Action to Packaged Tempo Plays, these analyses have been about concepts that are the heart of my own personal offensive philosophy. One of the few core spread …
Athletes Say “Bite Me” to Outdated NCAA Food Rules
Let’s face it. Athletes are a rare breed. Bigger. Stronger. Faster. And, quite logically, hungrier. Have you ever wondered what kind of appetite you’d have as a Division 1 athlete practicing every day, sometimes twice a day? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be that same athlete and go to bed hungry? I consider myself a …
College Football Nation: FSU has Crabs and SEC Schedules
Anyone hungry for seafood? If so head on over to Tallahassee. I hear they are just “giving” it away. On top of that fun story you have Nick Saban actually being happy with Lane Kiffin, the SEC setting forth a better way of scheduling, and some beef with how things are going to be done with the college football …
Duck Receivers Are No Passing Fancy
Mike Bellotti raised a lot of eyebrows in 2007 with the relatively uninspiring, no-name hire of someone named Chip Kelly out of Division IAA New Hampshire. Result: Oregon has been among the nation’s leaders in rushing since. During that span, perfecting the zone read has not only turned quarterbacks into de facto running backs, but it has made talented running backs even …
College Football Nation: The Vote and Penn State is Breaking Bad
When all you have to talk about from the past week of action is people arguing over uniforms, coaches trolling schools, and players apologizing for trash talk … then it’s a slow week. We did have one big thing, though, with Northwestern’s football players taking a private vote about whether or not to unionize. That story will be the main talking point …
NFL goal helps Oregon tight end Pharaoh Brown push past tragedies
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 …






