There isn’t a single college football team in history that has had great seasons year in and year out. Although I have run into several fans who seem to think their team has always been great and can do no wrong (I’m looking at you, Bama and OSU fans), it simply isn’t true. Every elite team goes through cycles of …
The end for Mark Helfrich was written long before the second half rains in Corvallis washed away any hope of his redemption. There was no artistry to that second half bludgeoning by Oregon State. No intricate scheme or innovation was required. It was straight ahead football, 27 consecutive running plays by the Beavers, and the Ducks had no answers … …
The cool thing about a coaching search for your favorite football team is it tests what you as a coach, or fan, hold as your priorities for a coach. Generally, there are three types of coaches: The CEO type recruits well, sets the general culture of the program and delegates. A good CEO Coach hires coordinators they trust and then delegates the …
As all good Ducks fans know, you can’t spell philanthropy without P-H-I-L. I don’t know Phil Knight, and aside from bumping into him, literally, in a Portland crowd after a Spring Game many years ago, I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard him speak. But he certainly spoke to me this past weekend, albeit through the media. By now you’ve all …
Ducks Need a Miracle to Reach Bowl Eligibility After some signs of life in a victory against ASU, the Ducks returned to playing really badly in their blowout loss to the USC Trojans. With the loss, the Ducks now sit at 3-6, their worst record through nine games since 1991, when they also sat at 3-6. No one on the Oregon football …
For more than a decade, the Washington Huskies watched their hated rivals to the south rise to the upper echelon of college football. This rise was accompanied by the annual beating the Ducks put on the Huskies each fall for 12 straight years. As Ducks fans are painfully aware, the decade of domination over the Huskies has ended. The Ducks are 2-4 and licking …
Having just stepped out of a screening of the film “Denial” in my new home in Seattle, I realized the title sounds similar to a river in Egypt appropriately describes what this writer thinks has infected Oregon fandom. Right now, as I write this and you later read this, in its last performance, Oregon barfed on itself in Autzen Stadium and …
Chip Kelly may be the next Pete Carroll. And by that I mean he will likely be fired soon from the pro ranks. Carroll failed to impress during his first at-bat (6-10, NY Jets, 1994) and boasted only slightly better success during his second attempt at the Patriot’s helm, which ended after his 8-8 finish in the 1999 season. Fourteen …
After their fourth loss of the season, it is clear Oregon is in a rebuilding year. The defense is currently ranked 117th in the nation. And while this accounts for a lot of Oregon’s recent woes, quarterback Dakota Prukop’s underwhelming performance might also have something to do with it. His overall numbers through his first five games have been decent, but …
Soul Searching Until Saturday, the idea of Oregon losing to Colorado any time in the foreseeable future was unimaginable. The Buffaloes have been the punching bag of the Pac-12 for years – the automatic win on the schedule for essentially everyone in the conference. Oregon fell to an improved Colorado team last weekend, and the football team has been doing some soul searching …
(In following with the policies of the University of Oregon Athletic Department, this article will not discuss plays, formations, blitzes, tactics, injuries or anything of a detailed nature before the 2016 football season begins. We will revert back to the days of the old “Fish Reports” where the information was primarily football gossip, yet enjoyed by all. More recent versions …
Out of nowhere, Oregon Ducks football hit the month of June with a collection of recruits like it’s never seen before. The typical football recruiting cycle at Oregon starts off slow, adds a few players throughout fall and the football season and then closes hard the last month until signing day in February. This year, the Ducks found a new …