If you build it … Well, bowl me over! At long last, we have some good news on the Pac-12 college football front. It has been a tumultuous offseason for the conference, which has been ridiculed and picked apart by publications across the land. Luckily, every now and then even a blind squirrel finds a nut! The New and Improved Las …
The Pac-12 conference has been left out of the playoff again. That is news to no one. The conference’s best bowl game will be the Rose Bowl, featuring 9-3 champion Washington. The Pac-12 is the only conference without either multiple “New Years Six” bowl teams or a team in the College Football Playoff. The case could be made that since Marcus Mariota left Oregon, there hasn’t been …
The NFL Draft is April 26-28 and the Ducks have three players expecting to hear their name called. Painfully, that is three more than last year. Here’s a look (per NFL.com): 1) Tyrell Crosby: The fifth-ranked OT is expected to go in rounds 2-3, and is rated has having a chance to become an NFL starter. 2) Royce Freeman: The …
Every conference touts their league as great: SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC. We will examine why the Pac-12 is far and away the most difficult, challenging league of them all. Coaching. Pac-12 coaches have impressive resumes. First-time California head coach Justin Wilcox (defensive coordinator at Boise St., Tennessee, Washington, USC, and Wisconsin), second-year USC head coach Clay Helton (Duke, Houston, and Memphis), UCLA’s Jim Mora (San Diego, New Orleans, …
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 …
Dear Reader, the following was my response to a suggestion that all teams including Florida International, play in a postseason bowl game and a criticism of the ridiculously bloated post season. Florida International University, Bowls for everyone? All 128 schools play a post season game? An interesting idea, but if there were a players’ union or at least player representation in the decision …
May rabies ravage the Dawgs and anthrax annihilate the Aggies! It’s not as if Oregon‘s Athletic Directors haven’t made a valiant effort. The Ducks once had home engagements scheduled with the Georgia Bull Dogs and the Texas A&M Aggies, only to be left at the altar by that castrated, chicken whip, canine University of Georgia, as well as being dumped …
The Cranky Curmudgeon, is a new writer at FishDuck.com, and I welcome him as a critic of all, and one who is not reluctant to step into negative writing territory. Reading a few of his first articles submitted required me to step back from the keyboard, lest the flames singe my eyebrows. Jon Joseph is a retired corporate attorney who …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out The czars who run college football must be ecstatic! With just a week to go in the regular college football season, the landscape is a complete mess. For the post-season lineup, there’s all sorts of room for drama, unfairness, passing out of unjust rewards, snubbing, hypocrisy — pretty much everything that we’re supposed to like about college …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Duck fans saw their fondest dreams and deepest fears unfold Saturday night in a victorious offensive battle against FCS Eastern Washington. The Ducks tied the NCAA record for most consecutive games (69) with at least one touchdown pass. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only passing record involved in the Saturday night scorefest. Eastern Washington receiver Cooper Kupp broke …
Football is a game of position and space, and coaches spend a great deal of time analyzing their schemes to incorporate wrinkles and techniques that will influence the opposition. In most cases, causing a slight hesitation, or a few small steps in the wrong direction, can result in a big play. Option football, which includes the zone read, is predicated on this. …
Over the past month, Jack Follman from “Pacific Takes” at SB Nation, has been doing a six-part list of the “Top 100 2015 Pac-12 Players,” and naturally, there are several Oregon players listed. So, let’s discuss how the list ended up. The Ducks take the top spot on the list with 17 players in the top 100, with UCLA and USC …