Mario Cristobal is a program builder. He took over as head coach at FIU under serious penalties from the NCAA and had few, if any, good facilities for his players. The Panthers had never blown the world away in the win column prior to his arrival, and he had no head coaching experience at the time. With the cards stacked …
Every great trilogy needs a bad guy. Star Wars had Darth Vader. Scream 3 had Ghostface. The Final Insult had … well, you get the idea. In January 2017, three Oregon football players were hospitalized with acute overexertion rhabdomyolysis (rhabdo). On January 9, 2019, one of them — Doug Brenner — filed an 11.5-million dollar lawsuit against the University of …
Hopefully, Oregon isn’t there already. The Ducks went 7-5 in Willie Taggart’s first season. We all felt a little better about that because we knew with a healthy Justin Herbert the Ducks would have cruised to a 9-3 record. Coming into this season with “Slick” gone, a new coach who we trust, recruiting up, an improving defense, and a healthy …
Some Tuesday morning thoughts as I finish taking in the Husky victory last weekend before fully turning my eyes towards Pullman and the ESPN GameDay hosting hysteria of this weekend. 1) Recruiting Per Rivals.com, the Ducks currently sit third nationally for the 2019 recruiting cycle. After witnessing the “best college game I’ve ever been to,” No. 1 overall prospect Kayvon …
What does “It’s better to be lucky than good” mean? And how does this statement apply to Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens? In 2016 Mullens parted ways with Mark Helfrich after two disappointing seasons, and embarked on Oregon’s first true head football coaching search in decades. He eventually found Willie Taggart, and whether Taggart sank or swam Mullens (and his …
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. When it comes to Oregon’s offense over the past decade, this is certainly a good philosophy to follow. Under Chip Kelly, Mark Helfrich and Willie Taggart, the Ducks’ offense has been among the most exciting and innovative groups in the country. Apparently, Mario Cristobal didn’t get the memo. We got our first look …
There really wasn’t anything about Willie Taggart that I was going to miss when he decided to head back to Florida. His game planning was pedestrian, his in-game coaching was sub-par, his media persona was “car salesman-esque,” and his running of Justin Herbert up the gut as if he were Jerome Bettis was utterly mind-boggling. These things ultimately cost the Ducks a very successful 2017 season, not to mention destroying the 10-win prediction …
Admit it, you’ve been thinking about this too. You even know what I’m about to write, but like me, you have not wanted to address it because you are still annoyed at the despicable way he dumped the Ducks. But this is Lent, a Christian time of sacrifice; of cleansing and making amends. Before we put the Willie Taggart era completely …
In the aftermath of signing day, as we try to make sense of it all, I compiled a chart (see below) covering the past twelve years of Oregon recruiting to help put things in perspective—from the end of the Mike Bellotti era to the beginning of the Mario Cristobal regime. At first glance, it’s clear that things took a dip …
Something I’m seeing on message boards, in the comments at FishDuck.com and in emails to me — is that quite a number of Oregon fans want athletic director Rob Mullens fired over the 11 million buyout to Mark Helfrich, coupled with being bamboozled by Willie Taggart. I have my doubts about faulting Mullens. Firstly, he felt he must secure the institutional …
As I prepared to watch the Las Vegas Bowl on Saturday and saw a fired-up Royce Freeman addressing “his” team, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “What the … ???” As most know, Freeman–arguably the greatest running back in Oregon history–chose to sit out the game. And even if some fans disagree with his decision, most people understand the …
Did you recognize that Oregon team playing in the Las Vegas Bowl? Was that a scrimmage or a first game? That was such a mess that I am not doing my usual analysis after the game with slow-motion videos of plays to point out the differences in the game. Why? Because if I did, I would be showing bad plays …