“The difference is night and day.” This answer from a high school coach in Washington stunned me when I asked about the difference in Oregon Spring Football compared to years in the past. This is the time of year when coaches come in from across the nation to meet the Oregon coaches, “talk football” and watch the practices and drills. …
The two previous football seasons were torture for Oregon fans. Our expectations of winning, even the national title, were crushed as mediocrity, confusion and mistakes became the norm, replacing the dominance, resourcefulness and the high-scoring Ducks performances we had become so accustomed to. The Ducks’ 2016 defense became a doormat of Division I teams. Another year in sports is fast unfolding. …
Football Recruiting Amid a flurry of offers and developments along the recruiting trail, Oregon has scored a major “victory of the future” and is now in the driver’s seat for perhaps its biggest recruiting get to date. Top-ranked dual-threat quarterback Michael Johnson Jr. (4-Star/Eugene, OR), son of newly minted Oregon receivers coach, Michael Sr., has transferred to Sheldon High School in …
A few things became crystal clear to me as I poured over hours of South Florida game footage from this past season. For starters, the offense is just plain cool. It’s a run-first system with a ton of variety and ingenuity to it. This offense is really fun to watch! It’s been said that while designing his spread offense, Willie …
Today was very special to me, as it was the first true open spring practice that felt like what we experienced years ago. The traditional parts of spring practice kept popping up to remind me of – “remember this?” I look up to see the osprey bringing food to the nest on top of one of the lighting poles and …
Football Recruiting News With his hiring in January, assistant coach Joe Salave’a instantly became one of Oregon’s best ambassadors. His pull has already become very apparent in that of the responses from several visiting preps, none bigger than Tuli Letuligasenoa (4-Star/Concord, Calif.). “The visit was great, the facilities were top notch and just the whole campus was beautiful!” said Letuligasenoa. The …
As fans of our beloved Ducks, we have gone through many mental phases as the football program declined, and we wanted the coaches on the former staff (whom we loved and cared about) to succeed. I started pondering the differences between them and those we immediately noted with the new football staff, and, after collaborating with other fans, have come to …
Usually I have something major that is tugging at me to comment on … but this time it is a number of topics that I am looking to see if others agree/disagree on and while each is not a full article? They still carry a lot of bite with me. Can the Women of Oregon Pull off THREE National Championships? …
My background is the NFL Draft, so I will be looking at college recruits from that perspective: not only on their immediately impact at the collegiate level, but what their long term prospects may be. The NFL is about three things when assessing talent: height, weight, speed, potential and motivation. I’ve based the following on new Ducks recruit, George Moore, …
He hasn’t coached any games – or even conducted a practice session — yet, but I’m thinking most of us already have a positive opinion on the hiring of Head Coach Willie Taggart. As he, his staff, and players now prepare for spring practice in April, there seems to be a lot of rational enthusiasm being felt by almost all …
Willie Taggart has settled into his new role at Oregon quite well. Despite the “hospitalized players” drama, hiring a new coaching staff and the pressure to bring Oregon back to compete for a PAC-12 championship, Taggart has delivered a solid 2017 recruiting class. His ability to bond and forge relationships with players has really shown during this offseason. The biggest takeaway I got …
Many Oregon fans are so pleased with the recruiting results of Head Coach Willie Taggart that an argument could be made that he was almost heaven-sent perfect for our beloved Ducks. But look, nobody is perfect. My title is true, and this is not meant to be the beginning of a “Canzano-type” hit article, but simply my observations–with which many might …