Oregon Ducks 2023!

that sounds impressive but it's missing fairly critical context:

* Portland State is an FCS school with a 2-3 record and a fairly pedestrian offense
* Texas Tech averages 405 yards which ranks 61st out of 133 teams
* Hawaii averages 338 yards which ranks 106th
* Stanford averages 344 yards which ranks 101st

* Colorado averages 440 yards which ranks 35th. However, there was an obvious mismatch in that game, the Colorado OLine vs the Duck front-7. The remaining OLines Oregon will face aren't anywhere close to as bad as Colorado's

speaking of that schedule and where the remaining offenses rank:

* Washington averages 569 yards which ranks 1st out of 133
* Washington State averages 532 yards which ranks 6th
* Utah averages 298 yards which ranks 128th (Utes should have Cam Rising back and that's huge)
* California averages 430 yards which ranks 42nd
* USC averages 555 yards which ranks 3rd
* ASU averages 332 yards which ranks 111th
* Beavers average 439 yards which ranks 36th

Ducks have not faced a better QB than Shadeur Sanders, and he spent most of the afternoon running for his life behind a sieve of an OLine. Very unlikely Oregon gets the same pressure on Penix, Ward, Rising, or Williams. They face 3 of the most prolific QB's in the nation in the next 5 games. And Oregon has not faced a great RB so far and they will face several in the coming weeks

now, as a long time Duck fan I've been conditioned not to trust the Duck defense. Maybe I should trust the current one a little more because it's much better equipped this year than last year. The DLine is much bigger and more physical; and they get much better edge pressure. The interior LB's are much faster and better in pass coverage (Sewell and Flowe sucked in coverage). And the secondary seems deeper, more solid, and more capable of switching between zone and man coverage which is critical for disguising the defenses

Still, I have a very hard time believing this Duck D is anywhere close to their 7th best yardage defense, and 8th best scoring defense rankings. This D (and the coaches) were shredded last year by prolific offenses and just couldn't get off the field at critical times. I need to see how they react the next 2 games before I really start to believe

 

for the very long time Duck fans - RIP Russ Francis:

https://nypost.com/2023/10/02/russ-francis-ex-nfl-tight-end-killed-in-new-york-plane-crash/

Hoard Cosell said Francis was the first 'All-World Tight End'

he was also the national high school record holder in the Javelin for 17 years

 

Nice read on Duck OL commit Trent Ferguson from Salem

https://highschool.si.com/oregon/20...egon-ducks-scholarship-after-4-football-games

STOMP

 

That's what I love about HS football. You rarely have to mention the number or circle the guy that has the commitment. Hint: He's the only guy who isn't 5'10" 160 lbs.

 

I'm of the age where this one hit me. I also spend time in the Adirondacks and know the Lake Placid area well. So unbelievably sad.

 

In this case the D1 athlete is listed 6’8 365

STOMP

 

the Big-10 announced the conference schedules for 5 years today. Oregon's:



the Ducks' OOC schedule is home games against Idaho, Texas Tech, Boise State, and a road game in Hawaii

that's a very challenging schedule and Oregon won't have the Bo Nix security blanket any more

and: no Beavs next year. I think the Beavs get their wish and don't play Oregon anymore. I'd think the higher-ups at Oregon are pretty fed up with all the nonsensical whining and bile and 'it's-Oregon's-fault-the PAC-died' coming out of the mouths of OSU officials and the non-stop venom from beav fans.

the Civil War might be dead for good

 

yeah...Wisconsin. It was a mis-print

 

So Washington will be their rivalry game; only team they will play every year?

 

Here is a change. I thought they might make a third division with west coast and MN and IA, but no. I like this cuz we will be able to see them against everybody, although it's gonna be brutal travel.
"The 2024 season will be the first with no divisions and will feature 18 teams across the conference. Because there will no longer be divisions, the Big Ten Championship game will feature the top two teams in the overall conference standings at the end of the regular season."

 

Once they changed the name things changed.

 

Correct.

If they did a 4 team round-robin with all the west coast schools it could take up to 7-8 years to return to other locations in the conference and possibly create some really unbalanced schedules.

 

Here ya go

 

I think he has programmers working on AI Phil Knight and plans to leave all of his money in a trust that it manages for the benefit of U of O athletics.

 

Most D ‘s in the pac are mediocre except maybe Utah and they are not as strong as years past.
If a one loss team emerges they probably have the best D.

 

I really thought they’d have the 4 west schools play each other every year.

 

initially, I heard that UofO/UofW got some assurance they would not have to make more than 3 trips a year back east. Which would have required home-n-home between the 4 Pacific schools

but it would also have made it so the cycle on teams playing at least 1 game with every other school would have been 9 years. The way it is now, that cycle will be 5 years

I've also had it suggested to me that the Ducks and Huskies got a little extra money (like 2-3M/year) kicked their way for agreeing to this schedule. Whether that's true or not I don't know