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Kenyon Barner and Johnathan Stewart pointed out, on a recent podcast, that Coach Lanning’s Oregon’s teams have a history of slow starts (e.g., Rose Bowl game against Ohio State, the first playoff game last year, the Indiana game). You cannot continue to spot your opponent points right out of the gate and then play catchup.

It often seems like 1st quarters are defined by underdog teams taking the initiative (the idea being they have nothing to lose), and the favored team playing a waiting game of absorbing their best shots while zeroing in on match-up weaknesses. As David points out, being the favored team and playing like it are two different things.

Relax, it's OK. Grandkids? I have four on the floor. Well, one on the floor and three in college. 😁

A Picture is Worth a Lot More than JJ's Words - ( I am NOT referring to the photo of the cheerleaders!) CFB-HQ On SINew Chart Shows Most Expensive Teams in College FootballCollege football's roster-building arms race now carries a price tag approaching $54 million, with The Athletic's new survey showing how sharply access to playe

Or not even parking them. BTW, our new car has a Valet mode that lets us know how fast and how many miles a valet has driven it. Since I don't ever frequent a place that has valet, I guess I will just have to use it when/if I loan it to a kid or grandkid (heaven forbid I ever get that far gone).

Who determines the criteria for what is a ‘legitimate’ NIL deal? And, is this definition in anyway under scrutiny by the DC poles? Maybe that’s why car-parking Rebel football team members were referred to as Ocean’s 11?

Dan tells what is needed - https://duckswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ducks/football/2026/09/15/oregon-football-dan-lanning-offensive-tells-oklahoma-state/91770184007/

Will the Bill Cruz to passage and end well for Cantwell?😁 https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2026/09/15/college-sports-act-ncaa-debate-maria-cantwell/91780894007/

Therein lies the rub. You can check to see whether NIL deals are kosher, if programs submit NIL deals to the clearinghouse as they are supposed to under the House settlement, but you can't cap players' legitimate NIL deals. Back in pre-NIL days, UNLV basketball players made a lot of money parking cars at casinos.😁

Yes, the WSJ article did end with this "What he found might just be the key to resurrecting Moore’s season." The question is how did it happen, this far into Dante's career! Just read on Oregonlive that apparently Indiana exploited it in the blowout win against OBD also last season and there is now a book on it. SMH... https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2026/09/does-oregon-football-have-a-tell-in-its-offense-dan-lanning-responds-to-criticism.html “We were hitting on all of them,” former Indiana linebacker Aiden Fisher said in the book. “We were like, ‘Dude, we have these guys on everything they want to do.’”

VERY little. But keep doing it vs PSU and the first couple of series in sc game, then switch.

Also, Smith became human and dropped a couple catchable passes.

Also, will it be tweaked so that no single player can receive more than a certain amount?

I think too much of the analysis of this loss has been to lay blame on OBD and how WE LOST a game that WE should've won. Of course that's what we do on an OBD fan forum. But I think the Cowboys deserve a ton of credit for playing hard and not letting up. THEY DID WIN against a top-10 team and their QB was IMO much more heisman-worthy than ours, for example...

In a season when the O-line isn't playing up to Joe Moore Award standards, it's nice to have someone like Marcus Mariota, Tua, or Trinidad Chambliss at QB. In CFB, give me a dual-threat QB. One reason Texas came back Saturday is that Archie has wheels and Julian Sayin does not. Watching Sayin's former backup, Lincoln Kienholz at Louisville, I wonder if Ryan Day made the right choice? With a semblance of defense, Louisville defeats Ole Miss. So far in 2026, Ohio State doesn't have a WR to complement Jeremiah Smith. Texas switched to man-on-man coverage in the 4th quarter, and the Buckeyes' passing game disappeared. Assistant coaching? Texas DC Will Muschamp finally decided to copy the defense Coach Kwiatowski put on the field that shut Jeremiah down. DUH! I believe Coach K is available for hire? Just Sayin.

Capping the $$$ will definitely help the Ducks as we are way ahead of the curve on facilities and will probably always be.

If that's the tell... then a little coaching and repping should fix the problem. That and just being mindful in a game would also fix the problem. In the Mario Cristobal era at Oregon I found a tell that most defenses picked up on but they never corrected... if it was a pistol formation it was a 80% chance of run and if it was run it was always into an A-gap. If it was a pass well just crash down anyways because the runner is guaranteed to go to the A-gap so just smash the line of scrimmage no matter what. The Cristobal staff never seemed to figure that one out... or didn't care as they believed just being more PHYSICAL was all that was needed for that to work.

Very informative and shocking in a way, but not a complete surprise how much OBD spends on the players. While "on-field success generally follows the money", it has unfortunately not been the case for us so far this year. Hope we get back to the general trend soon, by beating Portland State soundly this Friday night!

If he doesn't we are in BIG trouble because the game is too close to take the starters out. And if we are in that level of BIG trouble... he should probably play because we aren't getting what we need from Dante.

Yesterday, September 15, 2026, the Senate voted 74 to 24 to send the Protect College Sports Act to the floor, where it is expected to pass, at least in the Senate. Perhaps the good Senators read The Athletic's article ($ Wall) on what it costs to build a roster that can compete for championships in today's college football (CFB). The Athletic used 70 different sources to make an educated estimate of the cost of 68 Power 4 rosters. As The Athletic's Stewart Mandel noted, nailing down exact numbers is difficult. Very few people associated with a program know the exact number, and these people do not want to share. Exact roster cost and a player's individual earnings are kept under wraps to, in theory, thwart agent salary demands. It isn't working. You don't have to be a mathematics savant to recognize that $20 million to $54 million in two years is exponential growth. In 2024, Ohio State AD Ross Bjork acknowledged that the cost of the roster that would win that season's championship was slightly over $20 million. Today, Ohio State's roster budget is estimated to be between $49 and 54 million, the nation's top estimated budget. Not surprisingly, in CFB, on-field success generally follows the money. The median budget for each Power 4 conference in millions of dollars: B12 - 18 to 22. Six of 16 programs budget at least 20 million. ACC - 20 to 24 - Six of 17 programs and Notre Dame budget at least 20 million. Number 68 - at an estimated 8 to 13 million dollars, Boston College is last in FBS CFB. But in Week 2, the Golden Eagles defeated Rutgers, with an estimated budget of 20 to 23 million dollars, 28 to 21, with help from the Rutgers QB, who completed four passes to BC DBs. B1G - Seven of 18 programs budget more than 29 million; on the low side of the estimate, four programs budget less than 20 million. SEC - 10 of 16 programs budget at least 29 million. No program budgets less than 22 million. If the Big Ten is top-heavy compared to the SEC, the budget numbers explain why. Week 2 - Mississippi State 38 - Minnesota 13 - Bulldogs' budget: 25 to 30 million. Gophers' budget: 18 to 20 million. Of course, every game does not follow the money. Oregon's budget: 48 to 54 million. Oklahoma State's budget: 15 to 19 million. Dan shouldn't lose games to unranked teams. However, one loss so far in five seasons is not shabby. CFB's Top 10 budgets: Ohio State - 49-54 Oregon - 48-54 Close to a dead heat for the top budget. The grass is damn green. Texas - 45-55 LSU - 47-50 Texas A&M - 45-50 Miami - 44-50 Notre Dame - 41-48 Ole Miss - 39-45 Tennessee - 41-43 Alabama - 38-42 Big spending Texas Tech is tied with Bama - 38-42 --- Other B1G programs: USC 37-40/ Indiana 36-40/ Michigan 36-40/ Nebraska 31-35/ Penn State 29-32/ Wisconsin 27-31/ UCLA 26-30/ Maryland, Michigan State, Northwestern, Washington 21-25/ Rutgers 20-33/ Illinois 19-23/ Minnesota 18-22/ Iowa 17-23/ Purdue 16-20. How does a team win with a smaller budget? Kirk Ferentz's Iowa program has a stellar long-term ROI. His Hawkeyes win with sound defense, special plays from the special teams, and not turning the ball over. Vanderbilt's budget is 25 to 28 million. But if you can find a talent like Diego Pavia in the G6, you can soar for as long as The Guy is on campus. Will Trinidad Chambliss from DII Ferris State bring down L$U on $aturday? Upsets happen (🤬), but for the most part, program success follows the money. How long before the moneyed programs form a Super Conference? Will the Protect College Sports Act pass? Will $54 million today be $88 million in 2027? And if this happens, will we witness college sports committing suicide?

Agree. So why does he continually miss those downfield reads unless he is clean in the pocket? Or at least it seems that way to me. He either lacks confidence that he can make that throw or he is not seeing the field.

Excellent analysis, couldn't agree more.

As Daniel noted above, apparently Dante's stance did give it away every time. This was just posted on WSJ, which unfortunately is behind a paywall. But the gist is that when his feet where next to each other, it was a run. When they were one ahead of the other, it was a pass. 100% of the time! Even Dante admitted it. Edit: figured out a way to share the full article... https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/oregon-dante-moore-secret-tell-769021a0?st=tx7Mxd&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

1) That what he is being paid for. 2) Looking at where he is rolling out, he had plenty of time to set his feet as there is no one near him. 3) On the sideline you can see at least 4 people on the Oregon sideline pointing downfield, a second or two later there are more people pointing.

I don't think so. No one is 57 - 0 over the last 4+ years. They wanted Day out after he lost to Michigan in '24 and how did that turn out? Yes, it is, now fix it.