David Marsh

No playoff for us this year... That door is shut at this point.

Two problems here... I don't think Koa Ka'Ai is up to the task of being the QB coach at Oregon. He has overseen the regression of Moore and failed to prepare Raiola for UCLA. Mehringer's plan was a failure for UCLA. It forced Raiola to play hero ball... which brings out all his bad habits that he had at Nebraska. The Ducks need to run the ball that opens up the pass that allows Raiola to play within the system. That was why he looked so good against USC. He played within the system. Mehringer failed to make adjustments during the game against UCLA to allow his players to play in the system. Instead they just ran around panicked. They seemed shocked that UCLA dropped 7-8 into coverage at times. They were grossly unprepared. That's on the coaches.

In truth the only way we hold onto Dak I think is if we go out and get a new OC and QB coach. Even then Lanning is going to have to sell Dak on how this is going to be a boon for him. Probably comes with some extra NIL money as well.

To be honest... I don't think firing Mehringer solves the problem. At least not mid season. The reality is that the quarterbacks are under coached. Moore was dreadful vs Oklahoma State and Raiola was dreadful vs UCLA. Part of that is on the OC and part of that is on the qb coach. Moore regressed this season (before injury). The offensive line talent is just not there and they are being under coached. Tight ends are being pushed more into blocking so they aren't a divserve weapon in this scheme like they were in previous years and they also feel a bit under coached. I do believe Mehringer has to go at the end of the season. Oregon needs a top tier OC. We aren't a G6 or FCS program that makes do on a budget. We are a premier brand and a destination job. It needs to be treated that way when it comes to hires. The scheme can change and mold into something new, Lanning's stubbornness to keep effectively the same scheme from Dillingham but without the Dillingham creativity is just not working. Stein riffed on it in his own way and it mostly worked. We need a staff of coaches with strong coaching resumes. Douglas and Samples are great examples of younger guys but they had established great track records and those positions have been fantastic! But the internal promotions killing the program right now. Stagnant ideas and now more than ever the same flaws in the schemes are just worse than ever. How to beat Oregon... disrupt the Offensive line enough to stop the run and then take away the short passes. Done! Boise State did it, Oklahoma did it, and UCLA did it. That needs a new coordinator for sure... but the other coaches need to be evaluated as well. My article this week was delayed but will be out tomorrow on this subject matter for sure. All I can say is thankfully I took up another hobby over the summer, HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), and I love it or else this fall would be quite miserable right now.

It's so much deeper than offensive coordinator at this point. Quarterback coaching is atrocious. Moore declined and in two weeks Raiola was just not ready for the game against UCLA???? What??? Offensive line is a mess... I know coach Terry pulled it together the last two years but maybe the luck and magic ran out. Or maybe it was a complete and total failure of roster talent evaluation. Either way... Unacceptable. New tight end coach.... Don't think the tight ends stood out too much last game. Whether they were blocking or running routes they just weren't there. Because the blocking schemes were pretty awful and awfully executed on the whole and the passing game was gone along with run game. Yeah... The OC didn't game plan well or call plays well enough and I think we have enough of a track record to point there too... But it goes so much deeper than just the OC.

Dan got comfortable with his guys and went for internal hires. He doubled or tripled down in his internal schemes rather than look outside. He needs to reevaluate his entire staff this off season. This is a huge lost opportunity with this roster.

Bugs are going around. I've had long lists of absences at school for the better part of a month now due to illness. Abnormally long lists. Stuff is going around.

It varies from week to week.

If they did PSU would have ended before the second quarter was over...

I was going to write about safety play and offensive line play... but frankly I feel like I have written about the offensive line every week! And I did already this week on Monday and I wrote about the safeties too! So trying not to sound like a complete broken record with every article I left those two out. I do agree with everyone who has mentioned safety and offensive line that they are two positions that we must watch this weekend as well! Thank you all for reading and subscribing. I'm at 69 subscribers so far and I knew this was going to be one of those grow slow things but my readership is averaging higher than ever and the subs are growing with every article. Thank you all for helping grow this and I do love the discussions here!

Happy Thursday everyone, I just realized I'm posting this a day early. It's a four day week for me so it feels like Friday, but isn't. Anyways.... Some final thoughts before the game against UCLA on Saturday. Final Thoughts Before Oregon v UCLAWe had a bye week and one of the interesting stats I came across for Dan Lanning coming out of a bye-week is that he is 4-2.

I believe the statement yesterday is that Moore hasn't cleared any return to play protocols yet for returning for a game. I would be shocked if he was back for this week's game.

Lanning's attitude has changed for sure. I think in large part it came from the off season when he got to comfortable. He promoted from within so he knew all his coaches. He had a load of returning starters who knew the scheme. He knew he would have to break in the transfers and the new recruits but with so many other pieces as established that probably didn't feel as pressing. The reality is that he took the foot off the gas and it backfired. The whole program relaxed. Watching the Under Construction series this year about fall camp did have a different vibe to it. It felt... well more relaxed. It seemed to lack some of the edge it had in the previous versions. Even the Boise State Ducks vs Them was pretty boring from a behind the scenes standpoint. What was the theme? "Mission Based Response" Uninspired and completely lacked the fire this team needed from a head coach. Lanning brings the intensity and the motivation for his team. He sets the baseline and makes everyone in the program jump. The beginning of the year was relaxed... dare I say "lazy?" Lanning knows his program has some major problems in it and is working overdrive to try and fix as many of those problems he can. I don't think some of them can be realistically fixed until the off season but 2026 plane took off over a month ago and any repairs need to get done in flight at this point.

I do feel the Mint defense is on it's last legs.... well in its current iteration. It needs to evolve.

Just funny that it became his greatest head coaching achievement.

I'd take Chip over Riley that's for sure! For Chip to make a return to Oregon a couple things would need to happen. Mehringer would need to choose to move on to a new job, he has been fine with his play calls. Play calling and execution are different things and the biggest problems in weeks one and two was execution over play calling. I have some issues with the Oregon offense but those are more baked into the established Dan Lanning scheme than a coordinator, those issues have been with us since 2022. The second thing that would need to happen for Chip to come back to Autzen as a Duck is for Lanning to want to change his offensive philosophy and want to bring in an older more expirenced coach. That has run counter to what Lanning has done with all his hires at coordinator and position coach (after the initial hires... coach Tuioti was one of his initial hires and is older than Lanning for instance). Kelly is a good coordinator and I wouldn't mind him returning but he would also want to return. I don't know if he wants that. He has shown what he can do with more talent, see Ohio State, but Lanning would also have to build a recruiting structure around Kelly in a way that works for both parties. I'm not sure either side would want to make some of those compromises. Yes, recruiting has never been better at Oregon and that is in large part because Lanning and co work their freaking butts off. In many ways recruiting is actually harder than ever even with good NIL backing because you have to cut through the noise of NIL to make that pitch.

Unlikely to see this UCLA team get defeated at the end of the fourth like USC. UCLA has less talented athletes than USC BUT is better coached. Staying disciplined and focused is going to be key to this one.

Marsh Duck Monday and I hope you all had a lovely bye week. Should We Expect Changes for Oregon After the Bye-Week?Oregon has the talent to be one of the best teams in the country.

Need to take all FCS teams out of everyone's stats realistically. But absolutely... the PSU game has padded out overall stats.

For many of these new young coaches they don't have a safety jet anymore. Koa Ka'ai, to pick on him as the new QB coach for a moment, apparently did most of the work last year with QBs but he still had Stein to fall back on when he needed it. Who does he fall back on and who is coaching him up now?

And amazing athletes... Oregon's athletes won against Boise State and were the only reason why the debacle in Stillwater wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I still believe Lanning needs to take a hard look at his staff at the end of the season but during the season there is no point in firing anyone as it will only damage any chance at righting the ship.

I think a lot of this comes down to the inexperience of many of the position coaches. They just have failed to prepare these guys for the season in the off season. We are discovering now just how badly off this team is. I remember reading in the off season that they were "ahead of schedule" in their playbook instillation. I am going to say that that was now untrue even if they believed it at the time. It probably points to the coaching at the time failing to evaluate how well players were integrating the playbook. I am not saying these young coaches aren't talented but they lack experience and they are frantically working to try and make up the gap of preparation that formed over the off season.

I have this question a few times every year.

Because even Fox knows that a 9am start time on the west coast isn't great for a west coast game.

Can we detach the football knowledge from the rest of him? If so yes... But I don't think he and Dan can work together. I think there is some bad blood there now formed by the rivalry. We don't want Lincoln Riley the person near our program. But if he can get his football knowledge with him... Sure.