Haywarduck

He is putting his team together so he can have the best cooperative group reaching a jointly agreed upon goal. Without his guys a finely tuned team of coaches isn't going to happen. My take is Cristobal had a finely tuned recruiting team of coaches. From the penalties, lack of execution, to the erratic play, I don't think he had the team of coaches on the same page come game day. Lanning is putting together a cadre of coaches who will adhere to his goals and the culture he wants. As a young guy it is critical he has his guys, and no lone wolves amongst the staff. It is an interesting time to see the staff put together, lots of moving parts. I always loved Big Joe, but this is big business and how the coaching world works. I can imagine Joe will land firmly on the ground in his next position. Thank you Big Joe and all the best!

The uncle you hope your kid listens too, not just the one the kid is pulled toward. We have all had those type of uncle figures!

Thank you, my wife says I bring passion and stories, sometimes too much of both. It is nice to have an outlet where these attributes aren't seen as too over the top, which I have to be careful about, otherwise. Talking to Charles, our wife's, friends often echo what we hear about our writing on FishDuck. Some of us have to shift a little our over the top passion, or just way of expressing ourselves to fit in within the rules. Something we should all be aware of when reflecting on what we write. I know my passion can be too cutting, at times. I have to watch how hard I come across, a good exercise to better myself. I really wanted to write Cristobal is a lying ass, but I knew that is too over the top.

A quick story about the underdog creating the superstar, I think is warranted. A friend of mine was in foster care and was living a very rough life. A family with an elite athlete, who had little motivation decided to adopt him. The two boys became the perfect match. The son went on to an NFL career, a career he undoubtedly never would have reached. My friend only ended up reaching an NFL practice squad. He is a successful business man now, still with some issues. Both of these young men were headed for much less. My friend probably would have ended up in jail or dead. The NFL player, most likely would have just been a very good player. The edge he got was from seeing, living the passion, energy the kid who had nothing brought into the family. The dad, mom couldn't create that passion, drive, they knew it. I think a football program is the same. A program needs the underdog, the driving force to succeed, not just the athletes who everyone knows has the tools to do it all. I hope, and believe Lanning gets that. Georgia's roster is full of the elite talent, but the back end is the 3* kids. We can't forget the passion and potential these kid bring a program, ever.

It will come down to the culture created, end of story. My indicator will be penalty yardage. This is a simple stat to see discipline, and execution. Oklahoma had average stats in this category, which would worry me about a leader of the sc program. Oregon was terrible with this stat, which was the canary in the coal mine about the Cristobal culture. Georgia is an elite program in the penalty world. Can Lanning keep that type of discipline and execution is the single biggest question I have. He is young, unproven as a head coach, I can agree with this. The question is can he create the culture where there is discipline and execution of the actionable plan he creates. If so the penalty stats will show the way to a winning program, a monumental winning program!

I was actually a bit shocked Cristobal never used him as a RB. Noah seemed to be the prototypical type of back Mario wanted in those situations. I know I saw a play where Noah played RB in the Poly Bowl and Flowe just cut him down, but that was trying to go around the edge. Noah would be a great fullback blocker or just bulldozer for the 1-2 yards gain. Hopefully we will, again, have the qb sneak for situations like that. This was another head scratcher with the qb we have had. Why no qb sneak, but that is looking backwards, looking forward, to seeing what happens!

I would add the Ducks recruiting needs a few more things to really make it special, again. We need speed, blindness to the star factor and the it factor. Number 1 we need to get back to having speed on the team. Tyreek Hill wasn't even recruited as a football player out of high school, although he was high school track athlete of the year. Speed kills and not just on the highways and freeways. It kills on the football field and it is time to scare the football world, again with Oregon Speed. We need to leverage our Track and Field roots. This can also help on the line and defense, but we need to bring in elite speed, now! I say blindness to the star factor because our previous coach said he wanted players who couldn't live without football, but he didn't recruit the kids who hadn't reached all they could out of football. Potential in a player is sometimes more valuable than a player who has been to all the camps, coached up to his potential and everybody wants. We need to get back to having more student athletes who have a chip on their shoulders, not just bruises on their backs from everybody patting them day in and day out. We can still recruit the high star kids, just not kids chasing the star rating all the time. The it factor goes back to being blind to the star ratings, but it does deeper. We need to find more kids who play with passion and flair. I go back to the recruitment of Shough over Brock Purdy at Iowa State. Shough had a higher star rating, but when I watched Purdy against our Ducks I just saw, what we use to have in stark contrast to what we had become. We went after the stats, size, height, arm strength, instead of the kid who beat Shough every time they played in high school and college. Purdy knew how to compete, and lead, Shough looked good on the shelf. No more shelf shopping! We need to get back to recruiting more kids we want and less kids everyone else wants. These are the kids who will want to win it all for the Oregon Ducks Football Program. I know this speaks to going backwards, something which was frowned on yesterday and today, but I think it speaks to a problem with any program can develop. We have to go after our guys, guys who fit Oregon's blueprint and that isn't blue bloods!

Captain Cane I wish you luck with winning it all. There was always hope with Mario, as he kept up the sales pitch every time he spoke, or moved. Sometimes salesman come up with the big sale and win it all. I hope both programs can reach their goals, but our goal is reached first. I am sure you feel the same. Best of luck, Mario is a good man and we benefited from his time here.

Sounds like an ex-player council, much like the group who are trying to influence the decisions at Oregon. The Pac-12 is tapping into former football stars, and calling them alumni, maybe fans if necessary to make everyone feel heard. Time for George to lead!

Interesting take, and I agree teams need the walk-ons, and grinders to make it all work. Too many kids who have been told they are the best their whole lives which leads to not so great results. I would put Bassa in this classification, but he is out of position. Maybe we should look at whom K. Whittingham is recruiting more often? He almost had the whole Sewell family, if he had just recruited Gabriel he might have taken them all. I hope, as a grinder, Lanning can better see this type of attribute, and make sure it flourishes within the program. The Dye's should have the grinder trophy named after them!

FSU, I can't remember much, but the name rings a bell.

John Joseph actually made me begin to question my whole interest in the college game with a post. I am actually ok with this process, as most fans don't know what is best, too emotional. For me it goes back to how the beavs use to hire and fire coaches, while Oregon stood behind Brooks. If we listened to the fans back then, and reacted, we would be beavis II. I think history will be on our side again, it just would be nice to see the programs be a little more proactive with the next step.

The money comes from the fans, and the show comes from the players. The money just keeps coming if the show continues. The show continues if the players keep coming. The show and players is where the focus rightly is, if the show is to continue. Who cares about the fans, they just want a show, and can't even agree on the show they want to see. I will also say the fans are the voters, the players are like the lobbyists, big alumni too. That is where the power is. Even if we had a vote, it wouldn't tip the scale, just make us feel better.

Charles, we may pay some bills, but we don't pay them all. We are the worker bees, and are not as organized as the bees. Administration and the big alumni listen to the fans enough to keep the money coming, and it is still coming, so that communication line is dead.

Programs are run by fans, players, boosters, and administration they all have a place. At Oregon I think there is a better balance than in most locations. As was stated, sc had a time where players ran the show and it wasn't pretty. An elite player often has an advantage, speed, quickness, hand eye coordination which we all worship. The problem is they don't understand how that gift came about, or what it takes to create, develop or inspire a team of diverse players. Their system was, for too long, just get the best players and let them play. We saw that product, and it was fun and actually easy to defeat. We actually had that with Cristobal, and it was going to lead us to the same place. The fan driven team is seldom seen, outright. The fan does influence the process, as stated, with ticket sales. They seldom are part of the process of picking a coach, or really running any aspect of the program. There may be lip service to picking an alumni or somebody who is like a successful coach, but that is more driven by the players, and alumni. The fans just get to complain about the process, and outcome on the internet, little else. The alumni driven teams are the OSU's, Nebraska's, Michigan's and almost Oregon's who go with the legend. They have success and it isn't a bad way to go. It is nice to have somebody on the sideline who really cares about the program. An administration driven program is the dawgs, where they pick the perceived best coach, at the best price. We also saw it with SC, seemingly having administration knock on all doors and finally pull away, with alumni support, the next great coach. That was Oregon too, with Kilkenny getting Altman. This is what Oregon's program looked like, but as I have stated, I am not buying the story line Canzano took most fans down, and many still believe. Canzano was clueless when it began, and wove a story which I wasn't buying at the end. My story is our program is perceived as run by administration which listens to alumni and fans. This administration makes the alumni and fans feel heard. That is the line Canzano fed the fans and alumni. While that whole process was going on the real brain trust came up with answer to the latest quandary we had ourselves in. The answer was the extremely talented coach, who can recruit. This is the new and actually proven method to hire a great coach. Look into Nic Saban, not a great player, certainly not a legend as a player for a school. Nor was Riley at SC, he was a grinder, and is a grinder as a coach, with an ability to recruit. This is exactly what we got with Lanning. He wasn't a great player, but a grinder, who can recruit, pick talent, develop talent, and coach. Mullens didn't pick Lanning, he has no clue on leading on coaching hires, just look at Cristobal, the players led. This choice was made by those who can identify, convince and support a successful coach. This was then fed to the AD who put it together after doing the alumni, fan, player dance. This is why it will work this time. Last time it was the players, and we were in panic mode. It was a mistake we are fortunate we were able to move on from. We are, luckily, led by a group who understands athletics like no other. As far as the name of the game, I think it was a balance of all parties too, not just the players. There are fans who don't like it and that is how all good decisions are made. Try and make everyone happy, and see what misery is all about. I suppose the blame game is part of the process. I don't completely like the name change, but I do respect the process. I will also say this is a politically charged topic and am surprised it is even brought up. I suppose I am left with what was in the best interest of the fans with the name of the game? Best interest seems to be, being able to move on, grow and evolve. That is when I have always been at my best, when I have been made to stretch, question, move from something I may have perceived as the way before. It hasn't ever been an easy process, but that is what humans do, we evolve.

I will also say this needs to be managed by the coaches on staff now. The qb's and receivers should be in the know, first hand, not reading headlines. Whether it was just a talk about how each of them will be on the same footing as any recruits or transfer, or a call before it happened. These are still kids and we saw how Aaron Rogers reacted to the Jordon Love draft pick. Things need to be managed in a proactive way to keep all parties involved content. Respect is earned and these guys on our bench deserve some respect from the new coaches. Let them know they will have a fair shot, and the receivers have a renewed chance to get to 1,000 yds receiving. It will be interesting to see how the roster reacts. I view this as the first big move by the new staff. What is going to happen with how they did it?

Title should have read: Yep, Our QB Room is Questioning... Bo Nix has Committed to Oregon If I was in our qb room I would be questioning this decision. They watched one qb get yanked, for the head coaches qb, and now we have Bo Nix? I imagine the guys who are going to stay are saying game on, but they have to be looking like this now.

I tend to think McClendon is going to say he is a Duck, still a Duck and then Hurricane us. I don't like that idea.

Mario's OC's up to this point, both have head coaching jobs. I have nothing but gratefulness toward Moorhead. He is our OC for this game, and hopefully he can show us what he would have done. I also think the fact our previous OC's both have head coaching jobs is due to the strength of our reputation. A reputation few actually analyzed as well as you have. That reputation on offense is on shaky ground. The premise of my take on the situation is I don't want a guy who may follow Cristobal to Miami heading our program, end of story. That is McClendon, not Moorhead, not sure you read my take. McClendon is our interim head coach, not Moorhead. It is just a title, but Big Joe deserves that title. He would, undoubtedly give Moorhead even broader power then having Miami's next OC as the head coach.

I want this last chapter led by a Duck. We need leadership on this one! I think we, again, are seeing how Mullens leads. He interviewed the coaches in the news, while the real work was being done. Fortunately our new head coach wasn't picked by Mullens, unfortunately our interim head coach was. He made a mistake, get us out of this choice. I suppose it is too much to ask. I'm not blaming McClendon, he is just doing what he saw done before him. It is time for the AD to stop letting it happen.

Our interim Head Coach is the potential Miami Hurricanes Offensive Coordinator. There are three other guys on our staff sitting on offers from Mario to join his staff as well. Who thinks Mullens needs to act too ensure we have a Duck leading our team? Mullens needs to ask Lanning who he wants. More importantly he needs to get a yes or no from McClendon on if he is taking the Miami job. A maybe, or I can't tell you at this time answer, puts him back as position coach. We had two Associate Head Coaches on our staff during Mario's time. One has left to join Mario. The other wasn't offered a job at Miami, and has been, seemingly, an Oregon faithful. Mullens picked McClendon as our interim head coach before the offer from Mario to leave. I can give him some slack on the choice, although Big Joe was a better choice even then, in my opinion. Now that McClendon is 'sitting' on the offer it is time for him to choose the interim position or the Miami job. No choice then he can coach the position he had before. Anyone else think Big Joe should be the interim? McClendon's indecision speaks volumes. We need leadership from an Oregon loyalist. The players need to see loyalty and capability are rewarded. Even if Big Joe leaves, he deserves the title, and opportunity more than a guy who is still tied to the previous staff. We don't need anther game coached by somebody who has at least one foot out the door, while potentially poaching players. We have seen the results of this before with Mario and his clown act. Time to lead Mullens, and we need Oregon leadership! This isn't an easy thing to do, but a real leader would unquestionably take these steps.

Agree as coaches take sides, show them the door they have chosen to go through, and take their keys! Mullens thinks he is staying above the fray, but he is getting run over by Mario and is a tool of the opponents. This isn't a game social engagement where etiquette rules. This is war and only one side is aware of the game being played. We are merely hoping the other side plays fair, not a good game plan. Mullens need to act more like an official ensuring each side plays fair, and stays on their side. My bet is Lanning is doing a great job. He is putting together the coaches he wants. He is also aware of recruits and those in the transfer portal. He also needs administration help knowing coaches aren't in the program pulling players away. Smart has his program protected, he has said as much, knew Lanning was a head coach candidate, and limited his recruiting duties. Smart is still the head coach and is managing Lanning. Mullens is acting like an ignorant fool, with his staffing choices and management, and is not helping Lanning at all. Our head coach is a coach of the Miami Hurricanes, does that make sense! Wake up Mullens! You may not have known he was going to Miami, but you have no excuse now for keeping him as the leader of our program. Make Big Joe head coach, now!

Agree the allure of sc has always been there, but one could understand the delusional choice. A kid choosing the wildcats is like choosing bud light when at Deschutes Brewery. Somebody needed to have his ear other than his buddies, in the corner, sipping on bud light, eating chips, while the world has moved on. He might as well order from the kids menu too. A head scratcher at best!

A fir tree is a beautiful green color. The Tamarack tree, is beautiful too, in the fall, and this is what some of the trees look like. The other brown trees just need some smoke coming off them, along with some flames and they would pay tribute to the forrest fire problem we have in the region. I love the idea and tribute to a great team, but the execution of that idea is terrible. Time to bring the trees back to life. Maybe a bring the trees back to life campaign can begin? The idea and tribute are wonderful, but leave fans wondering where's the fir? Get the colors right, now!

Great points about Mullens, not a fan of, by the way, should have qualified who was going to Miami with Mario. Mario is an elite recruiter, and relationship guy. Those relationship needed to be cut off asap. It is like a cancer in the program There were two assistant head coaches on the team and one of them is all Oregon. Reward Big Joe with the title, and let the other assistant head coach and the other Mario followers go. 'Give me your keys and leave now.' Moorhead left and was willing to come back, let him run the offense. Agree with others, the team gratefully doesn't have it's head coach. We should be able to do just fine without Mario and Feld running up and down the sideline. Feld is another guy I don't want to see on the sideline, what is he going to do, help with game clock management? We have 4 assistant strength coaches they can take care of the players. Basically I think Mullens is playing the nice guy while being played. He is a great accountant, not a manager of people. A program has a new head coach, let the relationships build with Lanning, and cut off any relationship connection they have with Cristobal, via Oregon. Mario isn't Oregon anymore!