Haywarduck

Life is tough and the sooner young people learn tough lessons the better. If a student athlete makes a mistake they should learn a lesson. The game will teach them the same lesson, which is one reason I love the game. While I don't agree with the scholarship idea I do think athletes who get a bachelors degree deserve more. I would like to see Universities extend the ability of an athlete who earns his bachelors after competing 4-5 years the right to earn a masters free of charge. If they get a masters, then a PHD free of charge. The more soft landings we give our young the softer the generation will become. Athletic competition helps teach what we need in the next generation, and so does tough life choices. Let's continue to reward success, let our young learn to struggle and become stronger from the experience. It is the struggle which teaches us the most. Great ponder point, and I just respectfully disagree with how we should reward these student athletes.

You raise a great point on, qb's especially, players need the right franchise to really thrive. Not sure what player could make it work anywhere, but qb's need the right situation to reach their potential. The last thing a qb should be looked upon is a savior to fix all a franchises issues. He definitely shouldn't be drafted by a team who isn't going to highlight his strengths. The Titans seldom used Marcus to his strengths, nor did they support him well enough with the players he needed.

No plan by George and no plan by the Big for the LA schools. I suppose it all comes down to how those plans come together. I would say neither is looking too good, but it ain't over. Sadly both plans come down money. There is little in these plans to help the student athletes, or the athletes experience, especially with the Big and the LA schools little short sighted move. Hopefully George can put together something with a little more thought to it. Lord knows he has had enough time too.

I think there is a song by Beyonce, 'single ladies' that speaks to putting a ring on it. It seems like all the teams have been single for a while with the lack of leadership at the top. George needs to put a ring on it, or he is liable to lose it all. Compete with the big boys for the Pac-whateverisleft, or you might be the biggest loser. What program in their right mind is going to sit around while the rest are getting their golden rings. George seems to be out talking to everyone, not getting it done. Maybe losing usc and ucla wasn't enough to get George off his hiney. In the end Oregon will be just fine, but it is sad to see the once proud, conference of champions, fold up like a cheap suit.

I only wish the kid had said he looks forward to recruitment when he is a junior. For now he has baseball in the spring, basketball in the winter, and of course football in the fall. He also likes hanging out with his friends. Instead he is talking about training with his football team, sounds like, year round. He probably has trainers, camps, and will suffer overuse injuries and be burned out by the time he hits his sophomore year. By senior year he will be a mess, and we will read about what went wrong. Maybe I am wrong, but I have seen this play out too many times with the way sports are promoted to our young. Identify early, specialize, and work toward one thing while young. For every one young kid it works out for there are hundreds whose body and young mind can't handle that kind of pressure and activity. We then repeatedly see the under recruited become stars. I only hope we continue to dig in the weeds, and find the next Justin, or Marcus who haven't been to all the camps, and have all the stars. We need to find the players who have it, not necessarily the ones who have been told they are it since way too young.

Agree completely, Justin has proven he is an elite talent, but if his franchise doesn't build around him he will never reach the level the three you mention have. Justin will become another Dan Marino, Warren Moon type of talent, or another Duck like Dan Fouts who wowed, but the franchise never stepped up to his talent level. At this moment Marcus has to make a decision on the route he wants to take. I just hope he doesn't just keep trying to make a franchise, that doesn't know the formula, and isn't committed. That may begin as a back-up, and a rebuild of his skillset, but I do wonder what the next step is. He will always be an Oregon Legend, the next steps, who knows. I will say I have complete respect, and admiration for who Marcus is and always will be in my mind. He is the ideal every Oregon Duck qb, player should work towards.

Marcus, like Joey has been with three teams and both ended with Atlanta. Neither was given a decent team to play for. Both had flashes of what they could do at the NFL level. Will, should Marcus hang it up, or try to get on a decent team, with the right scheme, talent and wait for his opportunity. I hope he doesn't continue putting himself at risk trying to prove he can succeed in a less than ideal situation. I don't see him as a longterm back-up like Kellen was. He should either hang them up, or figure out the 2 or more franchises he will play for, go after those, and not compromise. At 30 he should know what he needs, wants, and if it is football, the franchises he can excel at. I would love to see him back-up Mahomes, and see what that franchise would do with him. From there he may get an even better opportunity to start with another franchise. What franchises would seem best in your opinions, or should be hang them up?

While I agree he is smart not to show his hand, it leaves us wondering what he has. I would say he has an Ace, OBD, a program which is always in the hunt. He also has a program which has always viewed themselves as a king, but has never won anything. Fortunately we got rid of a couple jokers, which will be turned into lowly number cards. The rest are tough to call. How he plays that hand is purely speculation. All I see is a poker face, but we are yet to see him really play anything. The other side is also pure speculation so who knows how our hand will do. Or is it a game of chess where two pawns jumped the gone and were taken. The king really can't do anything, and again never has. What is left is the queen who holds the most power, and probably should act that way. From the crazy mind of Hayward.

Hate to hear about this, getting older isn't easy. I know the water is what keeps me young. Being Mr.FishDuck you should be in the water too. Maybe some warm water therapy, exercise. All I know is we all appreciate what you do seated, and hope you get your stride back soon

Wouldn't it be amazing to see the hiring of an old OC, head coach as an analyst. If there was a coach who could handle that hire it would be Lanning. Not sure if Helfrich would be ready to take another role, but it would be something to see that kind of move by both men.

I imagine it was a factor, but more like the....

Also Stein's college program (Louisville) just hired a very good coach, Jeff Brohm, and he hired his son, Brian Brohm as the OC. Maybe the draw Dilly had to his home program won't happen for a while with Stein. Maybe Lanning had that figured out too? Agree other programs wanting our assistants is a good sign. Also Lanning track record of bringing in very good coaches is another awesome sign. All these things along with Charles analysis, hopefully, add up to stellar results.

In a conference full of high performing offenses Oregon can't afford to pause, or step back in the redevelopment of the O in Oregon Program. It is nice to know Lanning has moved forward with rebuilding a once proud offensive machine. I have a feeling Oregon's offense will, again, need to carry the program. Hopefully the defense will be much improved, but our Offense scoring and giving the defense an edge will be critical to a successful season. We will be repeatedly playing teams with high powered offenses, and we will need to be able to match or exceed that fire power. It is nice to read Stein may be up to the task. The question will be which receivers will win the opportunity to play catch and run. The other huge question is can Stein develop the next qb, and have them ready to take over when needed. All of the offense hinges on Nix, unless Stein is equally skilled at qb development. What is scary is we have a guy who was an assistant high school coach in 2019. He was promoted to Co-offensive coordinator last season. He is now the OC at Oregon. We have realized the lack of experience Lanning brought, well we need to understand Stein will be learning on the job too. He may be a miracle-maker, but it is a miracle he is the OC of one of the top programs too. I am more reserved than you Charles. I think we may see some growing pains, but it will be exciting, and maybe, just maybe, a miracle season is in front of us.

I'm just afraid if we don't know when we can expect the program to fully become Lannings we might.....

Awesome input by NJ on the transition #'s, along with the notable point by Pitt on the Lanning players need to be in charge of the locker room, and importantly the training, weight room. They also need to be the leaders on the field. I think this parallels Charles exceptional point on 2024 hopefully being the time we see the culture of a Lanning program. I also like Charles point on when the players reach mastery of the Lanning defense. We didn't even reach proficiency last season, and mastery takes repetition of proficiency. You need to have ability to do the task, do it repeatedly, and then you start to see something special. Much like driving down a road the first time, you don't see the wildlife, or really much detail. After a few times you see the wildlife, you actually can not unsee the eagle's nest, and start seeing the activity around it. Last seasons defense never saw the detail, and bringing guys who already understand those details is critical. I would say we are a year behind on defense, and special teams. I am actually still extremely excited about this Lanning program. I think being realistic on what that will look like and when it might look that way is critical. Lanning did the best he could last year, is the good way to look at it, but there is greatness ahead! The formula is just beginning to bring out the emotions which are ahead.

Last season was the first of Lanning's tenure. I would argue it wasn't fully Lanning's program, and won't be for a while. While it is his responsibility to get all he can out of the program, it isn't his vision yet. At what point will we see what a Lanning led program can bring? I would say as his players hit the field with his mentality, and culture. That may not happen this season or even next. We definitely didn't see it on defense, nor special teams. It was even incomplete on offense. The start of the Lanning era is more like the start of the Casanova, or Brooks eras than anything we have seen recently. The program has been fairly successful, but I would say it was adrift. We have all new coaches, the defense is in a complete overhaul, the offense is moving back to what is was, hopefully. I also think the special teams is in a transformation mode. Most importantly the culture Lanning is building is just starting to bear fruit. Instead of the leadership I hoped to see developed within the amazing talent on defense, we saw transfers, and an infusion of young talent and transfers in. I would argue we are still in the infancy of a Lanning defense. On offense the culture is still tenuous with a senior transfer qb. Maybe Nix can leave a legacy of how it is done, and that will infect the rest, but the depth isn't there, yet. On special teams we also don't have the mentality Lanning wants to see. I think this is good news. The future is bright, but still in the distance, and we need to stay patient. We have a rebuild, not a reload going on.

Agree with the sentiment from others, but it would be nice if this could be part of a civil discussion. The problem, or it isn't a problem, we don't discuss these situations even though it is ripe for just that. As Charles has stated, if you have to mention any of the trigger words, it isn't worthy of hitting submit.

Let's hope this provides this young man even more fuel to prove he can live up to his dreams he had coming out of high school. Most of these transfers have bigger dreams than have been achieved. These kind of bumps in the road can either push them down, or be a pivot point to making the tough choices needed to become great. Make yourself great Traeshon. You got tripped up, get up, brush yourself off, and run better routes going forward.

Ok, that makes sense now.

Hate to break it to you, but most Pac-10 football teams take charter flights already. As far as the remote practice facilities in the midwest, those will be built right after the Hurricanes finish their on campus stadium. I do agree the traffic in LA is a nightmare.

Another note is for the Pac-? to sign a very short-term deal unless it is very competitive. With the coaches and qb's the Pac has we are going to be a draw. Win games, get accolades and the eyeballs will come. I get worrying about the $'s and contracts, but we have to take care of game day, and wins. Fortunately many schools are positioned well this season and probably next. What I want to see from George is an 8 game conference schedule. We are at a disadvantage with our scheduling now. Get another non conference game late in the season so the teams can stay fresh. At this point I want to see something out of George, anything.

Analyst type role, great hire.

What do I want for the Ducks... Otherwise there doesn't seem to be too many good answers.

And who grew up just down the road from Williams Nwaneri, anyone, anyone?

Williams Nwaneri is an Edge from Lees Summit, MO. 247SPORTS.COM summary