Haywarduck

With this guy and his assistants!

What, I have a business to run, how can I get through all that info! Amazing resource!

A good one, and my favorite!

Love how he goes up and gets the ball, every time. Too often you see WR's wait for it to come to them and the DB get the jump on it. If you watch this magician of a WR, you see the same thing. Now if one of our receivers can get the footwork of this guy!

Agree, it all about route running and catching tough balls in the NFL. There are plenty of speedy DB's. I am sure DAT is till magic with the ball in his hands, but he would need to get the ball in space and that isn't as easy in the NFL.

To think he could have gone to sc and been a DB? Oregon, once again, where players come to become legends!

I mean there definitely are cases where you didn't know something may happen, or were deceived, and should be compensated, but ignorance should seldom, if ever, be an excuse which earns you $5 million. A friend bought a house on a ski hill, thought they were right on the ski run, fronting it. They were told they had ski-in, ski-out access from the house, seemed obvious. They didn't check into what that actually meant. It meant there was going to be a trail to the run. Somebody built a ginormous house in front of their house. There was definitely a bit of deception as I was there when they bought it, and the massive house was no where to be seen, nor any markings. They tried to sue, but ignorance wasn't a defense. These people had too much money, was a lesson well learned. Sounds like they should have just had a better lawyer and a dumber jury.

Next we will see compensation for those who buy houses next to the railroad tracks, because of the noise. If you can get an unethical enough lawyer, not the hard part, and a stupid jury, you can win any case in this day and age. I am thinking about suing the guy who sold me these aspen in my yard. I had no idea the leaves fell off in the fall. Could someone forward me the contact info of this couples lawyer, I have a slam dunk case!

We are ready for an onside kick, and to take it back to the house on the kick off. On kick offs plenty of hang time, coverage and if needed unreturnable, while never kicked out of bounds, unless facing a 40 mph headwind. On punts, we have excellent blocking, again ready to take it back to the house. Punting, little pressure, great blocking, never a blocked punt, seldom punt, but when we do it goes over 40 yds. with no return. Field goals we are deadly inside the 40 and a threat at 50. Never miss an extra point. Other team are afraid of our special teams. They do not look at our special teams as an opportunity to fool us, or take advantage of our lack of preparedness. Fear from opposing teams extends from our offense, defense and special teams. I might add teams fear our fanbase enthusiasm and noise on gameday, once again! This is the ultimate special team!

He didn't do himself favors when he tried to elevate himself by putting down Alabama. I think this is his character flaw which has a few questioning his work ethic and attitude. It is ok to think highly of yourself, but putting down others to bring yourself up isn't a good thing. If he had one this at the expense of the dawgs up north I would defend him to the ends of the earth, but attacking Alabama and half the NFL wasn't a smart move. Little things like that add up or begin to chip away at your character.

There is a famous story about coaching arguably the greatest soccer player in history, and it parallels what Lanning is doing with each of his players. They saw the talent and said whenever he made a mistake, so what, now what. Any mistake they just let him try it again. They new he would grow into something special. This seems the antithesis of how football is coached, or even most kids educated. This is why it is fun. We learn failure isn't comfortable, this isn't innate. If we worked under the tutelage most athletes, and students see they would never have learned how to walk or maybe even talk. Think back to how cute it use to be seeing kids fail and how encouraging we were, and the success which was seen. All of these athletes have potential to be amazing players. They just need to be in an environment where they can flourish. This is what we are seeing, an environment meant to grow student athletes, and become what the recruiters and scouts saw. This is also why we have seen so few transfers, Lanning is brilliant. Don't confuse this with an easy program to get a starting position with. Each player is expected to improve in all areas. The difference is there is a celebration of this process, not just an expectation. Or just an expectation one works really hard, mindlessly.

It is pretty simple, you either act or react. We will now act, and let them react. I like it! I actually love it!!!!!

All I know is we are back to preventing the defense from being ready or knowing what is going to happen next. Much better than preventing the offense from excelling. Just look at what taking Seven off the bench has done, getting the ball to Donte, onward and forward! I am looking forward to saying 'so what, now what' at mistakes this group makes. The opposing defense better be ready for now what, that is for sure. Hopefully the offense also says 'so what' when we go up by 20. I know the team up north better be ready for us to say 'so what' when we are up by 70, 'now what' 80!

Now both coaches and players are able to move on to greener pastures. The problem is only coaches are able to negotiate a better deal for themselves before leaving. This may be changing with the statistics we see. Whether it is overt or imperceptible these players will be following their coaches methods sooner than later. Might be the best thing for the future of the athletes, and programs? Real competition for student athletes, what can go wrong? I suppose we see that already the NIL, now the portal is next?

But it worked for the other guy!

I can tell you from experience having and coaching a growth mindset is much more enjoyable in comparison to the grind of just working hard. The whole grading system within a growth format is different. You don't start at the top, say an A and work your way down, or just try, and hold onto your A, you just keep earning, making mistakes, and learning. The old system of thinking is what we saw with Mario. Student athletes just trying to stay at their starting spot, keep their A. This led to a very conservative mentality, protect the status quo at all cost. If a player did anything off script and failed, they could drop out of their coveted spot. If they merely failed while running into the A gap, well no problem, they would get another opportunity. What we see with Coach Lanning is a Whittingham bouncing to the outside and making a huge play. The team is ecstatic, and the coaches thrilled. A qb makes an interception and Lanning says 'so what, now what?' Making mistakes and taking chances is all part of learning and growing to your potential and that is exciting, not a grind. From the weight room, to the film room growth is looked for and rewarded. Players aren't so much graded, but given feedback on their growth. The grade of A isn't what is being sought, each players potential is what is worked towards. Each mistake is embraced as effort toward learning, and leaning in. It takes a lot of leaning in and out of ones comfort zone. That is what is so exciting about this team is they are leaning out of comfort zones and into the unknown. We as Oregon fans know the unknown is where greatness happens. From starting a shoe company out of the back of a car, to telling a 5* DB he can play on offense, greatness happens when chances are taken. Each player is taking chances and finding their path, that is exciting for each player who embraces their path.

This is, again, where I am not even sure if we even know who our team is yet. Thus the honeymoon hasn't even begun. We are merely goo-goo eyed over this football team. Maybe this team is a match made in heaven and all will end like a fantasy, but..... We could also just be getting out of an abusive relationship and be excited to be in love again. After Mario's big words, and hollow outcomes we were blown away at first pass in the spring game. Then when we got into the end zone on the second date, I mean play, and we were smitten, ready for the wedding. The problem is the wedding isn't for 5 months. The best man hasn't even been picked. I suppose it is fun to be taken with someone, and we should just enjoy the ride!

Saw it when it happened, promised myself I would never watch it again. I will watch DAT's touchdown runs over and over though! Like this one, one of my favorites.

Didn't Dixon actually go play pro baseball, minor league, before his senior year then comeback and put it all together? I'm not sure what the best steps are to make it all click, but it sure makes it interesting after no clear leader, or really sure 1 coming into fall.

DAT was football smart with the ball, and we should all be grateful for that. I have no criticism of Dat when all is said and done, just some amazing memories. As for Seven, trying to jump over Gonzo was questionable at best in the first half of the spring game. If he tries to jump over players in a real game he better be ready to get rag dolled. A goal line dive I do want to see, something we haven't had in the backfield for a while.

So do you send him down the minors, and then bring him back up once he can hit the curve? This isn't too crazy of an idea if you see a recruit who just can't play at D1 speed. Have him go to a D2 school graduate, and then transfer back in. Is this possible? Seems like this type of process may become more the norm when you consider how busy the portal, transfer situation is. I think the programs which embrace the transfer rule will prosper. Completely agree the recruiting services are about as reliable as my 2 iron.

Wait that was the excuse last year. At some point talent and development will overcome Bo's experience if he stays where he is and was in the spring game. Agree we need better development and maybe the perceived amount of work needed to get there by these two talented young Ducks. What I don't want is to see the coaching staff just value experience over talent and maybe a few growing pains as the light in the bulb of the young guns goes to full strength. I do agree Nix seemed to be the one most ready 4/2022. I am excited to see the answer 9/2022, and how bright that qb will shine!

My favorite line, 'So what, now what!'

The item I saw was Nix running up to the line of scrimmage after the big pass, and leading the team to a touchdown on the first drive. His leadership was evident in how he handled that drive, and the transition between plays. Thompson had much the same situation, but didn't show the same type of leadership. Butterfield also failed to show that type of I am in charge, and leading each player on offense. Nix is the only one, right now, who shows the number one quality we need at QB. I do agree there is a lot of potential behind Nix, but we need a strong leader, and right now, that is Nix. That can all change, but that is what I saw as the number one indicator on my scale.

Great analysis about one of the plays which gives us great hope about the future of our Ducks under the guidance of the Lanning staff. I imagine we only saw the start of this type of thinking and play making. As you noted there was excellent blocking going on, which is the secret sauce to any great play. This was something, at times, which was sorely lacking the previous few years. I am not sure if it was just the WR's knowing they weren't going to get the ball or just poor coaching, but too often I saw whiffs on blocking, and the play blown up. I loved seeing our WR make two big blocks on that play. Kudos to Troy Franklin, a tall speed guy, showing how to get it done. His block on two guys was a huge part of this play! All it takes is one missed block to kill a play and 11 guys working together to make a play like that. The truly elegant thing about that play was the 11 guys working in concert, a thing of beauty! If we have team play like that come this fall, who knows how good the team will be. Love the way the team played together, giving it up for each other!