Kurt Rambis

I do, too - but it's a JOB. As fans, we love the Ducks because...well, because we love the Ducks. Some of us grew up there, some attended school there, etc. We love the Ducks even if they go 2 - 10 or if the star RB punches some dude or the QB steals a laptop - and we do it without pay. By the time they get to UO, most of these coaches have already coached at three or six or ten other schools, working their way up the ladder. And with every single one we hire away from another school, that fan base could have exactly the same complaint we have when Slick Willie or MC leave. If we re-hire Chip, UCLA should feel just like we feel now. If we hire Arana, Baylor should feel just like we feel now. And it's hard to have a lot of loyalty to an employer when that employer can fire you at will. As with any other job, both the employer and the employee can move on, subject to the terms of the contract. Now, the WAY Slick Willie left was putrid. But I don't even blame him for leaving.

I can't blame a guy for leaving for a better job - no matter how he defines "better." In this case, it's in his home state, at his alma mater, and with his elderly mom nearby. Anyone on this board turn down a job you would have found preferable because you wanted to remain loyal to your employer, employees, customers, and/or co-workers? Yeah, me neither. The timing sucks but he didn't control the timing. I hope this all works out for him...although I sure wouldn't want to work for an administration that hired a new coach before even firing the old one. What a clown show. Now it's time to get the right guy in here. Knowing, of course, that he may eventually leave for his own alma mater...or to go back near family...or because someone threw an obscene amount of money at him. It's a business.

Nary a peep about this whole subject on O-Live or CBS Sports.

Really, really mixed emotions. I want stability in the program and great recruiting, but also great coaching. I've lost a lot of faith that MC has the third of those three. Yeah, it's a young team, but no way they should get pushed around like that by Utah - twice. So he stays and we keep the recruiting pipelines he's built and I worry every year about underperforming, or he goes and we start over...again.

No way this list is valid without Haloti Ngata. He, Ahmad Rashad/Bobby Moore, and Patrick Chung all deserve to be there before Kyle Long and Stewart. And Van Brocklin should be much higher. FYI, NFL.com lists their top 10 as Fouts, Renfro, Van Brocklin, Zimmerman, Wilcox, Ngata, Russ Francis, Rashad, George Martin, and Fred Quillan.

If Oregon and tOSU both finish with 1 loss, I'm not sure how voters could justify ranking the Buckeyes #2 when we'd have the same record and have beaten them head-to-head. Not saying they wouldn't, but it wouldn't be justifiable. That said, that would be a good problem to have. 🙂 I'm undecided how I feel about reaching the playoff this year. With our youth and inexperience, I'm not sure the Ducks are a legit threat in the playoff even if they get there. Plus the injuries (heck, even the OC has been out). So would I rather make the playoff and maybe get pummeled by UGA, or win the P12, face a B10 team in the Rose Bowl, and wait for this team to mature a little, heal up next season, and hopefully get superior QB play before setting my sites on the playoff? (Not that my desires matter in the slightest to what will actually happen, obviously.) Of course, one more loss and it's a moot point anyway.

Actually, Joe, I don't believe Manziel was ever "on campus" except for recruiting visits. He was a verbal commit who flipped to A&M once they offered him. So it had nothing to do with him playing with Mariota, because he never did. And I doubt it had much to do with Mariota at all, since Mariota was ranked the 123rd best QB recruit by ESPN. Mariota was a nobody, just like Justin Herbert was. Great history on this from Bleacher Report: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1794499-if-he-stayed-with-oregon-would-johnny-manziel-have-beaten-out-marcus-mariota

There has been some great discussion about the SC job on The Dan Patrick Show. One of the perspectives is that the 40 - 70 year-olds running the campus and athletic dept and paying the bills as boosters are still seeing SC as a glory job; a top 5 job in the nation. They're still living in the days of OJ Simpson and Charles White and Reggie Bush. Eighteen-year-old kids, on the other hand, look at SC and they couldn't care less about the history and the championships from the 1970s. Former SC QB Sean Salisbury had an extensive rant in which he took the SC boosters and administration to task for looking at the job through maroon-and-gold colored glasses, rather than recognizing it for what it is: a mediocre program without any flash or anything that will particularly interest teenage recruits in a mediocre conference (you know, like FSU, Nebraska, Arkansas, and Miami mostly are now, although at least Arkansas and Nebraska are in the SEC and Big 10). So the idea that SC can get someone big-time like James Franklin may not be realistic. The only advantage for SC over PSU is recruiting the Southland rather than PA and NJ, but even there it's not like Franklin's recruiting area right now is the Dakotas.