Washington Waddler

So long as it doesn’t turn into a-dope-on-a-rope.

And sometimes, especially with inexperienced coordinators, it can be neither. As fans, it doesn’t come easy to accept that even coaching staffs can have learning curves.

Ulysses’ use of skillful deceit allowed the Greeks to sack Troy. His game plan? Make them think they’d quit. I doubt that will be Dan’s approach.

Hindsight is beginning to make me think that their Tulsa loss was the result of already being focused on Oregon.

Difficult questions, and they give rise to more. As the traditional college game continues to give way to NFL-lite $$ball, what now motivates players to compete at the highest level if the money alone doesn’t? As Mike points out, other high NIL budget programs are not currently faltering in the way we are. Of the top 10 NIL spenders, only Oregon has not won a national championship. Is Oregon dealing with a program legacy deficit that affects motivation in a way it does not for the other nine? Do players here not feel the same expectation of excellence they do at these other programs to, “win one for the Gipper”? Without a proud tradition, can money alone win championships? Those who were there during the Brooks/Bellotti eras that set the tone for Oregon’s development into a nationally recognized program will recall that emergence of what would become ‘Oregon football’ under Chip Kelly and beyond. It felt like we knew where we were going, and players were excited and proud to be a part of it. Now, it feels like money’s shadow has fallen over that emerging legacy, and stalled its growth. Lost in the woods. Since money is not going away, we need to find what it takes to rekindle the excitement and pride of those emerging days that defined what Oregon football could become: our legacy. Money alone will not get us there.

We weren’t ready to play a team representing a proud program (with one national title) that last year we handed its worst loss in history, caused the firing of its long time head coach and pretty much the complete meltdown and rebuilding of its team. Not sure there was anyway to prepare for the pent-up feelings those folks were experiencing. Vengeance or retribution probably don’t even come close. On the other hand, we didn’t look like we were ready to play South Eugene High School either.

That’s a good question. If universities/colleges do cross that line and cede control of football student-athletes to become paid employees, where does that eventually lead? What can of worms does that open, and what long term effect might it have on the role of these institutions as educators? More immediately, what effect - by setting such a precedent - might that have on other student groups looking to the courts to open their way to the same relationship with those institutions? By once replacing the educational model of open inquiry with the role of ‘Me First’, you may have introduced the potential for an unexpected and long lasting domino effect on our institutions of higher learning. Nothing and no one is not vulnerable to the effects of unfettered greed once that door is legally opened.

Makes you wonder what this team may look like if the injury bug hits them down the road. Game week, Lanning may have the Mo’s heat blowers on high for what may be a game time in the 90’s on Sept 26.

Option B

Thanks for listing your potential domino-effects of what may happen now that CFB has taken the first steps down the NFL’s version of the yellow brick road. The only one I would question is a draft. The primary intent of the NFL draft is to shore-up smaller, financially fragile market franchises, both in terms of civic and commercial value, and to bolster the local pride that puts butts in the seats and eyes on the tube. Universities that can field, “. . . team’s financially able to compete in an NFL-Lite structure” by and large, already have immensely loyal built-in followings, as well as very deep and long standing connections to “. . . private equity, including investments by boosters.” Not much need to go down that part of the road?

Not sure if I’m looking at a Vogue ‘Ultimate Make-Over’ or something to do with football. The problem - as always - with attempting to replicate someone else’s success is everyone else is eyeing the same solution. The pickings just get thinner and thinner as the discards are falling through the cracks.

Spite on for old SC!

It doesn’t get talked about much because it’s an unpopular subject that causes anxiety, but one of the potential, primary problems a naturally lighted, fully controlled atmospheric practice facility like this solves is where to comfortably practice in the event of extended periods of high local temperatures and atmospheric smoke. You can bet the brain trust that conceived and settled upon this design was looking at what may be in store for the future of the Pacific Northwest.

The west parking lot was a good place to go to learn how to handle the wheel. Taught my daughter there. And, you could tell it was unofficial driver’s ed; everyone keeping as much distance between themselves and everybody else!

Good stuff. Regarding SEC whitewashers, the B1G image builders would benefit by recalling Winston Churchhill’s comment, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

There’s no question regarding the SEC’s ability to gain more Nattys. However, their inability to accept where the B1G now stands reminds me of another Twain quote: “No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.”

Any word that involves both collar and bone is going to get a Husky’s slobbering attention.

Just too close to reverse the 3rd base call. Remember, the bag only moves after the first touch. While I agree with the announcers that there was some slight sound prior to the pop of ball in mitt, it was so lacking in the ring of contact that it could have equally been caused by the batter’s reactive motion. Just a gut-wrenching way to lose. Feel for the team. But, in the rear-view mirror now, and if the predicted regional odds pan out, this loss’s silver-lining might just end up being us going into a Westwood super regional with the chip on our shoulder rather than the other way around.

That intense series against Nebraska in Eugene really sets the table for this one. Gonna feel more like an away than a tourney game with all that red in the stands.

It seems to me that it really doesn’t matter whether you have a 24, 48, 72 CFP, or go back to the old 4 teams. With the current direction things are going in, the power team universities will come out on top no matter what the format, and a few crumbs will go to the rest. While I’m no fan of ESPN, the old bowl system did provide a regional attractiveness to small schools from those bowl areas that gave them a fighting chance to be included in some of that year end money that they’ll never see in an ever expanding CFP. From where I’m viewing this, it’s really just about Fox trying to take down ESPN, and neither really cares what effect their greed has upon team unity, loyalty and stability, or the concepts of university life, and the over all health of a cultural heritage we’re watching being destroyed by us allowing them to turn it into just “a business”. There is a word that describes that. Cancer.

When college football started to become less about the game, and more about the money made by corporations specializing in communication technologies, the words of media puppets like Sankey became nothing more than what is being placed in their mouths by their media (and university?) bosses. So long as the ESPN’s and Fox’s of this world can count on being bailed-out by Sherman Anti-Trust rulings, nothing is going to change the direction in which this conflict of values is going. And, this IS about values: a national cultural heritage vs. $$. Perhaps it is time to begin viewing this conflict in those terms; college football as a national cultural treasure being plundered by an outside source that is destroying something that belongs to us all — in the same light as Federal Cultural Heritage laws protect and shield native historical sites, including, “intangible traditions that hold significant value for a community or the nation”. Know it’s a long shot, but just trying to think outside the box for something I love.

Unfortunately, that gaze does fall on T&F as well. The 2026 men lost discus world record holder Mykolas Alekna to a torn pectoral muscle. But, T&F does have an injury advantage over diamond sports (and football) in not having to rely upon lynchpin athletes like pitchers and quarterbacks.

Perhaps because we’d no previous experience with diamond post-season conference tournaments in the old PAC 12, both baseball and softball have seemed unprepared for the energy brought by traditional B1G teams to those games. But, that’s how you learn, and to be ready the next time.

Two evenly matched teams squaring off in a rubber match that goes extra innings, and you’re hanging on every pitch. It just doesn’t get much better than that!

A team that has each others’ back, and a home crowd like ours will be ready.