Washington Waddler

As usual, the Seattle Times(out) sports section dropped the ball on another golden opportunity for a good headline: “WEATHER MADE FOR A DUCK” or “BOW WOW DOWN POUR DROWNS DAWGS” would have been apt. Sadly — just like Jimmy — they seem to lack prowess.

When you don’t have a leg to stand on, it’s best to just keep your mouth shut. Jimmy Lake doesn’t seem to get that. He reminds me sometimes of an old Mose Allison lyric, “your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working overtime.”

Agreed. The cherry on top that for me though was the 1980 Reggie Ogburn led upset in Seattle of the then 13th ranked Huskies. Oh so sweet!

Intelagunt

Kudos to Hayward Duck. It helps to remember, you can only be the new kid on the block once. OBD snuck up on the national scene with Rich and Mike, and then took it by storm with Chip. As anyone knows, getting to the top the first time is easier than staying there. That rush of original enthusiasm gives way to the complex challenges of building a tradition. But the foundation is still rooted in that original enthusiasm which has never been afraid of risking change if it will make our Ducks better. There’s been more times than I care to count when I didn’t know where we were headed. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was knowing I’m a Duck.

If you’re going to suggest your football team’s recruiting capability is better than another’s by means of academic excellence, you’d best be sure your public statements reflect that reality. When Jimmy Lake says, “. . . We battle more academically prowess teams”, he employs the word ‘prowess’ incorrectly. Prowess is a noun, and a noun can not modify another (team) noun. Such a statement requires an adjective. Corrected, the statement might read, ‘we battle more academically superior teams’. So far, what Jimmy says doesn’t reflect what Jimmy does.

Sure was nice to not have to worry about clock management for a week! Liked the way AM and his O line closed ranks and took care of business. Sent the clear message not to worry about Kingsley’s departure.

Softy, as in soft in the head?

As unsettled as the moving parts are on this year’s edition, I have to give it a slight edge over 2019 going forward based on the emerging potential in the run game. What we saw against a solid Colorado D with the addition of Cardwell and McGee has got to have opposing D coordinators concerned when you add in the known abilities of Dye and Brown. More run options for JM could translate into less pressure on AB’s arm. Speaking of running backs, shouldn’t Sean Dollars be getting close to returning?

While I’m in agreement with the higher % chance ball control would have had in that situation over going for a score that AB finds difficult to execute, JM may have been playing the likelihood that the UCLA defense would provide a better shot at the home run ball by ratcheting-up it’s own endgame plan in the box to stuff ball control, leaving our receivers in man. On both offense and defense, endgames are always going to be a choice between playing it safe or rolling the dice. Considering the strength of UCLA’s front 7, I’d have been tempted to go for it. Don’t think I’d of pulled the trigger though. Against Colorado’s frosh QB, we don’t run the same risk we did with DTR’s 2 minute drill efficiency. Endgame should be more manageable with wider range of choices.

Okay, enough! We need a return to the Stockholm Syndrome — every fan bring a little pink heart balloon to the game Saturday, inflate with gas and let it go, all while singing, “ we love you Anthony, oh yes we do-o ...” It can’t get any worse with the media anyway, so why not a little irony between friends, right?

Murder Hornets?

The possible problem for AB’s mid range game against the Buffs is they may not bring the LBs and safeties like UCLA. JM has to temper the temptation to realize his offensive vision with who he must do it with. Discipline your play choice, take what they give you and AB can get the job done.

Uniform preference is pretty simple to explain: win (Badger Rose Bowl; TSOU; UCLA) and we love um — lose (the ‘Duck’; Webfoot Blues) and we hate them.

Great job Joshua of showing us how JM’s chess moves set-up a ‘check mate’ by getting UCLA’s defense to to create the opening that allowed AB’s TD run. Pure artistry! It gets me excited wondering if we can anticipate a similar approach to reading our remaining opponent defenses.

Maybe it’s time to refresh with a few basics of Recruiting 101: the vast majority of recruits are still fundamentally high school students trying to negotiate the bidding war separation from one set of coaches/mentors to another, a process awash with parental overtones and the need to reconnect with those same values at a higher level. Don’t let the media-driven Star Wars system blind you with unproven expectations. They’re still kids, and that’s why the smart coach-recruiters pay as much attention to family upbringing as they do athleticism. A strong, well-instilled sense of self matters just as much as a 40 yard time. Conversely, a kid with a weak ego is going to pay excessive attention to his star count, much in the same way many fans do. We can speculate as much as we like (and we like!) about Kingsley’s reasons for opting out. Personally, I dislike the transfer portal. It sends the wrong message to these young men about how the world will treat a person who changes their mind all the time because they either fail to be responsible for their choices or require unearned respect. And anyway, if there’s one thing MC has proven to me he can do is recruit top drawer OLs. Not to worry.

Wait, I live next door to that guy!

Great article and great responses. Regarding consistency, I’d only add that the gap lapse between TOSU and UCLA was affected by major injuries to both offense and defense, and the adjustments made in both rhythm and timing those required. Getting returning starters back plus game tested replacements is helping to turn that corner. AB’s passing is certainly a problem, but he’s not a one trick pony. We’re productive and not predictable when he mixes his sideline routes with Dye coming out of the backfield. And you just have to hold your breath and let him go deep once in a while to keep them honest. We criticize him for good reason, but we are hard on him. Justin Herbert is tough act to follow.

(I tried to dip my oar in this discussion a tad late, so here’s my two cents.) Booing your own team is something that concerns any fan who cares. And, it’s always pointless to consider this type of booing by those who don’t care because their agenda is beyond reason — like a drunk fan. However, for fans that do care, booing your own team is, at the very least, one of two things: either an impulsive, irresponsible reaction, or tough love. Booing the home team is either unjustified because you care, or justified because you do care. The first reaction is most likely rooted in a long gone but not forgotten past when college football stands were primarily filled by those who shared a common link with those on the field: they both attend (or attended) the same college. Students, faculty, alumni and their families make a pretty sympathetic choir because the line between ‘them and us’ disappears in a shared Identity. In addition, academic experience is rooted in learning, and learning is rooted in encouragement, not derision. Add to that a university system controlled and operated by only those that ‘have’, and you’ve got a self-supportive, if very exclusive little club. Enter the NFL. With the advent of football as a substitute for warfare, it’s popularity grew to include those without the means to enter the club that held the reins. So, start your own club — one that turns football into a profession. The second reaction is primarily rooted in the difference between these two clubs: you’re paying not for an education, but for entertainment, and you’ve nothing in common with those on the field other than a presumed bond of community identity which roughly translates as, “hooray for you, but what have you done for me lately”? Those hard earned dollars in Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh wanted something in return that justified the spending. American football had moved from a shared experience of amateur athletic excellence to become a professional product. Add to that the eventual inclusion into universities of talented ‘have nots’ being sought by football coaches — and the unavoidable perception of college football as becoming a farm system for the NFL — and you’ve created a bond between amateur and professional leveraged by the notion of product; a hand-me-down attitude from NFL to college that home teams are subject to the same judgement of the fan as consumer: Booing. What’s at issue is the fuzzy line that separates those who produce from the product itself. Even when fans understand their watching student athletes learning a process, it’s still the product being payed for that they see. And when it comes to a contest between shared identity and product, product is going to win every time. You don’t get to the CFP on moral victories. But neither do you get there by alienating your team and coaches with booing, and the recruits who might make it a better product. The answer? The time it takes to learn as a group the line you just don’t cross — which only seems to happen through trial and error — as evidenced by the successful programs that continue to fill the stands and recruit at a high level regardless of off seasons. It’s okay to encourage a better product, just don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg in the process.

In addition to the game clock management getting worse is the handling of AB. Why at that stage of the game would you put any receiver past 20 yards when chance for success statistics clearly show the percentage drop off that it does?

At the risk of repeating myself, they remind me of the floaters in Dylan Morris’s eyes when he throws the long ball. Retain them for the Seattle trip

If nothing else, the forum would go crazy comparing weak and strong scheduling leading up to the championship game.

So long as Dylan Morris continues to have more floaters than someone whose been staring at the sun too long we’ll always have a chance.

Based on our game at the shoe, this team plays best away, as the underdog and on a big stage. All three are present in this game. The unexpected? Our O line does what no one expects them to do, and gives balance to an offense which will require both the rush and the pass.

Losing is the great teacher because it’s painful and you’ll do whatever it takes to avoid it. Winning, on the other hand, teaches you only one thing: you like it. Addictive behavior cycles are like that. Hopefully, most long time Duck fans have had that watershed moment where they’ve had the chance to glimpse the bigger picture. Mine came at the 2005 Holiday Bowl loss to the Sooners where the ‘what ifs’ were eating me alive. A couple of gristled, longtime Oklahoma fans (dating back to the Bud Wilkinson era) sitting next to me kind of took me under their wing, and gently brought me up to speed on how long this journey was going to take. While it didn’t remove the pain, their perspective lessened it. No, Mario is no more the perfect a coach than Chip. One seems more interested in recruiting while the other seems more interested in coaching. Put the two together and you have what, a Nick Saban? How often does that happen? Wishful thinking is always a good indicator for me to reapply my hard earned perspective on this journey of being a Duck. When I look at Mario, I see the biggest experimental shift in football culture the Ducks have ever undertaken. Aside from Willy the weasel, he is the only Oregon head coach without west coast roots dating back to Len Casanova (l cancel out Chip because of his hand-in-glove fit for the west coast style). For better or worse, we’ve embraced a style of football we’re little acquaintance with. It’s difficult to quantify — this coastal difference in football philosophies — but we all know it’s there, and our west coast sensibilities are taking a beating. That can happens when you’re in the midst of an experiment. The advice? Hold onto your hard earned perspective, ignore the addictive behavior cycles, and let it run it’s course. Who knows what the next game may bring?