McDuck

Oregon 31-28 1, 2 and 185 Travis Dye is MVP

UCLA couldn't meet COVID protocols. Guess they were 'day to day'. Apparently NC State is a bit angry. "Felt lied to, to be honest," Doeren said. "We felt like UCLA probably knew something was going on, didn't tell anybody on our side. We had no clue they were up against that. I don't feel like it was very well handled from their university. It would have been great to have had a heads up so two or three days ago we could have found a Plan B. Disappointing." ESPN

While I have plenty of issues with both Klemm and Lupoi none are related to poor performance at the NFL level. Dealing with a 25 year old man with a contract two or three times larger than yours is far different than working with a twenty year old on a scholarship. Ask Nick Saban or Urban Meyer. Pete Carroll was fired from his NFL position prior to landing at USC.

Why Tosh Lupoi leaving Alabama was long expected After some early struggles during the season, Saban stripped Lupoi of defensive play-calling responsibilities and handed them over to co-defensive coordinator Pete Golding, according to sources. Saban had poached Golding from UT-San Antonio in the offseason in part to alleviate concerns about Lupoi’s inexperience with the secondary and as a play-caller. Still, word is Lupoi seemed overwhelmed during practices and didn’t totally grasp situational play-calling. While he was still heavily involved in the defensive game-planning, there was no question Golding taking over play-calling represented a demotion of sorts for Lupoi barely into the start of his defensive coordinator stint. Additionally, it was clear within the program how much Saban valued Golding, especially given he fended off other schools including Ole Miss in order to keep Golding at Alabama. It gave Lupoi reason enough to look for a soft landing place once Alabama’s season ended.

Do I count seven defensive linemen out for various reasons? One transfer (so far) and three unexplained absences has me wondering if disappointment that Big Joe wasn't retained is a factor.

Giving credit where credit is due, Mario did a good job building esprit de corps along the O line.

Until Autzen Stadium opened the Dirty Dawgs insisted Oregon host them in Portland, basically a neutral site game every other year.

A topic for discussion is how much of that 87% winning record was Chip and how much was a very capable and loyal staff of assistant coaches. To me Chip gets credit for the concept but the real hero's were the assistants primarily assembled by Mike Bellotti.

I'm confused. Was the former staff so blindly loyal to MC (who abandoned them) they might actively work to undermine the new head coach or were they so fed up and constrained they would take a 50% pay cut to get away?

How is a transfer quarterback any different from any other position? Devon Williams, DJ Johnson and Bennet Williams were all transfers who won games for us. Should they have been told no, don't come, we need to let others play that have been here longer? What about recruiting a JC athlete? Don't recruit Akili Smith or Jeremiah Masoli because they play quarterback? Just because an athlete has a lot of stars next to their name doesn't mean much. Below are 247's top 5 dual threat and pro style QB's in 2017. How many are stars today? Dual Tua Tagovailoa, Tate Martell, Keytaon Thompson, Sam Ehlinger, Hendon Hooker Pro Davis Mills, Jake Fromm, Hunter Johnson, Myles Brennan, Jack Sears

That article appears to place most of the blame for abuse on Jim Mora. Probably natural as Mora was the recent hire at U Conn but it does make me feel slightly better about Adrain Klemm. Still I wish DL had hired other candidates than Klemm and Lupoi. For example UCLA just hired former Husky DL and LB coach Ikaika Malloe--no skeletons and a decent coach. If Klemm has even a hint of abuse he and the Irele Oderinde episode will be coupled together and used to tarnish OBD.

ESPN Texas A&M will not participate in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl because of COVID-19 issues and season-ending injuries within the program, leaving Wake Forest without an opponent as officials try to find a replacement team, it was announced Wednesday.

I'm beginning to have some nagging doubts staff being assembled. It is disappointing Joe Salave'a wasn't retained but that is DL's prerogative. Toni Tuioti should be fine although it's interesting Big Joe is rated a better recruiter by 247. The rumors of Tosh Lupoi make me cringe. While he may not have been sanctioned allegations of shady tactics crop up like dandelions wherever he is employed. I naively believe Oregon is better than that. Adrain Klemm has been sanctioned for illegal benefits plus he was named in a lawsuit against UCLA for player abuse. Not a good look. Klemm show cause Klemm lawsuit

Steve Stephens IV? Cam McCormick? This is not a serious article.

Just a couple quick responses. Not sure why Mario will suddenly hire better coordinators but I guess it is possible. He has a lot of hiring experience as we had five different coordinators during his four years. As for quarterback he had the 2020 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year who didn't even make first or second team all Pac-12. Is that a coach who gets the most from his players?

This tidbit from The Oregonian article may be pertinent. That is a lot of different coaches. He played for two head coaches (Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin) and three different offensive coordinators (Dillingham, Chad Morris, Mike Bobo) during his time at Auburn. Couple other items. His 247 composite rating was slightly higher than Ty Thompson. Also he has already graduated.

Kenny Dillingham has been in Eugene since Thursday. He had the opportunity to watch any practices and workouts in preparation for the Alamo Bowl, so he has seen the QB's in practice. I believe they tape practice so he has hours upon hours of film to evaluate performance. Finally I'm certain he consulted with Joe Moorhead and no reason to believe JM wasn't honest and open with him regarding the abilities and progress of all the QB's. It is also reasonable to believe he has met with the QB room. With that he decided to opt for a transfer, a know quantity. This doesn't mean the QB room is empty, the reality is you need at least two, preferably three, players at the position. Injuries happen, positive covid tests happen, girlfriend problems happen. Just last night Utah State went to the third string QB in their bowl game. All this says is we probably don't have three solid quarterbacks going into 2022.

Interesting development. As the twitter picture shows McClendon was listed as a Miami employee last night, and I had posted a link confirming that in another thread. Now the listing is gone! Who is playing games? Now you see it, now you don't.

Despite what he said in the interview it appears McClendon is headed to Miami. Rather tacky of the U to let it out this way IMO. https://people.miami.edu/profile/bem144@miami.edu

Thanks. Hope Lanning sees something he likes and retains him.

I assume he is a decent coach. I haven't followed his career since he left the Pac but when he was at Cal and UW it seemed he was always "in the room" when something sketchy happened.

I found this endorsement from Jason Stewart, a JC transfer and reserve QB at Memphis who saw action in ten games total. "Kenny Dillingham is my favorite of any coach I've had. It is so obvious how much he cares about his players. He is so invested in making sure you are doing well on and off the field. We were only 2 years apart so he felt like a big brother. I had so much respect for him so the age gap was no issue."

I don't understand this site, it took the Football Scoop link on Dillingham and inserted into the cut and paste from the same site about Poweledge. Not the first time it has done that. Anyway below is the Dillingham story. Dillingham

Oregon: Baylor's Matt Powledge is expected to join the Oregon staff as co-defensive coordinator, Pete Thamel shares. At Baylor, Powledge worked with the safeties and special teams.

I expect college endowment funds to suffer. It's a lot sexier to pay for a wide receiver or quarterback than a research position.