Desert Duck

Yeah... that's exactly what I was expecting 😆

I'm glad for our Ducks. But I'm really glad for Lanning.

I just tuned into the game. That TD pass was the first play I saw. Looks like we have a sign of life here!

Maybe you can find a YouTube feed

Go Navy! Halftime: Note Dame 14 - Navy 13

A great article, and the comments are also fun to read. That Oregon Chip Kelly era almost seems like yesterday, and then I have to remind myself that it's been 15 years. I don't care that Chip pretty much sucked as a head coach wherever else he went. All I know is that over those 4 years at Oregon, he flat out made magic happen, and caught lightning in a bottle. He made and caused changes to the game while winning at about an 88% clip rate, 4 straight BCS games -- winning two, and came within 3 points of winning the National Championship. I became a Duck football fan in the early 70s, and back then, Chip Kelly era stuff was at best a dream. I'm glad that Chip appears to have found out where his skill set is best utilized. He clearly is a genius offensive coordinator. It's one thing to go to Ohio State and win, it's an entirely different ball of wax to do it at Northwestern. So, while I'm obviously rooting for our Ducks to crush Northwestern, there's a part of me that's also rooting for Chip Kelly... but, of course, not to win today.

Hopefully, this actually is his first offense. And I want him to get nothing more or less than the legal consequences that any other person who made such highly dangerous decisions, while committing multiple felonies, would receive --- while taking into consideration his age, prior activity, etc. Hampton is fortunate that he apparently has the money to afford a good attorney.

No question that Lanning is very talented. But we find out if we have 'the right stuff' when the crap hits the fan and then see how we respond. Until now, at least at Oregon, Dan hasn't faced anything close to this situation. It's the fire that shows us who we truly are and whether or not it refines us, or simply burns us. I've said it before that if I was a betting man, I put money on Lanning. But I'm also a Missouri "Show Me State" kind of guy. And Dan certainly has an incredible opportunity to show us all. GO DAN - GO DUCKS!

Fortunately for Hampton, and for me, even through the asinine decisions and choices, He still has never once left, abandoned, or forsaken us. Fortunately, this part of his comment will continue to age well. And now young Mr. Hampton will have to face the consequences of his actions.

There is truth in what you say. What/who do you blame for the behavioral outcome?

After l Iistening to that clip, sadly, this is what came to mind.

Please tell me that this is an AI spoof. This can't be real. By the way, would it be wrong to just kidnap Chip Kelly while he's in town?

Northwestern... Unfortunately 31-13 1 1 46 yards passing 8 Punts. I ❤️ Punts.

I should have titled this: "Why Growing Your Own QB Has Died a Quiet Death at Top-20 Programs"

We're spending pretty much league high money on getting player talent. And then, we apparently went 'on the cheap' regarding finding, hiring, and paying the absolute best proven OC that money could buy? That's still the part that I do not understand. For a program at our level, to have taken such a massive risk with an unproven OC coach like Meh is extremely strange to me (actually, the experience Meh did have was sub-par, at best). I'm still perplexed by what the hiring decision was based upon. I'm hoping that there's a much bigger picture here that I just don't see. My fear, though, is that the decision was based primarily on friendship, instinct, and ego.

Well, we're all about to find our how talented Coach Lanning really is. I'm still hopeful that he has the right stuff.

Good point. So those programs kind of become like Minor League Baseball teams, but for college football. All of those programs are our feeder schools.

I remember saying I wanted more parity in college football. Well... I'm thinking about taking that back 😆

I posted earlier about the “old days,” when at Oregon, we almost always developed our own QBs. Today, no program can afford to wait to grow its own. I can be slow to the party, but with NIL and revenue sharing, the quarterback has become the pinnacle of the true free-agent market. The transfer portal is where many of these players will make more money than many will earn the rest of their lives. The pay curve is steep. At a top program, a backup earns around $1 million, and a highly recruited backup gets closer to $1.5-2 million (reportedly, Dylan gets $2 million). A starter makes $3–4 million, and elite transfers get $5–6.5 million (Dante $5 million). And the crazy thing is, when we look at the massive amount of money involved in CFB, they’re worth it – even worth the risk. It finally occurred to me that a talented backup QB can no longer afford to 'wait his turn.' Every season he sits can cost him millions, and his value drops. I have to remind myself that most of these kids making $1–3 million per year will never take a snap in the NFL. For them, this is payday (and this is true of all other positions... the numbers are just lower). There’s always been a transactional relationship in CFB between the institution and the players and coaches. But it’s now finally occurred to me that it is almost entirely transactional… and on steroids. Both the kids and the coaches have understandably entered the mercenary-portal. As I said, I can be a bit slow to the party. But it finally occurred to me today that the old path in CFB of truly developing QBs died a quiet death.

That 2007 @ Michigan game (against a very good 9-4 Michigan team) was a masterpiece thing-of-beauty game. Dixon was an absolute maestro in that game, and was like a magician with some of his fakes (more than once, the network cameras got lost trying to find the ball). Anybody that would like to watch a really fabulous, fantastic, Duck game should try and pull that game up. And yes, losing him hurt like hell. And damn... it's one more reminder of just how close we've been on a few occasions to, I believe, winning the whole thing. But none closer than the NCG in 2011.

Before Jeremiah Masoli, before Akili Smith, I think the 'modern era' Duck QB started with the Rich Brooks' 1980 squad and Reggie Ogburn (props to Brooks for being desperate enough to think outside the then proverbial drop-back QB box). The guy was a 5'9", 190 lb dripping wet, 4.5 40, dual threat, JC transfer who came out of nowhere and shredded the Pac-10 at quarterback. He probably would have been the equivalent of a 2 star recruit. Then, a local guy who was considered highly risky recruit by the name of Chris Miller, showed up and went on to have a storied Duck career -- and a fine NFL career as well. We also, once upon a time, found a 3 star QB recruit from some island in the Pacific, that no other teams seemed to be very interested in. Then, in I believe 2016, we had some other local 3-star kid practically walk on, that no other D1 school was interested in. I believe he ended up getting a max contract in the NFL. (that's two stud QBs from Eugene's Sheldon High School that almost nobody was interested in). Looking back, I'm a bit amazed at how some of the greatest QB talent we've ever had seemed to practically drop in our laps from seemingly almost out of nowhere.

A good article. Painful, but good. Right now, when I think about our program, I feel like I've been rocked with a concussion.

Well, allow me to clarify... it's obviously not literally 'unbelievable'. But I'm somewhat confident that I'm not the only guy who didn't anticipate the season unfolding the way it has. Frankly, the way this season is/has played out wasn't remotely on anyone's radar.

Very saddened to learn this, but also not very surprised. What an absolutely insane season this has turned out to be. Just unbelievable.

Absolutely a possibility this year. There really are no dominant teams out there this year.