OhioDuck

Here's the deal with me. I graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and I'm a VCU basketball fan. I also lived in Portland for several years, wish I had never left. As one of my Portland friends told me when we moved back east, "You'll be back, you're not one of them anymore." He was joking but there's also some truth in there. I am a strange critter in that I actually root for both of the Oregon power conference schools, I don't say that too loudly on this forum. I am sick over what has happened to the PAC and how OSU has born the brunt of that. Gradually I trended more toward the Duck, because I love how they do things without a box, not outside of the box but the box simply doesn't exist. So, I'm a Ducks fan for the past twenty or so years and will be the rest of my life. Here's my point. I'm also a VCU basketball fan and we don't have a football team, so I can be all in on the Ducks. When we VCU basketball fans talk football, we can't talk VCU football, so we talk about other teams and how we are fans of other teams. As far as I can tell of the several hundred fans on the RamNation forum, I'm the only Oregon Duck fan, but for those who follow college football with some knowledge of the game the Ducks are pretty well known and respected. It's the casual fan that formed their opinions decades ago and will never change them that really don't get what is going on in Eugene, Oregon right now. The ducks are a national power now, and they are here to stay. In a year or two Indiana will lose a coach, they will go back to being Indiana... 'nough said. But Oregon has gone through coaches and continued to improve, to innovate and build a solid program and a very solid athletic department overall. I believe Dan Lanning is here for a while, but if he left, we'd make another good hire and the program would continue to be a national power. We know something about that at VCU, where we go through bright young coaches and launch them on their careers elsewhere regularly, but we keep winning a lot of basketball games. We've come to believe it's as much VCU as it is the brought young coaches. Oregon is the same. Yes, the bright young coaches are great, but IT"S OREGON! Finally Oregon is at least on the verge of being a destination job. Why not? You can coach at a national power and live in Eugene. Who would want more?

Down field early, punish them for loading the box. Use Moore's mobility, move the pocket, roll out, half roll out, use the threat of him running without him necessarily looking to run. Save the cutesy stuff for the fourth quarter if everything else is not working. Too many of the cutesy plays have turned into wasted downs early in the game. We don't need wasted downs. A fast start would be wonderful, I'd love to see us up 14-0 after our first two possessions. Make them play from behind, change their game plan.

Ducks 28-17 1 3 260

Yes to the more play action. Remember the run can set up the pass and the pass can set up the run (I think that happened Saturday at the end of the second quarter).

Yeah, I'm not sure Onio State is that far ahead of everyone else. They look really good, but so does Indiana. Something I haven't heard anyone mention at this point is the toughness of the Big 10 schedules. Oregon has 6 of the (at least present) top ten B1G teams on their schedule, Indiana 3 and Ohio State only 2. I think maybe the Buckeyes are still living off of their season opening win over then #1 Texas, that hasn't proved to be all that good as the season has gone on. All of the teams have some flaws.

So, is Oregon beating Indiana in a rematch in the playoffs Indiana's worst nightmare? I recall Oregon beat the eventual national champion in the regular season last year. Then in the playoffs... Stranger things have happened.

yes, yes it would. It would have been 38-7 and I would have won the prediction contest. LOL

I said some of this during the game, but the slow starts seem to me to be partly caused by play calling. Too much cutesy stuff, not enough down the field in the passing game. A few passes down field later opened up the running game. It seems to me Stein is overly attracted to the nickel and dime short game when he has the weapons to do much more. If I can see that, you can bet the scouts and game planners for the other teams see it and plan accordingly. Let's see what happens at QB, if Moore is good to go their is no reason not to open up early. That would make for a better start. If Moore is not ready to go, then a little more conservative calling in the passing game might be understandable.

Just as we're (me too) talking about not starting Whittington.

Let's go Ducks, stick it in the end zone now.

Yep, they throw a few down field and now the running game is opening up.

Wisconsin can't throw against the Ducks, crowd the line and make them try to beat us throwing it. and open up the offense, one throw down field so far was complete for 15-20 yards. More of that. Stop the cutsy stuff.

As a smaller guy he already had excellent running ability for a QB, add the bulk and make him hard to bring down when you do catch him and hard to bring down in the pocket if you get to him. There is a lot to like there. If he can be anywhere close to an elite D1 passer (he seems to have those tools too) he will be one exciting player to watch.

Ducks 38-7 2 2 275

Being a VCU basketball fan and an Oregon Duck football fan, the experience of coaches leaving is real. On the one hand, if no one else wants your coach it means you are not doing very well. When you are doing well others will want your coach. It is refreshing to see what Dan Lanning is saying. Indeed Oregon is a place where I think you can expect to in the CFB playoffs every, or almost every year now. In three years coaching at Oregon Coach has generational wealth for his family, what more does he need. and by all accounts he loves living in Eugene, who wouldn't. It looks like Oregon has found that guy who is a near perfect fit. How exciting! I hope in Phil Martelli Jr. VCU basketball has done the same. time will tell, he hasn't coached an actual game yet. but like Lanning at Oregon, this guy seems different.

From an East coast Duck fan. If I was living in Portland, I'd be looking for tickets and driving down to Eugene several times a season. I wouldn't want to have anything that would mess with the atmosphere at Autzen but I'm pretty sure more tickets could be sold if there were more seats. As to parking. That is a concern, but Duck fans are resourceful. I would drive to Eugene and ride carpool with local friends, I'd take a taxi or bus. Sounds like current projects would push any expansion off for a few years anyway.

Ducks 28-10 1 3 220 A lot of people seeing a track meet, both of these teams also play really good defense.

I would say yes, except for two things. One is I do not carry the history of the program that some of you do, Bellotti is the first Oregon coach I remember. And two, it's going to take more than three years to say that. After five years, if Oregon is still on an upward trajectory as it is now (getting to/winning NC game maybe), consistent top 5 team... then yes he's the best ever. I have heard some commentators talking about whether he is the best coach in college football right now. That's another question. What Dan Lanning has done at Oregon is certainly impressive, but that may take a few more years to determine also.

Back here in the east we have become pretty sued to Appy beating some pretty good teams (ask Michigan), not that OSU is pretty good. Beavers are definitely having a rough time.

I was surprised that Penn St. was able to mount a comeback they way they did. I'm not sure if it was just some scheme things as coach said after the game or what, but they almost pull victory out of the jaws of being dominated for most of the game. So, I would like to see them working on finishing against good teams. If we are up two touchdowns vs Indiana in the fourth quarter, lets win by three!

It's kinda cool though. I like Lanning's perspective. "This is a white out because we are here." There are going to be fireworks when the ducks come to town.

While the targeting call is somewhat new, they began changing this rule when I was in junior high school. Our coach announced it was no longer legal to lower our head and lead with the top of our helmet when hitting someone. We were then taught a form tackle, putting the facemask into our opponents chest while wrapping up with our arms. That was 1968. The reason was that some players were getting neck injuries when leading with the crown of the helmet. Aside: I broke my friend's ribs with a form tackle when I was in 7th grade. I'll never forget his screams of pain. I never could really hit someone hard after that. Later the son of a well known player broke his neck "spearing" an opponent, which pretty much proved the point. Now the rule is also to protect the ones being hit. This practice is dangerous and it has been for a long time! It has been very hard to get players to stop it, even with the threat of ejection from the game.

In Olympic boxing the hitting surface is a different color. Maybe the "crown" of all helmets should be a different color so it's no longer up to interpretation? It seems that the reason this was not called is because as the PSU player was lowering his head to target, he made contact before his head was all the way down to make it contact with the "crown" of the helmet. Some have said it was the "hairline". I think that's probably right but this guy shaves his head, so the hair line is the crown of his helmet.

I watched a full Ohio State game yesterday for the first time. They are good, but certainly didn't look unbeatable. The Huskies gave them everything they wanted and more for much of the game and the Huskies ain't the Ducks!

last week Ducks had 1 #1 vote in each poll. This week 16 in the AP and 6 in the coaches'. The Ducks are convincing people on the field.