AnotherOD

Carl Williams not having a great return to college football on that drive. Did I count two pass and one run error? Hoping he settles in.

No more Gary Danielson on CBS today too. Still have Nessler but Charles Davis is replacing the retiring Danielson. Have hear some mixed opinions on Davis, CBS can't get worse can it? 😐

With four year now to judge, I think it is fair to suggest (not unlike Kirby), Dan is at his core a pretty conservative coach (efficiency offense, bend-but-don't-break defense). I think that is what we should expect to continue to see, even with coordinator changes. I also expect more sacks and pressures this year (as well as more vertical passing success); but, more from individual talented/experienced players making more plays, than any significant coaching, scheme, or play-calling changes. With a talent composition rating on 247 of #3 (and I have argued #2 when just looking at probable two deeps), it is not an unreasonable choice (don't risk shooting yourself in the foot by taking many risky calls, instead sum up and rely upon the benefit of winning a greater percentage of individual battles over the course of a game). Dan doesn't loose to teams with talent disadvantages, and really neither do Smart or Day. The open question is will Dan adjust at all against the other 10%? Makes me think a bit about Nick Aliotti. A guy often know as very bend-but-don't-break. I always though, while I understood the rep, Nick was always willing to dial up the pressure and take risks when he had talent advantages (or at least guys he trusted). I am not sure we have seen Dan do that too often yet? I've seen a couple breakdowns of the Indiana games this offseason showing guys regularly open but Dante running around with pressure in his face unable to find them. This D appears to loathe risking those open guys (and that's kind of how most of college football plays it in 2026). Indiana was interesting because often they didn't appear so worried (maybe Texas Tech too but I haven't see enough of them to really offer that observation with confidence). A working theory on Cignetti is he is recognizing and taking advantage (on a calculated basis) of patterns of conservatism (on both sides of the ball) that have crept into the college game today.

I had read, at least in this case, the QB battle was pretty close but Kastantin was given the edge due to being a better rushing threat (100 carries for 530 yards and 5 TDs last year). Novosad had 56 carries for -18 yards over 33 career high school games (I can't find any career rushing attempts in his 7 Oregon games). I believe Bowling Green (under Eddie George) has been known mostly as a run-heavy RPO based offense (favoring mobile dual-threat QBs). I also read Bowling Green will have five new starting OL (four graduating and one transfer), so that might have played a bit into the choice as well. I guess Novosad is expected to play unless Kastantin (perhaps literally) runs away with the job; but, Bowling Green is looking more and more like an odd choice for Novosad. Maybe it was his best available choice I guess?

Number 18 Ellis Powers. The kind of hit you don't really see in the game much anymore.

Not to mention missing 38 and 34 yard FGs in the 2024 loss to rival Michigan. Yet, to this day, you can't find a tOSU fan who will even consider the idea that Flemming doesn't run onto the field and drop a 43 yard FG right down the middle with time expiring to win that 2024 game in that environment at Autzen.

40-0 against teams that have won less than 10 games and 8-8 against 10 or more win teams, his first four years as HC. For comparison, Smart in his first 4 years was 36-6 and 8-6 and Day was 34-0 and 8-6, both two years away from their first NC. Dan's losses so far have been to teams finishing AP number #1, #1 #1,#1, #2, #2, #8, and #17. Those two close losses to number #8 and #17 were that first season after Nix took a shot to his leg late in game 10 that left him hobbled the rest of the season. Leaving out the Georgia disaster in the opener, Oregon's offense had averaged 46.6 points and 551.6 yards in 9 pre-Nix injury games, post-Nix injury it fell to 27.3 and 408.7 the final 3 games (and quite possibly no: Downs 4 plays, 8 yards, 1:41 Field Goal 4 plays, 8 yards, 0:35 on 11/12/2022). Dan Lanning just turned 40 like 3 months ago. When Cignetti turned 40 he was joining Chuck Amato's staff at NC State and going to work with a young Philip Rivers. When Saban turned 40 he was in the NFL and about 4 years away from taking his first major college HC job with Michigan State. Dabo was starting his first full year as HC at Clemson, 8 years away from his first NC, and Day in his first year as HC at tOSU, 6 years away from his first NC. In the history of college football, I only found 4 coaches that won a NC before 40, and only one in the last 50 years (Danny Ford Clemson in 1981). All four are in the College football Hall-of-Fame (Danny Ford, Bud Wilkinson, Knute Rockne, and Barry Switzer). Those 4 coaches had a career record of 529-129-18 (0.80%), and 10 National Championships. No NC yet for Dan, but 48-8 is (0.86%). He seems right on schedule.** ** Bob Stoops almost blows my little thing here about winning NC before 40 up, winning his first NC at Oklahoma at age 40 in 2000 and in his second season as head coach, but not quite 🙂 ** Don't quote me on all this I'm not 100% and got kinda tired of looking it all up, but am sort of confident in it 🙂

Nice to see Gernorris looking (at least) close to full go. Iheanacho looks giant. How much chicken do you need to make to feed 22 300+ pound college kids?

I appreciate the perspective but I'd argue the Beaver obsession was an AD not seeing the forest because of the trees; and, basically letting the inmates run the asylum. In 1970 and 1971, while losing two games to the Beavers, Oregon did beat USC twice, an 8-3 UW team, and UCLA down in LA. The 1970 team had finished second in the Pac-8. Signs of things going the right way. Of course it is hindsight, but Frei clearly had put together an excellent, borderline historical, young staff. He also had brought in a bunch of talent: Fouts, Rashad, Newland, Blanchard, Tom Drougas, John McKean, Bill Drake, Lionel Coleman, Tom Graham. Picking two head coaches that drug the program through 4 years of 11-33 after four previous years of 20-21-1 was a massive step backwards. 11-33 included only one win over a team that finished with a winning record (6-5). Its 11 wins were over teams with a combined record of 30-91 and 7 of 11 of the teams it managed to beat won 3 or fewer games). He did go 2-2 against OSU as AD with his coaches, beating a 2-9 OSU team in 1972 and a 1-10 OSU team in 1975; but, honestly, not so much to hang one's hat on. We don't really care if the trajectory is right into the ground as long as we beat the Beavers? Oregon football history: 242-216-28 (5 decades before Ritchey) 11-33 (4 Ritchey seasons) 4-7 (last year under Read) 40-66-4 (Brooks first decade) 51-43 (Brooks last 8 years) 116-55 (Bellotti) 173-50 (Post Bellotti) Oregon sort of has the reputation of being horrible for most of its history; but, since 1920, if you separate the 5 Ritchey seasons plus 10 years Brooks took to dig out of it (15 years) you get: 1920-1971 plus 1987-today: 582-364-28 = 0.612 (would qualify for tied for 26th all time) 5 Ritchey seasons plus first Brooks decade: 55-106-4 = 0.345 (would qualify 136th out of 138 active all-time) And again, I understand how boosters at the time might have pressured the young AD over the Beaver losses; but, only 2 of the 8 losses weren't close, by: 1, 1, 3, 4, 5, 5, 15, and 22. A somewhat forward looking AD should have seen talent and a trajectory; or, at least, understood there would be no guarantee a 37 year old HC with two years of position coach experience was going to be any better. In a sense I guess he was fortunate OSU finally went in the tank, but so did Oregon.

I guess the point was about good coaching hires changing the trajectory of the program? If the UO had stuck with Frei and held onto a couple of his young coaches (like Seifert or Marshall) to take over (or hired Coryell or gotten Walsh or even Mora), might the program have built up to 8-3/9-2 type seasons sooner? Might having an AD willing to invest in football paid off in dollars behind those winning teams rather than deficits behind those losing ones? By the mid-1980s when Nike really started to take off, might Phil have gotten more invested about a decade earlier? Might the 2010 breakthrough years have possibly happened 20 years sooner? 🤷‍♂️

An always interesting fan question about the rise of Duck football, was Oregon poised to begin the jump back in the early 1970s, but missteped and mishandled its chance through a series of bad decisions? Starting in 1972, Oregon had gone 242-216-28 over the prior 50 years (with only one losing decade). Oregon head coach Jerry Frei, a 17 year member of Oregon's staff and 5th year HC, had gone 22-29-2, but 11-10-1 the previous two years behind the likes of Fouts and Rashad (including beating USC in 1970 and 1971 and being generally competitive outside a couple of paycheck games). The story goes the boosters club pressured the new AD (Norv Ritchey) to fire all but one member of what they considered Frei's 1971 "incompetent staff", after losing to the Beavers for a 5th straight time. Included in those they wished to dump from Frei's young staff were DC George Seifert (two Super Bowl rings as head coach, retired with the second greatest win % among NFL coaches with 100 wins at the time), John Robinson (two National Championships at USC and member of the College Football-of-Fame), John Marshall (who went on to coach for 30 years in the NFL including two Super Bowl wins), Gunther Cunningham (who went on to coach 34 years in the NFL), and Bruce Snyder (15 years as a Pac-10 HC at Cal and ASU). Frei refused and resigned. At the time, due to changes in how San Diego State was handling JC players, then head coach and future NFL Hall-of-Famer Don Coryell (who had gone 104-19-2 there) was looking for a way out of San Diego State (as he had relied very heavily on JCs and was unhappy with the changes). There was a push at the time to hire Coryell away but influencial boosters and Ritchey wanted young Oregon OL coach Dick Enright to have the job. Coryell sticks out one more year at SDS (before moving on to revolutionize NFL offenses) and Enright goes 6-16 and is fired in two seasons. Oregon passes over keeping Frei (who went on to coach a decade in the NFL), or maybe Don Coryell, George Seifert, John Robinson, John Marshall, Gunther Cunningham, or Bruce Snyder to hire a 36 year old OL coach with only two years of major college position coaching experience. Having another swing at it, Ritchey quickly internally promotes Don Read, who goes 9-24 over three seasons. Now stepping up for a third swing, Oregon in 1977 (under a new AD) pushes very hard for Bill Walsh (who was returning to college after feeling being "black balled" by then legendary but famously ill-temper Cincinnati HC Paul Brown). Walsh decides on Stanford over Oregon so Oregon targets UW DC Jim Mora (who eventually goes on to be an NFL HC for 15 seasons); but, he declines the job to stay for another season at UW (before becoming the DL coach of the second season of the Seattle Seahawks). Brooks goes 24-49-4 his first 7 seasons at Oregon trying to dig out of the Ritchey, Enright, and Read hole (not helped by the scandal plagued early 1980s), yielding a 12 year run of 38-89-4. Brooks finally goes 28-28 in the five year run up to the 1989 Independence Bowl (finishes 91-109-4 in 18 years at Oregon). John Robinson, George Siefert, Gunther Cuningham, John Marshall, Don Coryell, Bruce Snyder, Bill Walsh, and Jim Mora coulda been. A sort of point of controversy (or at least against the common narrative) when Oregon AD John Caine hired Brooks, he also significantly increased the program resources at the time. In Brooks first couple seasons, he had one of the highest paid staffs in the Pac, and a greatly expanded recruiting budget (not to mention a still pretty new Autzen to recruit to). Caine perhaps is most well known for angrily resigning rather than accepting a demotion to fund raiser after running up a then controversial $375,000 in athletic department debt (losing money 5 of his 6 years in the position).

No mentions for the forth unanimous Duck AP All-American?

Apparently, Pete Carroll issue an official response to the posting of these highlights:

One of the last remaining uncommitted blue chips, 6-3 and 305 DT Brayden Parks out of Chicago, is set to announce today at 2pm Pacific between Oregon and Notre Dame. ND listed as the favorite (close to home plus family ties) but Ducks still with a punchers chance. https://247sports.com/article/top247-dl-brayden-parks-commitment-thursday-cbs-288417604/ Go to CBS Sports College Football YouTube Channel link in story and click, and then find the Live button on the channel site.

Seems like under the current NIL/portal rules, hanging onto much experienced depth for current top ranked recruiters has become difficult for everybody. Saw this yesterday: Average age of roster (1-138): #93 Oregon (20.18) #114 Miami (20.06) #117 Alabama (20.04) #122 Texas A&M (20.01) #126 Notre Dame (19.97) #128 Ohio State (19.95) #134 Texas (19.86) #138 Georgia (19.81)

How about Ndamukong Suh? Born in Portland Oregon on January 6, 1987, Grant High School. 2009 AP College football player of the year, unanimous AA, won the Outland, Lombardi, Nagurski, and Bednarik Awards in 2009. NFL 1st round 2nd pick. NFL ROY. 5 time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl Champion. 640 tackles and 78.5 sacks regular and post-season over his 13 year career. Named in 2025 as a starting DL on AP's All-Time college football team with Huge Green, Randy White, and Bronko Nagurski. Bob Lilly for sure but also Jefferson High and Oregon Duck Mel Renfro. 1965 consensus All-American. 10 Pro Bowls and 2 Super Bowls. 1996 NFL HOF. Also a 1962 All-American at Oregon in the high hurdles and broad jump, helped lead Oregon to its first track and field National Championship (before hurting his knee in 1963).

"5- Star ATH Xavier Sabb reached 20.3 mph on this 100-yard pick 6, putting his IGA Score in the 87-96 range" 10.69 personal best in the 100m according to athletic.net. For those keeping track 🙂 (from publically available sources): Gatlin Bair: 10.15 Dakorian Moore: 10.40 Carl Williams IV: 10.49 Tradarian Ball: 10.51 Devon Jackson: 10.54 Evan Stewart: 10.58 CaDarius McMiller: 10.59 Hudson Lewis: 10.62 Semaj Stanford: 10.64 Brandon Smith: 10.67 Dorian Brew: 10.75 Trey McNutt: 10.82 Brandon Finney: 10.85 Koi Perich: 10.89 Davon Benjamin: 10.92 Jeremiah McClellan: 10.94 Jalen Lott: 10.99

To get to the upcoming announcements on Rivals YouTube channel for those hanging out for Tae, Hayden, and Gecova I was able to join the show from the link on this page (YouTube did not like the direct link). On3Rivals Summer Signing Day: Full commitment schedule, anno...Nine top prospects from around the country will announce their college decision on July 1 as part of the Rivals Summer Signing Day special.

I think we took a poke at this a while back? Since bringing the Georgia defense to Oregon, over four seasons, both Oregon and Georgia have exactly 122 total sacks. That is about 30.5 per year (Oregon had 30 in 2025-2026). In the last 8 seasons, Georgia has had between 20-37 sacks 7/8 times, the only outlier being the 2021 team that had 49 sacks, which famously had 4 future 1st round NFL draft picks on the DL: T.Walker, Wyatt, Davis, Carter and 2 future 1st round NFL draft picks at LB in: Q.Walker and N.Smith, plus a pair of future 3rd round picks: Dean, Channing. Oregon's front is pretty loaded this year, but 2021 Georgia was more like on the "all-time historical great kind of loaded" scale. On average, it suggests maybe 30-32 sacks per year should be expected from this D, based on the 12 seasons of data (in keeping with a philosophy that at its core is a lot of "bend-but-don't-break"). That isn't to say more sacks wouldn't be great, only maybe not what the scheme tends to normally generate. Advanced stats have "havoc rate", which is basically how much a defense is able to disrupt an offense by generating negative plays and pressure. It is somewhat hard to find, but one site that looks pretty good (cfdb) has the following numbers (generally a havoc rate of 20% or more is considered very good): Oregon: 2022: 15.1% 2023: 17.2% 2024: 19.3% 2025: 18.2% Georgia: 2022: 16.0% 2023: 17.1% 2024: 15.7% 2025: 15.1% For comparison, Indiana was 23.2% this year and 22.0% last year under Cignetti and Haines. Texas Tech was 23.3% this year with Bailey, Height, Hunter, and Rodriguez, after being at 13.7% the year prior. They further break the number into how much the front contributes to the havoc and Oregon's fronts have been: 7.8% 9.3% 11.5% 9.6% Georgia: 10.3% 9.7% 11.0% 8.1% Indiana's fronts have been 14.5% and 16.0% and Tech's 15.0% this last season. I think there might be some evidence in all this that Oregon and Georgia's scheme by design trades off less havoc (pressure) than someone like Indiana or Tech (for more safety on the back end). Borrowing from that great 2021 Georgia D (and all those sacks), its havoc rate was still only 20.2% and 12.1% for its front. Very good but not Indiana or Tech good. That may indicate having even great front players still trails behind an overall great pressure scheme (and huge jumps should likely be viewed as outliers). 🤷‍♂️ I could be wrong though 🙂🙂🙂

I haven't seen a lot of detailed breakdown on the 2026 OL yet this off-season; and, with all the shuffling around, the Spring game apparently didn't provide much insight. From what I've gathered, the OT situation is about the opposite of last season though. The replacement OT last year came in as solid run blockers with questions about consistency in pass protection (World with the ability to anchor against power rushers and Harkey with questions about lateral mobility against speed rushers). This year, both Crader and Gernorris (if it ends up being Wilson at RT), both come in with purported strong skill sets as pass blockers (with both so far considered greater works in progress as run blockers). While not exactly much evidence of anything, we do have one start by Gernorris against Iowa where he received an 82.8 PFF pass blocking grade (54.1 run blocking) and Crader 85.4 pass blocking (44.6 run blocking) against USC. So, maybe a small bit of confirming evidence? I think both Ponch and Luli have graded out well as pass blockers. Not sure about the other spot; but, if it is Utu, Tofi, or Iheanacho, it will be a giant (330+ pound) highly rated kid with strong feet. With Fox having up to three more years at LT, it sort of makes sense one of Tofi and Nacho starts out as a RT and the other OG? All could be shifted aroung down the road? It seems like the makings of an OL that has some struggles early on, getting everyone up in arms, but by the end if the year develops a lot. It could also be 5 OL starters all as original Duck HS recruits, without a transfer or JC. Maybe the first time since 2017? That is been put as a big plus in overall OL play in some analysis.

2004 against Oregon State 🙂

Tough to not pick Haloti. Running down a screen against 1,300 yard RB Wendell Mathis in 2005 at 340 pounds.

As well, if one were to put together a rough best-guess second team on defense, it would be 11/11 Blue Chip recruits, all top 275 nationally (247 Composite). Depth. Rushing (#45), Breyland (#58), Robinson (#262), Wyatt (#202), Nix (#178), Williams (#199), Offord (#17), Scott (#36), Woodyard (#116), McNutt (#73), Benjamin (#123).

This is a big one 🙂🙂

Good stuff. One of those questions that keeps coming up, but I don't know if there is a consensus answer? What has happened the last two seasons against Ohio State and Indiana in the playoffs? Not losing those games so much, but showing up and getting blasted. I have been looking at theories (better than rewatching the games) and I haven't found much so I have sort of settled on just simple physical and mental wear (and thus players being more susceptable to being injured or at least banged up). Two possible causes come to mind. • Long intense practices with regular hitting combined with what often appear to be many full day practice schedules The 2024 Jabbar Muhammed was quoted (who had been in practice systems at Oklahoma State and Washington before Oregon): "One thing I wanted to get better at was my physicality and you have no choice but to do that here, so it was a perfect match for me." When further asked about the difference in environments between Oregon and his other stops he said: "It's way different, you are hitting and rat-a-tat-tatting every single day, so it's much different. It's a tough schedule. It's legit all day. I know you see the Tik-Toks and everything, but our camp is really all day. It's lenient in some other programs, but this one is kinda tough." Anecdotally many have possibly noticed in series like Under Construction, Ducks versus Them, and Meet the Flock, there does appear to be a lot of time spent in a variety of activities and meetings. That could be in error, but it does match Muhammed's comments. Compared to maybe Curt Cignetti who has said any practice over 90 minutes is too long and a reported "go home" culture (rather than requiring players to be in the football facility constantly, he prefers short and organized meetings, and when the day's tasks are complete, telling the players and coaches to go home, recover, and recalibrate). There is a video of a former Cignetti player talking about sometimes 80 minute practices that never exceeded 1:50 and some practices being walk through only. The former Les Miles player interviewing says all their practice were in pads and M/H were always 2 to 2 1/2 hours and U/W were all 3 hours with full contact. There is another Cignetti video with Urban Meyer where he says he has never used more than 13 of his 15 allowed Spring practices and never used all 25 of his allowed Fall practices. He says simply "I'm trying to keep them fresh and healthy." Chip was also I believe known for preferring short-paced high energy practices, with Oregon being overall relatively healthy from 2009-2012, highlighted by only about a handful of lost starts from the 22 starters all of the 2010 run. • Air travel In 2024, when Oregon arrived at the Rose to play tOSU, it had put in 17,250 air miles on the season (with relatively short trips to Oregon State and UCLA). In 2025, Oregon arrived in Atlanta to meet Indiana with 24,280 air miles. Oregon's 5 away games in 2026 have 15,560 air miles. With post season travel, it again could be 20,000+. In 2027, Oregon's 5 B1G games require 13,400 air miles without the now replaced Waco trip. With the trip it would have been 16,700. In 2024, with tOSU having made the trip out to Eugene, had 7,555 air miles traveled at Rose Bowl kickoff to 17,250 for Oregon. The Eugene trip alone was 55% of their travel total. In 2025, despite Indiana also coming out to Eugene, it was 11,010 to 24,280. Indiana's trip to Eugene trip plus their Rose Bowl trip to play Alabama was 67% of their total. Pure fan message board kind of talk, hope the staff is looking at how much time is spent on things and weighing the longer term benefit of dialing it back a bit? Especially when considering being stuck with all the flight miles. If the season is going to go from August to the middle of January, maybe get them some more rest and kick them out of the facility more at least through October (first 8 games). I don't consider this a DL fault, maybe a still younger coach with a lot of energy, that naturally sees the time available and wants to thrown in anything he thinks will help, when the best help might just be boring old free time and rest. Again fan perception, in late September Dan had the team with its hair on fire ready to run through a brick wall in State College for Penn State. By January 9 in Atlanta, it really looked different: flat, banged up, and even Dan looked a bit subdued and even tired in his pregame interview. That and 7,600 air miles flown over like 9-10 days to get to Miami and back and then back down to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl kickoff.