I have a Duck-Buddy who wondered what the majority of us Oregon fans were thinking on this issue--if the game goes well for the Ducks....do we think Dan Lanning will run the score up on Boise State to make a national statement of which can help us as the season progresses?

Or do we think he will not, and use this opportunity to play the reserves, and get them some playing time at game-speed?

Fox Crader

I vote for him playing the reserves, because we MUST build depth. It is a long season, and we need the great young talent to get confidence in a game, and thus be ready to start later. Fox Crader gave himself, the coaches, and the fans great confidence with his play in the USC game last year, but he gave us glimpses in earlier games when he came in briefly.

Which do you choose? Both help the team one way or the other...

USCs 2nd team is horrible. It will be interesting to see how Oregons 2nd unit looks, how much drop off.

With all the hype around Oregon, sure hope they can start pulling the 1s early 3rd. Dan will pull them for sure.

Maybe we can have both?

Limit injury potential on starters when game is out of reach, and develop reserves and younger players. Build up the true freshmen that have shined in camp to get experience in games. Some of them sound like potential starters or major rotation players by later in the season. Need to keep starters fresher for a 16 game schudule

I want to see the 2nd and 3rd stringers come in and dominate in the 2nd half.

According to sources, OR has a blue chip roster rate of 83% or #4 in FBS.

Boise St has a blue chip rate of 1%, good for #84.

If our backups don’t dominate, even against their starters, we have a problem.

Lanning will run it up as much as he can in the first 2.5 quarters and then he'll let the reserves out. And I say he'll run it up not out of a vindictive desire to embarrass but to give his ones practice of playing full speed in a game. Half way through the third if the score is lopsided the ones are coming out entirely.

Lanning doesn't care about the spread. He'll get his reserves in to see what they can do.

Both things can, and I hope are true. As Dr. Hilarius stated

2 hours ago, Dr Hilarius said:

I want to see the 2nd and 3rd stringers come in and dominate in the 2nd half.

I don’t think the Ducks will get a chance to get too deep into the roster. There are three things in life that are certain. Death, taxes and Boise State playing great against Oregon. I’ll wait to give my prediction later in the week, but I think it will be a one-score game.

Part of the reasoning is BSU’s consistency and it being the first game of the season. The other part is Oregon’s new coordinators. They’re not new to the program, but I think they’ll experience some growing pains. Especially if they try to run a vanilla game plan.