FOOTBALL THOUGHTS:

TV Rules?

The B1G has made a hire to replace Kevin Warren and it is puzzlingly interesting. By hiring former MLB and CBS Sports Executive Tony Petitti as the next commissioner, the conference has positioned itself uniquely. Kevin Warren proved that the B1G really did want to look as close to a professional sports league as possible – and now they have hired a television sports executive to run their conference. Not an academician. Not a longtime athletics administrator. Not even a former politician.

The interesting thing here is that the conference just negotiated its long-term television rights and is seemingly set for a while when it comes to revenue. But as I have been saying for some time – even if nothing happens now with further expansion, the future is all about a model that resembles the NFL more so than the old days of college football. And while we can lament this loss of innocence, in some ways, if college football creates a sort of ‘Super 64’ setup, it will more closely resemble the regional game that many remember so fondly with exceptional matchups and more tradition than we have known for at least the last 15 years.
I cannot say for sure that the B1G is going to expand again before the Pac-12 finishes its next television rights deal, but I don’t think that realignment will stop if the Pac-1X does sign a new television rights deal. That deal will be in the four-to-six-year time frame and then we will face this all over again.

There is a pattern that might be somewhat discernible here: the last three conference commissioner hires (Brett Yormark, George Kliavkoff, and now Petitti) have a television background. That does not necessarily mean that each has been successful, but it shows that the broader organization of college athletics is thinking more like an entertainment business than an amateur athletic association.

Clear Message

On Tuesday Oregon head coach Dan Lanning mentioned that the Ducks need ‘to start a little bit faster at practice so we finish with great competition. We got to start that way.’ This was not the first mention of a slow start to practice this season and I would expect it won’t be the last.

Last season, Oregon averaged 38.8 points per game – but they tended to start slowly. Oregon scored just 85 points in the first quarter last season. That equates to less than a touchdown per game in the first quarter. Exceptional ‘middle’ quarter performance (187 in the 2nd, 135 in the 3rd quarters) made a significant difference for the Ducks a season ago, but they need faster starts to games.

They also need stronger finishes after giving up more fourth-quarter points than they scored last season. Some of that is skewed by a late-season fourth-quarter malaise, but it was a season-long issue with Oregon running into a sort of fourth-quarter wall from a scoring perspective.

From our guy Nick Harris in Texas:

Good story here from Gabriel on Evan Williams, how older brother Bennett influenced his transfer from Fresno State to Oregon and what Dan Lanning's message has been to him.

Some recruiting notes for you

* EddyPierre-Louis is the No. 21 overall player in the nation and the No. 2 ranked guard. He will be visiting Eugene this weekend and that is a pretty big deal. He is the kind of elite interior OL that teams covet – especially teams that want to be able to run the ball late in games to seal out wins.

Getting him to Eugene has been a major goal for the Oregon staff and A’lique Terry has done a phenomenal job building the relationship with Pierre-Louis.

But the Tampa Catholic standout is also going to be a very difficult pull for Oregon. Right now the odds on favorites for his commitment all share his home state in common. But I like this visit and it sends a strong message that the Ducks can go into Florida and compete with the SEC for an elite interior offensive lineman. Florida seems like the trendy pick now and Miami is always a threat for elite offensive linemen, but I think that the Ducks have a chance to compete here and this is going to be a weekend that tells us a lot about how the Ducks will stand up in recruiting elite linemen from SEC territory.

* Ryan Pellum is a name that we have talked about frequently, and he is scheduled to be in Eugene for another unofficial visit this week. In fact, he should be in Eugene Wednesday. This one has turned into an Oregon versus USC battle with the Trojans getting a couple of unofficial visits in the last two months.

Despite a ton of momentum for what is a home town school for Pellum, the Ducks have done a lot to stay on his list and I think part of the reason Oregon did not push hard for some other athletes that were in town recently is a desire to keep Pellum as a priority.

Pellum is not going to head into his senior season without a decision so getting another chance to continue building the long-term relationship is important so this midweek visit will give him a chance to see the new staff in action as coaches and give them a chance to spend a lot of quality time with Pellum.

* I know Michael Van Buren will be on town again this weekend, but that does not change my belief that Luke Moga is going to commit to Oregon. I think it would be a big surprise of Van Buren picked Oregon as Penn State has been recruiting him harder and longer than anyone else. The Ducks have done a really good job building a bond with Moga and the feeling here is that the Ducks are the team to beat.

* Miles Lockhart has set a commitment date, and though he has Oregon in his final group of four schools, it would be a major shock if he chose anyone other than Ohio State. But this is a name to keep an eye on for later – just in case he has to make a different choice.

* Brandon Baker is going to be in Eugene for the Spring Game. As recruiting profile has picked up, so too has interest from every corner of the nation. I think this is one that A’lique Terry can still find a way to win, but this battle is going to be very tough, It is a good get for Oregon to get him in town for the Spring Game.

* If you did not see it, four-star wide receiver James Madison made a trip to Eugene early this week. The 6-3, 190-pound St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, FL) star is an intriguing prospect given the other names that Oregon has recruited for wide receiver.

While it might seem like he is a longshot to some, he has known Lanning a long time and has already been to Eugene once last April.

A lesser-known fact is that Madison is originally from Lanning's neck of the woods – Kansas City. That is going to have some value as Madison continues the recruiting process. He talked with Rivals after that visit and shared his thoughts on Lanning.

“I’ve known head coach Dan Lanning for a long time, so just knowing what type of guy he is and how he’s trying to build the program is really comfortable,” shared Madison. “Being able to feel like I could go there and know what I’m expected of and know what to do to be able to win.”

Might still be a tough get, but having two unofficial visits speaks volumes to the level of interest on his part.

Here are today's practice interviews as the Ducks returned to the field to continue spring practice. Receivers coach Junior Adams, running back Bucky Irving, DB Steve Stephens IV and defensive lineman Treven Ma'ae spoke with reporters today. All their media sessions are below.


Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Plus here is Gabriel's story from today on the old and new blending together at Oregon on offense this spring to help bring together Will Stein's offense for the Ducks.

Here's a long read on how Will Stein and Bo Nix are collaborating to build their relationship and put together Oregon's 2023 offense:


New Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein knows how productive his predecessor was. He made a point to acknowledge that.

But he also made clear that he's not here to compare himself to Kenny Dillingham at every turn -- he's here to do the job he knows he's qualified to do.

Stein made that distinction subtly Saturday after practice when asked about a comment wide receiver Troy Franklin had made in an interview about his approach being more business-like and less high-energy than Dillingham was during practices.

"I'm me. I'm Will Stein. I've been the same dude, I hope, for a long time. Treat people the right way, coach this game hard, aggressive, passionate, and just I love being around these guys," he said in his first interview of the spring.

Oregon fans are no doubt eager to learn more about exactly who Stein is as an offensive play-caller, as he comes in with limited coordinator experience after serving as the co-OC/QBs coach at UTSA last season and the passing game coordinator/WRs coach there the prior two years.

It's not hard to see why Stein's name caught the attention of Ducks coach Dan Lanning this offseason, after Dillingham left for the head coaching job at Arizona State.

While Oregon ranked 6th nationally last season in total offense at 500.5 yards per game and tied 9th in scoring (38.8 points per game), UTSA ranked 12th at 476.0 YPG and 14th at 36.8 PPG. Stein is a rising up-and-comer in the sport who was going to get a bigger stage at some point if it wasn't the Ducks.

But the reality remains he has everything to prove at the Power 5 level still.

Stein was asked if his quick rise in the profession seems "surreal" to him given that he was the offensive coordinator at Lake Travis High School in Texas just a few years ago (2018-19).

"Yeah, I think it's a little bit misinterpreted that I was in high school ball -- yes, and it was an unbelievable opportunity. But I played major Division I football at quarterback, I coached at Texas, coached at Louisville. So before I got into high school I was a college football coach, went back down to high school to coach a kid named Garrett Wilson, who was a first-round draft pick, a kid named Hudson Card (now the QB at Purdue, previously at Texas) at a 6A Division I school in Texas, which to me is like an FCS-level organization. And then the last three years at the highest level of Conference USA with really great players that went toe-to-toe with some really big-time Power 5 conference foes," Stein said.

"The game of football hasn't changed. It's about blocking, it's about tackling, it's about getting really good players, and here at Oregon I might just be working with a little bit different level player and obviously on a grander stage, but it's something I'm accustomed to and ready to go."

Stein played at Louisville from 2008-12 and then served as a GA at his alma mater in 2013, a quality control analyst in 2014 and a QC analyst at Texas from 2015-17.

At UTSA in San Antonio, Texas, Stein shared OC duties last season with Matt Mattox, who then left for the offensive line coaching job at Purdue before stepping down abruptly this spring for personal reasons. Mattox was previously the run game coordinator at UTSA, making clear how the areas of expertise delineated between he and Stein.

Together, under head coach Jeff Traylor, they had the college football world taking notice of a Roadrunners program that won 23 games over the last two seasons after being a middling FBS program for the first nine years of existence in San Antonio.

"You know, the universe works in mysterious ways. I just did my job to the best of my ability at UTSA. I was where my feet were, I was not looking to leave. I was presented with an opportunity to interview for this job with Coach Lanning. I'd like to think I did a pretty good job to land this position," Stein said.

Stein now takes over a Ducks offense that boasted a prolific ground attack but was ultimately led by quarterback Bo Nix, who delivered with both his arm and his legs while passing for 3,593 yards, 29 TDs and 7 INTs while rushing for 510 yards and 14 TDs (plus a receiving TD) last fall.

Before Nix chose to return for his fifth and final season of college football, putting off the NFL for another year, he and Stein talked on the phone.

"Getting on the phone with him initially, I was a little mind-blown with just his intensity and what he was looking for from a coach and an offensive standpoint," Stein said. "He asked questions that were extremely mature and well thought out. He's made me better as a coach. He puts me in a position to really think as a coach, which I really appreciate."

Said Nix: "At the time it was one of those things I still didn't know my decision yet, so ... after that conversation I knew we got a good one and now seeing him in person, getting to hear his thoughts, seeing what he likes from the pass game, run game, different auxiliary stuff, it's just fun learning ball, fun talking with guys like who are like-minded, smart, good guys and they want to have success themselves."

They also found commonality in Stein's background as a college quarterback not so long ago and his own experience having to learn different offenses through the years -- like Nix has had to do over and over again between his time at Auburn and Oregon.

Stein made clear he is looking to build off of what Nix did so well last year -- not disrupt that momentum and reinvent the offense.

But with that process comes a mutual sharing of ideas.

"He's brought in different things that I haven't really done before so I'm really eager to listen to him and say, 'OK, how do you do this? How do you do that?' If I just don't know, I want him to teach me as much as he can. That's what he's done a really good job of," Nix said. "He's taken what I know -- we're going to continue to do that -- and he's also taught me things that he knows that have worked well for him. I think collectively we're going to have a great time. It's different when Coach Stein has played the game. He's played for a bunch of different OCs, he's been kind of in my spot, he's been through a lot of different systems. So ... I think he can relate to me from that point of view."

Said Stein: "I think the 2022 Oregon offense is very similar to the style of offense that I'm accustomed to, so coming in here, meeting with Bo, really feeling out ... what he likes in the passing game, what he's comfortable with and then making sure he knows what I'm comfortable with, blending it together with ultimately Coach Lanning's philosophy of running the football, being physically tough, playing clean, dictating tempo and blending it all together."

Stein was asked who have been his biggest influences offensively, and he rattled off just about every coach he's ever played and worked under while noting he's been fortunate to have been shaped by so many accomplished football minds.

"We're really based out of a pro-style offense but with spread principles -- RPOs, run-action pass, play-action pass. I like to think that we're multiple in our personnel groupings and our formations, and we want to be an attacking offense that throws the ball down the field," Stein said.

But he also reiterated it's not so much about him forcing his offensive identity on the Ducks.

"Offensively, our job is to get our best players the ball as many times as possible. Plays are highly overrated -- it's about the players, and here at Oregon we have unbelievable players. I'm really excited to work with them," he said. "... First of all you have to recognize there's some really good players here and they had a lot of success, so how do we build on that? I think we just fine-tune the details, tweak where we need to tweak and then let our kids go play.

"My big thing is set them free -- let's not overcomplicate this game. It's always been about players. We have great players here, put them in really good positions here to make plays, let our quarterback go, we'll have a lot of fun."

Nix said he returned for his final season because he wanted to "exhaust" everything he could do in college and not have any regrets.

In order to do that now, he is working to build the same kind of connection with Stein that he had with Dillingham, who had coached him for a year previously at Auburn and was key to bringing him to Eugene.

That remains an ongoing process but one Nix emphasized he is really encouraged by and enjoying so far.

"He's an easy guy to get along with, knows a lot of ball -- just a great guy, foundational great guy. He's got a great sense of humor, he's serious when he needs to be serious, so I've just enjoyed picking up on some things from him," Nix said. "He's very knowledgeable of the game, very smart, and he's very talented too as a quarterback so it's fun to watch him do some drills and get some visual tendencies. So I'm excited to continue to grow our relationship. Obviously, it's got to be serious from coach to player, but then off the field it can be a good relationship and continue to grow that."

As it relates to Nix, Stein said he wants the veteran QB to remain mobile when the opportunity presents itself.

Again, he is aware of what Nix did last season -- he just wants to build upon that.

"Yeah, I think Bo's numbers last year, if we can get that again this year we'll be in good shape," Stein said.

I was out of contact yesterday as I spent some time catching up with one of my Marine Corps brothers.

Login to view embedded media

Local sprinter continues to set records. Exciting to watch.

https://www.oregonlive.com/highscho...100-meter-sprint-at-arcadia-invitational.html

It's going to look like a very different team next season.

Login to view embedded media

Watched a few minutes of him in the hoop summit. He should be Oregon’s starting pg next year. Has some things to work on but looked really quick to me. On a side note, I guess they lost another coach to OU.(Armon Gates)

Some notes from the weekend:

• Aaron Butler had a really good visit with Oregon this past week and it went about as well as could be expected. The staff laid out a very solid plan for Butler and there was a lot of energy around his potential.
  
  Despite a fantastic visit, this one still feels like Oregon is going to have a difficult time landing the elite playmaker. He has all of the tools to be great – which is why schools like Georgia are so high on him as well. Right now, I just think there are some things working against Oregon landing Butler.
  
  What we need to see, though, is how some of his other visits go. Given that Dan Lanning learned a lot from Kirby Smart, I don’t expect Georgia to drop the ball – and that is still the team that I think leads at this point.
  
  If Oregon can get another visit in the season, that might be a game changer as it would indicate that whatever plan was laid out is something he wants to see more of.
  
  
• Tionne Gray got a lot of attention from the staff while he was in town (was still in town Sunday afternoon), and the kind of one-on-one time he is getting with Tony Tuioti, Tosh Lupoi, and Lanning is going to be important.
  
  Oregon did a phenomenal job on this visit doing everything in their power to show Gray the kind of culture that has been built and what the future looks like. I know he loves that the head coach is a defensive minded coach.
  
  Did they do enough to get a flip from his commitment to Missouri? That remains to be seen. I get the feeling that the Ducks have at least given him something to think about with the visit and that this is the kind of elite defender that Lanning knows he needs.
  
  
• Federal Way (WA) two-way standout Rahshawn Clark also had a very good visit in Eugene. While Clark is an elite athlete with better long term prospects on the defensive side of the ball, he really wants to play offense and the Will Stein offense is something that really stands out with the 6-0, 180-pounds athlete.
  
  There are a lot of people who feel like he will stay with his hometown school and eventually commit to Washington. Given the number of elite wide receivers still on the board for Oregon, this is one where I am not sure how hard the Ducks will push.
  
  
• One name that made it down recently for an unofficial visit that has not yet posted anything on social media is West Salem High School OL Trent Ferguson. Some will wonder why a 6-7, 300-pound offensive lineman who has better than expected feet is unranked. The answer is that he has barely played football.
  
  He played mostly basketball and Lacrosse growing up and did not suit up for football until last season. He showed enough to (then) OL coach Adrian Klemm to get an offer and new OL coach A’lique Terry has done tremendous work building the relationship. I think that this one is Oregon’s to lose, and I also think that he will see his ranking skyrocket once the 2023 season starts.
  
  
• There were a few other visitors, all had a great visit, but at the moment, I don’t believe some of those players have a committable offer at this point will do some more digging for Wednesday.

I was listening to a podcast and the cable network The CW came up as a Pac10 possibility
They were recently purchased by Nextstar Media(nxst) a relatively large player. They are redoing programming. They just added LIV golf to their portfolio Could they be the third leg?

Login to view embedded media
Scott wrote about him this week, but wanted to pass along this update on 4-star former USC commit Aaron Butler who is visiting the Ducks over the next few days on an unofficial trip. His trip will span a few days, and he hopes to learn a lot more about the program and the plans for him should he choose to play for Dan Lanning, Will Stein and Oregon. He counts Lanning and Stein as two of the top three coaches he has built a strong relationship with in the process and he's expressed plenty of excitement about getting to spend some time with them this week.

Butler doesn't shy away from discussing the importance of NIL and making connections on that side as well and said his hope is to spend some time with Phil Knight at some point as one of his goals is to eventually become a Nike athlete.

He'll take official visits to Georgia and Colorado by the end of the month and could squeeze in a trip to Alabama as well before April is over. He already visited Colorado last month. All four schools plus Washington make up his top five.

"A head coach who you could treat like your big brother. You can talk to him about anything. You can be open with him, you can be honest with him, you can just be yourself. He accepts you. He's just a cool dude. That's what a lot of other coaches don't have. It's not always about that but the relationship piece with the head coach, it matters."

Former Oregon TE Matt Mariota was on the sidelines at Oregon's spring football practice and intends to start working for Oregon's coaching staff. Mariota played for the Ducks from 2014 to 2018 and then headed to England for his Master's Degree at the University of Leeds this past fall. He was eligible to play for Leeds' American Football team this fall and did so. Now back in Eugene, he's working with Oregon's staff to join the program shortly as an intern and get into coaching.

Bullpen gives up a 3 run knock in the 7th trying to hold onto a 2-1 lead. The Beavs have slowed the hot hitting Ducks down! The 11 game win streak is bye bye!
Rubber match tomorrow!

Everybody seemed to get in on the fun...17 hits including 5 homers! Hansen with the win to go to 15-4!

Here are the interviews from today, including the first with new OC Will Stein.

I'm working on notes/takeaways now:

Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

More could get added as the week moves along, but I have these two down as being in town this weekend:

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media