Mitchell examines the offensive performance by the Ducks against a high-level opponent today.

How do those down on Bo Nix feel about him after today’s performance against BYU? I think he will be OK for us.

Should get a bump after this.

Scott with some further thoughts from the weekend:


I'm preparing a breakdown of the PFF grades, snap counts and stats that will be up in a couple hours.

Some one needs to wake him up.

My best friend from NC went to Boone. Fun place, especially with this stuff every weekend.

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Might want to book another flight home

Nebraska blew two double-digit leads and Frost is now 5-21 in single digit games

This week as we host a very early tailgate (and do so serving loaded tots for a breakfast tailgate), I was thinking about a different visiting team that really brought out a lot of good fans. I had gone to Tennessee in 2010 and tried to get some tailgating time in, but the shuttle bus from my hotel got me to the stadium too close to game time to find a couple of the tailgates to which I was invited.

During the leadup to the game, however, I had met (online) a Tennessee fan who was a member of our Tennessee Rivals site named evol (I now know him as Ernie and we are friends to this day). Ernie was very cordial and a lot of fun to hang out with. He used to randomly shout ‘Eff Lane Kiffin’ following his tumultuous single season in Knoxville.

In 2013 when Tennessee made the trip to Autzen, I had already moved over to the Boy Scout lot for our tailgate spot. As anyone who has come to one of the tailgates there knows – it is not easy to find the first time you try to get to our spot. The good thing about the spot, though, is that it is a corner spot so I have a lot of extra space to set up tables, grill, food, chairs, the television, and (back then) a generator.

Ernie brought about 10 people with him to the tailgate. Going in, they were all pretty sure that the Ducks were the better team, but were hoping that there was some magic on the defensive side of the ball and that the Volunteers would be able to make some plays defensively, keep it close, and see what happens.

That did not happen. But for a brief moment in the first quarter, Ernie had hope. Tennessee stopped Oregon on their first possession then jumped to a 7-0 lead after getting the ball at their own 20-yard line. Oregon went on a 59-0 run as Marcus Mariota threw for 456 yards and 4 touchdowns. Tennessee scored late to make the final score 59-14.

Ernie did not expect the game to be that big of a blowout which – at the time – was the largest loss by a Volunteer football team in over 100 years (a 48-0 loss to Mississippi State in 1910). Oregon would finish with 687 yards of total offense. It was the first year of the Butch Jones era and there was a sincere belief that Jones could return Tennessee to their glory days of the Fulmer era among those we spoke with that day.

What I remember most, though, is just how friendly the Tennessee fans were in both 2010 and 2013. Ernie, Jana, and a host of other Vols fans came to our tailgate, shared food, drinks, laughs, and football with us. They hugged us like family and we all really bonded.

I used to see Jana on occasion (her husband at the time was a sports writer and she went to some events with him) and she is still cordial every time I see her. I have not seen her in a couple of years, but we stay in contact. Ernie seems to have let the Kiffin year go from his memory, and I have watched from afar as his family has grown up and he has become a grandfather. He is a really cool dude and every time I see the picture from that tailgate, I am transported back to that day.

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This Week:

Space 6543 again
With a 12:30 start, the tailgate will be around 8:30am.
What's on the menu? LOADED TOTS! WE tried this out (I think) last year and it was a massive hit with everyone. We will have tater tots, bacon, eggs, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa so you can load your tots anyway you want (or, really, maybe you just want some eggs and bacon). If we are going to get to the stadium this early, might as well have some breakfast while we are there!

If you want Mimosa's or Bloody Mary's to go along, you might have to bring your own since I will not have the space to make all that as well! (Next year our hope is to tailgate in the RV which will give us a LOT more options for food and beverages!)

The picture here is from that 2013 Tennesse tailgate:

Some other reflections this morning.




I have always loved fall. As a boy, the cool, crisp air came with football and the World Series. Whenever I go outside on a fall evening the smell of wood-burning fireplaces always transports me to football practice as a kid.

As I am now firmly in the fall of life, it takes on a unique duality to experience the onset of the season.

Last season, as I walked to and from the press box, I knew those would be the final steps for me in one way, shape, or form. Each game was one step closer to returning to the stands and experiencing Oregon football from a perspective that I had not really known since the 2011 season.

I guess that is not entirely accurate. In 2018 my wife and I were living in South Carolina, and we returned to Oregon for a 10-day vacation. We timed it to coincide with two consecutive home games – the second of which was the win over Washington. That experience was truly enjoyable.

This season, my 25th with season tickets for Oregon, I am taking Friday of home game weeks off to help prep for tailgates. It has made these first two home games feel even more special for me. The family that sits behind us has been there for all 25 of the years I have had season tickets. I have technically known them longer than I have known my wife! I have watched the children grow up with yearly changes. Brian was just 12 when I first started sitting in front of the family – now he is 37 with a 6-year-old child of his own attending games and sitting behind us; he lived in Charlotte for a while and now has gray hair. It is a surreal experience to watch others change from afar.

I remember what it was like as a kid. I lived off Harlow Road near what is now Gateway Mall in a house close enough to the stadium for a walk to games. I collected the old wax paper cups from games and put the score of each game on the cup. I remember walking up at game time and picking up five-dollar tickets, sitting in the end zone, and working my way to midfield in a half-empty stadium. I remember how thrilling it was to see a victory – irrespective of margin. I was there when USC receiver Jeff Simmons (did not) score what would prove to be the game-tying score against number one ranked USC in October of 1980. Sitting about 5 yards from where the play happened. I rejoiced in a tie.

Expectations have changed since then and that has taken some of the joy out of the game for many. Some watch now not satisfied with any win but expecting dominance. There is nothing really wrong with that, but when I start to agree with Nick Saban, I wonder where this is all really leading.

Following the Washington State game last season, I was thinking a lot about the Emily Dickinson poem Hope. As I left the press box just past midnight that night, I took my stroll down a little slower; I looked around. It was an unseasonably warm November night. There were still fans strolling around the stadium and I was transported back in time.

Hope is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul-
And sings the tune without the words-
And never stops – at all –

There was that nascent sense of permanent hope around. The stroll was one of purposeful remembrance of a simpler time and an appreciation for the moment. Each moment is lost for eternity unless it is embraced in thoughts and deeds. Those sunny days we wish would never end; for me, that is football season. Sure, there are some downs along with the ups; we get caught up in the minutiae of a season; of each game and sometimes we forget to let the garden of future hope grow; we sink into a season of imagined hell.

That walk felt sort of bittersweet; I knew then that it was the penultimate trip to the Autzen Stadium press box for me; I thought back to the first time I began to write for this site; the first time I sat in the press box; every press conference; every moment in the sun. It was in that moment that it felt almost as if time was standing still. I was not in solitude; not alone. I did not speak. I absorbed the joy around me; the exuberance; the splendor of not knowing.

Fall is definitely on our doorstep. After learning how to be in the stands for an entire game again, hope seems abundant still.

I think that Oregon’s QB position is very talented. Of the three, I’ve heard the most hype regarding Bo Nix and the least regarding Butterfield.
I assume that the most likely order would be 1) Nix 2) Thompson 3) Butterfield

I want the Ducks to pick the QB that gives them the best chance to win. I imagine that the coaches have been “tight lipped” on the depth order of the three. I think that all three are super talents. I kind of have a bias for the Northern Californian, but my real bias is for the Ducks.

To anyone out there who has some insight on this competition and how it is going. Please reply to this thread!

Bucky, Whittingham, Nix, Cota, Rogers, and other DL's were key to the win.

Mitchell's recap:

Just flipped over to see UCLA score on Pac-12 network. I know the Rose Bowl is a huge venue but it looks like 10.000-15.000 fans. And they are behind S Alabama

Final score???

FROM CANZANO:

THE BILL: In mid-June, Texas spent $280,000 to host nine recruits, including five-star QB Arch Manning. The spread included first-class travel and red-carpet treatment. Recruits and their families stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel, where Queen Elizabeth II once slept. Cakes, sundaes, ice sculptures, lobster, rib-eye steaks, a mini-cruise, Top Golf, and breakfast at coach Steve Sarkisian’s house were among the treats.

Of the nine recruits present, Texas locked up four, including the prized Manning.

Cost-per-commitment: $70,000.

Among those on the trip who didn’t pick Texas? My’Keil Gardner, a three-star defensive lineman, who chose Oregon.

Jacob Hamre with a good breakdown of what Oregon is up against Saturday:

Message board content question
I have been on this forum for about 20 years and have noticed a significant change over the last several years. We used to gain information about injuries, recovery, insight about the program, players from insiders or other people on these boards. I don’t see any information on the threads of the first Duck Club that provides any of this.

Am I missing something or is this information just not available. Seven McGee was injured, what was his injury and is he coming back. On Twitter it appears that may be it was a cramp, but there’s no confirmation . Justin Flowe and Stephen Jones were held out of practice a day or two ago according to Twitter, none of that information is on this board.

Is there another place to get this information? Or is it just impossible to get this information because there are no longer any people with access to the program, coaches etc.

I’m not trying to be critical, however there just doesn’t seem to be much information about playing football and the players on the threads , just information about college rankings, Justin Herbert’s autographs, press conference links and not much information about football and the game being played.

DSA Are used to be the go to place to find information about players, injuries, football that you couldn’t get anywhere else.maybe the University of Oregon controlling practices and media has eliminated that, however it be really nice to get back to a message board where we talk about Oregon football And not just links to articles.

We're fortunate to have two photographs contributing for us this year. We had a new contributor Hudson Downard at the game last week and I didn't get his photos until last night, but I still wanted to pass them along. I'll make sure we expedite the turnaround moving forward. We'll have Scott Kelley shooting this week and should have a full gallery up Sunday.

Interesting how quickly things change.

Pre-season, there was a lot of talk about how the Ducks may be the most talented team in the league...how Mario left the cupboard well-stocked.

We get blown out by GA and now it seems as though everywhere I look they are saying how our talent is so lacking.

Compared to GA maybe...but my how the media has flipped.