Big game for the Ducks today at 1:30 PST on ESPN2.

UO vs UConn game notes

(has anyone ever seen a bright, sunny night?)

Anyway...I woke up at o'dark thirty and had nothing better to do after fixing the coffee and letting the dogs out, so I read a bunch of Oregon football message boards. LOTS of people calling for the firing of Helfrich and his staff. Lots of people moaning about how they can't coach. Lots of people giving lots of reasons for why they want him terminated. Lots of people repeating reasons others gave as if that made them more powerful.

Well, being a BIT of a contrarian...I started thinking. Why are they all down on him - I mean, besides the clearly obvious part about him not being named Chip and not (somehow) doing the impossible and winning the National Championship every year? Well, many of those "Lots" told me why...It's because we are Oregon and we don't lose games. (I must have missed that memo, I guess.)

Ok...that made me think even more. We lost to Nebraska by three. We lost to Colorado by three. We lost to California by three (in double overtime). We have one of the greenest (not talking colors of unis) teams around. We've had key units decimated by injuries and found our senior leadership morphing into freshmen and sophomores making the plays. We have 4 wins so far this year with those three games in the loss column in a quintessential "rebuilding" year....and all this is being held over Helfrich's head.

We had a kid that overestimated his own abilities make poor decisions on extra points vs. Nebraska. If we convert 2 of those, we win. Somehow, that is laid at the feet of the Head Coach.

We had our QB throw the absolute worst fade route (which was open) he has EVER thrown and got it intercepted vs Colorado. Somehow that is laid at the feet of the Head Coach.

We had our Freshman QB throw a rope at our WR (who was open) and the LB make a great play to intercept the pass in double overtime vs.Cal. Somehow THAT is laid at the feet of the Head Coach.

Three games. All decided (one way or the other) by plays made or not made by the guys on the field. Convert 2 more XPs vs Nebraska, throw the fade correctly (or even close to it) against Colorado and put a little more air under the throw at California and we're going for win #8 against OSU and people are looking at our injuries, suspensions, dismissals, etc. and saying what a TERRIFIC job our staff did in what was obviously a rebuilding year.

Three games - the outcome of each hinging upon performance by players, but being hung around the neck of the Head Coach like an albatross as a reason for firing him. Firing him - a head coach that (with a record-setting, nausea-inducing defense the last season and carrying over into this) came into this year AVERAGING 11 wins per year.

There are LOTS of coaches who go their entire careers and NEVER have an 11 win season; but, we have one (count them...it doesn't take many fingers) season where we fall back into the pack (for very clear and definite reasons that were clear and definite BEFORE the season started)...and people pick up pitchforks, light torches and scream at the rooftops to fire the Head Coach.

I thought about that, re-read some of the message boards, and figured, "Either some of these posters know NOTHING about what they're saying, or they're certifiable." I was pretty sure which side I'd lay my money on (although, with some, I might hedge my bet and put money on both sides). I just hope our powers-that-be in the AD know more than the average fan.

I have GOT to find something better to do when I wake up early!

with Malaota, Kamatule, and Mafileo all done, are there any other DT recruits they are chasing? Pili? Anyone else?

247 reports this San Francisco City OL has an Oregon offer. Check out the HUDL film on this guy, 6-6, 295, has a mean streak.

In this weekly feature on Rivals.com, we take a look at the weekend’s standout performances from both college and pro football, and pick one player from each star rankings group to spotlight.

This week's former 4-star is Oregon WR Darren Carrington. Here's the section on him:

As a recruit: Carrington had his share of Power Five offers but despite being from San Diego, he was overlooked by both USC and UCLA. He committed to Oregon during the summer prior to his senior year and stuck with the Ducks despite a late flirtation with Arizona State.

What he did this weekend: It’s been a season to forget for the Ducks, but Carrington made the game-winning catch in the school’s 30-28 upset victory over then-No. 12 ranked Utah. Carrington hauled in a 17-yard pass with two seconds left on the clock that was initially ruled incomplete before being overturned and ruled a touchdown. The roller coaster play sums Carrington’s career, which has included stellar play but also off-field issues. His four-star ranking appears to be spot on and he’s likely to get a shot at the NFL down the road.

You can read the complete article here.

Hopefully a better result in the Breakfast Bracket.

Oregon fell from No. 4 to No. 13 in the Associated Press poll this week, and the Ducks may depart the Top 25 next week.

After losing to unranked Baylor last week, the Ducks fell 65-61 to unranked Georgetown in the first round of the Maui Invitational on Monday. The Ducks (2-2) went into the consolation bracket to face Tennessee (1-2) on Tuesday.

Oregon hoped to face No. 16 Wisconsin in the second round and maybe No. 4 North Carolina in the title game, but it instead faces the Volunteers in an early-morning matchup.

"It doesn't matter because we are unranked now, so we don't have to worry about that," Ducks coach Dana Altman said. "I don't know who the heck we think we are. We are unranked, so we just have to go play. We better get guys to step up and play a lot better. If we don't make some adjustments and play fundamentally sound, things won't go well for us (Tuesday) either."

Oregon fell behind Georgetown 38-21 at halftime and rallied to take a 43-42 lead before losing the game.

"We've got to have energy to start the game," Ducks guard Casey Benson said. "It was a big comeback, but we did not finish it off. That's kind of the way it went."

The good news for Oregon was that all-Pac-12 junior forward Dillon Brooks returned against the Hoyas after missing three games following offseason foot surgery. He had eight points in just 13 minutes off the bench as he works his way back into the lineup.

"It's good to have his passion on the floor," Altman said. "He's trying to do a lot of things. We held him to the 10 or 15 minutes that we thought we'd play him, and he was mad because he wanted to play more. We are going to stick with the plan that we have for him."

Tennessee fell behind Wisconsin 12-0 before rallying to take a 46-44 lead, but then lost by 12.

"As you would expect with so many young guys, we came out a little bit jumpy to start the game," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "I thought we showed terrific mental toughness fighting back against an experienced team."

Guard Shembari Phillips led the Volunteers with 16 points against the Badgers. Guards Robert Hubbs III and Detrick Mostella added 12 points apiece.

"It was very encouraging," Phillips said. "As people know, we are a young team so we had to fight back through some adversity today."

Through their first two games -- an 82-69 loss to Chattanooga and a 103-94 victory over Appalachian State -- the Volunteers had five players averaging in double figures: guard Jordan Bone (14 points per game), Hubbs (13.5), guard Lamonte Turner (13.5), forward Grant Williams (10.5) and forward Kyle Alexander (10). Phillips' average is up to 11.7 after his performance against Wisconsin.

Hubbs is a senior. The Vols' five other top scorers are all either freshmen or sophomores.

Underway in Maui. Big game for the Ducks that they are expected to win.

There are some points in this editorial that have not been covered elsewhere due to interviews with football coaches out there.


http://fishduck.com/2016/11/regarding-helfrich-how-much-say-should-a-fan-have/


If you want to learn more football—and enjoy some good plays on defense by the team and particularly Jimmie Swain, then today’s analysis might be fun for you. Read over there and comment here as usual.

http://fishduck.com/2016/11/middle-linebacker-technique-jimmie-swain-is-making-plays/

Caught up with Charles after the game to talk about what he thought about being ejected and what he did afterwards.

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Nothing earth shattering here. Canzano noted that neither Phil Knight nor Pat Kilkenny were at the game Saturday. I had speculated that they may have been in Terra Haute, IN for the X-Country championships.

I was told that they were not in Indiana for teh X-Country Champs, but was also told that they also do not go to every road game, so reads into their absence what you will, but it is not likely as alarming as implied, but it could be telling. That is a big 'tea leaves' thing and is impossible to read or speculate regarding the intentions/reasons for their absence Saturday.

Perhaps carrington and Freeman, maybe even crosby? Seems to me carrington maybe told he needs another year, but then he is "the best Wr in the nation" lol. Royce probably not much to gain by coming back. I wonder if crosby is healthy enough to impress at the combine, were he to get invited? Anyone know about that?

Oregon at 11 now.

https://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/news/rivals-2017-basketball-team-rankings-update

So, after reading Fish Duck's posts, I am starting to see where our guys sometimes miss their gaps etc.

As I am yelling at the TV the last few weeks (and in person) I'm bitchin' that our guys are messing up.

Then, watching yesterday's game with my gal, I'm telling her that I am so impressed because we have all of these really young guys on our D line and they seem to be getting the gap control thing and they are playing really well.

So she comes back with "maybe its because the young guys listen to the coaches and the older guys do not."

I don't know if thats true, but I laughed out loud and told here that I think that she may well have a vaild point.

Maybe it is that simple.

From the mouth of babes.

Any comments?

Corey

Big game today against the Hoyas tipping off at 1:30 PST.

MAUI, Hawaii - Oregon and Georgetown keep facing off in far-away places.

The fourth-ranked Ducks will meet the Hoyas in the first round of the Maui Invitational on Monday. Three years ago, Oregon opened the season with an 82-75 win over Georgetown in South Korea.

"We were able to play Georgetown three years ago and we had a tough game with them," Ducks coach Dana Altman said. "We know they are an awfully good team with a lot of players coming back and we have a good core group coming back."

Oregon is one of three ranked teams in the field along with No. 5 North Carolina and No. 9 Wisconsin. The Ducks and Badgers would face off in the semifinals if both advance out of the first round while the Tar Heels could await Oregon or Wisconsin in the title game.

"You look at the field and the exciting thing about it is a lot of teams have a lot of experience," Altman said. "There are good programs and good coaches. North Carolina is coming off being in the national championship and Wisconsin was in the Sweet 16 and we had a nice year. It should be a competitive field."

Oregon has its highest ranking in school history after reaching the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season, but the Ducks will likely fall when the new polls come out Monday following a 66-49 loss at Baylor on Tuesday.

"Sometimes it is harder to maintain a certain level of success than achieve it, so we definitely have some obstacles to overcome to get guys in the right frame of mind to compete," Altman said. "This tournament will do that because game in and game out there will be great competition."

The Ducks hope to have all-conference junior forward Dillon Brooks back to face the Hoyas after he missed the first three games of the season following foot surgery. The 6-foot-7 Brooks, who averaged 16.7 points and 5.4 rebounds last year, has been going through workouts with the team and could be medically cleared in time for the trip to Maui.

"He's a big part of our team, but who knows when he's going to be back," Altman said. "I don't. The doctors haven't told me. I know he's anxious to get back but until they release him we have to play without him."

It is unlikely Brooks will start when he first returns because he will be on a limited schedule.

"We will play him on the exact schedule the doctor gives us," Altman said. "We are not going to be conservative or push the envelope, we will do exactly what the doctors say."

Oregon opened the season with a 91-77 win over Army before losing at Baylor. The Ducks bounced back with a 76-54 win over Valparaiso on Thursday.

With Brooks on the bench, center Chris Boucher leads Oregon in scoring at 17 points per game, followed by guard Tyler Dorsey at 12.7. Junior forward Jordan Bell is averaging 12.3 points and a team-high 8.7 rebounds.

Georgetown is 1-2 after back-to-back losses against Maryland and Arkansas State. Guards L.J. Peak and Rodney Pryor each lead the team with 17.7 points per game while center Jessie Govan is averaging 14.3.

of course the offense can't finish anything...

I know it's not even a sure thing that we'll be looking for a coach after the season, but if we are on the market Craig Bohl is an intriguing name to me that I haven't seen brought up at all. I realize he's the anti-Oregon in many ways but for those more connected than me - would there be any mutual interest in that pairing? I'm not sure on his west coast ties or how well he would do in terms of recruiting, but the man ran a dynasty at North Dakota and has Wyoming (!!) on the upswing in a big way. From what I understand he's part of the Tom Osborne coaching tree.

Just below Baylor. That's probably fair for now.

http://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...ndiana-keeps-rolling-is-no-3-in-top-25-and-1/

Talks about his Oregon pledge and how he's almost 100 percent sure coach Mark Helfrich will be there when he's playing for the Ducks.

https://n.rivals.com/news/four-star-jaylon-redd-breaks-down-oregon-pledge

Very nice he made one of the three national Breakout Stars of the week.

Week 12: Breakout stars

I'm watching the PAC12 Network and they're talking about Washington doing a great job against ASU. ASU for Chist's sake!!! The team that is bandaged together with a 4th string QB, and walking wounded defense! The same team we embarrassed at Autzen! This leads to my question, Brandon of the UW record, what is the total number of wins, versus losses the opposing teams UW has played. I'm betting that the combined losses of there opposition exceed the combined wins. Just looking for conformation. BTW exclude USC, as that wasn't a win.

Idk where they got this, but We'll take it for now.

We should place bets on how many minutes he plays. I'll start at 15.

http://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...xpected-oregon-is-a-threat-to-unc-maui-field/

I don't know Bandon so didn't want to chime in on it. But an NU fan is on the free board asking for tips. I hate to leave him hanging since I know we rarely look at that board so am linking to his post there so hopefully we can show him some forum hospitality.

NU fan visiting for game next year has questions

Here is Warren Williamson and me down on the field analyzing the Utah game.

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Saw this on the home page. Of the lot, perhaps Herman seems the only realistic Oregon target.What sayeth thee?

I'd hate to see Fedora leave the Heels, but he might for LSU. Idk why fisher would leave FSU for anywhere.

https://n.rivals.com/news/three-point-stance-potential-lsu-hires-a-bad-trend-star-power

Go Ducks.

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