Civil War Write Up

I’ve been at one Civil War in person and that was 2 years ago at Reser Stadium. A friend of mine got tickets through his work and it was on the old side, 3/4’s of the way up under the cover. We sat next to an old classmate of Don Essig (UO announcer) and chatted about the rivalry most of the game. My friend and I were dressed in full Duck garb and didn’t receive any crap from anyone, not even once. We saw our Ducks come back in the final moments only to have Oregon State come back again and Evenson blow it on the missed field goal to the end the game. The range of emotions were high and at the end of the day, my friend and I shook hands with the Beaver fans around us, said “what an amazing game!” and left having a wonderful experience.

I don’t get the little brother, little sister crap people throw around and I probably never will. We sucked at the same time, we rocked at the same time. We’ve been fairly equal in awesomeness and suckiness for years (yeah I know there is wiggle room there). It wasn’t that long ago when Washington had that attitude about Oregon being their “little brother” and look what happend. First people to actually inform me about the “little brother” comment? Beaver fans.

Beaver fans are the biggest Duck fans I know. They always want to talk about what Oregon is doing, what new programs they have, whether their uniforms are cool or not and their recruiting trips.

With a Duck win and some how all the top 4 losing and USC going to the national championship, would the Rose bowl selection committee select a 9-3 Oregon team? or go for one of the two loss teams? I personally think we would get shafted in that scenario again

if you promise to lay off the gay sheep, I promise for no meth jokes

Except for the fact that players on the OSU football team actually stole the gay sheep for their own pleasure. Eugene may have a high level or meth crime in the city but no Duck Football player, fan or anyone else associated with the University of Oregon has ever used/manufactured/been arrested for possession of meth. Ever

To me, the Civil War is like playing a game with friends and/or family.
I have a lot of friends that are huge OSU fans, and it’s fun to josh around with them and stuff. It makes the game fun. It’s the game that gives a whole fan base bragging rights for a year – It is the best way to end a season.

Last year was a prime example, I had high hopes of winning – but I knew those high hopes were “pie-in-the-sky” hopes – the fact that we even made it a close game (Not to mention being in position to win), was simply astounding – and yet not uncommon for the Civil War.

There might be some sort of big-brother/little-brother crap that gets traded and tossed around – but the truth is, these programs are overall on par with each other. I’ve ran into some pretty shitty OSU fans, but they nor the program have ever done anything that would warrant me really hating them.

And try to find those articles. Granted, it was probably mostly just Ted Miller shooting his mouth off, which leads to typical Beaver paranoia. But I specifically remember thinking and discussing among peers “what has this team done to warrant this type of discussion.” I didn’t mean to offend anyone, I’m just trying to offer some points from the other side of the fence.

Sorry I didn’t attach links. I was tired, but wanted to do a little research. Here are some basics:
1. Ted Miller (and most every analyst) had Oregon as the #2 team in the conference, which could still happen but…
1a. That #2 also came with the asterisk (like I mentioned above) that they believed Oregon would challenge for the Pac10 title, despite not knowing who the QB would be, and having inexperience at LB (which was one of the main reasons for OSU to “fall” this year)
2. OSU was picked to finish in the bottom half of almost every preseason conference poll
2a. The reasons: replacing the ENTIRE front 7 is what people have said. However, Slade Norris and Victor Butler were both returning after wrecking havoc on the Pac10 last year, and year in and year out new guys step into our LB role and fill in almost without a hitch.

So I realize now what I meant by hype/attention. Yes, the Ducks are exactly where most people would have predicted them (around 8-10 wins). And 2nd in the Pac10 is still within reach. And they started off ranked around #20 nationally. Where I get frustrated is the lack of respect that the Beavers get. Granted, I didn’t have Oregon State getting to the Rose Bowl, but I felt that with as solid coaching as we have, 8-9 wins wasn’t out of reach by any means. Most pundits had us around 5-6 wins. I just feel like if UO had the same exact situation as us, people would be looking at the positives rather then the negatives.

Also, on the Quizz issue. I think if you read the Beavers bloggers we are more then confident that McCants is a qualified starting running back for us. Is he as explosive and dynamic as Quizz? No. But I don’t think any OSU fan would use Quizz as an excuse. We live off our defense, and it’s as healthy as could be.

Nick Reed v Andy Levitre

The left side of the ball is gonna be a dog fight

I’m still unsold on Nick Reed, not his work ethic or overall hyper activeness, but how GOOD is he actually? I feel like a lot of his bigger games have been against inexperienced Left Tackles. Granted, I haven’t watched a ton of UO games this year.