Morning Oatmeal

Well, not a whole lot going on today, but here's what there is.

Ducks Illustrated had a recap of Tuesday's practices.  Not a whole lot new to report, though it sounds as if the team is set to work hard.  Also, a few recruits from the class of 2010 were on hand.

Both the Oregonian and the Daily Emerald have profiles on LaGarrette Blount.  He seems to be doing quite well in practice.  The Oregonian goes so far as to say he may help us forget J-Stew, though I doubt that will happen.  Blount will definitely be a nice change of pace from Johnson, and it looks like he'll be a great addition next fall.

We had a Dixon update yesterday, so here's your Stewart update.  He's dropping down some lists, which could suck in terms of money, but he will be an absolute steal if he does drop as far as 25.

Around the Pac-10, it looks as if all sorts of basketball players are going pro.  Budinger joins Bayless, though he's not hiring an agent at this point.  You've probably heard that Love and Collison (maybe Westbrook?) are probably gone as well, though it's all rumor at this point.  The Big Lead did some guessing, but if he's even partially true, UCLA could be down a ton of players.  Howland is a great coach, so I wouldn't expect them to drop too far, but I wouldn't be surprised to see another team atop the Pac-10 next year.  The Pac-10 will be a very different place next year, that's for sure.

Lastly, here's a very very early assessment of USC football from Sunday Morning Quarterback.  USC is gonna be really good...again.  It's pretty amazing what Pete Carroll has done there.  USC's problem last year was they were way too inconsistent offensively.  I'm not convinced that will change.  Their offensive line must gel, though they are on their way, and their running back situation has been pretty underwhelming.  As SMQ says, if they become one-dimensional on offense and turn the ball over, they will drop a game or two along the way.  If our offense can start putting things together by the time we play them, I think we have a great chance to pull out a victory.

Update [2008-4-9 13:49:49 by jtlight]: Holy crap, Trent Johnson is leaving Stanford for LSU. I could not be more surprised. Stanford will be a shell of its former self next season.

Update [2008-4-9 18:57:44 by jtlight]: Here's another update on the Stanford/Johnson story. Apparently, Stanford's AD made no effort to lock up Johnson. With Montgomery already across the bay, this seems like a very dumb move. Let's not forget that Johnson was this year's Pac-10 coach of the year. This late in the hiring game, this could seriously hurt Stanford for quite a while.

GO DUCKS!