Morning Quack Fix: Will Eugene get the Munchies? Plus, more pub for Galen Rupp.
by JConant on Jun 18, 2009 8:45 AM PDT
in Morning Quack Fix
Email
PrintThe Quack news is sparse this morning, but here's what we could dig up:
- In case you missed it yesterday, football/baseball recruit and LOI signee Braxton Lane has signed on with the Texas Rangers. Here's Rob Moseley's piece from the R-G; and a lengthy Q&A with Lane with Jason Cole of LoneStarDugout.com.
- Recruiting notes from the well connected gents at DuckTerritory.com: My personal favorite Duck QB recruit, Munchie Legaux of New Orleans, says Oregon is his top school right now (would love to see a sign in Autzen's student section to the effect of "We've got the Munchies"). Local Sheldon High product and Duck 4-star commit Curtis White wants to improve his explosiveness. Could Oregon land a kid who goes by "Big Tex"? Maybe...highly regarded Jatashun Beachum says his favorites are Oregon and Florida.
- BleacherReport has posted a team-by-team look at the future of Pac-10 football programs. It's lengthy, but an interesting though just short of in-depth read.
- The honors for Oregon track star Galen Rupp continue to roll in. Rupp is this week's USATF athlete of the week. I think it's safe to now refer to Galen Rupp as an Oregon track legend (dude stops to fix his shoe and still beats the nation's best...unreal).
- O Hereos hosted a group of inner-city kids from Sacramento and it was a day of firsts for most of the group.
As always, if you find something of interest please post in the comments.
27 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Found this in my morning reading...
College football news discusses the most overrated teams for this season… y’all came up in the conversation:
Q: The most overrated team will be … ?
A: Oregon. I sort of hate to finger them because the Ducks are one of college football’s guilty pleasures, a high-octane, wide-open offense decked out in 22nd century uniforms. They’re fun. They’re just not going to live up to last year’s finish or this year’s preseason ranking.
When it comes to the Ducks, too many people are getting confused by the shiny objects, like QB Jeremiah Masoli and RB LaGarrette Blount. Yes, the Ducks will score points, but you can’t pencil in double-digit wins on that alone. Digging deeper reveals that long-time head coach Mike Bellotti is no longer on the sidelines, the offensive line is undergoing an extreme makeover, and the defensive line has a bunch of holes. Chip Kelly has proven to be a genius as an offensive coordinator, but being the head coach brings a whole new set of challenges and pressures. Is he ready? No one really knows.
While Oregon will still be fun, it’s not going to win as many games as most are anticipating. In fact, with a schedule that begins with Boise State, Purdue, Utah, and California, the Ducks might very well be out of the Top 25 before the end of September.
As an outsider (and a Beaver) I see some of these points. Kelly as an OC? Solid, proven. Kelly as an HC? Who knows. The schedule is also make or break, front-loaded from the get go with three very important games (BSU, Utah and Cal) and a fourth game that would only be important if you blew it (Purdoodoo) to start the year… Whether or not this equates to the ducks being overrated, I don’t know. I do know that it seems like there are a lot of expectations and a lot of unproven variables. What do you think?
"The brownies,'' Fernandez said after the game. "The brownies are good for me to make three-points.''
- from Quick's Behind the Blazers Locker Room Door, 4/16/09
I think people are putting too much weight to the belief that the change from OC to HC is going to equate to losses. This isn’t the NFL where the talent level is more even than in college, and the winners are the ones that have to squeeze out the most of their players.
In general, a college team with a good play caller and good players are going to win games more than they lose games.
Yes, I’m saying that head coaches are over emphasized in college football. The most impact they make for their team’s success is with the performance of their recruiting, and figuring out how to best utilize the recruits. Both Chip Kelly has proven he can do. Motivation is worth about the same as a buffalo nickel: it’s neat to have, but it’s still only five cents.
Maybe the offensive line isn’t returning as many starters, but most have experience. Though, this is still an area worth questioning.
The defensive line is probably the more shallow area, but they won’t be expected to produce as much as previous years as Oregon is packing in possibly the best LB Corps I’ve ever seen. But like the OL, the DL is a valid concern.
The things I’m more worried about is the schedule, and getting effective and healthy at RB.
"It’s spelled S-H-U-F-E-L-T-M-E-U-P"
Ugh….I really hate CFN. They are almost always totally worthless. But hey, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every so often. This guy could be proven correct. It’s not like the 2009 Oregon team is a sure-fire winner, but there’s definitely a lot of potential.
The big concern is the offensive line, as with that, we really do have no idea what will happen. It could be great. Or it could suck. On the opposite side, I’m not concerned about the D-line at all. Spring was a very nice surprise from that position, and I have a lot of confidence in Azzinaro. That unit will be more than adequate, which, with out linebackers, is really all we need.
But what is quite shocking to me, as Shufelt pointed out above, is how people are acting about the whole Bellotti to Kelly transition. There are simply no indications that Kelly will be a poor head coach. I mean, sure, he could, but that’s quite unlikely, especially with Bellotti just down the hall. Kelly will be tested when it comes to growing the program, but since the tools are there, he should be just fine.
--AddictedToQuack, SBNation's Oregon Ducks blog
I've been looking for a live blog
of the Fiesta Bowl CFN did but I don’t think it’s online anymore. Anyway, the writer started the pregame talking about how the Buffs were going to roll over the Ducks, Oregon couldn’t hope to stop the Colorado running game, blah blah blah. By the end he admitted he was completely wrong. Classic.
I saved it to a Word document, years ago
I don’t think I would be allowed to post the whole thing as a FanPost, but I could e-mail it to you.
Nothing ever really disappears on the internet
I hope I’m really wrong, but I don’t think this Oregon team is national-title-level good and I hope the Ducks can find a way to just make this a good game. I’m fully prepared to admit that I’m wrong and deal with all the egg on my face if Oregon wins, but I think Colorado takes this in a blowout…
It’s not like the 2009 Oregon team is a sure-fire winner, but there’s definitely a lot of potential.
Exactly. Potential throughout the roster and potential for a great season because of the schedule. Outside of about five or six programs, all you can ask for is to have a good quality team and a schedule that’s strong enough to put you in the BCS if can find a way to win 11 or 12 games. Oregon has both. What an excellent opportunity. Could it go south? Of course, but I like Oregon’s chances against tough opponents (mostly in Autzen, with a full playbook between Masoli’s ears, and so on), as opposed to, let’s say, Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford, UCLA, and, yes even the Beavers.
I'm really tired of it not being football season.
Preseason rankings are almost as worthless...
as tits on a boar. I’ll take the high ranking, so that a two loss season might still land us in the BCS. Other than that, we’ll have to prove it on the field. Look at USF and Georgia last year – both overrated. In any case, we have question marks on the lines. Let’s not forget that every team is coming into the season with question marks. OSU loses tons on defense. USC will have a green linebacking corp and new quarterback. Cal loses their whole linebacking corp in their 3-4 defense (big question). BSU lost their 1,2, & 4 most productive wide receivers, their most decorated running back in team history, questions remain on the oline (running blocking and undersized), and the dline has like one upperclassman in the two deep. Utah is losing one of their best senior classes that were difference makers all over the field (all american kicker, a good quarterback, wide receivers like Casteel, etc.). We are in position to reload at offensive line with 4 guys that had starts in Kaiser, Thran, Holmes, and Asper. Then we have Weems, York, Charmichael, and Cody, which are all given 4* by one of the rating agencies. Ward is a darkhorse contender with his athleticism. I am excited about defensive ends and a little suspect of DT. It would be nice if Bair could be supplanted and go back to DE.
I wouldn't say worthless
They really only give you an opportunity to get to a big bowl. It is so hard to move up high in the ranking when you start out in the bottom half or out of the top 25. But when you get to start high and if you win you can move past a few teams and you are in the BCS conversation easy peasy. So all we really get is a head start in the voting, but I’ll take it.
Sleeping under an avalanche with Cartman, wake me Sept 3.
I really don’t buy the whole head start in the voting thing. If you win your big games, and look good doing it, then you’ll move up. All that polling really matters for is the BCS national championship anyway, and preseason polls have never had an impact on that.
--AddictedToQuack, SBNation's Oregon Ducks blog
Joba the Beachum?
I would love to see him break out the truckstick at QB. That would just be too awesome.
Addicted To Quack [dot] com; Dear Joevan, Develop motor skills. Love, ATQ.
Jared Lorenzen with wheels? The next coming of Dante Culpepper?
I'm really tired of it not being football season.
JaMarcus Russell with wheels I was picturing.
I can’t stop thinking of how sweet it’d be to have an 18-wheeler like that. Pick your poison between Grant and Beachum, you’re not going to stop it.
Addicted To Quack [dot] com; Dear Joevan, Develop motor skills. Love, ATQ.
Not to rain the parade….But I just can’t see a 275 pound (according the Rivals) QB, who is only 6’2". That’s just not a recipe for success….
--AddictedToQuack, SBNation's Oregon Ducks blog
It’s funny, I was reading the article thinking the same thing. He’s 250+ heading into his senior year? Or 275 per Rivals? This kid hasn’t stopped growing yet. Let’s stick with speed, speed and more speed, oh and nice intermediate passing accuracy with a little zip to the ball. Does he realize he’d probably make an amazing defensive end or a beastly inside linebacker?
I'm really tired of it not being football season.
He definitely knows it, because he said he wants to go a program that will use him as QB or RB and not try to make him play another position. I say recruit him as an RB but give him a fair shot behind center.
Even if he were given a shot behind center…if he’s actually 275, I don’t see how it’s physically possible for him to actually compete for either of those positions….
--AddictedToQuack, SBNation's Oregon Ducks blog
ESPN has him as
6’2", 250.
Jerome Bettis was 5’10", 250.
He’d have a readymade nickname as a Duck: Furthur3.
Rivals has him at 275…..that’s a whole lot of chub….
--AddictedToQuack, SBNation's Oregon Ducks blog
I read 265 on one article, which seemed just massive enough not to be a lineman.
Addicted To Quack [dot] com; Dear Joevan, Develop motor skills. Love, ATQ.
Can't let you get away with an egregious Star Wars misspelling
Joba Jabba the Beachum
It's spelled "T-A-K-I-M-O-T-S-C-H-M-O-E."
I support inroywetrust in his support of The VD Special in his support of me supporting Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.
by Takimoto on Jun 19, 2009 6:22 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
FanShots
Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.
Recommended FanShots
Recent FanShots
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
