Before we get to the quack, we have a bit of site news. At the end of March, I stepped down from the lead blogger position at Addicted To Quack. As my day job became increasingly more stressful, I wasn't able to give the site the attention that it needed. Luckily, Dave has re-taken the lead on the site so nothing much has changed except an increased enthusiasm for bringing you the best content we can. I'll still be around commenting, doing a quack fix a week and writing when the inspiration strikes. But I'll be taking a big step back and getting out of the way so others can take the site to the next level.
I am truly honored to have been involved with Addicted To Quack and SBNation. It's been a blast to cover the greatest 3 year stretch in school history and interact with everyone here on a daily basis. As I've said before, the community here is what makes this place so special. Anyway, thanks again, Go Ducks! And let's get to the quack.
- With so many new faces on offense, in a twist, the Duck defense looks to be the early strength of the team. Nick Aliotti, ususally a yeller during practice, was eerily quiet for much of the first practices. Usually, he tries to get the energy level up during the first spring practice, but with leaders like John Boyett and Michael Clay, that doesn't seem to be necessary.
- If you're looking for some post-practice interviews, head over to GoDucks.TV. They have interviews up with Chip Kelly, John Neal, Anthony Wallace, Carson York, and others.
- Oregon baseball has a big series this weekend. After some early Pac-12 struggles, they got a huge sweep of ASU last weekend. But now they're headed to No. 5 UCLA. The series starts tonight at 6pm.Ryan Rosenblatt at Bruins Nation has a preview of the series as well. He does a good job talking about what Oregon (and UCLA) must do to pull out a series win. The Ducks offense, which has slowed after the quick start, needs to step up.
- The Oregon men's track & field team is going for a modern era record: six straight Pac-12 titles. They'll face their first test of the season at the Pepsi Invitational on Saturday. There are a lot of fresh faces on the team, but the No. 16th Ducks should be very exciting, led by sprinter Mike Berry.
- In some more track news, the Oregon-UCLA dual meet won't be happening this year. This had been a great event, and it's sad to see it go. Dave had an article last year about the lack of scoring meets in track and field, and it's sad to see those slipping away.
- FishDuck has another couple of former player interviews up. David Melo has a written interview with Mark Schmidt who played from 1993-1996. Kurt has a video interview Eric Edwards who played from 1994-1998.
GO DUCKS!