FanPost

Kirby Smart was Wrong and We're in Trouble...

"He'll never say that but he knows we've got better players," Smart said after the Bulldogs destroyed the Ducks. It's a cliche trope, but one with real historical underpinnings for Ducks fans. But, this writer has followed the Ducks since Bellotti, through the highs-and-lows, and sorry Kirby, but that's not it. Oregon has some soul-searching to do and their poor performance yesterday is worthy of concern, despite the very real talent Georgia does possess.

Anyone who has watched the Ducks over the years has seen Oregon lose games to teams with better athletes. The USCs, the Oklahomas, the Auburns, on some Saturdays Mike Bellotti, and even Chip Kelly after him, just did not have the sort of talent that could match some of our bigger-named opponents. Chip Kelly had a vegan walk-on on his offensive line trying to stop Nick Fairley. In that same BCS champtionship game we started a converted TE (Blair) at defensive tackle. Had yesterday's roster looked anything like the team that played Auburn in 2011, then my reply would simply be "Alright Coach Smart, fair point," but consider this...

There was an all-american linebacker on the field yesterday... but not for the Dawgs. In fact, Oregon's linebacker corps is simply better than Georgia's. The TV crew admitted as-much, calling Sewell and Flowe "probably the best interior linebacker tandem in the nation." But it does not stop there. Oregon had the better offensive line yesterday, something the TV crew also mentioned. Bo Nix was a 5-start recruit, Ty Thompson was 4-plus-stars, and Stetson Bennett was a walk-on. Finally, Ladd McConkey, who made Oregon's defense look silly at times, was a 180lb 3-star boy wonder. Compare that with the six athletes Duckswire (USAToday) named as the potential starters for yesterday's game (Chase Cota, Troy Franklin, Dont'e Thornton, Caleb Chase, Kris Hutson, & Seven McGee) and it's not even close. Four stars all-around all of them are bigger, stronger, or faster than McConkey (who actually does look the the sort of kid who could have played for Bellotti or Chip... shades of Pflugrad, anyone?)

I'm afraid the usual explanation simply won't do. This wasn't the opener against LSU, the trip to Oklahoma in 2004, the BCS title game against Auburn, or one of the many disappointing Saturdays against Carrol's USC team. It only looked like that. On paper, this was far-closer to our opening game a couple years back against Auburn in terms of talent. The big difference is we didn't show up yesterday. We didn't fade in the second-half, we never showed up.

I know what Mario could have done with this team. We would have lost but we could have competed. I would love to see what Bellotti or Chip could do with a roster such as ours (we almost did with Chip, UCLA looked pretty good yesterday, didn't they?). And after yesterday, I know what Dan Lanning can do with them and I'm already looking for the door. No Oregon coach has ever done so little with so much talent. Oregon's roster, historically, is an embarrassment of riches. And although I predicted Oregon would lose to Georgia, I never thought we'd fail to even register a pulse on the field.

Perhaps the scariest thing was that Georgia's defense didn't miss a beat after Lanning left. Same "dawged" defense. That's worth mentioning because Kirby Smart is a heck of a defensive mind at HC. So is DC Will Muschamp, who was a defensive analyst for the Bulldogs last season. If removing Lanning from Georgia's defense caused them to lose nothing at all, what does he have to bring to Oregon? Lanning may be more chaff than wheat...

At the end of the day, I'm getting serious "Mark Helfrich" vibes from Lanning. It's easy to look great as a coordinator when you are coaching below-and-above great coaches. It's not until they're put in a leadership roll that people realize it was never really them. Oregon took a step backwards yesterday, and the fears of our former players, that we are loosing what originally made Oregon great, became a little more real yesterday.

I think this season may be headed for a "crash Lanning." I love my Ducks, please save my Ducks...

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