LONG WAY TO THE TOP FOR OREGON DUCKS

The long way to the top started with Ohio State where the Oregon put one duck foot in front of another until the end.

It wasn’t the usual end for games like this.

Ohio State had it wrapped up and ready for delivery with ten seconds to go, then six seconds.

One thing led to another until there were no seconds left.

Since that game, the NCAA has fixed the problem that allowed the Oregon win.

This is the same NCAA that has governed college athletics of a hundred years.

This is the governing body once called a cartel.

 

Controversially, the NCAA substantially restricts the kinds of benefits and compensation (including paid salary) that collegiate athletes could receive from their schools.

Economists have subsequently characterized the NCAA as a cartel.

 

This is the non-profit organization that lost control of their main product, college football, to television contracts, shoe companies, and the current policies of Name, Image, and Likeness.

We’re no longer watching big kids burn off excess energy on the football field for fun, or for a chance to get the education they would have otherwise been denied.

Now we’re watching big name coaches go on recruiting trips on the school jet, or the company jet like former Oregon coach Willie Taggert used for a job interview at Florida State, er, a Florida recruiting trip.

We’re watching players who have changed schools for better deals, or making the big bucks from the start.

It’s a long way from playing ‘for the love of the game.’

 

On3 has Manning pulling in over $3.7 million in NIL this year, edging out the likes of Caleb Williams, Travis Hunter and Drake Maye.

 

With big kids making big money above board the NCAA no longer has to pretend to maintain an even playing field where star players drove new cars and lived in luxury apartments that were deemed within the standards of the scholarship offer they signed as amateurs.

NIL freed athletes from the NCAA rules that applied to some schools more than others.

TV network money continues to change the face of college football with all of the PAC 12 schools but Washington State and Oregon State fleeing to conferences spread across the country.

 

The Eugene Earthquake A Long Way From The Coast

The top image is a mask I made in 2010 after a visit to Baton Rouge and LSU.

It’s called the Voodoo Duck, because it would take something extra for Oregon to beat the big boys.

Oregon Duck football had a chance that year to win a national championship against Auburn.

They lost on questionable calls against players with questionable eligibility.

Four years later they had a chance for a title against an Ohio State team with questionable eligibility.

 

It had been a difficult period for the NCAA.

Auburn had just won the national title in football with a quarterback whose father admitted asking another school for money during his recruitment.

A series of other scandals emerging at several name-brand programs had left the NCAA’s enforcement arm looking ineffective and understaffed.

 

The name-brands were Ohio State and Oregon, which seemed like a ‘welcome to big time college football’ moment.

Today, with stable coaching from Dan Lanning, the Ducks are undefeated and looking like a good bet for another chance.

 

Lanning is a young coach; the game won’t move away from him.

He’s got more than a little of that,, ‘You think you’re better than me,’ going on.

He knows the landscape of college football as only a former on-campus recruiter does.

In every interview he’s proving something. You can see the results.

This is where I see a Jimmy Johnson connection: he sees how a player might develop over the years, from good, to great, to all-timer.

Here in Oregon we see Dan Lanning on the same track. Nothing passes him by.

Q: Did you kick the onside kick so hard and bounce it off a guy on purpose?

A: We practice that all the time.

Q: Did you put twelve men on defense for the second to last play of the game on purpose?

A: We practice for situations all the time.

 

The Oregon coast is scheduled for a big earthquake soon, or in 10,000 years.

Oregon beating Ohio State at Autzen was a ground shaker in Eugene.

Last night they shook Indiana in West Lafayette against Purdue.

From here on out they will cause tremors for Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Washington.

 

The Big Deal About Oregon Football

It’s common knowledge in informed circles that top college football teams come from the Rust Belt, or the Deep South.

Or, USC, but not lately. Washington got part of one in a share with Miami in 1991.

It’s a long way to the top for any school, but being outside the region makes it all the harder.

Hiring Dan Lanning brought the region to Oregon.

Now everyone is swimming in the same pool.

New Ducks came over from Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Florida.

And they all fit together in a team. Will it be a team for the ages, a team of destiny, a championship team?

This could be the year the Voodoo Duck finally gets its flowers.

An Oregon championship would be good for college football and the pageantry surrounding it.

The more coverage the Ducks get, the more people from the flat lands get to see some elevation, some volcanoes, some mountains that are actual mountains, not uplifted crust, not a ridge line.

Oregon is famous for the Oregon Trail and the hoards of pioneers loading up a covered wagon and walking 2000 miles.

This year the Oregon fan base, current and past, are jumping on the bandwagon and riding it all the way to Georgia.

 

Steering The Bandwagon 

Coach Lanning is the driver of Oregon football.

He’s shown his familiarity with the rule book, but I’ve got a couple of suggestions.

Such as:

No more designed runs for Dylan Gabriel.

The kid is dropping rainbows into baskets downfield, why run counters that put him out on alone when the edge is sealed.

We’ve seen enough broken collar bones from Herbert, enough knee action from Dennis Dixon.

Please give us a healthy DG for the season. We know he can run, he doesn’t have to prove it. He’s doing it the way it’s supposed to be.

He ran against Ohio State and that’s proof enough.

Play the games according to the game plan and trust in the Football Gods.

Those are the entities that let rocket-speed onside kicks bounce off people, that let receivers twist and turn and come down with the ball with one tiptoe in bounds.

Who but a Football God would consider a twelfth man on defense that resulted in a five yard penalty with ten seconds left with the clock running down to six.

Say what you will, but a Football God gave the last second to Oregon.

If it had gone to Ohio State they would have kicked the field goal, won the game, and the Oregon season would have felt like any other for a team way out west.

“Yep, by golly, you were so close to winning.”

“Uh huh, real good game. You’re making progress out here.”

“Well, we’ll give it to you. You took it down to the last second.”

Oregon Ducks this season: “You don’t need to give us anything, we’ll take it, thank you very much.”

It’s a long way to go, but halfway there.