Pro Day and Other Notes from the News

Rob Moseley and Gil Brandt have reports from the Oregon Pro Day, and two things stand out.

First, Oregon has achieved tremendous success, two straight conference championships and two BCS Bowl games, without a dominant player, first round NFL draft pick, or elite size.  Jeff Maehl, Brandon Bair, Casey Matthews and Spencer Paysinger were great Ducks.   But none of them have the eye-popping measurables that make NFL scouts go, "wow, we have to have this guy."  Maehl, it should be noted, set a combine record in the cone drill and shuttle run, but his 40 time was a mediocre 4.65.  The 40 time didn't hurt him any when he caught three touchdowns against USC.

Second, these four are football players.  If the NFL scouts want a true measure of their value, they should put away the stop watch and watch them on video.  Watch Casey Matthews anticipate and make plays.   Watch him chase down All-World Mr. Everything Cam Newton and force a critical fumble with the game on the line.  Watch Bair batting down passes and smothering ball carriers with agility and desire.

Oregon Duck Soup has the video of their Pro Day workouts.

All four of these guys are playmakers, smart guys who were consistently in the right place at the right time.  They were leaders and winners.  You can't measure their worth with a stopwatch. 

It was great to see Chip Kelly and Scott Frost out there supporting their guys.  Oregon is a place where an athlete's value and worth doesn't go down when his eligibility is over.

Larry Scott was on the sidelines at the last PAC-10 basketball tournament, and he was asked about the allegations of recruiting improprieties  at Oregon, stating that the conference is looking into it.  He stressed that it was routine, preliminary fact-finding, and not even an investigation at this point.

A lot of parallels and presumptions have been drawn and made between what happened at Ohio State and the Oregon situation, but the Ohio State case is way worse.  At Oregon, the media is talking about a gray area in the recruiting rules.  The scouting services and 7-on-7 camps exist all over the country.  In the OSU case, the coach deliberately concealed evidence of multiple clear violations of NCAA rules.  The penalties could have been even more severe, and still may be.

Whoa!  How about those basketball Ducks?  They're showing some life and fire in the conference tournament.  E.J. Singler had a career-high 24 points as the Ducks evened their season record at 16-16 with an upset win over UCLA.  It was an impressive win in the Staples Center before a pro-Bruin crowd.  Dana Altman can coach--most thought this year's Oregon squad would wind up up in the conference basement, and now one more win will put them in contention for the NIT or a CBI entry.

Finally, for football addicts struggling to maintain with 18 more days to go until spring practice, here's a feature from Smart Football, "How can a pass-first team score more touchdowns in the red zone?"  Oregon isn't a pass-first team, necessarily, but the discussion is still relevant: spread offenses lose some of their advantages when the field is compressed.  Duck fans are still haunted by those three possessions in the red zone at the National Championship, producing only three points.  Chip will probably have some new answers and wrinkles for next time.