The National Communists Against Athletes Claim Another Victim

The NCAA is like your worst boss ever, the nightmare supervisor who is always looking for a way to jam you up.

The NCAA loves memos, policies, rulings and penalties. It doesn't love athletes, coaches, or football itself. It loves money and takes it own sweet time in making a decision, and nine times out of ten the decision will have little to do with what's right or fair. In all ties they come down on the side of the letter of the law.

I'm not an anarchist, but giving athletes a chance to compete and fans the opportunity to enjoy the game without arbitrary rulings and ceaseless delays is generally a good thing. The best discipline is tough, fair and consistent. The NCAA usually looks for a reason to say no, and says yes with glaring inconsistency. Ben Mauk got a sixth year, Lyle Moevao didn't.

Here at The Duck Stops Here we won't spend a lot of time covering J. Masoli and his quest for yet another second chance. Though mildly interested in how a former PAC-10 star fares in the SEC with an undermanned supporting cast, like most Duck fans we've moved on. I wish him well, but Ole Miss is just another box score to check with curiosity. I'm not taping their games on the DVR.

That said, I think it's justice that Masoli has to wait and possibly redshirt to get his shot. The original plan was just a little too easy, and I think it's fitting that he should have to pay some dues and prove his reformation has staying power.

But it annoys me that the NCAA is so predictable in holding it up, merely because they can. This time Masoli followed the rules, and he's getting penalized twice for the same crimes.

It will be interesting to see if he can take a year out of the spotlight and stay on track.

Tenacious D: on Saturday, John Boyett, Kenny Rowe and Co. Open The School of Rock, Shock, and Slobberknock

This is not your grandfather's Oregon defense.

When Kenny Rowe, Brandon Bair, Spencer Paysinger, Casey Matthews, Josh Kaddu, John Boyett, Eddie Pleasant and their teammates take the field on Saturday, they may be the fastest, hardest-hitting, most athletic, swarming defense the Oregon Ducks have ever had.

Historically, Oregon has had some great defensive playmakers, but never seven of this caliber all on the field at one time. They have the potential to be great, a fierce, stifling, punishing defense, a defense that merits more attention than the Ducks' flashy and productive offense.

Nick Aliotti told Oregon Sports Network, "I love the character of this team. I like our athleticism. I love the speed." Beginning last year Aliotti tweaked his scheme to take maximum advantage of that athleticism, standing up hybrid sack-monster Kenny Rowe up as a linebacker or putting his hand down as a defensive end, depending on the offensive alignment, giving the Ducks a powerful flexibility without making substitutions, the ability to instantly adapt on the field, attack the offense from multiple angles, create pressure, overload protection schemes, and force opponents into matchups they don't want to see.

The changes have freed the Ducks' playmakers to be aggressive and attacking. The whole "bend but don't break" misnomer is completely shattered: these guys are on the field to make things happen, to make big plays, disrupt the offense and take the ball away, to be "Remember the Titans" dominant on the field.

Add in the capable role players manning the other defensive spots, and factor in Oregon's impressive depth on the defensive side of the ball, and they could change the perception of Oregon football in one season. They could take the conference by surprise. Kirk Herbstreit has Stanford winning the conference. Most people peg Oregon for two conference losses, although even that may be enough to win a highly competitive PAC-10. The loss of Masoli is too great, they say. With a first-year starter at quarterback they're bound to drop one or two extra games along the way.

They're wrong on three counts. With Chip Kelly's hand on his shoulder, Darron Thomas is going to be far steadier and more effective than the doubters anticipate. His supporting cast on offense, the veteran line, senior receivers, and the explosive running back tandem of Barner and James, will give him a comfort level behind center that will accelerate his progress. And Oregon's defense will be dominating. For the first time since Gang Green the Ducks have a unit that can dictate the outcome of games, win them with turnovers and short fields, destroying the rhythm of quarterbacks and the will of opponents. Andrew Luck, Jake Locker and Nick Foles will have their worst days of the year in Autzen Stadium. Matt Barkley won't feel at home in the Coliseum with Kenny Rowe and Brandon Bair spending the afternoon under his chin.

Against a defense this fast, attacking and aggressive, quarterbacks can't find a comfort zone. Offenses struggle to maintain their timing and composure. John Boyett and Kenny Rowe and friends will force punts, fumbles and interceptions. They will change games. They will be tenacious and intimidating. Like the Titans, they will be remembered forever.

Alejandro, Alejandro: Wait, Who is Eric Solis?

Alex Karras, the legendary defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions, more famous for playing Mongo in Mel Brook's "Blazing Saddles," utterly hated kickers. He resented how easy they had it at practice. He hated how he could work and sweat and punch and claw for sixty minutes in the mud and cold, and then the game would come down to a tiny, skinny little guy with a funny accent.

He hated kickers, and quarterbacks. His grumpy hatred served him well, however. He was angry and tenacious in the middle, and his 1956-57 Iowa team beat the Beavers in the Rose Bowl, the second-to-last time OSU ever made it to The Granddaddy (they last went in 1965, losing 34-7 to Michigan). Karras made the College Football Hall of Fame, and after the Lions cut him in 1971 he enjoyed a long career in movies and television.

But not even Alex Karras could hate Eric Solis, a 5-10 walk-on from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. Because Rob Beard is suspended and the Oregon coaches want to redshirt touted freshman Alejandro Maldonado, Solis will be the starting kicker for the PAC-10 champions for one week. He wears number 48 in the program and plans to major in Sports Marketing.

Over the last few years Solis' Notre Dame High has become a cradle of kickers, sending Nick Folk to the Dallas Cowboys and All-American Kai Forbath to UCLA. Getting named the starting kicker at ND is a big deal.

A left-footed soccer style kicker, Solis (pronounced so-LEESE) had a long of 51 yards in high school, and a long kickoff of 75 yards. Ironically, the 51-yarder came with one second left, and gave Solis' Notre Dame squad a 23-21 victory over Crespi High of Encino, the high school team of his current Duck teammates Brian Bennett, Hroniss Grasu, and Blake Stanton. In that game Solis had field goals of 26 and 20 yards in addition to the hero kick, and the loss cost Crespi a spot in the playoffs.

They probably hate kickers too.

[follow up note: The story gets even better. Rob Moseley features Solis in his print story today in the Register-Guard, and it turns out that Bennett and Grasu recommended Solis to the Oregon coaches, having a hand in his invitation to walk-on.

Though they went to rival schools Bennett and Solis were friends off the field. When Solis hit the dramatic game-winning kick, Bennett told Moseley, “It was tough, but I was proud of him. He was a buddy of mine, and he made it, fair and square.”]

Just What Duck Fans Wanted to Hear

Reports from practice today were golden. The pace is crisp, the energy is high, people are making plays and Darron Thomas looks sharp, confident and comfortable taking most of the reps with the number ones.

There's a scrimmage tomorrow. The Ducks sound like they are right on track for a solid performance in the opener.

Rob Moseley is the Kenjon Barner of Sports Writers

He's fast, versatile, productive, and he finishes every practice. Check out the all-purpose knowledge he drops today in EIGHT practice tweets.

The only thing he lacks to be completely Barner-esque is a sweet haircut.

Play List: Four Things to Look For When Oregon Hosts Los Lobos

Duck fans need to look no further than last year to be reminded how unpredictable Opening Day can be, and to be reminded of how dramatically the first three games can shape a season.

Last year, the Ducks started with despair, embarrassment and adversity. Within sixty minutes of football they lost their star running back and hard-hitting safety TJ Ward, and suddenly everything they thought they could depend on as strengths seemed like weaknesses. They struggled to win their next two games, and found themselves facing number six Cal with a sputtering offense and multiple questions. You know the rest.

What about this year? Again the Ducks face unanswered questions and apparent adversity, beginning the year with an untested quarterback. They have a lot of returning depth, but can they overcome the loss of the triggerman and catalyst of an offense that has produced 38 points a game and 5500 yards a season for the last two years? Oregon has finished 9-4, 10-3 and 10-3 in the last three seasons, highlighted by a conference championship, a Rose Bowl bid, and victories in the Holiday and Sun Bowls, but none of that will matter on Saturday.

The accomplishments of the past won't make a single tackle or run for a single first down. This is a new year, and a new group. Though many of them were a part of the recent success, they now to take center stage and earn a championship of their own, without Masoli, Will Tukuafu, Ward, or Ed Dickson. For one week they'll have to do it without LaMichael James.

Here are several key things to look for when the 2010 Ducks take the field versus New Mexico this Saturday:

Is Darron Thomas ready for his close-up?

It will be very interesting to see how Chip Kelly starts with Thomas, whether he starts out slow and conservative with the running game to get Darron into the flow of the game, or whether he rolls the dice and goes up top, something bold and confident like a deep ball down the sideline to Jeff Maehl.

Kelly's not one to play it safe. There's a strong likelihood Thomas gets the go-ahead to come out throwing. Don't be late getting in from the tailgate; you could miss a memorable moment, something pivotal in Darron's development. It may be a statement from Chip, "Here's our new quarterback, and here's what he can do."

Either way, the critical thing this Saturday is that Darron shows poise and potential and begins to solidify his position as the starter, win the confidence of his teammates. Look for him to grow more comfortable in the offense and relax in the pocket.

It might be a refreshing change for Duck fans in one way. Jeremiah Masoli was very accomplished in this offense, but a notoriously slow starter. Many times he threw his first pass like a young Randy Johnson, high and hard and too wild to handle. In last year's Civil War a touchless rocket led to an early Beaver possession in the red zone. Watch how Darron starts. Does he have his feet under him, is he playing with calm and awareness?

As a young quarterback in his first start you'd want him to grow more comfortable with every possession. A good debut would be a huge benefit in his development.

The Kenjon Barner Show


In his last two games Kenjon Barner had 193 all-purpose yards versus Oregon State, and he followed that up with 227 yards in the Rose Bowl. For the New Mexico game, with LaMichael James suspended and Barner called upon to take the majority of the snaps at tailback, besides returning kickoffs and punts, he could have a stadium record day. Barner is fast and shifty and seldom wastes a cut--he finds a seam or creates one and gets upfield. Running backs Coach Gary Campbell does a tremendous job of teaching his talented stars. Many young runners in other programs suffer from "juke-itis" but Campbell's pupils learn early to make one good cut and go, to trust their speed and take the best advantage of the blocks in front of them.

Barner is exciting to watch, and he should shred the Lobos. The only question is whether he plays more than a couple of quarters in a one-sided game.

Look for Kenjon to make a statement early, maybe even with the opening kickoff, first Lobo punt or his first carry from scrimmage. On a day his teammate James is sidelined, and another teammate Thomas is making his first start at quarterback, Barner is the type of athlete to assert himself with a big play that ignites the offense, and he could have several of them before his day is over. This could be a coming out party for a dynamic player who's expected to have a much bigger role in the offense this year.

Veterans should play like veterans.

As the season progresses the Ducks may reach a point where their new quarterback has learned enough to take a game in his hands, but at the beginning of this young season this game is in the hands, shoulders, backs, and strong legs of his veteran offensive line.

Bo Thran, Carson York, Jordan Holmes, C.E. Kaiser and Mark Asper accounted for 63 of 65 possible starts on the offensive line last year, and they paved the way for 3012 yards rushing and 38 touchdowns while doing so.

Against an undermanned opponent, these five have to assert themselves on Saturday and push the pile forward, create a new line of scrimmage five and seven yards downfield for Barner, Alston and freshman Dontae Williams. They have the talent and experience to dictate this game and establish dominance, and that's exactly what they must do. Look for these guys to be precise, cohesive and focused. If they're not, Steve Greatwood will make them wish they had been when practice reconvenes on Monday.

How deep is the ocean?

In a game like this, against a sacrificial lamb of an opponent, the point is not running up a particular score or scoring a lot of style points, The measure of success will be in the preparation and tempo and focus the Ducks achieve. If they take care of business, Kelly and his coaching staff will get the invaluable opportunity to look at a lot of kids in a game situation, and the players will benefit from the experience and the opportunity to show what they can do. Players like Daryle Hawkins, Cliff Harris and Rickie Heimuli, talented athletes who are further down the depth chart, will get a chance to make an impression. There is no substitute for live snaps in game conditions, and no greater reward than hearing your name called in Autzen stadium by the booming voice of Don Essig. In the words of Bill Parcells, "this is why you lift all them weights." Now go play football.

Pay close attention to the rotations at cornerback and defensive line. Terrell Turner, Dion Jordan, Zac Clark, Wade Keliikipi and Taylor Hart have shown progress and promise during spring football and fall camp, but will they make plays in live situations? The improvement in practice has to show itself on the turf at Autzen, or Oregon's defense won't reach its potential. A fierce, attacking defensive line makes the entire defense better. It's a huge difference maker in the passing game, on those third-and-long conversions Duck fans find so infuriating. This could be a stifling, dominating defense, but only if the defensive linemen, and in particular the interior defensive linemen, play strong and tough and sustain it.

Know Your Enemy: A Closer Look at New Mexico

2009 was a rough year for the New Mexico Lobos. They finished 1-11, 1-7 in the Mountain West, and the most noteworthy thing that happened was that first-year Coach Mike Locksley got suspended for one game and docked ten days pay for punching out his wide receivers coach. Their lone victory of the year came after opening the season with ten straight losses, at home over last-place Colorado State 29-27. The team improved as the season went on but their end-loaded schedule didn't give them much of a break: in November they lost 45-14 to Utah, 24-19 to BYU, beat CSU, then ended the campaign with a 51-10 loss to conference champion TCU.


Year two for Locksley, a former assistant to Ron Zook at Florida and Illinois, and he's been able to bring in one class of his own kids, a group presumably more suited to the pistol offense he tried to install last year. A week ago as fall camp wound down he named redshirt sophomore B.R. Holbrook (photo at left) as the starting quarterback. Holbrook appeared in five games as the back-up last year, 19-34 for 170 yards, 1 TD and 2 interceptions, despite missing three games with mononucleosis. In a bit of an upset he beat out two of Locksley's recruits to win the job.

Locksley told the Alamogordo Daily News, "B.R. has earned the right to be our starting quarterback. I said when we started camp that the guy who gets the job would be the one who gives us the best chance to win, the one who did the best job taking care of the football and the one who was the most productive." He praised Holbrook for his accuracy, and noted he threw just one interception in fall camp 11-on-11 situations.

Holbrook is 6'3", 195 with a good arm and fair mobility. In the New Mexico version of the spread, the "Pistol" originated by Chris Ault of Nevada and newly installed at UCLA, the quarterback takes the snap about 4 yards behind center. It's a pass-first offense--the Lobos threw 470 times last year, compared to 338 for the Ducks. (The Ducks ran the ball 547 times last year, for 3012 yards and 38 TDs.)

His leading returning receiver is Ty Kirk, 6'2", 180, who caught 36 balls last year for 427 yards and two TDs. Kirk will provide a good test for Oregon's newly-named starting corners: he also competes in track for New Mexico, and qualified for the NCAA regionals with a personal-best mark of 50 feet, 11 inches in the triple jump. The other receivers are largely untested.

The Lobos return a largely veteran offensive line except for the freshman center, and Sophomore Demond Dennis looks to be the starting tailback. 5'9" 196, Dennis had 78 carries and 454 yards last year, 5.5 yards per carry with 3 tds. He started six games as a true freshman despite missing two games with a torn meniscus. New Mexico's website lists him as having a 4.48 40. He wears number one, a number usually assigned to pesky scatbacks and sleek rocket-armed quarterbacks. Last year the run was abandoned in many games because the Lobos trailed early, but they hope to achieve better balance this season.

As a player Mike Locksley was a former defensive player of the year at Towson University as a safety and cornerback, and he is strongly committed to beefing up the New Mexico defense. He brought over two big defensive linemen with him from Illinois, 6'4" 280 Ugo Uzodinma, and 6'2" 285 Reggie Ellis, and added his plum recruit, four-star defensive tackle Calvin Smith from Hialeah, Florida. Smith had a good camp and demonstrated the strength and leverage to play now, and he will be in the rotation against Oregon. These three join DE Johnathan Rainey, who led the team with 9.5 sacks, and junior linebacker Carmen Messina, who led the nation in tackles last year with 163. (John Boyette paced the Ducks with 91, but Oregon has far more defensive playmakers to share the load.) Messina will be busy Saturday.

The secondary is a weak spot. They return both corners from a unit that allowed over 250 yards per game in the pass-happy Mountain West, and both safeties were lost to graduation. The unproven secondary should give Darron Thomas some opportunities to mesh with his receivers in game conditions. Despite good strength and size in the defensive line and an active, forceful presence in Messina at linebacker the Lobos desperately need improvement in their defense.

Wolf tracks:

This is a paycheck game for New Mexico, a game that looked like a much more reasonable matchup when it was scheduled. The Lobos were a bowl team five different times under Rocky Long, the last in 2007, before his unexpected resignation in 2008. Despite being a dynamic recruiter Locksley has had a rocky start off the field in Albuquerque, sued for racial discrimination and assault by a former assistant, and the subject of a sexual harrassment complaint by a former department secretary. With this back story New Mexico has to be another team that is eager to start playing games and put last year as far as possible in the rear view mirror.

Unfortunately they are returning to action against the defending PAC-10 champions, and last season they weren't competitive in their own conference. They are inexperienced, thin and overmatched in this game, on the road in one of the loudest, most high-energy stadiums in college football. Nothing in their resume has prepared them for this. It's a grim test, and quite a sales job for an embattled coach.

Oregon has to ignore all this. No one ever won a game based on predictions, Las Vegas odds, or last year's statistics. The fastest way to lose a game you shouldn't is to walk into the stadium thinking all you have to is show up and trot out behind the Harley. The Oregon players seem very eager to be playing football again, however. Their confidence is grounded in a love of the game, a desire to succeed, and the knowledge that their Coach expects their best effort every day.

The Ducks' real opponent, their real challenge on Saturday, is to prepare and execute, to use this game to get better and jell as a team. Offense, defense and special teams, they have to be sharp and disciplined to get themselves ready for the PAC-10 nine-round slugfest. The goal isn't just beating New Mexico. It's using this game to become better football players, to become the team they are capable of being.

Five Crucial Things Darron Thomas Must Do to Succeed as a First-Year Starter, and five he must learn to avoid

What in the name of Ramsen Golpashin is going on here? The Oregon Ducks are defending the PAC-10 title and competing for the national championship with a first-year starter at quarterback?

The Alabama Crimson Tide had a first-year quarterback last season, and they went undefeated in winning their conference and the national title. Of course, they had a favorable schedule and a deep team with a hard-hitting athletic defense and a standout running back, lots of team speed and aggressiveness. Hey wait a minute...

A lot hinges on Darron Thomas and his learning curve. He's replacing a Heisman trophy candidate who triggered the most electric offense in the country. Masoli made defenses choose on every play, but unfortunately he gave his coach no choice. He had to go. Losing an experienced senior quarterback hurts, but he's gone now, serving probation in another town. Chip Kelly says as far as the Ducks are concerned at this point it's just as if he graduated. The next guy has to take advantage of his opportunity, and we'll have the next guy for three years.

But Darron Thomas has to step up now. The 18 returning starters on his team are ready to win, and this may be the best overall team Oregon has ever had in terms of talent, depth and speed.

You don't waste that on an experiment, a feel-good story or potential. As the Oregon starter Thomas has to get up to speed and progress every week. He has to become comfortable in the job and in command of the offense by game five when Stanford comes to town for the Ducks' first meeting with a conference contender. The first four games of the season Oregon can get by with a quarterback who manages the game and limits his mistakes, but to put away Stanford they need the quarterback to make plays and lead the offense.

Opposing defensive coordinators will test Darron Thomas. He's inexperienced; it's inevitable that they will pressure him, blitz and stunt and scrape, disguising coverages, overloading the box, shifting formations, presenting him with odd fronts and jailbreak rushes. They'll hit him in the mouth. They'll try to intimidate and confuse him. He'll have to grow up in a hurry and absorb teaching like a sponge. Fortunately he has a great teacher, and lots of weapons around him.

What are the keys to his growth and progression as the Oregon starter?

First, the don'ts. He has to learn to avoid or minimize the following things, the five bugaboos of inexperienced quarterbacks:

1. Locking on to one receiver and telegraphing his targets.
2. Holding on to the ball too long.
3. Failing to check down to 2nd and 3rd receivers.
4. Forcing the ball into coverage.
5. Trying to make a play on his own on every down. Relying too much on his arm or his legs, and too little on the speed and talent in the Oregon offense.

However, you can't teach with negatives, especially exclusively. That makes an athlete stiff and overburdened and afraid of making mistakes. Coaches who instruct that way have quarterbacks who are always fearfully looking over to the sideline. It's why Mike Ditka's teams got such rotten quarterback play, for example. The only successful quarterback he ever had was Jim McMahon, a stubborn rebel who could tune him out.

Chip Kelly doesn't teach that way. He's taken two inexperienced quarterbacks and turned them into standouts, and one of those is making a bid to start in the NFL.

He are the five things DT must do to develop into an effective PAC-10 quarterback:

1. Be decisive in the zone read.

He won't make the right read every time, and defensive coordinators will try very hard to frustrate and confuse him at the line of scrimmage, but he has to trust his reads, and make confident decisions. He has to establish himself as a threat to run, and distribute the ball to Barner and James with good instincts. Darron has to be the kind of point guard who scores fourteen points with twelve assists one night, and dishes off 20 times the next, and believes in himself enough to take the 3-pointer when the defense lays back. In short, he has to be decisive, instinctive and in command. Just play football. He's run the zone read since high school and there's every reason to think he can be effective. He's a good athlete, and the way he most genuinely resembles Dennis Dixon is that he has large, athletic hands, a great asset in the zone read ball handling. He'll have opportunities to fool cameramen and the entire right side of defenses. Those lead to big gains and force defenders to stay at home.

2. Be committed to improving every week.

He must absorb as much from game experience and Kelly/Helfrich as he can, stay attentive and focused and push himself in film study and practice. He has to grow in the job every week, because the Oregon season gets progressively harder, and the PAC-10 is a deep, competitive conference. Oregon is the hunted now. They will get every one's best shot, and the level of competence he achieves by game two won't be nearly enough for the critical games that come later.

If the Ducks are to achieve their potential this year, at some point the light has to come on for Darron Thomas. That will only happen if he works hard and remains a coachable, teachable quarterback, committed to improving all season long. He has to grow in leadership and command of the offense. A time will come in the season when they need a drive to win or they need him to step up and win a game. He has to make himself ready for those situations if he wants to win a championship.

3. Use the weapons around him.

This one came from Joey Harrington. In a radio interview at 95.5 The Game he said the keys for Thomas were to get comfortable in his offense and trust his teammates, to realize he doesn't have to make a play on every down, just make the plays that are there and distribute the ball the rest of the time. He has to let the game come to him and strive to be in the flow of it.

4. Practice and develop good habits in the passing game.

Looking off defenders and going through progressions are what separate good quarterbacks from mediocre ones. Darron throws a pretty ball. As a freshman against Boise State he proved he can sling it, but the ability to scan the field and pick the right target, have that clock in your head and the confidence that slows things down in the pocket, that is something only experiences teaches. He'll have to learn to feel pressure and recognize when things are breaking down, recognize when it's time to take off running, improvise or throw the ball away,

Darron has to get experienced in a hurry. Jim Harbaugh and the rest of the PAC-10 coaches will be looking for his weaknesses.

5. Be Darron Thomas.

This is the most important. The coaches didn't make a mistake in naming him as the starter. Thomas doesn't have to be Jeremiah Masoli, Dennis Dixon or Vince Young, and he shouldn't try to be. Oh, there are things he can take from their game and use, but his job is to be Darron Thomas, to trust himself and be himself and rely on his teammates and coaches and just play football. He can't pressure himself to do it all at once. He must learn from his mistakes, accept them, and learn to minimize them without dwelling on them or getting discouraged. If he struggles a little at times he has to rely on his teammates to pick him up.

He can't play scared or cautious, afraid of making a mistake. Above all he needs to have fun out there and remember he's playing a game on Saturday afternoon with his best friends. He'll play his best football if he allows himself to just play and enjoy it. He's a very spirited, laid back, enthusiastic kid, and that will serve him well in all the attention and expectation.

Rumblin', Stumblin', Fumblin': Quick Notes and News While We Wait for Practice Updates and Video

Nate Costa has nothing to be ashamed of. He competed hard and nearly won the job. His and Darron's efforts raised the level of everyone's work in fall camp, and because of them, Oregon has two capable quarterbacks who will be ready to defend the conference title.

Nate was classy and courageous throughout, like always, and here's hoping Duck fans give him a roar of appreciation the first time he comes out to take a series on September 4th. I'm a big fan of both guys, and I'm glad they're in an Oregon uniform. The Ducks will need both to win this season. Depth is a strong suit throughout the Oregon lineup, and quarterback is no exception.


It was cool to see the Ducks make the cover of USA Today. Question: how does LaMichael James make this cover as one of the two featured players in the Western region of the country, and not make the watch list for the Dope Walker Award? Really? Only four guys rushed for more than his 1546 yards, no one had more breakaway runs or produced more excitement, and he's likely to be better in 2010, stronger and faster after a stint on the conference champion track team last spring. He sticks his foot in the ground and goes from zero to sixty--it was the most sensible thing Jesse Palmer ever said. LMJ is the most electric back college football has seen since Reggie Bush, and he was a cheater whose existence has been erased. To not include James on a list of candidates for a running back award makes that a pretty stupid award.

The beauty of it is, LaMichael couldn't care two cents about that snub. The only award he cares about is the PTT (Pac-10 Trophy) and the only awards ceremony he's concerned about attending right now is the singing of the fight song in a victorious Oregon locker room after a victory over New Mexico.

Baver fans will make hay all season over the unfortunate incident with the young woman last winter (despite having unfortunate incidents of their own), but James has addressed that, responded properly before the legal system and in the classroom and earned the right to move on. You will never find a more humble and focused kid than LaMichael, and from this point forward he deserves to be judged only for the whole of his conduct and the dignified way he conducts himself on and off the field. He's a good kid and a credit to his team, and the best running back in the NCAA. He's one of the most dynamic players, at any position, in the whole country. If he plays four years he'll put the first stiff arm trophy in the Oregon trophy case. Whether he wants to or not, he'll probably get an invite to New York as a junior and senior, or at least he ought to. He may even win a couple of those Dope Walker awards. Yep, that's what I said.

The only possible catches are injury or leaving early. LaMichael is tough and strong but plagued by occasional shoulder problems. Here's hoping one of those sleazeball hide-in-the-bushes agents doesn't get in his ear. Objectively, LaMike is a player who would benefit from four years at the college level, addressing doubts about his size and durability and improving his skills as a receiver out of the backfield. I wonder what the Kiper types are saying about him. Does he project as a strictly a third-down back in their eyes, a Joe Washington, or a Barry Sanders? Whatever they think he's capable of, triple it by three. Just let us keep him for four years first. I don't know his family situation--some kids can't afford to wait, and feel a lot of pressure to achieve and take care of their family.

Another aspect of the USA Today cover is that whatever you think of the Nike fashion-forward marketing of the Ducks, with the multiple uniforms and helmets and the wings and carbon fiber and throwbacks, it has made Oregon the sexiest, most rock and roll team in the country. They get attention. They get talked about. Young recruits around the nation, talented kids with many options, see what Oregon is doing and they put them on their list, many of them to the top of their list. The Ducks have become the Dream School for kids who live 3,000 miles away and run a 4.25. Heady stuff. What a long, strange trip it's been since the days of the 0-0 tie.

Of course the image and the flash is just one part of the equation. When you back that up with great coaching in a space age pinball laser light show offense, and a team that plays championship football before an intelligent, wildly enthusiastic crowd in a packed stadium in a great college town in the most beautiful state in the country, you have something that sells itself. You have something that endures, formidable enough to buck the trend of all the attention going to the warm weather states and the Haves from the South and Southeast.

A last word on embarrassing incidents. Here at The Duck Stops Here we generally have little sympathy for the jealous horde of Beaver "Nation" but we try to avoid the cheap and easy lines, even when some stories write themselves. Tyler Thomas was a third-string tackle. It was not an important story in a football sense, and Mike Riley handled it properly. The young man likely needs some counseling and medical attention, and I hope he allows himself to receive it. There's a thin line between love and hate, between sanity and endangering your own life and the lives of others.

It's a reminder to all of us to know our limits and take care of each other, to remember to look up from the game occasionally and talk to our four-year-old about his new Hot Wheel racecar, spend an hour in his world. You'll be glad you did. The other night I had to work late, and when I came home my wife had made a barbeque sandwich and some twice-baked potatoes, wrapped up in plate next to the microwave. It was after midnight and she had to work the next morning. It's the little things in life, the tender mercies, the gentle graces. The tagline of the blog is just a joke, a way of grabbing your attention and poking fun at how obsessive and passionate we can be about this school and this game. Remember to be as obsessive and passionate about all the other little things that matter so much.

How Will the Wolf Survive?

The decision is made. The two-deep is set. All the projecting and predicting and conjecturing is over. Forecasting the conference race, mapping out the schedule for best cases and worse cases, the frenzy of hype, that's done.

It's one week to prepare for New Mexico, five days of good work, then Saturday the Ducks play a football game. It's the only game on the schedule this week, for the national championship of Autzen stadium on September 4th. No other game matters. No other game exists. The next opponent or the last one or the one looming some other time and some other place has no importance, existing only faintly, acknowledged not at all. What did you have for dinner on Tuesday, or the Wednesday before? That's how little any other game matters. At Oregon success is built by the day; this is Saturday, August 28, and all that matters are fifteen or so practice periods and beginning the transition from training camp to game week.

After the rigors of training the Ducks are ready to hit somebody. They want to play a game.

By all accounts the New Mexico Lobos are severely overmatched in this game, starting a sophomore quarterback and freshman center in Autzen stadium. They run a pass-oriented, no-huddle spread offense that plays right into the Ducks' strengths, and it could get ugly, freshmen herded into Autzen to face the House of Loud and Spencer Paysinger and Kenny Rowe. Addicted to Quack has very detailed and professional breakdown of the game, and all this season's opponents, on the home page of that excellent website.

The Ducks don't care about point spreads or star ratings; they just want to start playing football. These guys are too young to remember how terribly wrong a home opener can go, but I'm not: in 2004 another Duck team that lacked the leadership and work ethic of this one strutted out to their opener and fell into the quicksand, losing to Indiana 30-24. It was a game the Ducks had no business losing, but they coughed up enough fumbles and missed enough tackles to make a vastly inferior opponent look very good that day.

This week, and particularly today, look for reports that the Ducks are exhibiting energy and urgency as they enter their first game week. Coach Kelly wants to establish the practice order and pick up the tempo, achieve the "fast hard finish" in every drill. He wants to see crisp workouts and attentive effort. Every player has to acknowledge that this isn't about getting by one undermanned opponent; it's about establishing their habits and work ethic and attention to detail and getting better every day. In going from fall camp to game week mode, today's practice sets a tempo for the way he wants them to work all week and all season going forward. Thus far in camp, this group has done everything they've been asked to do. The Ducks are not only deep in talent; they're deep in leadership, and this is a group with a good motor. They practice like PAC-10 champions.

And look for Darron Thomas to accept his new role as leader of the offense. Look for signs he's taking command, working through his progressions, executing, and finding his rhythm.

It's important that the Ducks ready themselves not only to win, but win with rhythm and sharpness. Saturday Oregon fans hope to see a crisp, focused performance, a team that plays with passion and discipline, playing its best football no what who the opponent, committed to improving every day. No team in the country made more improvement from Game 1 to Game 4 last season than the Oregon Ducks, and they sustained a high level all year long. That's how a championship is won. That's how excellence is sustained.

Ducks Starter Coronated Via Tweet; Fan Base All a Twitter

Chip Kelly sent out a tweet, and the SID followed with a terse announcement:

Sophomore Darron Thomas has been named the starting quarterback for the University of Oregon’s Sept. 4 season opener vs. New Mexico in Autzen Stadium, head coach Chip Kelly announced Friday.

The 6-3, 212-pound Houston native played in five games as a true freshman in 2008, completing 16 of 33 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns. All but three completions and 58 passing yards came in a fourth-quarter comeback that fell short in a 37-32 loss to Boise State.

It will mark Thomas’ first collegiate start after he redshirted the 2009 season.

Kelly is expected to address the media following tomorrow’s workout.

Kind of a relief, really. Sort of an anticlimax after all that fuss. When they write out Darron's bio like that it doesn't sound like much. He'll put on his helmet and step into the first huddle at Tennessee with one career start.

The TV cameras will be rolling and 100,000 will be screaming and waving orange pom poms. The last game Darron Thomas started was in high school. That was in Texas, so it might have been before 30,000, but even so, it was three seasons ago. Just pause to think what a leap that is. Texas high school football is big but these Ducks have only been one place as loud and as crazy as Neyland Stadium. Autzen stadium, and everybody there roots for them. The Rose Bowl holds as many but that's a crowd divided, even for UCLA home games.

The New Mexico game is the soft landing for the rookie starter. Tennessee is the first real test. The Volunteers are down this season, with a first-year quarterback of their own, and a first-year coach, but traveling two-thirds of the way across the country to a tradition-laden, football crazed opponent in the SEC is daunting in itself. Very early in this much-anticipated season, we'll get to see what Darron Thomas is made of, how he handles a spotlight.

He's the perfect guy for that role, and I'll tell you why. Darron Thomas is a kid. I saw a piece of video where he was talking about the new helmets (I'd link it if I could find it) and he's bursting with enthusiasm, grinning from ear to ear about how sweet they look. Darron Thomas is a guy who will never lose sight of the fact he's a kid playing a game. Guys like that don't feel pressure. They trust their gifts. They play loose and free and athletic.

People have expressed some surprise or alarm that DT doesn't look comfortable in interviews, but upon reflection it makes total sense. He doesn't want to talk about football. He doesn't want to analyze it. That's a country for old men. He wants to play.

The thing about sports is, we learned to love them as a kid. Watch an eight year old who's been shown a proper grip swing a golf club, and he'll do it without a single worry about swing plane or hip rotation, and he'll bust his drive straight down the middle.

The best, most intuitive and graceful athletes keep that quality all their lives. The true geniuses of sport, the wonderful, fluid, masters of their game, play with an abandoned, infectious joy: Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., Walter Payton, John Boyette. They're fierce. They're spontaneous and creative. They don't feel limits. Watching back the video of Darron Thomas torching the Boise State defense for 210 and three scores, I think the secret is that he just went out and played. He was a kid playin' football, and it showed. It showed how good he is free to be.

He did the same thing later that year in the Civil War. It was a playground play: "I'll come around on the reverse and you go long to the garbage can." He warmed up quickly on the sidelines, hidden out of sight. A blitzer busted the play, right in his face as he rolled right. He threw a strike. Just another day at the playground. Nice toss, Darron.

I remember Joe Montana in the 49ers first Super Bowl. Late in the game and the 49ers are behind and need a touchdown drive to win, backed up to their own eight with 3:10 to play. Montana leans into the huddle and points up into the crowd, says to his teammates, "Hey look, it's John Candy." Then he drove them the length of the field, zipping a 10-yard slant pass to John Taylor for the world championship of football, 92 yards in eleven plays.

I'm not saying Darron Thomas is the next Joe Montana. And I think it's equally foolish to say he's the next Dennis Dixon. What I am saying is that Darron Thomas has an essential quality of greatness, a playful, confident enthusiasm for the game, that will allow him to be the next Darron Thomas. That genuine love of playing football will free him up to lead and learn and have fun. That quality will be the key to his success. Coach Kelly has also praised him as a diligent student in film study, far brighter than the quick pigeon-holers assume, but his greatest strength lies in his athlete's heart, patient, confident, and trusting.

Duck fans would be wise to stay patient and confident with him. It can only improve his chances of achieving all his goals, and theirs.

Breaking Bad: One PAC-10 Team Leaves Camp with the Motorhome on Fire

In fall camp every coach has a few simple goals: avoid major injuries and eligibility issues, settle on the starting lineup, discover the team's assets and strengths; build some unity, discipline and character, and stay off the police blotter. He wants a team that is physically and mentally ready for competition with a minimum of distractions and setbacks.

One team in the PAC-10 has made woeful progress toward those few simple goals, and their season could be ready for the crash cart by the time PAC-10 play hits full stride in October.

You know what you see when the smog lifts over Pauley Pavilion? UCLA, and the view isn't pretty.

No one rises to low expectations, and the Slick One ramped up the attitude at Westwood from the day he arrived on campus. He picked a very public fight with Pete Carroll in several installments, billboards, booster club speeches, and then this ugly one-upmanship by Carroll and USC in their annual rivalry game that escalated into a midfield brawl.

While Neuheisel succeeded in ramping up the contentiousness he hasn't delivered wins. In two seasons his Bruins have finished 8th and 8th in conference, 3-6 each year, and despite a talented and athletic roster they can't shake the image of being soft and underachieving. They snuck into the Eagle Bank Bowl in 2009 and won 30-21 over Temple to bring their record to 7-6, but it's certain the same Bruin boosters who listened attentively to his Petey rant expected more from him when they approved his hire. The Slickster doesn't make most hot seat lists, but he's not in a position to order new carpet for his office either.

What about 2010? He and Norm Chow were supposed to bring innovation and excitement to the Rose Bowl, where UCLA home games are played, but so far it hasn't materialized. This spring they installed a new "Pistol" offense created by Nevada's Chris Ault, which was supposed to feature the dual-threat talents of redshirt sophomore Kevin Prince. Only one problem: Prince has been dinged up all camp, struggling with a lower back/oblique muscle injury that has kept him throwing no more than a handful of passes with plenty of time in the treatment room.

Meanwhile his offensive line has lost three starters, two to injury and one to academics. Guard Jeff Baca, a Pre-Med major, took an overly ambitious class load this spring and wound up with grade problems, losing an appeal to the NCAA. (Duck fans know all too well how those NCAA appeal and clearing house issues work out. Brian Bosworth wasn't far off years ago when he wore a jacket that said "National Communists Against Athletes.") Baca is changing majors and planning to return in the spring. Center Kai Maiava is out at least 10 weeks with a broken ankle, and Right tackle Mike Harris is suspended for the Kansas State game for violating team rules. Xavier Su’a-Filo, last year’s starting left tackle, left school in December to take his LDS mission.

It's a long list that leaves UCLA with just two linemen with significant starting experience. A study in the Wall Street Journal last season showed that, statistically, offensive line experience is the single biggest determiner of success in major college football. The Bruins are a team of mis-matched parts; they successfully recruited premier blue-chip five-star running back Malcolm Jones, the Gatorade high school national player of the year in 2009, but they may have walk-ons up front trying to put a hat on somebody. Norm Chow will look less like a genius with every snap.

Defensively, UCLA took a huge blow at the start of fall camp when defensive end Datone Jones broke his foot running on the artificial turf of the Bruin's practice field. Counted on to be the anchor of a defense that lost five starters to graduation and one to the NFL, he's out 10-12 weeks. Jones had four sacks last season, tops among returnees for the baby blue and gold. Defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough already faced the serious challenge of replacing all-conference defensive back Alterraun Verner, who graduated, and PAC-10 Defensive Player of the Year DT Brian Price, who defected to the NFL. The Bosworth brothers are also gone, and with them a lot of heart and energy. The two remaining stars, safety Rahim Moore and linebacker Akeem Ayers, will make a lot of tackles. They'll have to.

Fire Marshall's Report

The fall camp motorhome looks like a meth lab fire in Los Angeles, and the September schedule provides the Bruins with a couple of quick punches in the mouth. After opening on the road at Kansas State, (a winnable game, but not ideal for a team with so many questions) they start PAC-10 play on September 11 versus Stanford. That game is in the Rose Bowl but no coach would want to test his undermanned defense that early against a conference title contender and Andrew Luck. To make things worse, they follow this game with road games facing Heisman trophy candidate Casey Keenum and Houston, then number five Texas at Royal Stadium. This is a brutal opening schedule; going 1-3 or 0-4 is a distinct possibility that would leave them reeling. It would be a challenge to hold a team together after a start like that, particularly at UCLA, where the football teams have a deserved historical reputation for packing it in when a season goes bad.

October isn't much better. They get their best chance to right things October 2nd at home versus WSU, but then they travel to Cal on the ninth. Then comes a much needed bye week (Isn't it interesting how many teams in the conference have a bye week scheduled the week before they face Oregon) before hitting the road again to Autzen for an ESPN Thursday night match-up with the Ducks, October 21, too soon for their injured keystones, Jones and C Maiava, to come off the disabled list.

It doesn't project well for the Bruins. Preseason forecasts that had them in the upper half of the conference and going bowling were premature. UCLA looks to be the surprise bad team of the conference, and will struggle to pull together another 3-6 finish. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Wildcats, Beavers, Trojans and Bears: This Duck Has You Covered

John Neal doesn't need my help. He's sent Walter Thurmond, Jairus Byrd and Patrick Chung to the NFL, so he knows a thing or two about coaching the defensive secondary, but I hope he starts Cliff Harris at the other cornerback this year.

Not that Anthony Gildon is a slouch. The beat writers say he's the only one who regularly succeeds locked up with Jeff Maehl. Iron sharpens iron, Coach Kelly likes to say. A training camp matching skills with Oregon's glue-fingered senior receiver would sharpen anybody. Or encourage them to transfer to the NAIA.

The thing I like about Harris is, he makes plays. He plays the ball and acts like it's his when it's in the air (and he has a knack for knowing when it's in the air), that it belongs to him and it belonged to him all along. I like that. He had another pick in the scrimmage yesterday, one of several during camp, and it's his aggressive, tenacious, spiderman style that gets him to the football. Harris has great closing speed and wants the football, an unteachable fearlessness, a short memory. He's the kind of guy who will mess up the coverage and be in the wrong place but make a play anyway, just because his instincts are so good. Last season he led the team in pass breakups despite playing only eight games. Given a full season, he'd post some eye-popping numbers for deflections, breakups and picks.

I love the way he contests the ball. Last season against Washington and Stanford there were a couple of plays he got beat, but if you watch the video he's contesting the play all the way to the ground. He makes the receiver work so hard to make a catch. He may give up a few plays, but he can also get you the ball back, and that's a tremendous equalizer. Another exciting factor is how dangerous he can be if he does get his hands on it. Listed at 5' 11," 180, he's got to be smaller than that, but he plays fearless and is not afraid to make a tackle. From the outside looking in, he's the guy I'd choose for the weakside corner.

Darron Thomas Won the Day, but Has He Won the Job?

All we have are the numbers. No one, not fans, not media, except for a few privileged insiders, got to see it unfold. It was harder to get in than a trendy LA nightclub. Mike Bellotti got past the velvet ropes. Media types with better credentials, Rob Moseley and Ken Goe, didn't make the clipboard.

Word is, it was a clean, hard-hitting scrimmage, and no one got injured. James and Barner were held out. Costa and Thomas wore the no-contact jerseys, but Bennett was full live. The Oregon athletic office released stats but no video. Kelly's comments were brief.

Here is a link to the stats on goducks.com.

Several things jump out. First, Darron Thomas won the day. His turn at the driver's seat resulted in three touchdowns and no picks. He was more efficient, 14-23, 125 yards, 3 touchdowns passing. Costa had a lackluster day, less than 50% on 35 attempts, an interception, one lone touchdown. After practice Costa sounded disappointed in himself. He told Rob Moseley of the Eugene Register-Guard, “I kind of had a slow start, wasn’t very happy with that, but I ended very well,” Costa said. “I think overall it was a good day, and I made my case.” Neither quarterback had success running the football, Thomas four carries for nine yards, Costa 10-23.

Interestingly, Brian Bennett had better numbers than either of the veterans, 6-10 passing, for two tds and a pick, 9-41 rushing with a touchdown. Of course his snaps probably came with the number threes versus the number threes, but it's encouraging to see such strong evidence of his potential. He's not overwhelmed out there.

Despite his progress he's still a year away but some of the other youngsters are making a bid to play now. With Barner and James held out Dontae Williams was the leading rusher with six carries, 48 yards and two TDs, and he seems more and more likely to be the freshman running back who makes the rotation for a backup spot. Seastrunk didn't break free. Among the receivers Hawkins caught nine balls for 60 yards, Eric Dungy four for 50 yards and 2 TDs, Nick Cole 3-39 and 2 TDs. Hawkins is definitely a better fit at receiver than running back. It's great to see Nick Cole show progress, and how can you keep Dungy in a redshirt when he keeps catching everything they throw him? Feed him some vitamins and suit him up. The backup receiver battle continues to be interesting, and has implications beyond this year.

But there are two vitally important things that happened today. The Ducks capped off a very successful camp in which they accomplished all their goals. And Darron Thomas has won the quarterback job. He is the one who has grown and improved day by day, and he's asserted himself over the last ten days. The result surprised me. I didn't think he had the focus or maturity to be the starter, but he's passed the ball better and made fewer errors, and with the job on the line in this final exam, he scored a solid B+. His thinking going in was solid. He said he wanted to move the team and avoid errors, and that's exactly what he did.

Darron Thomas will be the Oregon starter for New Mexico. No one has announced it yet, except Darron, who quietly proclaimed it with 21 solid practices and a winning effort before his coaches and the entire team in the final scrimmage.

A Brief Eulogy for the Bad Old Days

In the bad old days of Duckdom, every year was a rebuilding year. They were picked 8th, 9th or 10th in the conference, and hoping to win four games, maybe sneak in an occasional winning season. Dick Enright, Jerry Frei and Don Read were on the permanent hot seat, and even though Rich Brooks brought Oregon football out of the basement over seventeen years his leash was never very long. Irritable grumbling began every time he ran off tackle on third and eight.

Brooks climbed to 6-3-2 in 1980 with Reggie Ogburn but fell back to 2-9. They reached the heady heights of 8-4 in 1990, Bill Musgrave's senior year, but returned to dismal without him at 3-8. Musgrave threw for over 8300 yards as a Duck. We were sad to see him go.

Things are different now. But as fall camp ends shrouded in mystery, Duck fans are wise to remember where we were or we'll forget where we're going. Provided our new quarterback asserted himself this afternoon behind closed doors this could be a magical year. The one where we hug each other like Sox fans watching Johnny Damon and Big Papi break The Curse of the Bambino. Coaches have to be cautious and cite the cliches but we don't: the Ducks are the favorites to repeat as conference champions, and there are multiple reasons why. It's giddy territory for a fan base that a generation ago only hoped to avoid embarrassment, like another 0-0 tie.

Younger fans probably can't imagine. Twenty seven years ago Oregon was the joint loser of the Toilet Bowl, and today we're talking about prospects for a return trip to the Rose Bowl. It's a different time. Now, the last two Civil Wars have been for the Rose Bowl. Then, drenched and discouraged and shaking our heads, in a time where we couldn't have texted, tweeted, blogged or emailed, we just had to console each other and hope next year wouldn't be worse.

They made a bowl for the first time in ages in '89, a ridiculous Mizzlou television network broadcast played to 25,000 empty seats in Shreveport, Louisiana. Long before the tarballs it was a misbegotten place. In '90 they made the Freedom Bowl, and in '92 they took another crack at the coveted Weedeater Trophy. Then in '94 they made the Rose, played January 2, 1995.

The first time back at the Granddaddy was bittersweet. Ki-Jana Carter of Penn State took it off tackle for eighty yards, the Ducks got in close before half time and couldn't punch it in. Oregon's Danny O'Neill set a Rose Bowl record throwing for 465 yards (who knew Rich Brooks would let a quarterback throw that much--61 attempts). They Ducks were proud to be there but a little overmatched. They vowed to come back. They did, but it took fifteen years. It was another bittersweet day, watching LeGarrette Blount kick a ball on a stretch play from the red zone, watching the ball bound all the way to the Ohio State end zone, watching seven points turn into despair. Masoli had them moving just before half (a familiar theme) but suffered a tipped interception. The Buckeyes turned it into three points.

The second half was torture. LaMichael got dinged and Blount added that bitter postscript to The Punch. Pryor's desperation pass to his tight end, with four Ducks all around him, has that balloon come down yet? For the Ducks, the game fell brutally short of what they were capable of. The game had an agonizing slow-motion feel to it, like they were playing mud or quicksand. You'd watch plays unfold and make a sound like Darth Vader when his beloved dies: "Noooooooooooooo." Here's Pryor in trouble in the pocket...wait, he slipped away. Somebody TACKLE him!!!! I still don't have the taste completely out of my mouth. I hope the kids remember it a little too.

For all the Oregon Ducks have accomplished in the last two decades, despite the heady national recognition and the reputation for dazzling, entertaining football and a splashy presence, the resume feels incomplete. There's a missing item in the trophy case.

I never worry about national titles. The possibility to contend is out there, and that's wonderful. But the BCS is a tainted popularity contest hopelessly skewed toward the South. My measure of excellence and ultimate achievement is very simple and clear, and it's decided on the field in a nine-game conference round robin.

I want the Ducks to win the conference title, outright, and win the Rose Bowl. Anything more would be a bonus. Anything less will be a disappointment.

Without clear expectations you'll get murky results. Go Ducks.

Things That Make Me Want to Go All Crabby Fighting Duck on Some Poor Fool

You can make a case for either guy at quarterback, and Thomas will be a perfectly good starter with the staff and his teammates behind him, but it drives me crazy when people have a take that starts with how unimpressive Costa was at UCLA.  Anyone remember how overmatched and ineffectual Masoli looked in his first several games as starter, going back to 2008?  Until the drive in the Stanford game he was exasperating.  In fact, the first three games of 2009 he was utterly awful again.

 

My point is, if you judged most quarterbacks, including Dennis Dixon in his sophomore and junior years, on their first game or couple of games you will make a very distorted evaluation.  Remember DD at Cal in 2006?  Not pretty.  A quarterback has to get comfortable in his offense and his abilities to play his best, and no matter who starts in 2010, there will be growing pains.  It’s imperative that Duck fans understand this, and stay behind both quarterbacks regardless of who the coaches choose to be 1A.  Booing and backbiting and running the guy down is a foolproof recipe for 8-4 or 7-5.  If you want to negate the best home field advantage this side of Texas, boo your own starting qb.

 

You can say Thomas will start or Costa should start, but please, don’t start off with some bombastic know-it-all salvo about the UCLA game.  Costa was fresh off knee surgery, starting in an emergency, and he won.  The pick he threw was one of the most athletic plays I’ve ever seen, by an unblocked blitzer.  I think the spring game is a much more accurate depiction of Nate Costa’s upside as a starter.  He’d be a perfectly effective and efficient quarterback for this team, and so will DT.  It’s crazy how we can fume and obsess over an offense that’s produced about 38 points and 5500 yards a year for the last three years.  It’s as though we have some irrational fear that Frost, Greatwood,  Helfrich and Kelly have suddenly forgotten how to coach without our help.

 

 

Stop Dragging My Heart Around

Is it just me or does Nick Foles look like the long lost son of Tom Petty?

Converting Haloti Ngata to Cornerback

Just wondering...if the Ducks are looking for running back depth and working out a slender 6' 4" Daryle Hawkins there, who seems like a great kid and a good athlete, why wouldn't they try a few snaps for Josh Huff, who at 6' 1' 205 was a standout high school running back with speed and a durable running back body?

Hawkins, on the other hand, was an all-league receiver as a high school junior, and at 6'4"; with good athleticism and speed and a thorough knowledge of the offense, seems tailor-made to line up out there.

The Oregon coaching staff is generally brilliant, but this seems like converting Haloti Ngata to cornerback. Cross training is a great concept, but these young two players with promise seem completely reversed in this respect.

Holding My Breath for Thursday's Scrimmage, but Not for the Reason You Think

Don't ask why they call it Fall Camp. It's a drive-in-the-parkway/park-in-the-driveway kind of thing, like baseball's Spring Training, all but of a week of which happens when most of the country is still wearing coats and scraping the windshield. It's a harbinger, a hint of hopes and glories to come, a time for optimism to spring eternal. Every pitching staff looks promising in the spring, and rookie outfielders from Sewanee or Pawtucket look good until the veterans dust off their best curve balls. Every secondary looks stout in Fall Camp, until the All-American they face in game 3 busts off a double move on his way to the end zone and the NFL combine.

It's a cruel thing to ask an athlete for his impressions of "Fall" Camp, when it's 95 degrees out and his shoulder pads are still slightly damp from the morning workout. He goes with it because he's learning his cliches. "I just want to help the team, you know, get better every day." With a microphone in front of them the kids are in midseason form. Most of the time, though, the Oregon kids are invariably polite and well-spoken with the media, a testament to their overall character. They leave it to their coach to practice the evasions and ball-busting retorts. No one can fend off the press like Chip Kelly. He's Bobby Knight without the coarse belligerence. Kelly does it with a quick wit and sneaky humor, verbal slap boxing, and it's kind of entertaining to watch. Occasionally a one-word reply can hang in the air and it becomes awkward, the beat writers waiting for elaboration that will never come. It's a mistake to press him. "Do you think there's a danger waiting to name a starter might impede the team's focus?" "No." The "no" hangs in the air like a bad smell, impossible to ignore, too awkward to say anything about.

We'll never be able to ask, but we all wonder how tomorrow's scrimmage weighs in key personnel decisions on the two-deep. Who starts at the other corner, the other defensive tackle, and what's the rotation among the backup receivers? Which kicker lines up for field goals at Tennessee? And then the headliner question, who's the number one quarterback?

My sense is in all these areas it will be a body-of-work deal, that even if we or the media were allowed to view Thursday's scrimmage we wouldn't see anything like a seminal moment when Costa or Thomas dropped back and threw the ball that won them the job forever. It won't come down to a two-minute drill from their own 30 or a final play, or their last three reps of the zone read. Chip Kelly and Steve Greatwood have careful, practiced eyes. I don't have the same level of confidence in Mark Helfrich, but's that's only because he's relatively new in the program and he keeps such a low profile as an offensive coordinator. Rightly or wrongly Chip Kelly gets credit for the offense.

Duck fans (don't ever, ever call us a Nation--we're a worldwide movement of grass roots excellence) have debated this with fervor, but as a group they've expressed a lot of trust in the coaching staff on this position battle. Kelly, Helfrich and Greatwood don't seem to have any snafus in the chain of command. There's little chance of the field goal team going out at the wrong time with this staff. They don't make snap decisions or careless assumptions. The decision will be made with confidence, and then they'll go to work breaking down New Mexico.

Who starts or who doesn't doesn't really worry me. That will sort itself out. It always does. The worry is an unspeakable one, tough to bring up, because it comes close to a taboo, like mentioning a no-hitter out loud.

Cover this up with your hand if you're superstitious. It's this: so far the Ducks have had a perfect camp. Not perfect in terms of every practice rep being perfect, but perfect in terms of focus, tempo, getting their work in, young players emerging, veterans improving and taking leadership roles, and effort and enthusiasm and attention.

Only one thing could spoil it. Tomorrow there will be full-bore hitting, and thus far they've avoided a catastrophic injury or the loss of a starter. Tennessee lost two defensive linemen in the first week of camp. UCLA's starter at quarterback is nursing an injury to his back or an oblique muscle that's severely limited his preparation. Other than a scare for Barner and James, which proved to be nothing serious, and the usual nicks and dings of Fall Camp (that phrase again) the Ducks have had very little collateral damage over these twenty practices. Some of the credit has to go to the training and conditioning program overseen by Jim Radcliffe. The Ducks are focused, well-conditioned and relatively healthy, and that has made this a perfect camp.

Only one thing could spoil it. Play hard tomorrow, Ducks. And walk to the O games healthy.

The Future Is Now: Three Young Ducks Who Are Ready to Fly, and Three Who Should Stay Grounded

Long ago when quarterbacks wore pot bellies and single bar facemasks, and coaches stood with their hands on their hips and their pants up to their navels, the Washington Redskins had a coach named George Allen who liked to say "the future is now."

He'd trade all his draft picks and load his team with free agents, malcontents and retreads, angry guys with squashed noses who drank lots of beer and liked to kick ass. He spent a lot of the owners' money and made the playoffs seven times, winning 116 games. Before he was done he punched a ticket to Canton. He coached with his jaw jutted out, working a wad of gum, licking his hands before a big play. He'd watch from the sidelines in a team windbreaker, across from Landry looking stiff and robotic in a snap-brim hat and grey suit, Allen leaning forward with his hands on his knees, clapping his hands like a stuffed toy monkey with cymbals when the kickoff team made a tackle inside the 20. His teams sang corny songs in the locker room and prided themselves on special teams. The future is now. In the long run we're all dead.

Chip Kelly is on record as saying this a future-is-now year for the Oregon Ducks. He told Ken Goe of the Oregonian:

“Our future is now,” Kelly said. “We’re not saving anybody for anything. If a person, I don’t care what class he is, gives us the opportunity to win a football game – I don’t look at and say let’s redshirt this kid for five years from now. You do that, you might not be here five years from now."

That means if Brian Bennett needs to play this year, he'll play. If one of the young running backs needs to enter the rotation, they'll be sent in, whether it's the third game or the seventh or the tenth.

Redshirt years can be tricky. A lot of players really benefit from the extra year of seasoning, but some can't handle the demotion or the obscurity. Now that Oregon is recruiting at a much higher level than ever before, they're getting talented athletes who were stars at the last level. Big stars with three scrapbooks at home, and 600 friends on their Facebook. They want to hear their name called. They want to be starters, first string, have something to brag about when they go home for a week or two in June. Chris Harper couldn't handle being a role player, or adjusting to a new position. He left for home and stayed, saying he wanted to be a quarterback. Now he's playing slot receiver for Kansas State. We'll see him September 4th versus UCLA.

I don't think any player has made better use of a redshirt year than LaMichael James did in 2008. He gained some weight and got stronger, learned the offense and showcased his talents on the scout team. Duck coaches knew they had something special. He got a good start in the classroom. When Blount imploded he was ready for his closeup. You know the rest.

I don't know how well the younger guys would listen, but there are three or four guys who would greatly benefit from James' example in embracing a redshirt year. Eric Dungy, for example, has shown great hands in fall camp, but the consensus is he needs a year in the weight room before being thrown into the receiver rotation. Dungy wasn't highly recruited out of high school and has the great football background, so he is likely to adjust very well to redshirting. With a couple of the other guys, it may be a more difficult assignment.

Lache Seastrunk showed flashes of five-star brilliance in fall camp, outrunning the number one defense and leaving defenders tackling air, forty-five-degree-angle cuts with a Barry Sanders double lean, but other moments where his rookie status was glaringly apparent, lining up wrong or missing the play, muffing kicks and punts. Will the most highly-touted Duck recruit adjust to a year out of the spotlight? It would pay huge dividends in his development, and spread out the running back wealth the Ducks enjoy. Oregon could go with a rotation of LMJ, Barner, and Alston, and the other promising freshman, Dontae Williams, a physical specimen with a mature, chiseled body that appears PAC-10 ready. But Seastrunk might chafe, watching these guys get the carries and the cheers.

The other option is to use him in a package. He hasn't mastered the offense, but Coach could get him 4-8 touches in specific situations, teaching him up week by week. Right now, I'd lean toward holding him back a year, but particularly with running backs, circumstances often force your hand.

The most talented, athletic quarterback in Duck practices might be true freshman Brian Bennett. He has the biggest arm. During the recruiting season some Duck fans falsely assumed he was a slow-footed Brady Leaf clone, a pass-first throwback to the Pro Style Ducks of four uniform designs ago. But Goducks.com says of Bennett, "Has been timed at 4.52 in the 40 meters and 4.16 in the shuttle run. As a track athlete, boasts a long jump of 22-10, triple jump of 46-6, a broad jump of 10-6 and has a 36-inch vertical." A 36-inch vertical is a big number for a quarterback, even a spread quarterback. Clearly he has wheels enough for the job, a good makeup, and he doesn't seem to be intimidated by the speed or sophistication of the college game.

Bennett is one of those guys who has been to all the camps and filmed workouts that amount to a college scouting combine. He was a three-year starter at a big-time high school, Long Beach Poly, the same school that spawned Kevin Prince of UCLA. He took his team to the state championship as a first-year starter, after Prince went down with an injury in game one. Bennett threw out of a spread formation in high school, for over 6,000 yards in three seasons, and that's helped him pick things up quickly in Eugene.

That said, I hope he isn't needed in 2010. The program lists him at 6' 2" 183 but if he is a pound over 175 I'll buy him a week's worth of Taco Bell. (Although I can't really; it'd be a violation of NCAA rules.) He'll certainly play if necessary, but a year to fill out and develop would be a tremendous benefit to him. Still, I think he has the poise and confidence and ability to play in an emergency, and handle it. I just hope he doesn't have to.

Here are the three newcomers who will play immediately, and their likely roles:

Rickie Heimuli, Defensive Tackle

The 6-4, 318-lb. Heimuli was the signing day surprise that took the Ducks 2010 recruiting class to a whole new level, the big, anchoring defensive tackle prospect they desperately needed at a thin position. They got valuable extra depth when they inked Isaac Remington from the junior college ranks, and it helped to see redshirt freshman Wade Keliikipi put together very a productive spring camp and back it up in the fall. He appears ready to contribute. Senior Zac Clark has shaken off back problems, and with Senior Brandon Bair ably manning one tackle spot, a position of apparent weakness now appears solid. Heimuli is talented, strong and quick, and has earned a spot in the rotation. He too has a PAC-10-ready body, excellent instincts and a good motor.

Flight Pattern: After Bair, who will conduct a season-long audition for the early rounds of the NFL draft, Heimuli will emerge as the standout of this group of capable tackles. Oregon's front four (and sometimes three) will surprise with its productivity and fierceness in 2010. The league isn't ready for the pride, tenacity, technique and improvement in this group.

Justin Hoffman/Josh Huff, Wide Receivers

Hoffman, a sophomore walk-on from Churchill High School who earned a scholarship with sticky hands and tough blocking, has worked his way into the mix at wide receiver, a position where the Ducks need depth after the scattered solo flying of Embry, Gaines, Jackson and Holland in the tumultuous off season. While Hoffman is the journeyman Huff is the natural, strong and sleek and smooth, with game breaking speed.

Flight Pattern: With depth and health a concern at wide receiver these two have a chance to step in and fill a vital gap in the Ducks' offensive plans for this season. Wide receiver is one position where a young player can readily be coached to make an immediate contribution based on ability and effort. I list these two as a tandem because they are two halves of a perfect whole. Together they could give Oregon a full complement of dependable, productive receivers, plus establish themselves for next season when the three starters are lost to graduation.

Alejandro Maldonado, kicker

A high school teammate of freshman safety Derrick Malone, Maldonado has to play whether he wins the kicking job or not, because Sophomore Rob Beard, an off-season Fulmer Cup contributor for the Ducks, is suspended for game one. Either way the redshirt is burned. Maldonado has a big leg, is a woeful second to Rice at punter. Neither of the kickers has been consistent, and the Ducks, who have enjoyed a long tradition of consistency and reliability from their kickers, might struggle a little more than usual at this position. The offense will have to pick up the slack with red zone efficiency, and the defense will have to win their half of the field position battle.

Kicker is one area where Duck fans have been spoiled by success. The Oregon faithful can recite the names of their favorites, each one virtually automatic and capable of giving the team a big lift with a crucial kick: Villegas, Frankel, Seigel, Flint, McCallum, Thompson, Martinez, Evensen. Duck fans are like Boston Red Sox or St. Louis Cardinal fans; they're passionate and knowledgeable, fans who appreciate the nuances and subtleties of the game, so much so that they could down three beers and a nacho talking Duck football and not get out of the kickers. Get them to the receivers, quarterbacks and linebackers and it's time to order another nacho and another round of beers. Better make it a pitcher.

Flight Pattern: It's hard to judge kickers in fall camp, because timing and preparation in the kicking game is so critical. Especially with newcomers there's there's a feeling that dress rehearsal was a little spotty and the first curtain will be a little sketchy. Maldonado has the talent to find his mark, however, and just might emerge as the star of his class by the time PAC-10 play begins.

On Saturday, the Most Important Duck Quarterback Will Be the One Who Doesn't Get the Job

We're all waiting like the faithful on the Autzen concourse, waiting for a puff of smoke. On Saturday Chip Kelly emerges from the conclave of Oregon coaches and answers the question he's been asked a 1,000 times.

And the most important quarterback on the practice field that morning is the one who doesn't take the first snap.

All his teammates will be watching. The fans and media will be watching. Does he hang his head? Is he sulking and detached and going through the motions? Or he is engaged, involved, with his chinstrap buckled and his eyes on the defense, shadowing every rep?

The guy named the backup has an incredibly difficult job. All his athletic life he has trained to be the man. Guys who sign up to play quarterback want it on their shoulders, from peewee football on. They want the helm, the command, the cadence. They want every snap to go to them. They want to be recognized and admired. Dennis Dixon was unique as a quarterback in that he was the shyest and most unassuming star I ever saw. He was a gazelle with the football in his hands, a magician on the ball fakes, fearless in the pocket, but put a microphone in front of him and he would lower his eyes and speak in a shy whisper. Most quarterbacks want the attention, the notoriety and the pressure. They want the spotlight and the responsibility and the cheers. They want to be the legend, to one degree or another.

I remember Johnny Durocher. 6' 4" 205, a four-star recruit from Spanaway rated 17th in the country. He ran a 4.8 40 and could throw the ball forty yards from his knees. He got lost in the shuffle at Oregon and transferred out. To Washington of all places. His last year here, he was sulky and detached. Cody Kempt left. So did Justin Roper.

How the number two guy reacts on Saturday will make a huge difference in the character and focus of this Oregon Duck football team in 2010. His demeanor and body language will signal his teammates whether they are in this together, or whether they are a group of individuals pursuing individual glory and individual goals. If he buys in, and shows it, and stays engaged and stays committed to being Oregon quarterback 1B, he sends a clear message to Dewitt Stuckey and Dior Mathis and Everett Benyard, "This is what we're about. We're Ducks. This is what it means to be a Duck. Every one of us is here for one goal and one purpose." He has a chance to lead this team in a more meaningful way than anyone in uniform on day one of the preparation for New Mexico. Because if he prepares like he is the starter, everyone else in uniform will take his cue.


Watch that guy on game day. Is he a coach on the sidelines? Are he and the starter working together, studying the pictures, comparing notes on what they're seeing out there? Or is he sullen and off to the side with a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes, his helmet stuffed under the bench? Where is his head? Where is his heart? Nothing can divide and destroy a football team faster than a number two quarterback who has quit on his teammates. Nothing can strengthen a football team like a number two quarterback who prepares perfectly for his moment to step into the huddle. Because it will come. He has to know he is one jammed ring finger from having it on his shoulders at the most critical moment of the season. Last year, Nate Costa saved a season in one play.

For the next 101 days these two young men are the Oregon quarterbacks. Next to the birth of their children and their wedding day it will be the most rich, intense experience of their lives. If they bond like brothers, their teammates will also. A team is not a team until it laughs, cries, and loves together. Oh, there are exceptions, like the Fighting A's or the Bronx Zoo, but the most legendary teams in sports achieve a deep camaraderie that is indescribable to an outsider. It is mystical. It is a refusal to be separated, divided, or defeated. It is a shared will of hope and iron in the heart.

Do you ever wish you could go back to your twenty year old self and tell him what a moment he is living in? The seasons seem long but they pass quickly. There will never be another moment, another opportunity to not only win the day, but seize the day. There are 101 of them. Live well.

This is What Happened When Pete Carroll Tried to Outthink Chip Kelly

It was a frightful experience.

Pete Carroll looks up from his Cheat Sheet and contemplates a move to the NFL. Pete, why the long face?

Mythbusters: Three PAC-10 Myths That Must Be Busted

Not every news source is as coldly analytical and fiercely objective as The Duck Stops Here. Some rely on half-truths, lazy assertions, and unexamined assumptions. In another week there'll be a flood of it, conventional wisdom and cliches, especially in the standing-up-in-the-booth segment just before kickoff, or any time Jesse Palmer or Brock Huard start talking. To make it through the 100-day information marathon that is a college football regular season, a well-informed football fan has to adapt the advice Ernest Hemingway once gave a young writer. You have to develop a clean, well-insulated, built-in, shockproof crap detector.

Here are three of the lazy-eye arguments from the PAC-10 that don't pass careful examination:

Myth 1: You can't compete in the PAC-10 without an experienced quarterback.

This myth was cracked last season, when first-year starters Nick Foles, Andrew Luck, and Matt Barkley went a combined 17-10 in conference play, finishing second, second, and third respectively. People forget Foles and Arizona came within one errant snap of winning the conference.

Truth is, young, talented quarterbacks are more ready than ever before to be starters in major college football. They are identified and groomed from the time they're thirteen with summer passing leagues, specialty quarterback camps and private coaches, and many of them are playing in sophisticated offenses in high school. They come to campus knowing that the starter ahead of them may leave early for the NFL, and many look for assurances during recruiting that they'll get a chance to compete to play early, because they have NFL aspirations as well.

This year, the Oregon Ducks will likely explode this myth like a barbeque propane tank launched through the roof of a garage. They'll have a first-year starter, and they're going to compete for a national title. Why? Because I said so, and because they are blessed with the perfect recipe for success in their situation.

For a deep, talented team with a few critical question marks, the schedule sets up perfectly, with a soft landing early, the first conference tests at home, and their stretch of crucial games slated for later in the season. They'll have to time to jell, sort out the questions at defensive tackle and cornerback, and the new qb will have time to get comfortable in the offense. By the time the Ducks have to travel to the Coliseum to meet USC in a season-defining road contest in game eight, barring injury, Oregon's new starter will no longer be an inexperienced quarterback.

But even more important than the schedule are the other ingredients. The guy who replaces Jeremiah Masoli inherits the three irreplaceable elements of quarterback success: a 1500-yard rusher, a veteran offensive line, and a stout defense. A host of quarterbacks have won national titles and Heisman trophies with this kind of firepower. Troy Smith and Ken Dorsey were not great quarterbacks, but they probably still dated the prettiest girl on campus. It's easy to look good when you are driving a gleaming green Ferrari.

Myth 2: Quizz Rodgers is the best back in the PAC-10.

There's a lot to like about Quizz Rodgers. He's tough, hard-working, runs hard, never fumbles, and catches the ball well out of the backfield. He lets his play do the talking and speaks modestly, unfailingly shares credit with his teammates. But he's not the best back in the PAC-10, for a very overlooked reason.

Throughout his career, with just a couple of exceptions, Jacquizz Rodgers has had his best games against the worst competition, and his worst games against the best competition.

In 2009 Oregon held Quizz to 64 yards, Brigham Young 63, California 67, Cincinnati 73, Arizona, 85. He ran wild on Washington State, UNLV, and Portland State, racking up 434 yards and over a six-yard per carry average, the only teams he ran against for more than six yards per carry.

In their head-to-head battle LaMichael James ran for 166 yards. Despite not becoming the full-time starter until game 3, he amassed 1546 yards. As a redshirt freshman he established himself as one of the most electrifying breakaway running threats in the country, with nine carries of 30 yards or more and four over 50 yards, while leading the nation with 21 carries in excess of 20 yards. His best game? Halloween night on national tv versus number four USC, 183 yards and a 7.6-yard average. His worst? Against Washington State, when he sat out most of the second half in a blowout, with 81 yards and two touchdowns, and the Rose Bowl versus the other OSU, when he missed a big chunk of the second half with a shoulder injury.

What's most impressive about James is, he is going to be better in 2010. He's stronger and faster, and has a better understanding of how and when to trust his speed. An improved and more consistent passing game will open more running lanes for him, and the emergence of running mates Barner and Seastrunk will give defenses more to account for. What's equally impressive is knack for created runs, making something out of nothing based on sheer ability, which you can witness here and here.

Jaquizz Rodgers can't do that, not that way. He is a stat accumulator, a workhorse, a very good back in a system that features him relentlessly. LaMichael James has the flair and artistry and brilliance of a great, memorable player, a Barry Sanders, a Gale Sayers. It's a difference they can't appreciate at The Little School That Could. Remember, you can't spell Sun Bowl without O-S-U. You can't spell Las Vegas Bowl without O-S.

Myth 3: The PAC-10 is a soft conference, plays a brand of football that is inferior to the SEC or Big-10

Let's learn from pictures.