Tag Archives: Oregon Ducks

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Rarified air in grid polling

Allow me this brief admission, which is that a long-suffering fan of the University of Oregon football program is finding it hard to breathe while the Ducks are perched at the tippy-top of a list of elite programs.

Yes, the Ducks have been good for some time now. They were ranked No. 1 briefly during the 2012 season. Then they ran into the Stanford Cardinal, which knocked the Ducks off their lofty perch.

I didn’t attend the U of O. I attended Portland State University. However, as a red-blooded American patriot who loves college football, I am enjoying the dickens out of watching the Ducks take care of business on the field.

A couple of points need to be made about Oregon’s rise to the top of the heap. One is that the Ducks now compete in the Big Ten, which for us Pacific Coast natives is akin to cheering for the enemy on the battlefield. In the old days, the Pac 12 competed for the right to play in the Rose Bowl, in which the other team was the Big Ten champion.

It’s all a mixed-up jumble now, with the Rose Bowl game tossed into the mix of bowl games designed to determine the national football champion.

The other thing is this “transfer portal” that seems to dominate college athletics. Student-athletes now are able transfer to schools just to compete in football or other top-drawer sports. The Ducks ‘ lineup now features a kid named Dillon Gabriel, who transferred to Oregon from Oklahoma.  Last year, the stud was QB Bo Nix, a transfer from Auburn. This transfer business makes it hard for fans like me to latch onto players who only are there for a season or two. They have zero loyalty to the school.

Marcus Mariota played QB for the Ducks and won the Heisman Trophy as the best college football player in the nation. He entered school as a freshman and stayed until he earned his degree … and then used up his football eligibility.

However, all this is just chatter. The college football know-it-alls think the Ducks are the top college team in the country and have them ranked No. 1. Those of us who remember all those lean years in Eugene will accept this new “elite” status happily … and with pride that the gridiron glory brings to the state of my birth.

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Big Ten: tough to swallow

It’s a beautiful, sun-splashed Saturday afternoon in North Texas … so let’s talk a little college football for a brief moment.

We’re about halfway through the season and I am still trying to get used to my favorite college football team, the Oregon Ducks, competing in the Big Ten conference.

Here’s a bit of history that will explain my discomfort.

Since the beginning of time, the Pacific Coast football gods had embarked on a program that would pit the winner of the Pacific Coast football conference (which has had several names) against the winner of the Big Ten in the final game of the season.

That would be the Rose Bowl. The so-called “granddaddy of bowl games.”

Those of us on the Left Coast hate the Big Ten. Why, many of us who don’t live in southern California, even hate the University of Southern Cal and UCLA. Then beginning this season, the Pac 12 dissolved and several of its member schools merged with the Big Ten. Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC all became Big Ten members. The Big Ten came into being as a collection of schools gathered around the Great Lakes. It now comprises 18 schools stretching from coast to coast.

To be honest, the Ducks are having a stellar season. They are 6-0, having beaten dreaded Ohio State in a thriller in Eugene, and thrashing Michigan State and Purdue. But … what is wrong with this picture?

Oregon normally wouldn’t play a Big Ten foe until the final game of the year, presuming they would qualify for a Rose Bowl bid. The Ducks only recently ascended to the “elite” level of college football status. So, their appearance in the big game was a rare treat. for those of who hail from Oregon.

Whichever school came out of the Pac-12 to play the hated Big Ten — except for USC and UCLA — became the “favorite” team of Pacific Coast fans to whip the snot out of the Big Ten rep in the Rose Bowl.

That’s all changed. We now play a Big Ten school every weekend until the end of the regular season.

I just want to tell you this arrangement is going to test me … until I get used to it.

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Pac-12 goes out swinging

Let’s talk a little college football … shall we?

The Pac-12 in reality is now down to just the Pac-2: Oregon State and Washington State. All the other schools have bolted to other conferences and will play tackle ball with their new colleagues beginning this summer.

However, the Pac-12 is going out on a high note, with one of the former Pacific Coast teams, the Washington Huskies, preparing to play next week for the national collegiate championship against the Michigan Wolverines.

The rest of the teams that played in bowl games have done fairly well. The Pac-12 stands at 3-3. My Oregon Ducks took care of business 45-6 against Liberty University in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day. On the flip side, the Oregon State Beavers got walloped by Notre Dame in the Sun Bowl, 40-9, which is no disgrace given Notre Dame’s legendary football tradition.

Where do we stand? Oregon is joining the Big 10, along with Washington, USC and UCLA, next season. The Ducks and Beavers still will play their annual rivalry game. Other Pac-12 schools are joining the Big 12, but it’s not clear where OSU and WSU will end up.

For now, my Pacific Northwest loyalty compels me to root for the Huskies to defeat the Wolverines and bring home the national championship trophy to the NW.

Besides, Oregon’s two losses this year were to the Huskies, so if the Ducks are going to live with those losses, then they should take solace in knowing that they lost only — by a total of seven points in both games combined — to the national champs.

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‘Transfers’ dominating college football

Well … I got through another college football Saturday with a smile on my mug as I got to watch my Oregon Ducks deliver a beat down to the Colorado Buffaloes on national TV.

But … I am troubled by the trend that has developed in college football. It’s the “transfer portal” that, to my mind, has resulted in a form of intercollegiate free agency among these student-athletes.

Football players frequently “transfer” their eligibility from one school to another. It allows them some additional college football playing time, which presumably could enhance their financial windfall come draft day in the National Football League.

The old-school fuddy duddy in me isn’t entirely sold on the transfer portal. Watching the Ducks-Buffs game Saturday filled my ears with lots of commentary on all the transfers playing for both Oregon and Colorado. Indeed, the Ducks’ quarterback, Bo Nix, is a kid who transferred from Auburn to play for Oregon. Head U of O coach Dan Lanning calls Nix ‘an elite quarterback” who, after the Saturday blowout of Colorado, has become a Heisman Trophy candidate.

But my point is that the transfer portal vehicle creates a sort of traveling road show quality to all these athletes moving from one university to another to burnish their marketability with the pro franchises. It’s not unlike what has happened over the course of 50 years to Major League Baseball, where athletes shop themselves around the league when their contract expires with the team for which they have played.

It’s difficult these days to attach any loyalty to players who come to a major league franchise, and then leave after three or four seasons. Which is why I always enjoy seeing players inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame who played their entire career with a single team.

Now it’s intercollegiate tackle football that’s been bitten by this transfer portal bug.

Finally, I will stipulate that my devotion to my home state Ducks won’t diminish over the transfer notion. I hope Bo Nix wins the Heisman … but I would enjoy it even more had he played the whole time for Oregon.

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Good riddance, except …

It’s pretty darn easy for Pac-12 football fans to say “goodbye and good riddance” to UCLA and the University of Southern California, which have announced their intention to bolt from the Pac-12 and sign up with the Big 10 football conference.

Except that the move all but destroys the Pac-12.

I am a Pac-12 fan. More specifically, I am a fan of the Oregon Ducks football program, which for the past decade or so has been dominant along the Left Coast. And any true-blue Pac-12 fan knows that the only people who root for USC and UCLA either (a) live in the Los Angeles area or (b) grew up there and remain wedded to the Trojans and Bruins because, well, they just are.

All this grid conference shopping makes my head spin. Texas A&M left the Big 12 for the SEC a few years back, destroying the vaunted A&M vs. University of Texas annual football rivalry. Well, the Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners are joining the SEC, too.

The Big 10 now includes many more schools than just the 10 that comprised the original conference clustered around the Great Lakes region.

Now, heaven forfend, the Pac-12 has joined the parade of conferences with changing university lineups.

Don’t make me want to give up you, my beloved Ducks. Maybe the conference can rebuild itself around the Ducks’ awesome brand. The conference does have the Ducks, the University of Washington Huskies, Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, Washington State, Utah and Colorado. They all play pretty good football at most of those places.

UCLA and USC? Who needs ’em?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Doubt creeps into thinking about resumption of sporting events

Oh, I do hate being a Negative Ned … but plenty of doubt is creeping into my noggin about whether we ought to resume sporting activities that occur in front of crowds.

Let’s consider a couple of things.

First, Tulsa, Okla., has reported a significant spike in the cases of COVID-19 after a political rally attended by about 6,500 spectators. Donald Trump went to Tulsa to restart his re-election campaign and now we hear about a surge in infection in that city and surrounding area.

Second, the Ivy League has just announced it is canceling all fall sports. No intercollegiate sports will occur in that conference. Why? Sports and school officials are concerned about infection coming from the pandemic.

The Texas State Fair canceled its 2020 event. The Big 12, though, plans to play the Texas-Oklahoma college football game anyway. They won’t pack the Cotton Bowl, but still the place will have plenty of fans.

Major League Baseball is going to restart its season soon, along with the NBA, the NHL and the pro football will start training camps soon. Some players are boycotting the season out of fear of getting sick. Others might follow.

I am just at the point now of worrying whether the risk is worth the reward.

We are hearing too many reports of “hot spots” springing up all over the country. Arizona is the latest place to receive the dubious designation of “epicenter” of the pandemic. Texas isn’t that far behind.

I express these doubts and concerns as someone who wants a return to collegiate football. My beloved Oregon Ducks are supposed to play a big non-conference game in Eugene on Sept. 12 against Ohio State. There is no way they can pack Autzen Stadium full of fans to cheer on the Ducks. I now am doubting whether it’s wise to even play the game.

I am now officially beginning to wonder whether the Ivy League has blazed a trail down which other athletic conferences should travel.

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Rose Bowl win is particularly gratifying

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The Oregon Ducks won the Rose Bowl tonight. It was a thriller against Wisconsin. The Pac 12 representative beat the Big 10 rep in a game decided by a single point.

I am an Oregon native who did not attend the University of Oregon, but who has rooted for the Ducks since the beginning of time.

There is one aspect of this victory I find particularly poignant. It involves the quarterback for the Ducks, a young man named Justin Herbert.

College football programs spend a lot of effort and money recruiting athletes from all over the country. Oregon is no different. Check out the roster and you see student-athletes from every state.

Herbert grew up in Eugene, where the university is located. He talked often about watching the Ducks play football at Autzen Stadium. His dream was to play for the Ducks.

I mention that because it carries a significant meaning for me that a homegrown young man would choose to stay home to play college football while, I should add, completing his studies and earning his degree. As I understand it, Justin Herbert is an academic all-American in addition to being a stellar athlete.

I am not trying to lionize this young man; he’s going to make a lot of money playing pro football. I only want to point out the joy I had tonight in watching a fellow native Oregonian lead his hometown team to an impressive college football victory over an excellent opponent.

As they say in Eugene … “go Ducks!”

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Good job, Boise State!

I am not a big Boise State Broncos football fan, but this result from Tallahassee, Fla., thrills me in a way I didn’t quite expect.

Boise State was supposed to play Florida State University in a non-league game in Jacksonville, Fla., an ostensibly “neutral” site. Hurricane Dorian changed it. They moved the game farther west to Tallahassee, where FSU is located and where the Seminoles play their home games.

So, what do you suppose happened Friday night? Boise State won the game 36-31 over Florida State. 

It’s a big deal, man. You know?

It was tough enough on the Broncos to have to travel across the country to play Florida State, not that anyone was complaining — I am sure — about the travel. Then to move the game from a neutral site to the other side’s home field might have seemed like a case of — and pardon the intended pun — moving the goalposts.

Then there’s this matter.

I am not inclined to root against coaches, but I am glad that FSU head coach Willie Taggart suffered this loss. Why? Because Taggart took a job three years ago to rescue the University of Oregon football program after it fell precipitously from elite status to the dregs of the Pac-12.

What does Taggart do? He leads the Ducks for a single season, posts a decent won-lost record — and then bails for the vacant Florida State head coaching job!

I am an avid Ducks fan. I want the Ducks to return to elite status. They might be on the road to that return. As for Taggart, this Ducks fan isn’t shedding a single tear for him.

Too bad, coach. Suck it up and get ready for the next foe.

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There’s no loyalty anywhere these days

Loyalty, shmoyalty …

I’m going to rant briefly about a college football coaching change that just chaps my hide.

It occurred out yonder in Eugene, in the state of my birth, Oregon. Willie Taggart signed on a year ago to coach the Oregon Ducks, which plunged from college football elite status to doormat in the span of one season.

The university fired head coach Mark Helfrich and brought in Taggart, who had coached at the University of South Florida. Coach Taggart didn’t exactly return the Ducks to elite status in his only season, but he did coach the team to a 7-5 record and an upcoming bowl game in Las Vegas against Boise State.

Then it happened. Jimbo Fisher was hired to coach Texas A&M, leaving an opening at Florida State, which in the state of Taggart’s birth. FSU called the first-year Oregon coach, offered him a lot of money … and then it happened.

Taggart took the FSU money and ran back to Florida.

One and out. Taggart moved his young family all the way from Florida to Oregon. Now he’s moving them all the way back.

I’m not angry that Taggart went for the bigger money; hey, he wasn’t getting paid chump change in Eugene. I’m angry — as a diehard Ducks fan — that he couldn’t commit to rebuilding a once-premier football program.

Coach Taggart broke a lot of Oregon Ducks fans’ hearts when he skedaddled back to Florida. Mine is one of them. I didn’t play ball at Oregon; I didn’t even attend college there. I am just a native Oregonian who had high hopes that this coach would lead this team back to the level of success it had enjoyed over the past decade.

It’s a sign of the times. Companies have no loyalty to employees who dedicate their careers to the folks who pay them. Neither do employees have loyalty to their employers. When the employee — in this case a top-dollar football coach — decides to bail, his departure affects young student-athletes who commit their own future to a man who’s no longer around.

Loyalty? Hah!

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Hey, let’s settle down in Aggieland

One game does not a college football season make.

Listen up, Texas A&M University football fans — and at least one regent. The Aggies’ epic meltdown this past weekend in Los Angeles against UCLA shouldn’t by itself spell the end of head coach Kevin Sumlin’s tenure.

A&M System Regent Tony Buzbee, a Houston lawyer, has posted a demand on Facebook that Sumlin get the axe.

I don’t know all that much about football. I have no idea how much Buzbee knows. Maybe he’s a gridiron guru in disguise.

The Aggies were leading the Bruins by 34 points. Then the Bruins stormed back. UCLA won the game 45-44. The Aggies and their fans/boosters are understandably stunned and staggered.

Buzbee posted this on Facebook:

“But tonight I am very disappointed and I have to say this. Kevin Sumlin was out-coached tonight, which isn’t new. He recruits well, but can’t coach the big games, or the close games. Our players were better tonight. Our players were more talented tonight. But our coaches were dominated on national TV, yet again. I’m only one vote on the Board of Regents but when the time comes my vote will be that Kevin Sumlin needs to GO.

“In my view he should go now. We owe it to our school and our players. We can do better.”

I will stipulate that I am not an Aggie. I didn’t attend college in Texas. I have no dog in this fight. I don’t follow Texas college football all that closely. My own gridiron loyalty lies way up yonder, in Oregon, my home state and where I attended college. I’ve been cheering — and of late jeering — the Oregon Ducks for many years.

Buzbee, though, got his undergrad degree at Texas A&M. So he feels it, man.

I’ll conclude with this: If the Aggies choke again in their next game or in the game after that, then I’d be willing to listen to gripes about Coach Sumlin. Until then, let the man do his job and let the student-athletes play their hearts out for him.