.....Emerald Green and Lemon Yellow.....

yeah, it started out good,.. then went down hill.

 

It's Football Time !

The Ducks opened fall camp last Monday, it was a hot week, heat wave hit Oregon, got up to 106
Head Coach Willie Taggart, new from South Florida said, "There's no humidity here, this isn't hot, this is just warm.

So here's the deal,.. last year Oregon's football season was miserable. We lost by 50 pts to the effing Huskies in Eugene,.. then the bastards danced on our O.. we won only 2 conference games,.. Fourth quarter of the Civil War, Oregon State ran the ball on us 23 times in a row, came from behind and beat us by 10 points,.. just fucking horrible.

The Beavers went 4-8 last year and were ecstatic,.. we went 4-8 and fired our coach. UW and OSU fans had a lot of pent-up frustration/rage against my Ducks,.. they've been unbearable.



Since the firings, it has emerged that Mark Helfrich dropped the ball last year. Our long time beloved assistants had become lax. Player strength and conditioning had gone soft, rep reports were fudged, exercises were done half ass. The coach's had become complacent, spending too much time sitting in their offices, not enough time with the players. Team morale crashed, by mid season it was plain to see Helfrich had lost the team.



Oregon doesn't have a history of great recruiting, but since Chip left, the Ducks pretty much whiffed on three classes in a row. Our coaches ignored social media and lost touch with the kids. Recruiting slid, motivation, conditioning, team spirit, all went downhill,.. Oregon hadn't fired a football coach in forty years,.. but it was time for a change.

 

yup,.. he's a lucky Duck

 

Coach Willie Taggart and the Ducks are 9 practices into camp, 23 days until game one

Co-offensive coordinator and run-game coordinator, Mario Cristobal who spent the previous four seasons at Alabama as their assistant head coach and OL coach,.. is in charge of Oregon's strongest deepest unit, the offensive line, coupled with one of the nation's best RB groups, with 4 deep talent, the Ducks should have a mighty strong running game.

At QB, we have Justin Herbert who started the last 8 games of 2016 as a true freshman, 6'6" 225, he threw 19 TDs with 4 ints,.. he's gonna be a star. We have a top-notch talent at backup, but he's a true freshman, and then we have nobody else,.. we're an injury away from being devastated.

Marcus Arroyo, Ducks’ co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks, tight ends coach has his work cut out,.. 5 of our 6 top WRs are gone, a lot of new potential talent there, but...... We are in the same boat at TE,.. thank god for our running game.

 

I was gonna talk about defense in a later post

Last year Oregon had the 123rd rated defense out of 129 FBS teams,.. it was a mess, we couldn't get off the field on 3rd and long,.. 4th and long neither. First year DC Brady Hoke, switched us to a 4-3,.. we didn't have the personnel for it, and Hoke didn't have the savvy.

The DL was horrible, LBs were worse, our backfield worst of all. We were very young, and we had a lot of serious injuries which made us even younger,.. but we were soft and couldn't tackle worth a shit. After Helfrich was fired and Taggart hired, Coach T. remarked about how overall physically weak the team was. I spoke on this a few posts back.



Spring practice was encouraging, Taggarts enthusiasm uplifting, his candor refreshing when compared to the mumbling coach speak of Helfrich and the grumpy sarcasm of Kelly. Coupled with a remarkable top 20 recruiting class he pulled together in just six weeks,.. Duck fans were buying in to the new regime.

I drone on,.. Taggart has emphasized strength and conditioning, team unity, and more more more strength and conditioning,.. coupled with recruiting like motherfuckers, (Scout has our 2018 class ranked 1st in the nation) by our seemingly fantastic coaching staff,.. Oregon fans are now excited as hell.



Now the team,.. Oregon paid big money to lure DL Coach Joe Salave'a away trom WSU, his defensive line has been bolstered by a fine grad transfer from Clemson, and a massive freshman nose tackle who's wowing everyone, we've grown up, healed up, have experience, all the spots are covered with quality,.. what we don't have is depth.

Oregon paid huge bucks to steal Jim Leavitt away from Colorado, he was last year's National Defensive Coordinator of the Year and a finalist for the Nation's top assistant coach award. We've got a fine inside linebacker, and a couple of other good players,.. but LBs look to be our most vulnerable unit, we really need a couple of kids to step up.

Last year our DBs and Safeties were very young and very awful,.. with experience gained, injuries healed, plus a couple of fantastic freshman,.. I think that's turned around, it sounds like the Duck's backfield is going to be the strength of this year's defense.

 

Savannah Wolfe, from Hawaii,.. graduated