Friday, August 31, 2012

O-Duck Gangnam Style?

It swept across the Asian continent and is making it's way to the West with over 80 million hits to date. Bigger than the Macarena! You need to watch the following video to better appreciate the video after. Never mind that you don't understand Korean. There are a few Korenglish words to keep you in it.
Warning: This tune will stay with you for the rest of the day.



And now, our beloved Puddles has just released his contribution to international culture: GANGNAM O-DUCK STYLE


I'm just wondering how long it'll be before Kermit and Yoda shut it down for copyright infringement.

--kb

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Arkansas, State of

INTERPRETATION IN THE QUEEN'S LANGUAGE:
(Note: The improper and vulgar word "them"
is substituted where a person of civil breeding
might use the pronouns "those" or "they".)

"Them are ducks."
"Them are NOT ducks."
"Yes them are. See them wings?"
"Well, I'll be....Them ARE Ducks!"

This will be the first meeting between Arkansas State and Oregon. In fact it is the first time Arky St. has played any Pac-12 team. I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn not just about the opponent, but the state where they reside.

Arkansas was the 25th state to join the union in 1836. Early settlers named it such because by their reckonin', it rested right smack-dab between Kansas and Arizona.  It's most notable exports are cotton, diamonds and the chicken parts used in McDonald's McNuggets.

Arkansas has the fifth lowest income level per capita in the U.S.  It's biggest employer is Wal-Mart (No joke.)  Arkansans have a love/hate relation with the federal government as they hate it in principle, yet it is their second largest employer.

During it's infancy, the state's chief commodity was slaves; but Arkansas is 81% white today. In fact Arkansas has more whites than Idaho! Arkansas has become so sophisticated with it's whiteness that it divides them into four separate categories:
Tighty White, Bright White, Not-So-Bright White, and old school Bedsheet White.

The Bright Whites go to Arkansas State -- home of the Red Wolves. And even though we may not have heard much about them, they have a good football team. They went 10-3 last year, were undefeated in the Sun Belt Conference, and recorded a losing effort in the Go Daddy Bowl.

Their quarterback, senior Ryan Aplin, is All American. They have a new head coach this year in Gus Malzahn. If he sounds familiar, he was the offensive coordinator for Auburn . . . . Yes, THAT Auburn.

During a six game win streak last season, the Red Wolves outscored their opponents 77-9 in the first quarter. Then in all their fourth quarters they kicked dirt in their opponents faces some more, outscoring them 118-41. 

Malzahn is going to install the hurry-up/no huddle offense similar to Auburn's and Oregon's. And he's got a cocky quarterback to run it.

Said Ryan Aplin in a CBS Sports story about his trip to Oregon:
"A lot of people are probably doubting us and saying we're going to get killed and whatnot, but that's just fuel to our fire," Aplin said. "We're going to go out there and give them hell and do what we do best, up-tempo, and hopefully put a shock to them."

Isn't he just adorable? I love it when QBs who have never before been to Autzen come right out all hissing and spitty with their fuzzy backs arched and their little tails all fanned out.

Frankly, I hope they do score first to get the crowd's attention.

Rob Mosley of the Register Guard talks more about Oregon's preparation in
this article.

And now, here we go . . . . .


Gametime Saturday, 7:30 Pacific on ESPN.
--kb

Monday, August 27, 2012

USC Ranks

The votes keep coming. While USA Today gave USC a third place preseason ranking, The AP and other polls have put USC at the top. Numero Uno. The logic being that with the much ballyhooed Heisman candidate Matt Barkley returning for his senior season to a team loaded with talent on the offensive side -- the same team that beat Oregon last year, no less -- how can you NOT rank them #1?

I share Mr. Burns' sentiment as he would say:  
"Ex-cellent!"













Let the Trojans start the season at the top. Let them begin defending their #1 ranking from the moment their two-year bowl ban ends. Sure, the Trojans may be feeling like they're on a Wheaties box right now, but anyone knows that those who start #1 are very rarely there at the end. And this will be especially true for a USC team with glaring holes. 
Pollsters have propped Barkley and Company
on top of a rickety ladder to start the season.


The following ESPN video echos what everyone is saying. While USC has excellent personnel on offense -- perhaps even the best in the country-- their defense has question marks, particularly at the front line. USC's D-line lacks the depth a team must have to maintain that #1 ranking. And even though they have Oregon in L.A., they are at Stanford, Utah, Washington, Arizona, and UCLA. Good luck with that.






OREGON DRAWS THE LINE

The more I read about Oregon's offensive and defensive lines, the more excited I get. Old school coaches like Rockne and Lombardi will tell you that it all begins at the line. Ohio State, LSU and Auburn taught Chip Kelly's Ducks that they couldn't beat the big boys until they improved their lines.

In the Oregonian's recent article, Oregon Ducks offensive line jelling on schedule,  Center Hroniss Grasu said, "The pace that we play at, we're going fast," he said. "We're trying to get the defense to get tired, to get them to throw up in the middle of the game." That would include USC's defense.

When the opponents have the ball, I believe that is when we will see the secret about Oregon this year. As great and well publicized as their offense is, the Ducks defense will prove to be the catalyst that takes this team to the top. This will be the defense they wish they had when they faced LSU and Auburn, especially when one of their freshmen is 6-8, 280 lb. man-child Aric Armstead. A defensive end so big, so fast, so formidable, that whenever anyone misspells his first name with an 'E', not only will Aric correct him, but that person will never ever spell any 'Eric' he meets with an 'E' ever again. 

Here's The Oregonian's article on the defense: Evolving Ducks Defense after more Sacks in 2012

MARIOTA'S MEN
At the writing of this post -- well, not exactly at the writing, but a couple of days before while I was vacationing near Mt. Hood . . . (Ya, I have a life, OK so SUE ME.),  I learned with the rest of you that QB Marcus Mariota had been given the keys to the team. The redshirt freshman, who had a superb Spring Scrimmage, continued to show his edge through fall camp and beat out sophomore Brian Bennett to start for the Ducks.

In the Sunday Oregonian, John Canzano's column revisited former QB Darron Thomas' reasons for leaving school early. The chances were high of Bennett beating out Thomas this year. But then Mariota beats Bennett! Canzano wrote:

Mariota will start on Saturday against Arkansas State. It may take two months to figure out if he can win a big game, but we're going to learn right away if the kid has presence, command of Kelly's offense and can run, throw and make good decisions on a football field. We've seen it in a single glimpse on a spring day, but I'm not joining the ranks of critics saying they'll need to see Mariota against USC's defense to know if he can really play.
I suspect we'll know it in a single afternoon.

Matt Barkley threw for 39 TD's and over 3500 yards last year. Mariota's stats read all zeros. Yes, it's a big unknown for Oregon. But it's an unknown for Oregon's opponents as well. And the pollsters have no evidence that Oregon could be any better than #5.

No stats. No game film. No scouting reports. Only that single spring scrimmage, plus the consensus of behind-the-curtain witnesses who say that Mariota could be Kelly's best QB to date.

Later: A look at Arkansas State.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

It's Oregon's Time


The Pac-12 beat writers picked USC to win the conference football championship. The USA Today National Poll has Oregon fifth, USC third, and the always popular LSU, Alabama and Oklahoma filling in the rest.

Good!

The pollsters are correct. Matt Barkley is the great senior QB of USC. Oregon still has to choose from two young, practically untested guys for their QB position before the September 1st opener against Arkansas State. The regular season matchup between Oregon and USC is in L.A. The Trojans should be ranked higher. It's conventional wisdom.

Conventional wisdom also reminds us that between USC and Oregon, last year Barkley and the Trojans played a near perfect first half in Eugene and escaped with a three point win over the Ducks. Now USC has the QB, the home field, a talented team, and they just got a good RB from imploded Penn State. Of course you pick them ahead of Oregon.

The problem is, at the start of the 2009 season, conventional wisdom didn't have Oregon going to the Rose Bowl. Conventional wisdom most certainly did not have Oregon earning a spot in the National Championship for 2010. And last year, conventional wisdom couldn't see Oregon beating Andrew Luck at Stanford and going on to win the Rose Bowl.

Those who follow and love Oregon know that -- play-by-play, game-by-game, season-by-season -- when you try to figure out the Ducks, it's best to throw conventional wisdom out the window. The Ducks are rewriting the book on how to practice and play football. And the cover of this book is Kelly Green.
  
Over the past three seasons, Coach Kelly has been urging his team to go faster, faster, faster. This season he's adding a new wrinkle.

He wants them to go faster STILL.

Kelly knows the other teams have their eyes on Oregon. The Ducks are the new measuring tape with which the others compare themselves.

Witness the words to come out of Pac-12's Media Day in July as at least one coach begins to match the tempo and style of the Ducks. Talking about new Arizona coach Rich Rodriquez . . .

Linebacker Jake Fischer said of Arizona's new offense that "every practice felt like we were going against Oregon'' in the spring.

ASU running back Cameron Marshall talked about his spring practice experience under new coach Todd Graham's system that sounds similar to Oregon players' accounts in Eugene:

"It's fast. It's a lot faster than anything we have experienced before at Arizona State, at least for me personally. It was alot more organized, every period was. We had guys doing something; we didn't have any downtime. Everything was explosive. It was a lot of competition in practice throughout the whole practice, and a lot of situational stuff."


It is with pride that Kelly calls his team the fastest and hardest practicing in the country, It is his mission not to allow anyone else to catch up. He won't allow any "We've arrived." mentality in his camp to dull the team's edge.

As for those rankings, let USC have the target on their backs. Let Oregon be the underdog going into The Coliseum November 3rd. All the pressure will be on Barkley and Co. to play that perfect game again, this time in front of their home crowd. It's a two-sided coin. After USC won in Eugene last year, they have Oregon coming to them this year. The bad news for USC: After escaping with a win in Eugene last year, Oregon will be coming for them this year.  For the Ducks, it's an error to be rectified.

And what of those young, practically untested quarterbacks? Who should start, Bryan Bennett or Marcus Mariota? Which bomber should the Air Force use, the B-1 or the B-2? Which superhero do you call to fight an army, Ironman or the Hulk? Which car should you use to get across the country fast, the Mustang Shelby Cobra or the Corvette ZR1?


Bennett or Mariota?  Cobra or Corvette?
The answer to all of these is: Either and both will do the job for you just fine. Bennett started two games last year and was great. Mariota had a great Spring Scrimmage. Both have better skills than Darron Thomas. Both will see action at the start of the season against Arkansas State, Fresno State and Tennessee Tech. By the end of September when conference play starts at WSU, one will be the starter, but both will prove more than capable.


Below are links to the Oregonian's grading of each position. Surprisingly, the best grades were given on the defensive side. The D. backs are talented and deeper than ever. The D. line is bigger and deeper than ever. And the linebackers, while not as deep as the other positions, have starters with tremendous speed and talent.
Put them all together, and it's another Oregon football team setting the standard for the Pac-12.


Quarterbacks:
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/07/oregon_ducks_preview_bryan_ben.html

Kickers/Punters:
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/07/oregon_ducks_2012_preview_jack.html

Running Backs:
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/07/oregon_ducks_preview_here_come.html

Wide Receivers/Tight ends
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/08/oregon_ducks_preview_uo_must_s.html

Defensive Secondary:
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/08/oregon_ducks_preview_defensive.html

Kick Returners:
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/07/oregon_ducks_2012_football_pre.html

Offensive Line:
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/07/oregon_ducks_preview_deep_offe.html

Defensive LIne:
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/08/oregon_ducks_preview_deep_defe.html

Linebackers:
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/08/oregon_ducks_preview_starting.html

--KB