Win One for the Aliottipper

Here's the truth about Texas. They're Texas. Nothing less. Texas is better than Arizona. They could beat Stanford on a good day when the Cardinal locker room is rife with the stomach flu. The Longhorns are plenty good enough to stampede roughshod over Oregon if the Ducks choose to approach this game feeling sorry for themselves.

That downer we all felt when we knew Oregon wasn't going to play 'Bama, Auburn or Florida State? Forget it. Texas will give the Ducks all they can handle. And they have good game film from Stanford, Arizona, and Oregon State.

The good news is Marcus Mariota will be as healthy as ever. He proved to be the most valuable player in the losses as well as wins. When he couldn't run, Oregon's offense didn't run. 

If you were to ask me for the key to the game (and you didn't, but I'm giving it to you anyway), it would be the FIRST QUARTER. Stanford and Arizona were able to take a good lead in the first quarter and then control the tempo with running. Had Oregon been able to keep pace or take the lead, the opponents would have been forced into riskier plays.  The team that controls the first quarter, controls the tempo. 

IS OREGON'S DOMINANCE OVER?
The question is an interesting suggestion I heard recently by a fellow Pac-12 fan who happens to be an avid hater of the Ducks. 

My initial reply was, "SHUT UP, IDIOT!". But after pondering his entitled opinion for a few weeks, my reply today is,

"SHUT UP, DUMB ASS IDIOT!"

Oregon's rise to the top over the past decade didn't merely happen by an infusion of cash, a lucky guess at a new coach and a few good recruits. It came by the methodical building of a foundation reminiscent of a Fortune 100 company. Oregon has set itself up to where they can have a disappointing year or two, and then suddenly come back to win the Pac-12 and get back to the championship again.

A recent article in Forbes Magazine, Why the Oregon Ducks Teach Us that Luck isn't Everything explained it like this.

Oregon's success is based on key management and development models of Entrepreneurial Forethought, Pioneering Innovation, and Disciplined Overachievement.

Nike designed End zone at Alamo
Bowl has winged pattern in background.
So which does this fall under, Entrepreneurial
Forethought, Pioneering Innovation or Disciplined
Overachievement?

In addition, the stability of the coaching ranks has a huge positive impact. Writer Jason Belzer says the following:

There is no better example of consistency for the Ducks than when it comes to the hiring of coaches. The last three head coaches of the university’s lauded football and track programs have all come from within the existing staff, a streak that is unmatched in college athletics. Even more impressive, a number of the current assistant football coaches have been on staff for all three of those head coaching regimes. In fact, under former head football coach Chip Kelly, the football coaching staff had absolutely no turn over for four straight years! Such continuity is simply unheard of in the turbulent profession of coaching, much less for any organization operating on a budget in excess of $21 million.




Aliotti: "I'm retiring after this game."

  
So while Mack Brown is coaching his last game for Texas, Oregon answered that "Win one for the Gipper" motivation with the announced retiring of Defensive Coach Nick Aliotti.

After about 90 years in coaching, roughly 60 of them at Oregon, Aliotti has decided to hang it up. The word is he was ready to retire last year when he didn't get the head coaching position, but felt he should stay one more year to help Helfrich transition.

That's the class of Aliotti. All the college football history books will talk about Oregon's head coaches including Helfrich. But just looking at the past six seasons of 10 wins or more, three coaches owe their success to the one constant, Nick Aliotti.

Rich Brooks couldn't have gone from zero to Rose Bowl bound hero in 1995 were it not for Aliotti's Gang Green defense.

What is Aliotti's legacy? Let him answer that in this Oregonian Article by Jason Quick:

“Bottom line, I’m very satisfied with my career,’’ Aliotti said. “I did it the right way. I did it with integrity. Never cheated to get a recruit. We were a laughingstock; they wanted us to get out of the Pac 8 ... five decades I’ve been here. All those nice buildings they have? Those were parking lots... I’ve been able to watch this thing grow from what was nothing to what it is today. I’d like to think on some level I had a lot to do with that.’’

Thanks for all the great games, Coach Aliotti. Now we ask that you do it just one more time.


Alamo Bowl Game time 3:45 pm Pacific on ESPN

--KB