Oregon is looking for hope. Even their esteemed message board publishers are looking for something, anything to be thankful for. But what happened to this program that was so energized by the win at Ohio State and hiring of Dan Lanning as head coach?
Ever since the Ducks landed Josh Conerly Jr. and Dante Moore, two of the highest rated recruits in Oregon history, the fan base seems to be on skates.
There are three things working against the Ducks:
- USC and UCLA leaving the Pac 12 for the Big 10, leaving Oregon claiming to be the face of a failing conference. But it wasn’t Oregon AD Rob Mullens on stage with Pac 12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff answering question on Pac 12 Media Day. It was Stanford AD Bernard Muir.
Stanford provides a few things Oregon does not as the face of the Pac 12: One of the richest histories in college athletics, with more national championships than any other schoool; Top-tier academics, including a large sum dedicated towards research; and one of the top media markets remaining in the Pac 12. Oregon is about as useless in these three regards as Washington State is.
- Oregon’s NIL collective is being funded by a single human that seems more intent on his legacy (i.e. names on buildings) than paying 17 and 18 year olds to attend his alma mater. When listing key alumni, Forbes mentions only two names that are not former football players: Phil Knight and Timothy Boyle. Both are over the age of 70 and would rather adorn their names on buildings across the state than pay high school football players to play at Oregon.
Oregon’s NIL collective is a failure and their inability to provide substantial advantages over schools like Miami, the employer of their former head coach Mario Cristobal, can be shown in the recruitment of WR Jurrion Dickey. Dickey recently made a mysterious trip to Miami where he was given the key to the city of Miami.
Message board posters are giving up on Oregon football in pursuits of finding new activitites, which is difficult in a state best known for the Oregon Trail.
- Finally, Oregon has dedicated staff spaces to recruiters rather than coaches. Except those recruiters are striking out left and right at the one job they were brought in to do. Yes, they just landed 4-star Terrance Green and 3-star My’Keil Gardner but does that make up for what they’ve lost in the meantime? And will it matter once the product on the field is revealed?
These coaches certainly weren’t hired to be developers of talent, as it has been well documented of the piss poor job that Tosh Lupoi did as Alabama’s defensive coordinator. So much so that playcalling was taken from him while at Alabama. The same could be said about Adrian Klemm, whose claim to fame is his NFL experience. Experience that can be rounded out by the Pittsburgh Steelers team he coached being amongst the worst ranked OL in the NFL last year.
And these guys are expected to develop “hidden gem 3 stars”? Good luck.
Follow me @FightOnRusty on Twitter for more ✨hot takes
Leave a Reply