In any other world, Mark Helfrich's
first year as Oregon Ducks head football coach would have been seen
as a magnificent success. 11-2, Alamo Bowl win, returning a top
Heisman Trophy Candidate...
But this is an Oregon Ducks fan base
that got tremendously spoiled during the Chip Kelly Era. In the four
years of the CKE, the Ducks went to four straight BCS Bowl games
(Rose, BCS Title, Rose, Fiesta) and won three straight conference
titles. I wondered what the reaction would be when Oregon didn't go
to a BCS game, I just didn't think it would be last year when we
found out. Oregon seemed poised to make it to at least Pasadena until
they got whooped by Arizona in the upset of the year, 42-16. That
seemed to be the week everything went wrong for Oregon. They then
needed a last-minute comeback to beat the Beavs in the Civil War, and
San Antonio seemed like a fortunate outcome after that- even though
they were 10-2 and many thought Oregon should have gotten a Sugar
Bowl invite over Oklahoma. Except the Sugar Bowl recently inked a
deal to take the Big 12 Champion (like Oklahoma) if they're not part
of the new four-team College Football Playoff, so it would have been
bad form for them to sign the deal and then not take a Big 12 team
when the Ducks and Sooners both were at-large teams and both had
identical 10-2 records in the regular season.
Then De'Anthony Thomas declared for the
NFL (if you read the release from January carefully, it says he's withdrawing from school immediately- which I imply to mean he
wouldn't have passed GPA muster at all had he stayed) but Marcus
Mariota didn't. And if you're going to pick one of the two to stay,
Marcus was the easy choice.
The Flyin' Hawaiian enters the season
as the Heisman choice for people who don't want Florida State's
Jameis Winston to win two in a row, and the top of a deep Pac-12 QB
class (10 conference QB's return, including five from the North
Division). But seemingly every QB in the Oregon Blur Offense has had
injury problems the longer they stay in the system. It started with
Dennis Dixon blowing out his knee in 2007, derailing the Ducks
national championship chances. Jeremiah Masoli was the exception- but
he smoked himself off the team. I guarantee you Darron Thomas was
more hurt than he really was- remember when Bryan Bennett looked like
the better QB most of 2011? And now there's Mariota. He's the only
Oregon QB since the Blur was installed to be the starting
signal-caller three years running. Thomas only started in 2010 and
2011. Masoli started every game in 2009, but in 2008 he split time
with Justin Roper and even Thomas. The Blur takes a toll on the legs
of a QB, who is asked to sprint every play and get hit every play and
get knocked down every play. It's a question of Mariota's off-season
conditioning to make sure his knees can take it.
The guy snapping the ball to Mariota
remains unchanged, and that makes a big difference when your center
is a veteran. Next year it'll be an issue, but this year it isn't,
because Hronis Grasu is back. The Ducks return four of their five
offensive linemen, even if they have to switch some guys around
because of a season-ending injury to Tyler Johnstone. That alone will
help Mariota.
Keanon Lowe is Oregon's top returning wideout... with 3 TD's last year |
De'Anthony may be gone as a guy to get
the ball to, but Thomas Tyner should be better at running back- and
hold onto the ball more. Don't forget Byron Marshall. Josh Huff is
reunited with Chip in Philly, so wide receiver is one again a
question. Braylon Addison lost for the season in the spring means
Portland native Keanon Lowe is the only wideout to return that has
seen any sort of playing time. But the Ducks seem to find solid
wideouts all the time. At tight end, Johnny Mundt caught three TD's
as a true freshman and at least has a blue-collar name to make him
seem like someone who will succeed there.
On defense, the Ducks lose their
mouthpiece, coordinator Nick Aliotti, who retired after having as
much fun as you could have in that position. As is traditional in
situations like this, longtime assistant Don Pellum takes over. He will apparently coach from the sidelines and not the press box like
Aliotti and many d-coordinators. He's used to being on the field, but
whether it's the right approach, who the heck knows. He has one of
the best defensive backs in the country in Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, who will
basically play center field for the Ducks. Surprisingly, the Ducks
led the Pac-12 in passing defense (204.5 ypg), and Olomu is largely
to credit for that.
No need to dwell on the opponent in
week one. South Dakota (7:30 pm PT kickoff Saturday night on the
Pac-12 Network) went 4-8 in the Missouri Valley Conference last
season. Mariota should own the Oregon career record for touchdowns
midway through the first quarter- he and Joey Harrington are
currently tied with 79. He also needs four passing TD's to become
Oregon's all-time leader there (Darron Thomas has 66) and 332 yards
to become Oregon's all-time passing yards leader (Bill Musgrave has
8,140).
He could get them by halftime, really.
If his knee holds up. If not, Mark Helfrich's second season would be
off to a start that might really be bad, as opposed to last year's
“failure.”
"Good job, good effort." |
Photos courtesy: deviantart.com, dailyemerald.com, and dailyemerald.com (again)
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