With fall camp completed and the Scout team chosen, Oregon begins preparation tomorrow for the first game of the season, Nicholls State, August 31st at 1:00 p.m. in Autzen Stadium. The game will be carried nationally on Fox Sports 1.
On the headset, in the booth: Scott Frost will do a capable job calling plays, particularly because he understands it matters way more who is running them. His personal journey, quarterbacking a national championship team, competing in a Heisman race, crafting a career in the NFL, learning his trade from Kelly, Parcells, Osborne and Walsh, makes him a perfect mentor for Marcus Mariota. (goducks.com photo)
The Ducks had a great fall camp. They avoided major injury, worked at a brisk pace, sorted out position battles, and reestablished the tempo and temperament that have made them one of college football’s best teams for the last five seasons.
Oregon’s won 12 games in each of the last three seasons, won two BCS bowls, and been to a national title game. The only goal left is to win one.
An organization doesn’t build a 135,000 square foot, $68 million operations center to finish second.
The Ducks want to win now, and they have the system, the talent and coaching staff to do it.
Nationally, there are questions about the Ducks. Robert Smith of ESPN predictably gives Stanford the edge in the PAC-12, because of their defense. “Defense wins championships,” he said on College Football Live, forgetting that the Ducks play defense too, and in the two years previous to last season Oregon scored 105 points on the Stanford defense, winning by three touchdowns.
Other analysts point to absence of Chip Kelly as the reason Oregon will slip back in 2013. Many Duck fans thought so too prior to fall camp. But after carefully watching and digesting every scrap of news that came out of fall practice, it’s evident that this is going to be a special year.
Kelly’s leaving will be an asset. Not because The Visor wasn’t a good coach; he was a superb one, a coach who could have become one of the legends of college football had he stayed in Eugene. NFL millions lured. That, and the challenge of coaching at what people call “The Highest Level.” It isn’t. The NFL is a league run by players and agents and general managers and the league office. For coaches it’s a thankless grind. A college coach can shape every aspect of his program and infuse it with his personality. There’s room to run a unique scheme and pace. In the NFL, everything is scripted, legislated and copied. It’s the Assassin’s Creed of football, a mercenary world where everybody dies. The true pinnacle of coaching is in small college towns where men with organization, drive and vision can craft a 30-year career in one place and have a street named after them and a monument in front of the stadium. The NFL is a coaching scrap heap, a chop shop where players are injected with painkillers and sold like spare parts.
This Oregon team will benefit, at least in the short term, from Kelly’s defection, simply because it demands that the leadership and drive for this season has to come internally. Kelly taught them and shaped them. Now Marcus Mariota, Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, Hroniss Grasu, and Brian Jackson have to lead this team and infuse it with THEIR personality. They have to step out of Kelly’s rotund shadow and be their own men. They’ll assert themselves. They’ll prevail.
For this particular group, with its powerful internal leadership and incredibly deep talent pool, Kelly’s leaving will challenge each of them to make themselves great. They won’t look to the sideline for inspiration. They’ll look to each other.
Marcus Mariota gets more at ease in the spotlight with every interview. He still deflects attention and shares credit, but in four short weeks he’s grown more relaxed, working his way through the questions as deftly as he works through progressions. Kelly’s leaving forces him to command the offense, and he will.
Mariota’s had a fabulous camp. He’s been tested daily by the best secondary in the country, and he’s zipped the ball into windows that are tighter than anything he’ll face in September and October. The weapons around him are astounding. It’s a ridiculous video game array of talent. A veteran offensive line anchored by three future NFL players. A tight end who’ll become the most coveted prospect at his position after the NFL combine. The fastest, most elusive, most exciting all-purpose back in college football. Two shifty receivers from Texas who were high school quarterbacks, smart and cool under pressure. Two veteran receivers with exceptional maturity and discipline. A quartet of tall, fast young pass catchers that are threatening to emerge at any time.
Everywhere on this team there is the guy, and there’s a behind the guy with the same character and drive. Ultimately that’s why this team doesn’t have any limits. They were all chosen with such care and trained so positively. They are so thoroughly committed to the process and so passionate about it. It’s a team you can believe in, a team in every sense of the word.
On Tuesday new receivers coach and passing game coordinator Matt Lubick spoke to KEZI-TV about what’s unique about coaching at Oregon. Josh Huff calls him “the man who’s going to take the receivers to the next level.” Lubick said, “I can’t emphasize what a fun program it is to be a part of. You’ve got guys that want to get better, guys that want to be coached.”
He added, “We coach it hard but we coach it positive.”
Chip Kelly is gone. But what he’s left in place here is remarkable in its vision, its discipline and talent. They’ll miss him, but they’ll get along without him. He taught them how to be great. They all understand how to finish the job.
In 2013, the Ducks are going to the national title game. It won’t be because of one player or one game. It’s not a matter of lucky rolls of the dice or being spared the inevitable obstacles and adversities of football. They’ll beat Stanford. They’ll be poised, motivated and prepared when they go to Washington. Mariota will throw touchdowns. Byron Marshall will run harder and better than anyone outside the Willamette Valley and his hometown of San Jose realizes. The corps of linebackers will rely on their coach, their strong defensive line and hard-hitting secondary. There won’t be a stumble, a lapse, or a failure to focus on the next day and the next game. They’ve been patiently learning that lesson for five years.
Ultimately Orego’s success or failure won’t be determined by the coach who left. It will be determined by the coaches who stayed and the 85 players who’ve learned to think and prepare like champions.
It’s going to be the most wonderful, amazing year of football you have ever seen.
The fall camp highlight video from Oregon Gridiron:
[vimeo 72992075 w=400 h=300]
Offensive and defensive 2012 highlight videos from Mike Wines of Oregon Duck Soup and YouTube Channel Madmike1951.
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