Continuing on with the roundtable discussions, today’s focus is on the Oregon Ducks. 

"My eyes!  My eyes!"

TwistNHook: I thought I’d start this bad boy up.

Here’s my initial thought about Oregon.  Their QB is so unbelievably amazing at football, he’s trying to play baseball.  And failing.  And this is how he’s doing:

"Dixon plays right field and center field and was hitting .103 (3-for-29) through nine games. He has struggled hitting curveballs and has struck out 11 times."

From this article:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=2927602

A quick perusal of his minor league line shows, although he hasnt played a game in almost a month, he was putting up numbers only Jason Kendall could envy.  Batting about .100 with a sub-600 OPS.  I mean yeah, sure, the As would pay him 11 mil a year to catch with those numbers, but Dixon feels that he has a better chance to become a baseball player than a football player.  With those numbers.

Numbers found here:
http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Dennis%20Dixon&pos=OF&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=453302

I feel that that bodes well for the upcoming season.  Certainly, we all know about how Tedford has never won in Oregon yada yada yada.  I feel that in ‘05 if we had even had a mediocre QB, we could have been victorious there.  Marshawn was a God in that game.  That doesn’t really relate to the upcoming season, but anytime I can mention how AWESOME Marshawn is, it’s a Good Time Out ™.

Anyway, I feel good about Cal’s chances this year about winning up in Eugene.  Oregon is always a tough game and we know how much Tedford wants to win there.   Let’s just practice some more wet ball mechanics!

YellowFever:  I’m not sure what to make of these guys, since their quarterbacks are a guy who spent most of his offseason playing baseball instead of practicing with his team, and Ryan Leaf’s little brother.  They have a pretty good guy at running back with Jonathan Stewart, and a pretty decent offense overall if Dixon keeps his head right and manages to play like he did early last season.  But does anyone have any idea if that’s going to be the case?  Not me. 

HydroTech: I was very surprised to hear that Dennis Dixon was double dipping.  Of course after throwing 12 touchdowns to 14 interceptions last year and having a mediocre QB rating of 120 last season, I can see where he’s coming from.  But his baseball stats don’t sound like he’s going to stand a much better chance making the MLB than the NFL.  Maybe he ought to look into entering the World Series of Poker.  He might have better chances winning big in Vegas than he does in the Pac-10 or the minor leagues.  And I say that without jest because hey , if Chris Moneymaker (a no-name tool that forever demystified the game of poker to the masses) can win the big one with only an ounce of skill, then anybody can.  Afterall, isn’t it better to be lucky than good?  All the goodness in the world can’t make up for unlucky breaks. 

I think this is the year that Tedford finally wins in Eugene - although we should have won two years ago… and two years before that too. 

YellowFever: Maybe Tedford kindasortamaybe throws the game for his old buddy Mike Bellotti as a show of good faith for hiring him the job that led to his being hired by Cal.  Then again, maybe not.

And on defense, what is going on with Patrick Chung?

http://oregon.scout.com/a.z?s=128&p=8&c=1&nid=1767521

What the?  He’s BLACK?

HydroTech: With a name like that, I always thought he was asian.  Isn’t that the dude that Money stiff armed into the turf during last year’s game? 

TwistNHook: There’s a Seinfeld reference in here somewhere.  Either way, I guess we can add Patrick Chung to the Reggie Willits Sports Name Hall of Fame, I guess.

Also, Mr. Chung was the Oregon D player who got stiff-armed by Marshawn in the Oregon game last year.  Yknow that stiff-arm that lasted for like 10 yards and left Chung as a quivering exoskeleton-less protoplasm.  Goddamn that was a SWEET stiff-arm.  Photo available here:

http://sfgate.com/c/pictures/2006/10/08/sp_calbears_0456_kr.jpg

GLORY BE TO MARSHAWN!

He also is apparently good friends with Ian Johnson.  Not sure how that
relates, but I just read it in an ESPN article.

YellowFever: Good memories.  Now back to the team - defense?  Longshore and company torched them for 45 last year (well, not really, since some of that was Dixon giving up a pick-six or two), but most previews I’ve read seem to indicate that the back seven of their defense was generally pretty solid, despite a weak showing from their defensive line.  And hey, they led the conference in pass defense!  Also in embarassing stiff-arms.

TwistNHook: If Dixon is really the liability he might be, then it puts a lot of pressure on Jon Stewart, their stunningly non-hilarious RB.  Last year there was a lot of hype around him.  He ended up rushing 183 times for 981 yards with 10 TDs.  A 5+ yard per rush average, which isn’t bad, but he didn’t break 1,000.  He only broke 100 yards in 5 out of 13 contests last year.  And one of those was Stanford, so I’m not sure we should count it.

If Stewart can live up to the hype, that’ll help Dixon and Oregon a lot.  Last year I thought they were going to be one of the better teams in the Pac-10 and then they just melted down. Will it happen again?  I sure hope so!

Also, it looks like Ernie Kent’s son, Jordan, isn’t on the team anymore. Who is going to run straight forward as fast as humanly possible without any cuts or attempts to feint the DBs???

HydroTech: Yeah, Stewart enrolled at Oregon with a lot of hype.  Unfortunately, I don’t think he’s quite lived up to the hype.  His stats last year were good but I think everyone was expecting more total production.  To his his credit though, his lack of success might have been a product of defenses focusing on stopping the run.  Afterall, Oregon’s passing attack last year wasn’t all that and a bag of potato chips.  If he has any intentions on making an early jump to the league, this would be the year to really pick things up. 

As for Oregon’s outlook for 2007, I’m thinking Dixon holds them back and Stewart can’t make up the difference.  Oregon finishes in the middle of the Pac at #6.

The Ballots

In the order of: HydroTech, Ragnarok, TwistNHook, Yellow Fever
1.
2.
3. __,  __,  __,  UO
4.
5. UO, ASU, __, ASU
6. __,  UO, UO,  __
7. ASU, UA, UA, __
8. UA, __, ASU, UA
9.
10.