Sportsland, Oregon: 11/29/2010 - #39

In Part 1 of an intense two-parter, Los, Cliff, and Derek delve into a Civil War preview after a busy sports weekend. They also manage to nominate their choices for the Game of the Year (Two of which happened on Friday). Amidst all of this, they manage to recap the weekend's excitement, throw out BCS Hypotheticals, and even talk some High School Football and NFL action.

In Part 2 of the post-holiday podcast, Los and the gang get into the Blazers recent issues. How'd Roy look in his two games back? Will Wes Matthews work as a starter? Is Batum in the doghouse? Can Nate McMillan figure a strategy for the end of games? All this, plus this week's segments,including What Plucks My Duck, What Makes my Beaver Eager, and We Wanna Watch.

Sportsland, Oregon: 11/15/2010 - #37

In the first part of a two part episode, Los and the gang open up with their concerns about the Blazers situation, specifically Brandon Roy's comments and health. After that it's on to the world of college football, with plenty of Ducks talk after their tight win, which inevitably leads to BCS Championship talk and Heisman Trophy predictions. They wrap up Part 1 trying to figure out who the best team in the NFL is.

In Part 2, Los and the gang wrap up everything else they missed in Part 1, including NCAA Women's soccer, Baseball Rookie's of the Year, High School football playoffs, Kentucky vs Portland in Men's basketball, and this week's segments, including This Week in Oregon Sports History and What Plucks My Duck. You can check these out at oregonsports.com, or in the nifty player on the right.

Paradox In Eugene

Expectations are low for the Oregon football team. After an off season marred by numerous appearances on the police blotter, and a quarterback controversy with no real favorite, this team will be hard pressed to recreate last season’s success.

OR

Expectations are high for the reigning Pac-10 champs. The 11^th ranked team in the country returns 17 starters, including star running back LaMichael James, who set the conference rushing record for freshman with 1,546 yards last season.

Neither of these is wrong. In fact, both of these statements are completely true. This is the paradoxical state of Oregon Ducks football going into the 2010 season. Yes, there are questions at quarterback. But Nate Costa and Darron Thomas have the set of skills necessary to succeed within Chip Kelly’s system. Even though they don’t have much “experience,” they’ve both been there long enough that they’ll know what they need to do. Choosing Costa will give you the more “experienced” (older) player, and starting Thomas will get early reps for the “future” of the program.

Yes, they’ve had some issues with the law this past offseason. But many of those players are gone. Including star quarterback Jeremiah Masoli. Not everyone on the team ran into trouble. Senior tackle Bo Thran started a football camp run by Ducks players, among others, to benefit the victims of a horrible violent episode in Gresham. At worst, they’ve lost a potential Heisman trophy candidate in Masoli. At best, they’ve begun to clean up the program, and Chip Kelly shows he’ll treat everybody equally. These players are growing and maturing as a team, and the 17 returning starters have hopefully learned from their previous transgressions. Or at least James has.

Speaking of James, his 1,546 yards last year are nothing to brush off. But it’s safe to assume Pac-10 defenses will prepare accordingly. Once the situation at quarterback gets itself figured, then they’ll know how much of the load James will have to bear. Whether it’s Costa or Thomas, the load will be sizable either way, just slightly less sizable one way.

Finally, what can be made of the USA today ranking? Nothing anybody didn’t know already: The Ducks are probably the best team in a down year for the Pac-10. The only other Pac-10 team to make the top 25 was Oregon State at 22, but on the whole it wouldn’t be a big surprise to see any of these teams beat each in conference. Except for maybe Washington State. Where they’ll be when conference play starts at the end of September will hinge greatly on how well they pass the test against a feisty Volunteer team, at Tennessee on September 11^th. For now, 11^th best in the country with all of these questions looming in the air sounds about right.