Wednesday Whispers

Recruiting Nugget:

Thought I would share just a little recruiting whisper. Get your juices flowing some.

As I said the other day - not much action in recruiting right now; especially for the class of 2018.

The real action right now in recruiting is in the 2019 class. One player who got an offer during the Spring Game is definitely a player to keep an eye on is Suaava Fagale'a Poti. He might be the player that breaks through as the first player from St. John Bosco to become a Duck. Several sources have told us that he really likes the Ducks. It is way too early to call anyone a ‘leader’ for Poti, but I have spoken at length with him and his family and they really did love the visit. This is one where DL coach Joe Sala’vea will make his mark; and it would be a very important pick up to garner a four-star defensive lineman from one of the nation’s elite football programs.




Rehashing the play calling questions



Play calling seemed to be the topic of the week. Re-watching the game, there were a lot of things that really conspired against Oregon from a play-calling perspective. 

Self. Inflicted. Wounds.

There were too many of these at the exact wrong times (Is there ever a good time for a self-inflicted wound?) Too often the offense was playing behind the sticks on second or third and long. After it seemed like Taggart might run Royce Freeman into the ground with too many carries (84 on the first three games), the senior had just 15 last Saturday.

But let’s look briefly at what transpired. On the first series, Herbert threw a perfect pass to Brenden Schooler – which was dropped. There was a second down penalty and suddenly the Ducks were in second-and-15. Freeman had four carries on the Ducks second possession – and the next time the Ducks got on the field offensively, they were down 17-7 and the first quarter was almost over. It is difficult to establish the run game from behind.

Even then, the Ducks completed a pass to Brooks-James for 31 yards. Oregon had five possessions in the second quarter – and got the ball to Freeman on four of those five possessions, including his 12 yard touchdown run near the end of the first half.

Without penalties, fumbles and drops, this game is probably not even close. But that is football; great teams don’t have that many miscues; good teams overcome enough of them to win; rebuilding teams sometimes learn the hard way.