Eastern Washington @ Oregon (Sept 5th, 5pm Pac-12 Net)

[fpsduck]

Welcome EWU Ranger.

IMHO if VA qualifies, he'll be the starter eventually.

[Alan]

I'll add to the welcome EWU Ranger! I agree with your thoughts on VA, it doesn't seem as though he thought things out very well or at least he didn't get things taken care of in a timely manner. As a Duck fan, I'm one that doen't support him at this point because of how sloppy he made his transfer. With that said, I have 100% confidence and faith in the Ducks coaching staff and if or when they name VA the starter I'll know it's because they see him as the best QB we have..... He'll then have my support and cheers.

As for the game, EWU does play the PAC 12 Schools well and it may be a closer game than some think. For the Ducks they'll have to be able to shake the rust of the off season off quickly, new QB, etc. it seems to me a lot of duck fans are expecting things to stay the course just as if Mariota was still here. I probably will never see another Marcus Mariota at Oregon in my life time. Jeff Lockie and Vernon Adams are no Marcus Mariota. Most of all I'm just ready to get college football going this season.

Alan

[EWU Ranger]

Welcome Ranger. Thanks for dropping by. We are cautiously excited about VA. I hope it works out for him and O.

Would you mind giving us your 30,000' view of strengths and weaknesses of EWU?

It's always kind of difficult to be totally objective when you talk about your own team...but I'll give it a go. EWU is typically an offensive-minded team that is always near the top of Division 1-AA (FCS) statistically. I don't see that changing much this season, even without VA. He was a great QB for us and definitely deserves all the recognition that he's gotten, but I feel like one thing that is often overlooked is that he played in a great offensive system, with great coaching, great receivers, and generally speaking, a very serviceable offensive line. Our previous four QB's at Eastern have been All-Americans with two of them having won the Payton Award (1AA's version of the Heisman), so it's not a stretch to think that a very strong tradition at QB played a part in the level of success Adams had at Eastern Washington. Adams finished as a runner-up for the Payton the past two years, and would have won it last year had he not missed four games due to a broken foot.

The offense itself...we are probably a pass-heavy offense, but not to the extent of what is commonly believed. We are not a "Gun-Spread" or "Air-Raid" type offense...although for some reason a lot of people think we are. If I had to describe it, I would call it "multiple". Our base is a 3 WR look that is designed more on the original single-back Dennis Erickson style offense. That said, we will also go empty backfield, multiple TE's...and even run a little zone-read at times. At the end of the day, we like to be balanced, and for as many yards as we threw for last season, we still ran the ball at 185ypg. We'll have a pair of pretty serviceable backs this season with good experience (Wilson and Moore), but outside of those two, everyone else on the roster has limited experience at the collegiate level. So keeping both of those guys relatively healthy throughout the season will be important for our offense.

Our biggest strength on offense *SHOULD* be the Offensive Line, which will have all Seniors as starters. The left side of the line in particular will be very good, and IMO both starting LT and LG have a good chance to be late-rounders. We lost starting RT Jake Rodgers to graduation and the draft, but his replacement is also a Senior who has a ton of experience so there shouldn't be a ton of drop-off there. While losing VA was not ideal, whoever ends up replacing him will be walking into a good situation with the Offensive Line.

Speaking of QB...If I had to assess a weakness somewhere in the offense it would be here. And that's largely because we just don't know what we have at this point. JR Jordan West is the presumptive starter, having filled in for four games last season when Adams was out with injury. West went 3-1 during that stretch, although it was arguably against the weakest portion of our schedule. If West cannot separate himself as the clear QB #1 early on, I would not be surprised at all to see Reilly Hennessey, the 2013 WA Gatorade HS Player of the year end up being named starter. Although I will caveat that by saying that I'm not going to put a ton of stock into the Oregon game.

Receivers should be solid again, and in my opinion they are collectively the best unit in the country at our level. Anyone who watched last year's game against Washington or the 2013 game against OSU are probably familiar with Kupp, but he has a lot of talent around him as well.

Defensively...well I'm just going to say it. We haven't been good since 2010, which is the year we won the 1AA National Championship. Our inability to stop anyone has cost us a chance to get back to the National Championship game in 2012, 2013, and 2014. What I will say, however, is that it looks like that fact that finally been recognized, and some changes were made to the staff in the off-season. The defense is also switching to a 4-2-5 in the hopes that getting additional faster, more athletic players on the field will help us defend the kind of teams we've had problems with in the past; those being teams that like to spread the D horizontally (bodes well for playing Oregon, right?? )

Biggest weakness last year was our defensive front 4. I do think we'll see a definite improvement there, although our LB corps is going to take a step back. We'll be fairly deep in the secondary, so I see that as our biggest strength on that side of the ball. We do have to replace Tevin McDonald at safety who played at EWU the past couple of seasons...some of you may remember that he played at UCLA his first couple of years in college.

Sorry for rambling...I hope this gives a decent synopsis of our team. In a nutshell, offense = good, defense = bad.

P.S. - I'm not one of the "Oregon haters" EWU fans described in one of the other threads. Got an old man who is an Oregon alum and die-hard duck fan. I will say that I wish we had some of that Phil Knight money to upgrade our stadium, though.

[Alan]

My question for you as an EWU fan, how does most fans feel about the red carpet? I can't watch a Boise St game on TV just because the blue turf is so distracting.

[EWU Ranger]

My question for you as an EWU fan, how does most fans feel about the red carpet? I can't watch a Boise St game on TV just because the blue turf is so distracting.

My impression is that most folks love it. I am sure there are some who don't.

To be honest, at this point, I think it is so much a part of the EWU football identity that most fans don't even think about it. Watching a game on that turf is really no different than watching any other game for me.

[Lightning Strikes]

I think this is going to be similar to every other early game for the Ducks in recent years. A lot of rust and a close game in the first half, but eventually depth and talent take over for a 3+ TD win. 40-something to 20-something sounds about right to me.

[UofDuck]

Great write up. Funny, you could almost verbatim switch EWU for O and still be spot on. New QB, offensive firepower, week line backers...

[QuackininBama]

It's always kind of difficult to be totally objective when you talk about your own team...but I'll give it a go.

Excellent write up, thank you and WELCOME!

[UOducksTK1]

It's always kind of difficult to be totally objective when you talk about your own team...but I'll give it a go.

Excellent write up, thank you and WELCOME!

+1 thanks

[UOducksTK1]

3 weeks from tomorrow!

[EWU Ranger]

Found this article about "Life without VA" at EWU. Thought it was a pretty good read.

http://skylinesportsmt.com/adams-depart ... pions-ewu/

[gogreen55]

Great write up. Funny, you could almost verbatim switch EWU for O and still be spot on. New QB, offensive firepower, week line backers...

I think the Oregon linebacker play will be above average this season. I'm not going to get carried away and say it will be "great" or anything, but I don't think it will be a weakness (barring a ton of injuries).

[GoDucksIn09]

Linebacker not be a factor this year? Barring any injuries... Based on what evaluation?

[pezsez1]

I think our linebackers will be better just because of the acquiring of the JC transfers, and also because Mattingly will be healthy (hopefully) all season. I don't think he started seeing the field regularly until after the midway point last year.

Also, Ragain III is said to be stepping up a bit in practice. I have high hopes for him to continue developing.

[UOducksTK1]

I'm pretty comfortable with who we have at LB. I think we'll be better than we have the last two seasons.