Pretty Sobering Account of What Transpired Last Season

[dthomas=ddixon]

Tremendous insights, Zac. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed watching you play and I'm glad you're doing something you enjoy. Hope you stick around the boards.

[greenyellow]

I find it odd that Zac was told he couldn't get a master's degree in education from Oregon, considering they're well-known for their education programs and most education majors at the UO stay to get their master's (I know quite a few people who did this) because that's what's needed to teach in the state. Sounds like he got some bad advising from the academic staff. Sucks that it didn't work out at Oregon but glad he's found a career that fits his family's life path.

As for the recruiting stuff, thanks for the inside look at how things were done. I guess we can't be surprised at how things turned out for Helf and his staff after they dropped the ball in recruiting and basic program-defining stuff that was working quite well for so long. Let's hope Taggart can turn things around so we can have another great run to enjoy.

[Phalanx]

LMAO! The best part of this is you have 0 idea who you are talking to. Thanks, this has been the most entertaining thread EVER! Thanks Zac for joining us.

It's pretty obvious who he is and he's welcome to his opinion.

The line of the year.

Actually, the best part was, he knew exactly who he was talking to and stuck to his guns anyway. Respect.

I don't want to interrupt the flow of this tremendous thread, but that really was an epic exchange. Two thoughtful and knowledgeable guys developing their arguments and not devolving into insults, etc. Thanks to Zac for taking time to explain his point so that dum dums like me can understand, rather than 'pulling rank'. Thanks to 07 for representing the board so well. I feel like I learned something, and that is why I come here. Cheers, guys.

[Reiseling22]

Random thoughts:

#1 - Zac Clark straight dropping MAJOR knowledge bombs = MIND BLOWN! (Welcome Zac BTW, always great to see the former Ducks who gave us blood, sweat and tears chasing their dreams, starting their families, careers, succeeding at life, etc.)

#2 - On the bright side, thanks to AGreif's article we now know what the oh-so-mysterious "million little things" were that Helf always referred to in his press conferences.

#3 - It is quite clear now Helf hired coaches that meshed with his own individual personality (introverted, analytical, trusting to a fault, not wanting to put a foot in someone's ass, expecting players to police themselves).

I think if there was such a thing as a time machine and a perfect world we'd all give Helf and Staff a ton of $$$ and contracts that ended immediately after the 2014 Bowl Season. Then, we'd clean house and bring in an entirely new coaching staff. They were the perfect group to continue the philosophy and strengths of the WTD Mantra and roster philosophy that was built from 2009-2014, but not the right group to move it forward after the leaders of the 2014 team graduated.

Interesting, not user friendly but oh well. Actually, I would hope if we had 20/20 vision and the choice of a redo, that we never gave Mark the keys to the Ferrari. I did technical recruiting for three years before I went back into the technical side of things and I got pretty good at predicting when prospective managers weren't a good fit for the positions they wer applying for and I saw it from Mark Helfrich immediately that he was not a leader just by watching him speak and interact with others from afar.

[TualatinDuck]

LMAO! The best part of this is you have 0 idea who you are talking to. Thanks, this has been the most entertaining thread EVER! Thanks Zac for joining us.

It's pretty obvious who he is and he's welcome to his opinion.

The line of the year.

Actually, the best part was, he knew exactly who he was talking to and stuck to his guns anyway. Respect.

I don't want to interrupt the flow of this tremendous thread, but that really was an epic exchange. Two thoughtful and knowledgeable guys developing their arguments and not devolving into insults, etc. Thanks to Zac for taking time to explain his point so that dum dums like me can understand, rather than 'pulling rank'. Thanks to 07 for representing the board so well. I feel like I learned something, and that is why I come here. Cheers, guys.

LMAO it really was! Thread of the year?

[UofO8]

Welcome to the board, Zac! Hope you end up sticking around. Really curious what your opinions (if you have any) are about Taggart, the new staff, and they direction they seem to be going in so far.

[bdkipe]

I think I speak for a lot of us on the board when we all first got the first tiny inkling that maybe, just maybe, something wasn't right. It was back in the 2013 season:

Crack in WTD Armor - Part I: NA (who I adore) going off completely unprofessionally to the media on Leach for throwing against the 4th string. That would have never happened under CK. I don't care if he was going to retire at the end of the year and I love his fiery fiesty personality, but that was BS and he should have acted like a mature, experienced football coach. Doing $hit like that is for emotionally immature idiots like Buddy Ryan and his retarded a$$hat twin progeny, not the behavior for "Men of Oregon" that NA liked to constantly refer to.

Crack in WTD Armor - Part II: Josh Huff and DAT going off about how the Rose Bowl was a disappointment vs. making it to the Natty. Then watching us lay an egg against AZ two weeks after they said it. First, those two would have never opened their mouths under Chip, because he would have had this team laser focused on the here and now. Second, if by some miracle those two would have expressed that sentiment when Chip was coach I shudder to think of the running and or torture CK would have bestowed upon them. Likely they never would have said it under him, but if they did, I got $1,000 that says they developed mysterious, unknown season-ending injuries and were "day-to-day" until their eligiblity ran out.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I am guilty of green-and-yelow-colored glasses just as much as anyone.

They say football teaches life skills to young men more than any other sport and we have all been in professions where new management and leadership comes in to replace the old. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and as a previous poster pointed out, there were a lot of personality traits and red flags about Helf from the beginning, from the moment of his opening press conference as HC.

At the end of the day, Helf was a good person, a good family man, a good father, a good coach, good in the community and good at the anlysis of X's and O's...but he lacked the "IT FACTOR" it requires to keep 105 testosterone laden 18-23 year olds in lockstep, along with keeping 9-10 egocentric assistants on a shared, unified vision.

Look at Willie T...in his interviews, or in the admittedly edited UofO Football videos about him first meeting with the team.

His body language, the way he comports himself, his smile, his eye contact, his gestures...he not only oozes a natural charisma, but also gives off a "I absoluely dare you to try and F%ck with me son" vibe.

[woundedknees]

I find it odd that Zac was told he couldn't get a master's degree in education from Oregon, considering they're well-known for their education programs and most education majors at the UO stay to get their master's (I know quite a few people who did this) because that's what's needed to teach in the state. Sounds like he got some bad advising from the academic staff. Sucks that it didn't work out at Oregon but glad he's found a career that fits his family's life path.

As for the recruiting stuff, thanks for the inside look at how things were done. I guess we can't be surprised at how things turned out for Helf and his staff after they dropped the ball in recruiting and basic program-defining stuff that was working quite well for so long. Let's hope Taggart can turn things around so we can have another great run to enjoy.

I don't know about that. I know quite a few exceptional master's candidates, including my own daughter, who completed undergrad degrees at the U of O with honors, and ended up going elsewhere to earn a master's, after being rejected by Oregon in favor of students transferring in from elsewhere.

The U of O isn't as friendly to their own undergrads as some might think, so Zac's situation doesn't surprise me.

[chipkellysballs]

The problem with the recruiting 12 step process was that it failed to evolve once Chip left. That happened for several reasons. The girl who played a large part in actually creating the process got hired by the Eagles when Chip left so even though she was still in Eugene for that first Helf year she no longer was really there to fix it. As Zac has said, the problem moving forward was obviously Twitter. Coaches weren't hip enough to understand it. We had binders on binders on binders of printed out recruit profiles. In them were all the info you could want and a ton of their tweets photoshoped together onto blank pages. Recruit's tweets were taken far too literally causing unnecessary red flags and when higher ups (who again don't understand twitter) looked at the red flags they often would jump to conclusions about a recruit's character. There was a ton of pressure on the interns to put aside their own social media savvy and flag tweets even if they knew in their own minds it didn't deserve to be (jokes, memes, swearing, etc). The process needed to be changed to allow for less unnecessary flagging. Most of the coaches didn't run their own twitter the interns did, even the ones who did figure out how to use twitter still had interns with access to their account who would post most of their tweets. Otherwise the coaches would post once in a blue moon. Looking back at it I think Helfrich just thought hey if it's not broken don't mess with it but completely didn't account for recruiting staff turnover and an evolving digital world.

[greenyellow]

The problem with the recruiting 12 step process was that it failed to evolve once Chip left. That happened for several reasons. The girl who played a large part in actually creating the process got hired by the Eagles when Chip left so even though she was still in Eugene for that first Helf year she no longer was really there to fix it. As Zac has said, the problem moving forward was obviously Twitter. Coaches weren't hip enough to understand it. We had binders on binders on binders of printed out recruit profiles. In them were all the info you could want and a ton of their tweets photoshoped together onto blank pages. Recruit's tweets were taken far too literally causing unnecessary red flags and when higher ups (who again don't understand twitter) looked at the red flags they often would jump to conclusions about a recruit's character. There was a ton of pressure on the interns to put aside their own social media savvy and flag tweets even if they knew in their own minds it didn't deserve to be (jokes, memes, swearing, etc). The process needed to be changed to allow for less unnecessary flagging. Most of the coaches didn't run their own twitter the interns did, even the ones who did figure out how to use twitter still had interns with access to their account who would post most of their tweets. Otherwise the coaches would post once in a blue moon. Looking back at it I think Helfrich just thought hey if it's not broken don't mess with it but completely didn't account for recruiting staff turnover and an evolving digital world.

You worked in the recruiting department also?

[z99clark11]

I find it odd that Zac was told he couldn't get a master's degree in education from Oregon, considering they're well-known for their education programs and most education majors at the UO stay to get their master's (I know quite a few people who did this) because that's what's needed to teach in the state. Sounds like he got some bad advising from the academic staff. Sucks that it didn't work out at Oregon but glad he's found a career that fits his family's life path.

As for the recruiting stuff, thanks for the inside look at how things were done. I guess we can't be surprised at how things turned out for Helf and his staff after they dropped the ball in recruiting and basic program-defining stuff that was working quite well for so long. Let's hope Taggart can turn things around so we can have another great run to enjoy.

You are right in that Oregon does have a great education program. The reason I wouldn't have gotten my masters was because grad assistants at oregon NEVER get their masters. They are basically told that they are 100% football and school doesn't matter. The lone exception was Nate Costa. He chose an achievable masters program took the long route on it. It was going to take him over three years, but he was going to get it.

And the guy talking about recruiting and twitter is completely right. The interns and the assistants basically ran the twitter accounts. I remember everyday the three assistants would each come up with a Helf tweet, and then Fish would pick the one for Helf to tweet out.

[chipkellysballs]

You worked in the recruiting department also?

I focused on sports business during my very recent time at UO so I was able to build a lot of connections with students involved in the program, img, teamwork, and ops. All of my roommates were in the teamwork program and in the privacy of our home it was pretty hard to get them to shut up about it. They'd show me their assignments and their coach twitters and constantly bitch about their boss. Through them I met most of the other interns, some former like the girl I mentioned, and got a very good understanding of how recruiting worked at Oregon.

[scoducks]

You worked in the recruiting department also?

I focused on sports business during my very recent time at UO so I was able to build a lot of connections with students involved in the program, img, teamwork, and ops. All of my roommates were in the teamwork program and in the privacy of our home it was pretty hard to get them to shut up about it. They'd show me their assignments and their coach twitters and constantly bitch about their boss. Through them I met most of the other interns, some former like the girl I mentioned, and got a very good understanding of how recruiting worked at Oregon.

Very nice, one of my roommates at the UO was in the teamwork as well as one of my fraternity brothers. Me myself was part of the athletic department for 2 years of my life when I was at the University of Oregon.

[woundedknees]

My son was involved with teamwork, as well, for zoomer and Pellum.

[Duck07]

LMAO! The best part of this is you have 0 idea who you are talking to. Thanks, this has been the most entertaining thread EVER! Thanks Zac for joining us.

It's pretty obvious who he is and he's welcome to his opinion.

The line of the year.

Actually, the best part was, he knew exactly who he was talking to and stuck to his guns anyway. Respect.

I don't want to interrupt the flow of this tremendous thread, but that really was an epic exchange. Two thoughtful and knowledgeable guys developing their arguments and not devolving into insults, etc. Thanks to Zac for taking time to explain his point so that dum dums like me can understand, rather than 'pulling rank'. Thanks to 07 for representing the board so well. I feel like I learned something, and that is why I come here. Cheers, guys.

LMAO it really was! Thread of the year?

Still early in the year, lol.