Frenzied Media

With the official Pac-12 media days beginning with full vigor Thursday, the 2016 season, though still weeks away from its inception in Fall Camps across the region, has begun. The media kicks off the season with not atypical bluster. What was once a low-key affair, in dark rooms, with nary a fan concerned, has evolved like every other aspect of college football, into a frenzied array of quotes, predictions, and hope.

Oregon is hardly immune to that which has become a cornucopia of expectations and hyperbole. Much like every season since the ascension of Mark Helfrich to the helm of the green-hued Ferrari that is Oregon football, the unofficial beginning of 2016 has begun with renewed pessimism and predictions of doom.

Sitting inside a modern Olympus named the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex, in Atlas like fashion Mark Helfrich bears the weight of Oregon football program on his slender Coos Bayan shoulders. It could be argued that being picked third in the North division of the Pac-12 Conference is any one of: absurdity, likely, and optimistic.

Fans call for this to resurrect the proverbial ‘chip’ on a team’s shoulder propelling them to exceeding expectations. Like the blur tempo of the Oregon offense, the hunters became the hunted. The targets of passion and energy moved squarely onto the backs of the Oregon football team between 2009 and 2016. Defending themselves as the hunted, it is now presumed that the edge of being the hunter was lost.

Do not be fooled by the shifting targets – to continue scoring at the pace which Oregon has maintained since 2010 takes the same hunger, the same attitude, the same chippiness, that once existed as underdog. Relentless and punishing, the Ducks kept hunting every game. Media predictions notwithstanding, a team should focus less on external expectations and more on internal expectations. Any team needing ‘bulletin-board material’ to find motivation is already defeated.

The 2016 football season will be defined not by whether or not the Ducks respond to the slights of uninformed media, but whether they learn from their past mistakes and play with focus, intensity, discipline and speed. Should they do those things, should Brady Hoke and David Yost fit seamlessly into one of the longest tenured coaching staffs in all of college football, the 2016 season will be successful.

Recruiting Week in Review:

There was not a lot to talk about this week. We did a couple of Film Room pieces, though, and the second was the player Duck fans should be most hopeful to land, but feel less expectation to actually do so. Once it becomes clear that Oliver Martin will be focusing on football, his recruiting profile should really explode.

Martin is a tremendous athlete, capable of earning a scholarship in any one of three sports (football, baseball, swimming). Not only is he capable of earning a scholarship, he has the potential to be exceptional at any of the three. He has All-American prospects in all three – he is that good. Despite the hope, however, is the reality that Martin will feel plenty of love from much closer to home. With a sister that came within a figurative eyelash of the Rio Olympics in the pool still in Iowa, the lure of Big 12 schools might be a difficult choice to deny. Oregon is in the best position it can be with Martin, and the name recognition of Brady Hoke will have some value in his hometown. Nonetheless, programs like Michigan State, Wisconsin and a rising profile are sure to make snagging one of the fastest rising Midwestern prospects a Herculean task.

We also took a look at all-purpose back Darrian Felix. While his plan of making a full unofficial visit to Eugene was nixed by NCAA rules, he did get the chance to see the state and campus. He has plans to make Oregon one of his five official visits and it has to be believed that he has a very sincere interest.

Oregon would be a perfect fit for the multi-talented athlete. He is one of the absolute best at catching the ball out of the backfield and has qualities eerily reminiscent of backs like Kenjon Barner, De’Anthony Thomas and Charles Nelson.

While Felix wears Thomas’ number and is a big fan, it might be Nelson who has to do the heavy lifting in this recruitment. Felix has long been linked to Miami (FL) and that intensified with the hiring of Mark Richt. The Ducks are in the race, though, to make Felix their second running back in the 2017 recruiting class.