Take One: To take a knee or not

I think that this question arises in games that are ‘blowouts’ when an offense continues to score late in the game with the outcome already decided. It happens a lot more than we really know, but when Oregon scores late in a game already decided, it sometimes raises the ire of rivals fans.

My first thought is – do I really care that much if a fan of a rival school of Oregon is upset? No. Because it really wouldn’t matter much, I suppose, what Oregon had done there. Were some bettors upset? Almost surely anyone who had took Michigan and the points was not happy with the late score.

But then I started thinking about the opposite side of the coin. When Oregon is up by 35 points late in a game and playing third strong defenders, the opponent is continuing to ‘work on getting better’ by running their offense and it made me wonder what the problem here was? It’s not like Oregon was throwing bombs with time ticking off the clock. They were handing it off on basic running palys. Not a lot of pulling, traps, counters, or sweeps; just basic running plays. Oftentimes, these types of plays are stuffed and both teams walk off the field. It just so happened in this case that Oregon – against two NFL caliber defensive tackles and one of the more explosive edge rushers in the country – ran the ball into the endzone.

There are a lot of things that happen on a football field that would raise my ire more as a fan than this play. It’s not like this was a fake punt with a 32-6 lead with five minutes left in the game. It was a straight run play.

Should Oregon have taken a knee there? Probably. Would Lanning have done so if he was absolutely sure that Sherrone Moore was not going to use his timeout? Probably not. Would I have taken the knee? Yes. But not out of some flawed concept of it being poor sportsmanship to run a regular play, rather I would have kneeled down just because there is less chance of an injury there than with a traditional running play. Any number of players could have been injured: Jordan James, Dillon Gabriel, Poncho Laloulu, and every other offensive lineman. Was the risk of injury significantly better than on a kneel down? I don’t really know, but it was somewhat greater and that would have been my choice.

But I also don’t get paid $7-million a year to lead the program so it’s really not my call.

Take Two: Other sports?

Women: I may have more tolerance or patience than some – but I am not going to get overly excited by a 30 point win over Cal Baptist. The Oregon women’s basketball team ‘looked’ better at some aspects of the game, but let’s see if they can hit three pointers at a 42% clip against teams like Baylor, USC< Penn State, and Iowa. If you look close, in a 30 point win, the Ducks had just a 42-37 total rebound lead. I will remain cautiously optimistic that Kelly Graves has found a way to turn that corner and find a path back to respectability. That 11-21 record last season is going to leave a sour taste for many and it is not surprising that against a lower level team following such a dismal year in 2023-24 that the women only saw a small group of fans. The official attendance was 4,141, but that seems a questionable number from what we saw on television.

Men: The big question for this season on the men’s side is going to be whether the magic run at the end of last year was in part because the ‘whole team’ is back together from a coaching perspective with the return of Tony Stubblefield and Josh Jameison to the staff. Stubblefield was present throughout the magical run at the end of last season. Despite N’Faly Dante moving on to the next phase, the Ducks have some hope for this season with plenty of talent.

Why does the men’s basketball team engender just a little more lenience from some? I think that is an easy answer: the last time Oregon won less than 20 games, Ernie Kent was the head coach. Altman has had a losing conference record just one time since taking over (his first season) and including his time at Creighton, Altman has been the head coach of a team that won at least 20 games in 25 of the last 26 seasons. He has shown consistency even when he does not have elite talent surrounding his team and that gives him some tolerance from fans.

My take: I actually hope that Kelly Graves turns it around and gets this team on the winning track. I hope that he gets back to being a great recruiter and that he finds ways to hold on to great recruits and get the most from them on the court. Some of the greatest moments doing this work were the years that men’s and women’s basketball were having success on the court.

This job is much easier when we don’t have only one sport to talk about and it will be a lot of fun if we get a chance to get excited in February again.