1 of 1- DucksReign
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Nate Costa talking TO Canzano
I realize there are people who will not even bother with this link because of the name "Canzano" but that is fine even though it is Nate Costa's opinions....this is the most insightful "inside the Oregon football program" I have read in a number of years. Explains A LOT from last season.
For me in no order of importance...
*As bad as the loss was I give the Ducks a pass on the loss to Standord i.e. nobody was sure Moorhead would even live.
*Bringing in Nix was completely unnecessary based on what Costa has to say about Thompson and Butterfield.
*Wish Wilcox had taken the Oregon head coaching job.
*Wish Lanning had retained Costa as an assistant coach...if nothing else for his familiarity with the QB's, Pac-12 teams, etc. Costa is a SMART guy.
*Don't quite understand how the QB bar at Oregon is so high yet AB apparently did "just enough" not to be replaced. That sounds like a low bar to me based on AB's play. Apparently it was as a hotly debated topic throughout the season.
This is the printed version of the interview...wherever you listen to podcasts you can find the audio verson...it is about 30-minutes.
- DuckInTheMountains
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Re: Nate Costa talking TO Canzano
Nice article. Canzano would have been a lot more popular if he'd done a lot more informative pieces like this one.
I found the handling of Thompson last year frustrating. But I'll say this. If the game was moving too fast for him, holding him out may have done him a favor in the long run. That's bound to be much less of an issue this year, and he's not had his confidence dinged by being thrown in against defenses that were faster than he was ready to handle. It wasn't fair to the seniors on last year's team to keep throwing AB out there when he was having one of his really bad days. Those guys deserved to have the coaches try something different. But it still may have helped Thompson that it didn't happen.
As far as bringing Nix in, when you have a team that you think should compete for a conference title, and you are going to Georgia for your first game, and you don't have any QBs on the roster that have done anything, and you are a new coach who hasn't seen the young guys over and over again in practice, well, put that all together and it's not hard to see why Lanning wanted a proven guy. I'd rather we just went with the young guys and develop them, but I do understand why they brought in Nix. It's not my job that's on the line, and I don't have to answer to the seniors who might be saying, halfway through the season, "Why didn't you try to get someone who could play QB?"
- DucksReign
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Re: Nate Costa talking TO Canzano
DuckInTheMountains wrote:
As far as bringing Nix in, when you have a team that you think should compete for a conference title, and you are going to Georgia for your first game, and you don't have any QBs on the roster that have done anything, and you are a new coach who hasn't seen the young guys over and over again in practice, well, put that all together and it's not hard to see why Lanning wanted a proven guy. I'd rather we just went with the young guys and develop them, but I do understand why they brought in Nix. It's not my job that's on the line, and I don't have to answer to the seniors who might be saying, halfway through the season, "Why didn't you try to get someone who could play QB?"
Cristobal's "process" was the problem more than a QB's abilities. Otherwise I think it was a "never before been a head coach" fear based decision. Lanning panicked. He was barely a week on the job. He couldn't even wait to see what he had for Spring practices and most assuredly there will be good QB's in the Transfer Portal after Spring Games.
Stroud started his second game as the luckeye QB against Oregon; lost at home and they still won the Rose Bowl. COACHING
Caleb Williams was put in the game in the middle of the Oklahoma vs Texas rivalry game as a true freshman...replacing a preseason Heisman candidate(Spencer Rattler) and lead the team to a victory...he will now, presumably, be the starting QB at USC. COACHING
If you are a conference championship quality team then you trust / coach / play the people on the roster rather than looking for quick fixes.
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Thread Starter- oldretiredguy
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Re: Nate Costa talking TO Canzano
Great article; good find DR. I've always liked Costa. I wondered at the time if maybe he chose to leave to further his career..maybe someday he'll be back. I am one who felt TT should at least have gone in for a series here and there, and love what he said about Butterfield, tho I worry he'll hit the portal after spring ball.
Regarding Wilcox, I think PK and RM wanted to continue the recruiting and keep reaching for that brass ring, and Justin just wasn't flashy enough for them. Obviously, dude can coach. We'll see how this all plays out this season.
- DuckInTheMountains
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Re: Nate Costa talking TO Canzano
Cristobal's "process" was the problem more than a QB's abilities.
A. I agree that the "process" was a problem.
B. Not having attended practices and seen how much the game was too fast for Thompson, I don't know if the "process" was a bigger problem or not, and I'm not sure how you can know that, either.
It's entirely possible that both were a problem....
Lanning panicked. He was barely a week on the job. He couldn't even wait to see what he had for Spring practices and most assuredly there will be good QB's in the Transfer Portal after Spring Games.
I'm sure this is at least mostly true. I don't know if "panic" is the right word, though. And there's certainly no guarantee that a QB as good (and experienced) as Bo Nix will be in the Transfer Portal and willing to come to Oregon.
Is it panic to say, "Man, the best guy they have, the coaches say the game is moving too fast for him, and I know what the Georgia defense is going to do to a guy like that. And we're not likely to see anyone much better than Nix, and he's willing to come."
We're into mind-reading here. We can really only speculate as to Lanning's mindset. It seems pretty clear that Mario's "process" did not do a good job of developing some pretty talented QBs and that left Lanning with a problem, which he tried to solve by bringing in Nix.
The real test will be what happens going forward. Either he's got an offensive staff and philosophy that will result in developing QBs, in which case this is a one-year issue and we'll never have to talk about it again after this year, or he doesn't have a staff that can develop QBs. If he doesn't, then the fact that he's brought in Nix isn't really the problem, the problem is that we don't have a good staff. 2-3 years from now, I doubt we'll care much either way about Bo Nix. We'll care a lot about whether we have a better staff and "process" than Mario had.
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