By RW, July 16, 2008

I had a chance over the weekend to browse through Phil Steele’s 2008 College Football Preview. It’s an amazing magazine - not easy to look at for the graphic designer in me, but tons and tons of information.

Here are a few things I pulled out about the Ducks.

TOP INDIVIDUAL UNITS:
This is his rating of a teams’ individual units. The Duck’s units that were listed in his top 25 are below:

Running Backs: #24

Receivers: #20

Offensive Line: #13
Steele’s Comments: A mobile QB like Dennis Dixon helps the O-line stats and with untested QBs in two late games they allowed 9 of the teams 24 sacks. The RB’s avg 5.6 ypc rush. This year they have 3 starters back from one of the Pac-10’s top O-lines.

Defensive Line: #13
Steele’s Comments: The Ducks were decent up front last year allowing 3.6 ypc rush and will be stronger in ‘08. They do lose two starters but have good size in the middle and add two top notch JUCOs there. On the outside, Nick Reed had 12 sacks and 10.5 tfl and Will Tukuafu had 4.5 sacks in his first year and will be stronger. Kenny Rowe (PS#19) was a backup as a true frosh.

Defensive Backs: #1
Steele’s Comments: The Oregon Ducks have had 4 straight top 20 finishes in my Pass D rankings (see below), including last year when they were #8, snagging 20 interceptions. Their excellent CB combo of Walter Thurmond III and Jairus Byrd both return and they combined for 12 int and 33 pbu last year, while 1st Team Pac-10 ROV Patrick Chung led the team in tackles.

EXPERIENCE RATINGS
Here’s how Phil breaks down how experienced a team is: 3 Points for every SR starter, 2.5 for additional SRs in two-deep, 2 for every JR starter, 1.5 for JRs in two-deep, 1 for SOPH starters, .5 for soph in two deep. Subtracted 1 for every FR starter, -.5 for every freshman in two-deep.

Obviously, by Phil’s ratings, Oregon State has the most experienced team going into 2008. If experience is as important as they say, the Huskies could be in trouble this year.

2007 PASS EFFICIENCY DEFENSE
Here’s how the Ducks (and a few notable Pac-10 teams) finished last year in Phil’s Pass Efficiency Defense Ratings.

Arizona St #5
USC #6
Oregon #8
Oregon State #10

Here is Phil’s comment: …Oregon was very similar in that they ranked #86 in the NCAA Pass D rankings allowing 249 ypg. My ratings had them ranked #8 as they took on mostly pass happy offenses of the Pac-10 and allowed just 53% completions with a 20-20 ratio. The Ducks took on two Top 10 offenses which average a combined 314 ypg and held them to just 48% completions. They also won 7 games by 21 or more so gave us some meaningless garbage yards late which I factor

2008 SURPRISE TEAMS: Oregon #10

On his website, Phil has Oregon is #10 on his list of surprise teams in 2008 (California is #9).

Phil describes these as the ‘teams not ranked in the top 10 that have the best shot at the title game.‘ He had the Ducks in this same spot last year as well.

2008 PROJECTED DEPTH CHART

Here is Phil’s projected depth chart for the 2008 Ducks.

Tags: Oregon Ducks, Phil Steele