Here are some photos from today’s practice in full pads.
Here are some bonus photos from yesterday’s afternoon practice.
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Here’s a look at some footage from today’s practice. The first video focuses mostly on the offense.
At the 2:45 minute mark CB Javes Lewis goes down with what looks like a leg injury. UPDATE: Per Moseley, Looks like Lewis suffered a mild left ankle sprain.
The second video focuses on some O-Line vs D-Line drills and a look at WR Jamere Holland.
By Jay Jones, August 7, 2008
Today, Gavin Dawson on The Morning Sports Page talked to former Duck, current OSN commentator, Anthony Newman about the upcoming season for the Ducks on 95.5 FM “The Game” in Portland.
Here’s the link to the interview.
Take a listen because Anthony makes some interesting comments regarding Bellotti’s future and Chip Kelly’s coaching possibilities.
Personally, I’m not comfortable speculating on Bellotti and Kelly’s futures. Although, I think it’s safe to say that other schools will continue to persue Kelly. Whether he has any interest or not in being a head coach, is a completely different question. And I don’t think anyone will ever know until he accepts another position. And, of course, Bellotti’s name has been mentioned as an Athletic Director possibility. So, that’s really not going that far out on a limb.
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Here are some photographs from this Thursday morning’s practice.
And here are a few bonus photographs from Monday’s afternoon practice.
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Here’s a few clips from this morning’s practice. I wasn’t able to be there that long, so it’s not much, but gives you a little idea what went on.
Towards the end (it’s only about 70 seconds long) there’s two incompletions thrown by Roper and one completion by Costa. That was not done on purpose, those are simply the only plays I could film (I was shooting stills as well) or see (the team was in the way during 7-on-7 drills while I was there). So don’t take too much from that, Roper did complete some passes and Costa missed a couple targets as well.
We’ll leave the football analysis up to Moseley.
By Jay Jones, August 6, 2008
This just arrived in the DSN inbox from James over at Ruxxe.com, proprietors of the hotly debated (here, here, and here), trademarked, and manufactured, Autzen Stadium nickname, “The House of Loud”:
Hello fellow Ducks fans!
We appreciate all of the email that we have been receiving from people excited about our “HOUSE of LOUD” shirts. We are working hard to have more of them ready before the Washington game on August 30th. Last year we had a few available in the southeast parking lot - we’ll let you know if this will be the case again in 2008.
Please visit our website as we plan on keeping it up-to-date with news & events and interesting info about Autzen.
http://www.ruxxe.comGo Ducks!… And long live the LOUD in Autzen Stadium!
If you haven’t see “The House Loud” t-shirt, here you go:
What do I think of the t-shirt? I think it’s fine. Green and yellow. White t-shirt. Clean design.
What do I think of the nickname? I love the idea of creatively manufacturing nicknames. And trademarking them. Owning them. Selling them. Again, I think the nickname is OK. Not sure if it’s going to work. For me, though, Autzen still says more, and does not require a nickname.
But you, the fan, will ultimately decide if it sticks around, or is a flash in the pan.
Even though the nickname and the t-shirt have been received with mixed reviews at best, I want to credit James and the guys over at Ruxxe.com for putting themselves out on the line and shaking things up a little bit.
You see, I’m down with Tom Jefferson. A little rebellion, every now and then, is a good thing. Mix it up a bit. Get people’s attention. And this sure did.
If I were to offer any advice to James and his beer-drinking conspirators, it would be this: just do it. I know we’re all very familiar with that phrase. But just do it. Don’t tell anyone you’re going to be doing it. Or you’re thinking about doing it. Just go out and do it. Don’t apologize. And no excuses.
Coming off the win over Michigan last year, Duck Sports News dabbled in producing t-shirts, much like James and his boys. So, we’re sympathetic with those devils at Ruxxe. Luckily, our t-shirts flew under the radar (except for the UO’s trademark management office). Yeah, we sold a few (as we could with anyone who wanted to sell gear through DSN), but we decided to get out of the gear business about as fast as we decided to get in it.
Here are a couple of the designs from last year you might see on Duck fans:
Kind of Napoleon Dynamite thing going on here.
This is the one that got us in trouble. Well, it was only a phone really. With a strong cease and desist message.
Can’t use Autzen Stadium without Oregon’s approval. Mac Court and Hayward Field are in that category, too. But “Bean Complex” is not registered. Hmmm. Someone might want to jump on that one.
Here are a few we created in our laboratories that never lived to see the outside of a test tube:
We were the Victors. Not Michigan. Hence…
Oregon turned Michigan upside down for the “W”.
This Leeroy Jenkins-inspired t-shirt almost made it to production. In the end, though, DSN declared it way too frakkin’ geeky. Actually, I came up with it. And, at the same time, I’m the one who declared it too geeky (Makes sense, right? I just used “frakkin” from BSG.)
For those of you that have a life and don’t play World of Warcraft (I kid - sort of), that means Oregon “owned” Michigan.
I’m not much of a t-shirt guy. So, I don’t know whether or not I’ll buy a HoL t-shirt. But I would like to meet James and his friends. They made some noise. And I like that.
And, t-shirt or not, at least I’ve got chicken.
[On a side note: Here's a bit of the message board fodder surrounding the University of Oregon's recently revealed "Live Green Yell O" t-shirts. You can find more here. It seems that Duck fans are not happy with any of the t-shirts making the rounds.]
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By Jay Jones, August 5, 2008
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Right?
Well, Duck Sports News ain’t broke. Or at least Ryan and I don’t think so. But after a year (Who would have thunk it?), Ryan and I thought that DSN was due for a little bit of remodeling.
On August 12th, DSN will still be the same great service, for the same great price (And that’s free, by the way.).
But it will look slightly different.
If DSN works for you right now just the way it is, then that will be the only difference you notice. Hopefully, you like the new look.
In addition to the new paint job, everyone visiting DSN will be able to take advantage of these new features we’ve built into the site:
HEADLINE RANKINGS: Every sports fan loves rankings, so we’ve created an up to the minute way to see what other Duck fans are reading by viewing the Top-20 headlines.
SHARE HEADLINES: If you find an article or conversation that might interest a friend, you can notify them by clicking a button. And you’ll have the opportunity to add a personal note before sending it to one or multiple friends.
CONTRIBUTE: Find a story online that other Duck fans would be interested in? We’ve got a simple and easy way to add headlines for all Duck fans to see.
COMMENT: You’ll be able to comment on any story on Duck Sports News. If you have an opinion on an article, or just want to let other Duck fans know whether or not it was worth the read, you’ll be able to add it to the comment section.
If, however, you want a little bit more from out of your Duck Sports News experience, we’ve added a some bells and whistles you’ve asked for and we think you might enjoy. All you have to do is register as a Duck Sports News member. It’s free and easy, kind of like DSN.
Once you’ve joined, here are a few of the benefits you’ll be able to enjoy:
SAVE HEADLINES: Too busy to read everything you want in one sitting? You can save headlines for later reference.
CUSTOMIZE YOUR SPORTS: As a DSN Member, once you’ve logged in you’ll have the ability to select only the sports and headlines you want to read. Only want football and volleyball? No problem.
CUSTOMIZE YOUR SOURCES: You’ll be able to block particular sources from showing up in your headlines.
In the weeks and months to come, we’ll be adding more new ways members can customize their Duck Sports News experience.
And, of course, we want to hear from you. Does it work for you? Did we miss something? Let us know.
Thanks for being a part of the Duck Sports News community.
We’re looking forward to moving into our new digs. Hope you can join us.
One Click Sports News
By Jay Jones, Manager
By Ryan Welch, Manager
Winner will play the winner of the North Carolina-Chaminade game.
EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon men’s basketball team found out Tuesday that it will play Alabama in its first game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational in November.
The winner of the Oregon-Alabama game will advance to the semifinals against the winner of the North Carolina-Chaminade contest.
Other first round games include Saint Joseph’s-Texas and Indiana-Notre Dame.
Oregon and Alabama last met in Las Vegas during the 2003-04 season, when the Crimson Tide escaped with an 87-86 win. That game is the only meeting between the two schools.
The Alabama game in Hawaii will also mark the sixth straight season that the Ducks have played a team from the Southeastern Conference. In addition to Alabama, Oregon faced Vanderbilt in both the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons, Florida in the 2007 NCAA Midwest Regional final and Mississippi State in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament.
The 25th annual Maui Invitational runs Nov. 24-26 in Lahaina, Hawaii, on the island of Maui. All of Oregon’s games in the tournament will be shown on ESPN or ESPN2.
By Jay Jones, August 4, 2008
Today at the University of Oregon’s Media Day, I had the chance meet, and interview, any Duck on the football team.
But it’s the Duck I met yesterday that was still on my mind.
You could have called it a media day, of sorts. There was a book signing at Borders in Eugene earlier in the day. Afterwards, it was more of a backyard-family-barbecue that followed, than a fully catered media event.
Sure, there were lots of Ducks in attendance. But only one of them was answering questions and signing autographs. And he was the one I wanted to meet.
Sgt. Don Malarkey. Oregon ‘49.
As a member of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Sgt. Malarkey spent more days in combat during World War II than anyone else in the most recognized fighting unit in American history.
That’s E Company, as in Easy Company. And that’s Easy Company, as in Band of Brothers.
If you haven’t read Stephen Ambrose’s book or watched the Steven Spielberg-Tom Hanks produced mini-series, I would strongly encourage you to do one or the other, preferably both. In my experience, watching the mini-series sets a good frame of reference to be filled in by the details of the book.
But if you have read the book or seen the mini-series and you’re a Duck fan, you might remember one particular incident involving a captured German soldier from Eugene. And you might also remember what happened to him and his men.
One of the American soldiers involved in that episode was Sgt. Malarkey. And things didn’t quite happen the way they were portrayed in the mini-series.
Now you can read Mr. Malarkey’s account of his experiences in World War II in his memoir, “Easy Company Soldier”, with The Register-Guard’s Bob Welch.
I’ve met my share of celebrities. I’ve shaken the hands of famous politicians. I can even call some current, and former, professional athletes friends, and family.
But I’ve never met anyone in my life whose accomplishments can bring a tear to my eye.
Until I met Mr. Malarkey.
This member of The Greatest Generation did nothing short of help save the 20th Century.
Sgt. Don Malarkey sitting on a Unversity of Oregon quilt, signing books.
Sgt. Malarkey reminded me a bit of my grandfathers, World War II veterans and members of The Greatest Generation.
But neither of them were in Easy Company.
And neither of them were Ducks.
So, while I’m sure I’ll have plenty more opportunities to ask Oregon athletes questions, I don’t think I’ll remember any of those answers to pass along to my grandchildren.
Instead, I think I’ll tell them the answers I heard to questions about Eisenhower, Patton, and Captain Ronald Spiers.
Because the memory of Sgt. Malarkey, and men like him, his Band of Brothers, will probably still be on my mind.
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