The Opponent? Not Good. The Intrigue? Plenty of It.

It’s game week and the time to get back on a winning streak is here.

But it starts with New Mexico, a team that went 1-11 and returns only 10, 11 or 12 starters depending on what source you read (some personnel turnover is probably for the best anyway). At least in week 1, you can’t get too bored with an opponent since you’re just happy to have football back.

Still, this is going to be a laugher and as fans, we need some other things to keep the intrigue up.

Darron Thomas
This is the no-brainer and everyone is curious to see how Thomas performs. If I had to pick one thing about him that I’m most interested in, it’s his impact on the running game. I have no idea how well Thomas executes the ball fake or how elusive he is in the open field. A successful runner at quarterback in this offense has little to do with 40 times and a lot more to do with executing correctly. It’s been my feeling so far that we’re going to see more passing and less running from the quarterback than the past two years.

The Missing Crown and Other Field Level Improvements

Photo Credit: Jeff Oliver

Feast your eyes on the field and stare in awe at its complete “flatness.” The Autzen crown was removed during the offseason and a new turf installed. This will make the team 17.8% more effective according to a study I just made up.

Additionally, there’s a new look for the interior walls at field level which appears to be a giant, huge, enormous, big, large improvement (I’m just so adjective happy today). I couldn’t find a photo…the only place I know that had one has exceeded bandwidth limit.

Kenjon Barner
Wow, there’s been a lot of hype about Barner this offseason. And it all stems from his last two games where he racked up yardage all over the field. It’ll be fun to see him as the feature back, but I’m still looking forward to week 2 when he’s paired up with LaMichael James.

Will OZone Quality Be Remotely Decent?
For other Off The Ponders who can’t wait to hook up their laptop to their TV, who’s excited to see how much better the broadcast quality will be this year? There’s nothing like having a nice, big HD TV in what is seemingly the modern year of 2010 and watching fuzzy outlines of players chasing each other around the field. If you’ve done this before, you know what I’m talking about. Please, please be better.

Entire Defensive Unit
The hype is equally stratospheric for the defense as it is for Barner. It still doesn’t come with any name-brand players (except perhaps Kenny Rowe), but it’s a fast, experienced and cohesive unit with depth (can we get another adjective please?!) If this is really going to be among the best defenses ever assembled at Oregon, I want to see an early statement of dominance made against an inferior opponent. And no junk TDs in the fourth quarter, either.

PK Park Experience

PK Park. Oregon's New Home to Expensive Beers

The blog won’t be experiencing the experience, but it’s the latest tailgaiting extravaganza from the UO designed to get your dollars on their $6 beers instead of whatever you’re featuring at your own party. For their next project, they should just plop down a giant bar on what’s left of the parking lot.