Week 2 Predictions

PreNicktion: Oregon 37, Tennessee 17. According to Twitter, this is a pretty popular range for fan predictions.

FOTB Prediction: Green helmet, white jersey with green numbers, green pants, white socks, green shoes. Haven’t seen the O-Live uniform simulator this year to link to it.

When Oregon and Tennessee announced a home-and-home series five years ago, I never thought I’d write a headline like that (then again, I wasn’t writing any headlines, period).

But Tennessee is rebuilding, Oregon is decidedly not and now the Ducks go into massive Neyland Stadium as heavy favorites. And the question has become, can Tennessee hang?

The Volunteers accomplished a 50-zip win over in-state whipping boy Tennessee-Martin which might make you think for a second that we’ve been fed a bag of lies about the quality of Tennessee’s team this year.

Then again, just about everybody beats FCS schools pretty convincingly. Except for Ole’ Miss, of course. Oh, and you too, Kansas.

Still, reports of the Volunteers demise are probably exaggerated following the Lane Kiffin debacle (that’s LANE KIFFIN. Yeah. Kiffin, first name Lane. Sorry, just seeing if Tennessee fans are paying attention.).

WOTB likes the alternating colors this week.

Tennessee has talent, it’s just that they have less of it. An exodus of players has left holes at key positions and their depth, well, let’s just say they’ve petitioned the dictionary to change the word to shallow.

So while we might see some good matchups in the front line units, the likely result is that Oregon’s fast pace and heavy defensive rotations will wear down an outmanned Tennessee.

Of course, sports don’t always follow the script that’s written and Tennessee might be able to exploit a few advantages of their own. Things like…

…home field advantage. One has to think Rocky Top can be pretty intimidating. And it’s a night game in Knoxville. Oregon fans should know what that means. The word “rowdy” seems appropriate.

…Justin Wilcox. It’s almost like Tennessee looked at the schedule and said, “let’s get Wilcox and beat these guys.”

…quarterback play. It’s going to be Oregon’s question all season as Darron Thomas goes through his series of firsts (road game, home game, conference game and whatever else we can make up to keep the drama high).

…travel. Perhaps the Ducks will suffer a severe form of jet lag resulting in a 50% reduction in overall team speed. No?

…uh, the weather? I ran out of ideas and everyone knows when you’re in an awkward conversation, there’s always “so, how ’bout that weather?” Rain, humidity, heat…whatever it is, Oregon’s not losing because of it.

Some combination of the above (mostly quarterback and the home field) could derail the Ducks. But this is the domain of an extreme homer and it just won’t happen. It can’t happen. Ducks roll.

But the recent ESPN poll of current NCAA players proves Nike gets it and always has. It’s never been about pleasing the traditionalists. It’s never been about whether or not you like them. It’s always been about creating a brand – one that high school and college kids like.

You have to have an Insider account to read the article, but I’ll give you the point on how players react to Oregon’s uniforms.

This was an Oregon landslide (53.7%). One Big Ten star was particularly blown away. “I don’t even have to think about that one,” he says. “I almost wanted to transfer there just for those uniforms.”

For some reason, that bothers people. Apparently, it’s blasphemous to market your product (using your uniforms no less!). And for some reason, players that care about uniforms get branded as not caring about winning. That’s just stupid. People like to look good. And they like to be successful. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Rather than sit around and worry about not having enough in state recruits or desirable weather, Oregon went out and created their own unique advantage. Locker rooms, marketing, uniforms…it all adds up to a brand that catches the attention of those who matter.

Obviously, winning is the most important thing. If the Ducks were a losing program, the whole thing would just seem silly.

But it supplements what they want to do. It gets their name on the short list for national recruits. It puts them in the game that otherwise belongs to southern schools like USC, LSU, Texas, Florida and so on.

Consider that in scout.com’s 2010 recruiting rankings, only eight of the top 25 schools were from what you would consider a northern location. And of those eight, seven of them have at least a share of a national championship in their history…teams like Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame.

And the eighth team? Oregon. So yeah, the brand is working.

FOTB Prediction: Not this week.  The retro unis are in effect, thereby taking all the fun out of guessing the uniform combination.

You wanna’ know something? I’m a fan and if I don’t want to be logical, then dammit, I don’t have to be. So sets the stage for the rest of this post.

I could have done it. I could have said Cal over Oregon and nobody would blame me. Cal has its top running back, they don’t turn the ball over, they’re efficient. Basically, they’re everything Oregon is not. Of course picking Cal makes sense.

But I don’t want to.

It’s in Autzen Stadium and before some miracle of fumbles two years ago, Cal hadn’t won there since Oregon wore, well, what they’re going to wear on Saturday I guess. This isn’t their stadium. It’s not their fans. They’re not superior in talent. Who’s to say the Ducks can’t win this game?

Sure, it’s going to take a performance from Jeremiah Masoli that none of us have seen since I was dancing in the aisles of Qualcomm Stadium under the influence of an elixir called, damn, what the hell was I drinking that day? That was fun.

And yes, it’s going to take an even better performance from the defense than we saw against Utah. Can’t turn the ball over either. And better not have drive-killing penalties. Whew, this is starting to add up. Maybe I should rethink this pick.

“Snap out of it Nick!”

Huh, oh yeah.

I’m picking Oregon. That’s right, the Ducks!

And if they don’t win, well, does Chip do refunds on gambled wages?

1. I think the days of walking over the Huskies are over. We knew it was coming. I embrace it because I love the rivalry and, believe it or not, I’ve missed them. We’ll see over time just how dumb that sentiment is. Still, it doesn’t mean UW is a loss waiting to happen this season. I get the feeling they are going to flirt with about a 6-6 season when it’s all said and done which would be a remarkable turn-around.

2. Cincinnati looked good. The Big East is usually an easy target, but I think the Bearcats are legit. Quarterback Tony Pike seems to be a master of the offense and they don’t hold the playbook back. I know being the front runner of the Big East is like being the best electrician in Amish country, but I think they can compete at a top 10 level. It’s a tough loss for Beaver fans, but not one that defines their season by any means.

3. Kirk Herbstreit, improbably, is getting even orangier (it’s kind of a word). He might be a pumpkin by Halloween. Granted, a pumpkin with bright blue eyes and gorgeous frosted hair, but a pumpkin nonetheless (I only wish I had a picture of his close-up in the booth of the Texas-Texas Tech game to illustrate this).

4. I can’t resist one Oregon reference. I liked the uniform combo. Apparently, no one else did and that’s fine. Is it the best of the hundreds of combos? No, but I liked it better than the “all greens” a week ago. Jeremiah Masoli needs help though. These unis make him look like he’s wearing mom jeans (these are the things you notice when watching games with an FOTB. Actually, I noticed that on my home, but don’t tell anyone).

5. Purdue’s loss to Northern Illinois surprised me. I thought they played really well at Autzen and was expecting them to be a competitive team this year. Of course, one loss doesn’t mean they’re done, but it stains my impression of them.

6. Give it up for Washington State after getting a win in overtime over SMU. If only they could call it a season. 1-2 sounds so much better than 1-11.

For the record, I’m already a big fan of these uniforms and thought they looked good last year when they got taken for a test drive against Arizona.

This marks the 5th time Oregon has had the cover for Sports Illustrated. Oregon had gone 27 years between covers until 2001. The 2000s have been a bonanza of promotion from SI, this being the third cover of the decade. A history of covers for the school can be found at Duck Sports News

You can check out some photo shoot pictures at the official Duck blog.