QUACK BACK: Volume 1

There were quite a few news stories this week surrounding Duck Athletics. Here is a quick Quack Back to three for the road.

Much like the Kamikaze Kids did to UCLA, the Oregon Women’s Volleyball team pulled off, perhaps, the most stunning accomplishment in the history of Oregon Athletics by dismantling a four time defending National Champion Penn State team 3-1. To do this AT Penn State is even more incredible. Penn State had a 94 match winning streak at home. They had not lost a regular season match since 2004.

A big congratulations to Jim Moore and the Oregon Women’s Volleyball team for this incredible accomplishment!

This week also saw the release of the Nike Pro Combat Uniforms for the Cowboys classic. The uniform release generated quite a buzz across the Oregon fan base as well as the internet search databases. Aside from the obvious aesthetic appeal of these uniforms to their intended audience, the young men who play college football, it should also be noted that these uniforms are scientifically advanced as well.

With the hype around the design and the ever changing Oregon uniform combinations, do not look past the advances of the uniform design. Specifically, the Hypercool top with mesh inserted cooling zones; Hyperstrong Compression shorts with integrated padding and lightweight materials designed for speed.

While fans may long for a bit of nostalgia, one thing is certain, the uniform designs will not likely remain stagnant for long. As long as there are young men assisting the designers of these uniforms, there will be changes. The Ducks own Brian Jackson has taken an interest in uniform design as well. In fact, he spent some time at Nike over the summer meeting with a Jordan designer. The future is not yet written, but Oregon seems to be remaining at the cutting edge of uniform design.

The end of fall camp brought about the speculation of football depth chart questions. One thing fairly certain is that Hroniss Grasu has won the day as the starting Center for the University of Oregon football team. Sprinkled in were very few surprises. Many of the positions, to Oregon fans seemed resolved. What we learned in camp is that Ricky Heimuli and Wade Keliikipi, when healthy, likely start at Defensive Tackle positions, but are backed up by Taylor Hart and Isaac Remington very capably. In the other two areas most fans concerned themselves with, the Offensive Line and Wide Receiver positions seem to have settled themselves well.

In reality, though, Duck fans learned last season that starting is not really relevant to what the Ducks do on both sides of the ball. What is most critical to the Ducks success is not who starts the game, but just how deep the Ducks can go into a rotation of players to keep the team fresh for a second half barrage. With the abundance of talent on both sides of the ball for the Ducks, do not expect this to be a problem in 2011.

That’s it for Quack Back this week. It is game week for Oregon. Oregon takes a trip to Dallas this week for its highly anticipated season opener against LSU. Football season is upon us Duck fans.