This week, tomorrow to be specific, we continue with our First Look series with an early look at what the Bruins lost from last season and what is expected of the returners.UCLA is picked to win the South Division of the Pac-12 and there won't be any argument from me as I have also thought that they are probably the team to take that tight division race.I still consider Arizona State a dark-horse

This week, for the first, and possibly last time, the University of Oregon provided a guided tour of the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex as it is formally dubbed. Many simply refer to it as the football operations center. The tour took a little over two hours with Jeff Hawkins, Senior Associate Athletic Director for Football Administration and Operations, leading the tour.Along the way Hawkins touched on

A quick pointer to those fans from other teams who might happen to run across some of my ramblings... and that's what this blog is... my personal ramblings as they relate to Oregon Ducks athletics as well as some thoughts that originate from my formal writing for Duck Sports Authority.If there is something you see that seems factually inaccurate, I have no problem with corrections. But that would

LOOKING INTO THIS WEEKS FLOCK TALK Tomorrow Flock Talk comes out. It is the first in a two part series covering the new Football Operations Center. Yes, it has been covered to death, but there is still more that needs to be covered, in my opinion.So far I have seen two types of responses to the building. The first are those in awe who appreciate its beauty, the opposite side of the coin has shown

Tomorrow we take a look at Washington State in our continued "First Look" series. The series is intended solely to take a glance at what the team returns, what they lost and some basic early thoughts on the offense and defense.The article itself will go over the specifics tomorrow. But, wow, this team does not look to have very much promise for 2013. And how in the world does a college football te

I hear that USC fans are pretty much in an uproar over the new practice policies. You know the policy where they are allowed to watch practices for the first three weeks of Fall camp and then as the season approaches the competition practices will be closed? Um, welcome to our world!The fact is that I don't even particularly care that practices are closed. Do I wish there was some limited access t

Okay, that is the end of a very long day indeed.Media started with a different aura around the room today. First, we met with new Chief Compliance Officer Jody Sykes and Bill Clever conducting a rules seminar for the media.While there are some very strange rules that must be complied with by the athletic department, the number of situations that may result in a student-athlete being declared ineli

Okay, the question of the week seems to be what to expect from Scott Frost as Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach/play caller versus what Mark Helfrich provided as Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach.First, let me start with Helfrich. As offensive coordinator, he was not the play caller, that duty belonged to Chip Kelly. Nonetheless, Helfrich was extremely heavily involved in game planning... and that is wh

I have some thoughts about some things posted on the Duck Sports Authority Message Boards, but I probably won't get to them tonight... will try to get to them tomorrow night...LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG day again... got up early, went to visit Braden and then came home, loaded up the truck with some stuff for the storage unit... ended up making three trips to the unit, plus loaded one more for tomorrow

Today in Flock Talk, I spoke about the hefty expectations that accompany Mark Helfrich into his new office and new position.Within the article, I refer back to some classic literature to express some points that I find relevant to the situation that Helfrich faces. The issue at hand is that Helfrich may be in the untenable position of a no-win situation.For much of the off-season we have heard fro