Mariota!
This young man is exceedingly likely to begin his college career 8-0:
Redshirt freshman Marcus Mariota has won the job as starting quarterback for No. 5 Oregon.
Oregon coach Chip Kelly announced Friday that Mariota earned the position over sophomore Bryan Bennett, who was Darron Thomas’ backup last season. Thomas left school early to declare his eligibility for the NFL draft.
Oregon went 12-2 last season and defeated Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. The Ducks open this season at home against Arkansas State on Sept. 1.
Mariota is the first freshman to start in an opener for Oregon since Danny O’Neil in 1991
Due to a very weak non-conference schedule and a backloaded Pac-12 schedule, the Ducks will very likely run the table until November 3, when they play at USC. Incidentally, that’s the same day as the LSU-Alabama game; I’m hoping that my hangover settles by Election Day. The eight game weak streak gives Mariota a lot of time to settle into the job, but obviously leaves him untested.
Should be interesting…
I hate Oregon. That is all.
Sept. 29, ’12, Seattle, WA: WSU 19-lucky Duckies 17. You heard it here first.
And also last.
Cougs in Seattle? I thought they were not allowed into the Sea-Tac area until Apple Cup.
I’d believe Cap’n Leach upsets a Pac 12 power in his first year, but not 19 to 17. 39-37, I’d buy.
A Husky defense that gave up over 700 yards to Baylor is totally going to hold Oregon to 17….
Dagnabbit, WSU is the Cougers, and they don’t play in Seattle. They might beat the Ducks though.
About the time Ryan Leaf gets his Super Bowl ring.
I know, I mean Baylor for goodness sakes. They had, who, some converted track guy for QB, right?
ANYthing, ANYbody but the fucking SEC again!
Well, semi-off-topic, but its sports. BLOCKBUSTER!
(Gordon Edes/ESPN)
No word at all on how much of the roughly $270 million in albatross contracts the Sox will have to eat.
Whoa.
I don’t really believe this will happen, but it seems like it could.
Are any of these guys available to the Dodgers in the postseason? They need to clear waivers, right?
If they’re on the receiving team’s 25 man roster by September first, they’re eligible, yes. Gonzo would be terrific, I imagine. Punto is fungible. Crawford is out until next July or so. And I can’t imagine you’d want Beckett pitching for you, but I don’t follow the Dodgers, so I have no idea of the state of the pitching staff.
OK, I wasn’t sure whether they had to clear waivers and then be traded in order to be eligible.
Now that I write it out, I understand why I was confused, and I shouldn’t have been.
Helluva move, Ned.
You’re assuming the Dodgers are going to make it to the postseason.
Crawford won’t be available, obviously, but the rest will be. The Dodgers have already claimed Gonzalez and Beckett off waivers, and Crawford and Punto cleared waivers a couple of weeks ago.
Punto just wins World Series.
I’m hoping that my hangover settles by Election Day.
That’s loser talk. What you should say is, “I look forward to staying drunk from then until one or 1200 days after Election Day.”
Ok, on a more important note, why did the Cal/Stanford game get moved to October 20?
I sincerely don’t think this will happen, but I will happily come here to gloat if the Ducks get caught in a “looking ahead” game and lose to ASU or Colorado. Actually, were that latter game in Boulder, I would say it’s a good possibility. As it’s at home, though…