WORTHY ENOUGH: OREGON DUCKS

The Oregon Ducks were worthy enough in 2011 against a team with suspicious recruiting.

Maybe not so worthy against another team with suspicious recruiting in 2015

Today NIL money cures all of the suspicious recruiting.

And Oregon is more than worthy enough.

Not that long ago I reconnected with my third grade teacher, Mrs. Kraus.

At least I connected with the lasting spirit of her third grade class.

She was an educational jewel at Bangor grade school who collected bones and tree bark for her class.

Bones and tree bark?

We arranged the bones on the bark into faces and glued them down.

They looked like Tiki masks, or North Coast Indian masks.

 

The Oregon Duck Football Twist

That’s Doug Fir bark painted Oregon green with yellow bones for a face and an Autzen pompom for hair.

And an earth flag.

What’s it mean? It’s an Oregon Duck World, as long as they keep winning.

Lose one game from here on out and it’s just the world as we know it, over-populated, overburdened, and overheated.

Keep winning and it’s all OREGON, OREGON, OREGON.

 

I’ve got selfish reasons for an Oregon College Football Championship, but not like Phil Knight.

I want one for them so I can say I played on the same field as the National Champion Oregon Ducks.

Back in the early 70’s all of the Eugene high schools played their home games at Autzen Stadium, home of the Mighty Ducks.

We’d roll in from the coast and get taken to a shoe room to find cleats that fit, new shoes for the artificial turf.

In my three years of high school football with the North Bend Bulldogs we never won a game at Autzen.

The winning came later. I got a reminder this year from an underclassman with, “We were the first team to win at Autzen.”

There’s nothing better than sports one-up-manship. Otherwise known a rubbing it in.

It never goes away and it never gets old. Hey, Mickey.

If the Ducks win it all this year, then we’re all winners, we’re all worthy enough to feel like winners.

With the power invested in this blog, if Oregon wins out, you’re a winner for being a good reader.

Remember, everyone loves a winner, but you lose all alone, wondering if, “I could’ve done more?”

 

The Big Winners

There’s a recipe for making cornbread.

The right ingredients make all the difference.

Add them all together at the right time and you’ve got something.

Screw it up and you’re still got something, just something no one wants.

 

Oregon football has been mixing ingredients on the team for a good thirteen years if you go by the Chip Kelly Changed College Football clock.

It’s been reported that he looked at football players from the SEC and knew he had to recruit better.

Today the O-line is full of man-handlers with a major west coast origin.

The D-line looks up to the task of everything and everyone from Oregon State to Ohio State.

They’ve done the work and will accept their fate: Scoreboard.

If they have more points, they win; if they have less points, they lose.

When had that ever changed?

 

Win a championship and take a victory lap the rest of your life.

It’s allowed if you want to hear this the rest of your life, too: That guy never got over winning a race in grade school PE.

Lose that championship and learn from it.

There’s no such thing as a loser’s victory lap.

The problems start if there’s a misunderstanding.

If you find yourself joining a loser’s victory lap, snap out of it.

Repeat after me: “Scoreboard Matters.”

Also: “Ducks Win, Ducks Win, Ducks Win.”