Tennessee Volunteers Vs. Oregon Ducks: Game Preview And Stat Comparison

Cliff Harris is the 2nd string punt returner though. Kenjon Barner will be returning punts again now that LaMichael James is back.

Eric Solis is a walk-on freshman that nobody knew much about before last week’s game. He too is going back to second string position after scoring 18 points.

Everything fell just right for him to get the start… I can not imagine how it must have felt to start for a nationally ranked team in your first college game ever, sold out at home, and have a game like that, especially as a walk-on.

I’ve enjoyed coming over to your site this week, lots of good stuff.

I’m interested to see how a Justin Wilcox defense performs with SEC talent against Oregon’s speed.

a) sacks simply weren’t needed
b) good tackling practice for everyone

Come on guys give them back there forum.

But seriously, i just want to see a good, hard working, injury free game from both teams.

Go ducks!!

As I mentioned on my site I use to watch the Ducks while I lived in Seattle.

UT games were impossible to get.

So this is sorta like watching my wife and a old girlfriend duke it out :)

As a future PAC team, I’m curious to see how Doolery does here, and how well teh Ducks travel.

May the best team win, fair and square.

And I predicted us wining my a billion. So maybe we can agree the truth lies somewhere in between (i.e. us winning by 500,000,005)

and thanks for being awesome over here.

Go Ducks!

Hey guys. New to this site, so I don’t know if this will get posted in time.

 I thought I’d fill you in, also adding my opinion on the game.

First off, I am a die hard college football fan. It is by far my preferred sport, and come Saturday, I watch every game I can get my eyes on from 9 in the morning until the last minute of the last game. That’s not even including the off Thursday, Friday, Monday, etc. game. As a result of this unwavering obsession, I love every teams’ traditions and history.

No doubt, I think UT is one of those great schools. From the checker board endzones to the epically large stadium, you guys are a great thing to see come game day. Further, if I were to pick an SEC team I enjoy the most, it might be the Vols. There’s something about you guys—perhaps the delightfully hideous uniforms (something we Duck fans no about)—that I enjoy, and I always try to watch UT games.

That being said, tradition doesn’t win football games. If that were the case, Notre Dame would still be stomping on opponents. History and tradition is brought up a lot; but, as a 25 year old, history and tradition are different for me. No, Oregon does not have the prestige of UT. You must, however, consider, that I’ve only been following college ball since 1999-2000. That being said, Oregon’s tradition, in my mind, is just as strong as anybody’s. With 3 Pac-10 titles, 2 BCS bowl games, 3 legit Heisman contenders/finalists, 5 top twelve finishes, multiple #2 rankings and finishes, only one losing season, and wins over Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado (during the good years), etc. have made Oregon, in my younger eyes, a modern traditional power.

There is no doubt that UT wouldn’t trade with UO’s long history; however, there aren’t many teams who wouldn’t switch their past 10 or so years with ours. Oregon burst onto the college football map in 1994 (after having turned around our long-sunken ship in 1989 or so) and haven’t looked back. As far as I’m concerned, the Ducks have had as good of a modern era as anyone—ESPECIALLY when you consider it’s a little state with less than 4 million people and miles from truly fertile recruiting ground. If you think about the grand scheme, what they’ve done in terms of winning tradition and national brand imaging, it’s nothing short of amazing.

UO is filled with forward-thinking, avant-garde, ad trailblazing types who enjoy counter culture and creative ideas (one of the many reasons I left LA to attend school up there). I think our football team truly reflects the spirit of Oregon, with their love of cutting edge businesses, craft beer, independent everything, Nike, unique advertising agencies, etc. In the end, we’re just a fun team to watch with the spread offense, uniforms, stadium, and tempo. I just hope we can impress you guys with our play. Even though we’re not a small program by any means (nationally known, Pac-10 school), it would still be awesome to earn the respect of UT fans.

About our team…

As you’ve read, our team is fast and explosive, but more importantly, experienced. A loaded and experienced UO offense has not been stopped in the Chip Kelly era. Whenever the O has had a bad game, it’s been experienced defenses taking advantage of a young offense. They always catch their rhythm at some point or another and even when they lose, they lose with big offensive numbers. Yes, Wilcox made the team look bad last year, but consider: 5 new lineman, new running back, 2 new receivers, new offensive coordinator, new head coach, new receivers coach. That’s 8 new offensive players and 3 new O coaches trying to get everything together against a top-10 team on the road. Wilcox had a great game plan, but how can ANY offensive team play well under those conditions?

Our D has been called undersized, and while I believe that is somewhat true, it doesn’t hold entirely true. People are basing that off last year’s unit, without acknowledging a few important factors regarding our size (*weights are rough and not exact):

1. Our STARTING defensive tackles are small because we like to run to the ball. This year, our coaches rotate 8 players on the D-line, and our second string line, which plays a ton, has a lot more size, especially at D-tackle with Keliikipi weighing a solid 290 and Hemuili coming in at 315+. Those guys will see plenty of time with your bigger O-line. Also, our starting DT Brandon Bair added some weight, adding 10 pounds to his 6’7" frame (now 270+ pounds).

2. Eddie Pleasant was our starting outside backer last year at 215. He added a few pounds, was moved to SS, and was replaced by Josh Kaddu at OLB, who weighs 235. That’s multiple lbs added to the D-line, about 20 pounds at backer (plus Matthews and Paysinger gainging a couple pounds), and handful of pounds at safety. While still smaller compared to some really huge teams, it’s a much thicker D than last year’s—one better built to stop a grinding offense. Only one team truly pounded the ball on us last year, that being Stanford. Yes, it worked because they had a HUGE O-line, ran two tight end sets, and had the grossly talented and enormous Toby Gearhart. BUT, they also had an all-world QB whose ridiculous accuracy prevented us from truly stacking the box. I don’t think you guys will be able to do the same with a young QB and new WRs

There are for sure some Duck fans out there who talk like it will be a walk in the park. Although I’m personally nervous (and what legit fan isn’t nervous going into big games), I think UO should win pretty easily, as in a 15-20 point victory. Regardless, I guarantee you this team is NOT taking the game lightly. Traveling to Neyland is a once-in-a-lifetime game for these guys, and they’re not going to waste it by thinking they’ll crush you guys by the end of the second quarter. This team, conversely, takes big games very seriously. And they also love the opportunity as fans, not just players. For them, Neyland is a mecca, the same way they treated the Michigan game in ’07. I can assure you that the Duck players and staff—as well as most of its fans—respect everything UT stands for and are extremely excited for this game.

This game will be close for a little while based on Darron Thomas’ (in)experience, but the team is so loaded everywhere else that it would be something drastic to truly stop them tomorrow. You guys will no doubt take this game seriously, as a visiting #7 teams always deserves to be taken seriously. And I also have no doubt that your players—win or lose—will make it a blast to watch.

As a Duck fan and college football fan, allow me to say this:

I am so pumped for this game, as I’ve been counting down the days since I heard you were scheduled. I can’t wait to see my beloved team run around on such storied grounds, just like at UMich. I appreciate you guys welcoming Duck fans and treating them like friends and neighbors. I hope you guys play well tomorrow and for the rest of the season (it would certainly make a win over you guys look good). I have no doubt you’ll be back, and I really like Dooley. He’s just what you guys need right now. Thanks so much the opportunity, no injuries for both of us, have a great game, don’t get too sh**-faced, and go Ducks!!

Let me rephrase something. I forgot to rearrange the sentence when I changed the last half of it.

I know UT would never trade their history with ours. The point I was making is that you, as would be the case with many traditionally top teams, or any team for that matter, would love the type of modern era (as in decade) that we put up. I’m all about history. I believe in the preservation of the English language, I love America’s past, I love respecting traditions, I always give classic literature the nod, I worship the Los Angeles Dodgers’ history. Hell, I’m Italian—do you have any idea the kind of traditions and history I have to follow and acknowledge?

BUT, in sports, especially for my young mind that never witnessed so much history in regards to things like athletic teams, I’m more of a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately kind of guy. I’ve never seen Sandy Koufax pitch. Just because he was awesome, as were the ‘50s and 60’s era Dodger teams, doesn’t mean I forgive the Dodgers for absolutely sucking this past decade. When the Dodgers played the Yankees this year, or any team better than us really, I thought “Fu**, we’re screwed. They’re so much better than us”, and not “Well, we’ve got great history, so we might put up a fight at home.”

Take Michigan State. They claimed something like 6 national championships in the 50s and 60s. What does that mean to me? I was born in ‘85. I didn’t even start following college football until ’99. I better damn well respect the accomplishment of 6 titles, but it means nothing to me in the past decade or so.

Whatever, I rambled was too long about that. I just wanted to make it clear that I admire your history, and may even be (secretly) a little jealous of it because it’s pretty awesome. But our Ducks have paved a pretty fun and successful road themselves. And come game day, it’s about which team is better, and it’s got to be considered the Ducks. Although you’re down this year, it would still be a tremendous accomplishment and a proud moment for us fans if we make a statement and impress you guys. If you want to be considered the best—as fans and teams—you want the respect of the elite programs. I think you guys DEFINITELY constitute as one, and hope you’re impressed with our teams and fanaticism (Oregon fans have got nothing else to root for outside of the Blazers, so we’re addicted to Duck football).

And hell yeah I went with the little engine that could reference. It’s not completely applicable, because we’re now known nationally and we’ve been pretty damn successful; but the Duck team was considered toxic for decades before the early 90s. Look at the country and see which teams are successful consistently. I would venture to say that none have the geographical, meteorological, recruiting, and transportation disadvantages the Ducks have. The nearest truly fertile recruiting ground is 500+ miles to the south in the Bay Area.

And sure, Dan Fouts was unbelievable and everyone knew him; but, the team wasn’t very good. As far as I know, he never went to a bowl game and maybe never even posted a winning season. I was trying to suggest that when we made the Rose Bowl in 1994, with our wildly famous “The Pick” sending us on our modern way, it was really a moment—or year—that put the Ducks back on the football map.

Seriously though. No reason to get defensive. I know what you guys have in terms of past. I think it’s awesome and it’s something that should always be commended, respected, and admired. I’m even a UT fan of sorts. I loved Fulmer, I love Peyton Manning, I love the stadium. The only thing I haven’t liked about you guys since I started following football was Lane Kiffin. I believe I acknowledged my respect for your program many times in my post. All I’m saying is that you have to recognize how good we’ve gotten because, in the past decade, any school in the country would be pleased with the type of run we’ve had, and I can assure you that traditional powers who are down, like Washington, Notre Dame, UCLA, Texas A&M, Michigan State, among others, would love to trade decades. I think that says something about how far we’ve come.