Oregon Christmas Wish List: What Duck fans should hope for this holiday season
When the Thanksgiving holiday rolled around, we took the opportunity to take stock of things for the Oregon Ducks and be thankful for the abundance of riches in Eugene. Whether it be elite coaching across the landscape of sports, the generosity of Nike co-founder Phil Knight, or the best football uniforms in the game, it’s pretty clear that Duck fans don’t have a lot to complain about.
Being thankful is all well and good, but we know that humans by nature are wishful as well.
What better time to cobble together a list of wants than Christmas?
Both in the short term and in the long term, there are a lot of things that Duck fans should desire. Whether it was to do with football or basketball, current players or professional Ducks, we put together a collection of things that we hope to see in the coming weeks, months, and years.
Here is our Oregon Duck Christmas Wish List for the holiday season.
An Eventful Late Signing Day
The Oregon Ducks made waves during the early signing period, putting pen to paper for a couple of 5-star prospects and over a dozen 4-star players. They currently have the No. 11 class in the nation, per 247Sports, and there’s a chance that it could get even better before all is said and done.
Guys like 5-star TE Duce Robinson, 4-star CB Rodrick Pleasant, 4-star TE Jamari Johnson, and 4-star DL Ashton Porter are all left to make their decisions, and the Ducks are in the mix to land each one. That’s not to say that Oregon will end up getting them all, but it’s likely they grab a couple, at the very least.
Here’s to hoping that the late signing day in February can be just as exciting as the early signing day for Oregon fans.
Health for Dana Altman and Kelly Graves
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When it comes to player health, both Dana Altman and Kelly Graves have had a rough start to the 2022-23 season. Graves and the Ducks’ women’s team have done well to weather the storm, but after Jennah Asai recently left the team for personal reasons, the team desperately needs to get Kennedy Basham back in the rotation just to have bodies to put on the floor.
The situation for Altman is a bit direr. The Ducks are missing Nate Bittle, Jermaine Cousinard, and Keeshawn Barthelemy — three players who were expected to be big-time contributors this season. They fortunately got Brennan Rigsby back a couple of weeks ago after he started the season with an injury, but the team has had a rough start to the year with home losses to both UC Riverside and Utah Valley in the month of December.
Health is going to be a major factor for both of these squads going forward. We wish the absolute best for the coaches and players.
A New Coach for Justin Herbert
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Justin Herbert has arguably played under the wrong style of coaching for his entire collegiate and NFL career thus far, and it’s still pretty clear that he’s on a trajectory toward a Hall of Fame induction down the road. Can you imagine what things would look like if he were working with an offensive head coach who actually put him in a position to succeed rather than stifle his growth?
There are some expectations that Los Angeles Chargers’ head coach Brandon Staley could be shown the door after the 2022 season, in which case we hope with all of our hearts that Herbert can get a head coach in the building that actually propels him forward.
An Entertaining Holiday Bowl
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Unfortunately, in today’s landscape of college football, a lot of the mid-level bowl games have lost a bit of their luster. As players increasingly choose to opt-out of bowl games to prepare for the NFL or hit the transfer portal in search of a new team, the games outside of the College Football Playoff often feature depleted rosters and a lot of unknowns.
I just hope that this game between the Oregon Ducks and North Carolina Tar Heels is entertaining on December 28. It will feature two electric quarterbacks — Bo Nix and Drake Maye — and a lot of skill players that are entertaining to watch. While both teams have had a lot of players leave the program since the end of the regular season, it’s hard to say that this game will tell us much about where either stands, but we at the very least can hope that this matchup is entertaining to watch.
A Healthy Holiday Bowl
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More than an entertaining Holiday Bowl, we wish for a healthy Holiday Bowl.
There’s nothing worse than a player getting injured in what has become a glorified exhibition game, and while they may have time to recover before the next season, it still is an unfortunate outcome. The one player I am really concerned about is Oregon QB Bo Nix. After he dealt with an ankle injury at the end of the season, it is fair to wonder how close to 100% he is. Of course, if Nix was not healthy enough to play, they wouldn’t put him in harm’s way. I still worry about the possibility of him further injuring that foot, especially now that we know we will see him again next year in Eugene.
A Top 5 2024 Recruiting Class
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I don’t want to get too ambitious, but I think that there are some pretty amazing things ahead for the Ducks when it comes to the recruiting world. After making waves on Wednesday, Oregon started Thursday with a bang by securing a commitment from 4-star 2024 WR Jordan Anderson, the No. 83 player in the nation. At the moment, they have the No. 6 class in the 2024 cycle. Is it too much to hope that the success continues and they can sneak into the top 5 nationally? I’m not sure it happens or not, but it’s something to put on the wish list.
Another Opportunity for Marcus Mariota
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The start of the 2022 NFL season was exciting because it gave Oregon fans another opportunity to watch Marcus Mariota as a starting quarterback. With his fresh start following a backup stint for the Las Vegas Raiders, we got to watch as Mariota tried to prove himself once again and hopefully put his name into contention for a long contract from a QB-needy team. Unfortunately, his mediocre play — not terrible, but nothing too special — saw him benched near the end of the year by the Falcons.
It’s hard to envision Mariota getting a starting job on a new team any time soon. He will likely have to go through the back-up ranks once again, so let’s just hope he lands on a good team with an offense that suits him.
Success for Dan Lanning's "Guys"
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One of the common explanations for Oregon’s relative struggles in 2022, particularly on defense, was the thought that Dan Lanning didn’t have “his guys” on the roster. In other words, the players that Lanning was working with may have been talented, but they weren’t quite the perfect fit for his scheme, necessarily. That is going to change this off-season, though. We’ve seen Lanning and the Ducks hit the transfer portal hard already, and with two recruiting classes of his own now in Eugene, there’s a belief that having “his own guys” on the roster will change things.
Here’s to wishing that it will make a difference in the end.
A Developed Quarterback
The Oregon Ducks have been in the transfer portal market for quarterbacks going on over half a decade now. There was the brief relief in the Justin Herbert years, but since Marcus Mariota left in 2014, Oregon has seen guys like Vernon Adams, Dakota Prukop, Anthony Brown, and Bo Nix all come in through the portal with prospectives of winning the starting job.
In some cases, it’s worked out. However, I think a lot of Duck fans would like to get off of that train and find a more stable system.
Here’s to hoping that this will change under Lanning and his staff. There were dreams that Dante Moore could be the next guy that Oregon recruits and develops as a true freshman, but maybe it’s Austin Novosad, instead. There’s also a chance that the guy is Ty Thompson, who came to Oregon as a freshman and has been developing as a backup over the past two seasons. Could he succeed Nix in 2024 and take the Pac-12 by storm for a couple of years? We know he has the talent needed to do that.
Oregon fans just wish it would be someone because relying on a transfer each and every year will not always lead to success.
A Championship for Phil Knight
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We’re saving this one for last, because it’s obviously the most important.
The Ducks need to get Phil Knight that championship that he so desires.
The co-founder of Nike and Oregon alum has poured so much time and resources into the program, giving hundreds of millions of dollars to the school over the years in hopes of getting to that elusive mountain top. He’s getting up there in age, and as we’ve seen him traverse through the back nine of life, it’s brought an increased interest in recruiting with hopes that getting the top players in the nation to Eugene will bring a championship.
Will Lanning be the coach to get the job done at long last?
I think every Duck fan hopes that is the case.
