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Ducks in Trouble, Beavers on the Rise · The PNW Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: You can see the tides turning in the state where people who have been a quiet beaver fan, kind of beaten down and left on the porch stepchild mode, are now starting to get a little bit of a bravado, as they should.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because now, granted, Washington State will be an easy uh one for them to take care of, but when Boise State comes around, if the Beavers beat Boise State, they're gonna be in the driver's seat to get themselves closer to the playoff.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that will be a great moment to personal message every one of those ding dongs who told us we were insane and that it was impossible.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: But you start winning by 50, and things are possible.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome in to the PNW podcast, hanging out in the studio here at Stafford Hills with Marcus, who's actually not in the room.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Our toes are not twinkling together.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, if if the internet could touch, we're we're that close right now.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, he's in Eugene, Oregon.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just outside of Portland myself, recording this in Towallaton, Oregon, which is uh coming up on a big day, Marcus.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, on this show we talked about the great pumpkin regatta, and it's all going down.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna cut the pumpkins open and and party on down here in Twallaton, uh, where I'm a member of the business community here.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: I pay my dues.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so if they ever have like a community event, I can go hand out some stickers.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: I never really get why you have to do all that, but they accept a fee gladly every year.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Which is also where you can find Stafford Hills, where they have all the amenities for you.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: The saltwater pool is all repaired, ready to rock and roll.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: When I showed up here yesterday, the steam was coming off of it.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And it really is a cool feel uh when you're here and it's cold outside but warm in the pool.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: You want to hit it up, and you can hear my voice, which is toasted.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Last week I did the fun run for my kids, uh, or I did the MCing of the fun run for my kids, and that ended up being a four-hour gig.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I just blew this thing up, followed by a birthday party for a three-year-old, where you don't stop yelling, stop! Don't grab that, don't go in there, don't go out the front door, and uh blew the thing out completely.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we'll we're a little wounded.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: And Marcus, you were at the duck game.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: You're probably a little wounded as well.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we got to get to all that.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: But remember, if you do want to become a member at Stafford Hills, where my studio is, hit him up at Staffordhills.com.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Tell them Drew sent you for half off your initiation.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now that duck game against the UCLA Bruins, we knew would be a tough one.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Dylan Riola starting for the first time for the Ducks after coming in as a hero against USC and things just didn't go as planned.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Marcus, what was it like to be boots on the ground there?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: As much as I hate to say it, Drew, this is as close as I felt to the last two times that I felt like the Ducks were sort of feeling their identity slip away while I was in the stadium.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um the last two times I can tell you that I felt that was at the very end of Mario Cristobal's tenure when uh we got just absolutely slapped by Utah two games in a row, one to finish out the season and one for the Pac-12 title.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you felt like it was all over, but the crying at that point in time.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it it was.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Mario Cristobal was out the door less than a day later.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think everybody saw the writing on the wall, and you thought for a minute, how does this team finish like that, regardless of the situation?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the other time I felt that, Drew, was during the old Willie Taggart show, uh, back after uh we we cut ties with Mark Helfrich, brought in the new guy, had a lot of fun with him for the first few weeks, but it wasn't far into that season when you realize this team never really had an identity.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're going through a coaching change.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the coach hasn't even won over the locker room yet.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't feel like Oregon Ducks football.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I will tell you, when I looked up at the Jumbotron at halftime and saw 84 offensive yards in total for the Oregon Ducks, I felt like we had lost our identity a little bit.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we spoke very highly of Dylan Riola coming out of that USC game.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think he played really well then.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um he looked terrified out there in Audson Stadium, and I don't think UCLA was doing anything crazy.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: They were getting home with three and four guys.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, our offensive line, I don't know what's going on with them right now.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I understand why the quarterback looks terrified because he has zero time to throw the ball.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when Riola did decide to throw the ball, Drew, it was almost like he second guessed himself as he was releasing it.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: There were some of those that floated out there so poorly that I couldn't believe we weren't sitting with four interceptions at halftime.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because they just there was no zip on the ball.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was like right before he went to let it go, he went, wait, and they would he would squeeze it at the last minute and it would float out, and you'd have guys jumping, and it would be the timing would be off.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: There was just not a lot of good.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: I did like some of the things I saw from the defense.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think keeping that game as close as it was was huge.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, there's something to be said here, Drew, for the in-stadium experience that can never really uh replicate on your couch.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: We had no idea what was going on with the two-point conversion penalty, and this ball should be placed at the half-yard line rather than the one and a half yard line and on and on and on.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because as much as I love him, Don Essig, uh, our our glorious and Hall of Fame stadium announcer from the Oregon uh Ducks is in the fourth quarter of life, and he's not quite Johnny on the spot in the stadium.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't get a lot of that type of stuff that you hear on the broadcast.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh knowing that a yard could have made the difference if the ball was spotted correctly, uh, maybe even tied the game, and who knows how it ends.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that that was that was really disappointing to get home and learn all that, Drew.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: But didn't feel like a ducks game like they have for the last few years at Audsen Stadium.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: No, it didn't.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you know, I watched that back.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't realize that the half-yard line thing had happened until after the game either.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: If it had been placed there based on how far he got on that run, he would have scored.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it also is one of those things where you can make that excuse, but there's 10,000 things that happened before that that kind of kept us from having the opportunity to win this game.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so, while yeah, we got robbed a little bit there, but that's not why we lost.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: We lost because we lost our sense of identity.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it reminded me of do you remember the Brady Leaf era?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: That was right when I got to college, Drew.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: I remember that better than some of any eras in Oregon football, um, unfortunately.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the guy got thrust into the starting position because of injuries, and we were terrible.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: I remember being at the old O-Bar watching that and thinking to myself, I don't think we could score at gunpoint.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't think we could score if they had nine players on the field, and this has been an issue with Oregon for as long as I remember.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: We're either dominant or we're lost.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like there really isn't middle ground.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there are times like last year against Penn State where we fought the adversity and and got the job done that way.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: But whenever some somebody punches us right in the mouth, they usually knock us out.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if if we don't get ahead early and go up 21-7 and then we can just kind of pick the plays that we want, we get punched in the mouth and then we lose.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago about the coordinators and all of that.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's the big moving part that changed from last year.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't want people to just lose their jobs, you know.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: I want them to be given an opportunity to succeed.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: But my God, right now, I just I mean, the ducks going into Nebraska this week, uh, there are major question marks.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, who's gonna play quarterback?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right, because I've been searching around all day to come into this today with you and have a definitive answer about Dante Moore.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: About can he play?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Is he out of the protocol?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody is mum at this point and refusing to say anything, which leads me to believe he's out.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think so.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and you can look at it as maybe gamesmanship by the coaching staff trying to keep things under wraps here, Drew.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, as of last week, I saw uh one analyst that, you know, goes to these press conferences.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: His take on it was, and I'm sorry that I can't credit whoever it was here because it was a real quick clip or a real quick post that I saw, but the take on it was we don't know at this point if Dante Moore could return next week or if he's out for the season.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: We do not have a definitive answer either way.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And again, might be gamesmanship.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: You'll remember back in the Chip Kelly days, I covered the ducks.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was at press conferences with Chip Kelly, and you learned very quickly with Chip Kelly.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ask him about the injuries because you're gonna get a snarky non-answer, and it's going to piss him off for the rest of the uh for the rest of the press conference, and you're not gonna get much out of him.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's a little bit of that in Dan Lanning.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's he has a little bit more tact with the way that he handles it, but he still doesn't want to give anything up, and that's very apparently clear when we're sitting here talking about a guy that we all thought was going to be hailed as a Heisman favorite and a number one overall pick by this time this year.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: We don't even know if he'll touch the field again in anything other than street clothes.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd love to tell everybody listening that I've got some kind of answer, but I'm right there in the same boat with you, Drew.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've got no idea.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And now the question is do we give Dylan Riola another shot?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, he looked good throwing for 300 yards against USC, looked like a junior high quarterback two weeks later playing at home, which is supposed to be easier.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now you've got this really good-looking Nebraska team coming in.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: That could carry a lot of other layers of flavor for Dylan Riola, considering he transferred out of that school.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the first thing he said when he got on a microphone at Oregon was, man, Oregon's so much better than Nebraska.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's not cornfields everywhere.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Shut up, dude! Don't give him that.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: We got to play him later this week, uh later this season.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's a lot of questions to be answered here.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Brock Thomas definitely looked better than Dylan Riola did.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of wish he would have came in at halftime, to be honest with you.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: We probably could have won the game.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: And Ryola, he looked like he looked like a kid in his backyard who had just pulled out a boombox and put on Jock Jam 7 and was doing like five-second countdowns.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, throwing off his back foot.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Can you plant your feet and throw a rope every once in a while?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: You throw into double coverage off your back foot, fading away.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Even if you're a great quarterback, that is ill-advised behavior.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: At best.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And with this Dante Moore thing, I mean, there's a chance that he never plays for Oregon again out of self-preservation, out of an attempt to have some sort of draft stock because he has plummeted.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: He went from the second overall pick behind Mendoza, almost guaranteed last year, to the sixth ranked quarterback.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know who's the number one ranked quarterback now?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Who's that?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oklahoma State's quarterback who owned us, which I did say he looked good and he hasn't lost since then, since the game before they played us.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: But Dante Moore on the sideline in sunglasses, it looked more like Stevie Wonder than it looked like a guy who was going to come back and play.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you're not putting anything on tape right now that's going to elevate that draft stock if you're injured for the rest of the year.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's only going to go down.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's never going to come back up.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and hey, you know, hats off to a guy like Drew Mestimaker.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: That dude was a walk-on, and we're sitting here talking about him maybe being the best quarterback on the board.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: You got to give credit where credit is due.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, the stats tell the story, and right now we don't really have the stats.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you go watch some of these guys that break down tape on YouTube and listen to what they're saying about our offensive line right now, you might not want to watch any Oregon games for the rest of the year.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's so bad.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about the identity, Drew, there's a there's a lot of questions that are gonna have to be answered before we're gonna be slapping high five Saturday night.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, oh yeah, late Saturday night and 8 p.m.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: kickoff.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've been complaining about these 12:30 kickoffs since we joined the Big Ten.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm realizing all you got to do is lose games you're supposed to win, and they'll give you back night games at Austin.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one thing I can look forward to, even though I have a flight leaving at 5 a.m.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: the next morning.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it's gonna be a crazy weekend here as Nebraska comes to town.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see what happens.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it breaks my heart because I don't know if you saw the videos circulating of Phil Knight walking into the game.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they were there was a bunch of videos of him, and he is clearly, and this is a man that I love, he is clearly in declining health.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the window is closing.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm sure it's built in where money will continue to trickle in, but it's also like from the beginning of the year, Oregon's trajectory was to the moon.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: And now we're looking at a situation where are we gonna fall back into the middle of the pack?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because not only is our biggest booster aging out of the situation, we look terrible.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're supposed to bring recruits into this situation.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I bet you there's a bunch of high-end recruits who are gonna be at the Nebraska game this weekend.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if the Oregon Ducks get throttled, what are we doing?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what is that gonna do for us?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: I I just fear that did we peak?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I don't know.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you you mentioned recruits.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: There was like six or seven blue chip recruits at that UCLA game.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Drew, John Lynch, the GM of the San Francisco 49ers, was at that UCLA game.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I can't imagine that he's taken notes on anybody at this point in time.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, maybe a few guys on the defense that had great games, but man, there's few and far between on Saturday.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I I remember back to the Chip Kelly undefeated season where we beat California 16 to 13.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: We limped out of that stadium, barely walking away with the win.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is what it feels like on the other side of it.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: It can be ugly, and you don't always win when it's ugly, which is why you have to beat the teams that you should beat, the teams that you're better than on paper, the teams that you've got a lot more talent than.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we've lost to two of those teams this year, Drew.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that two-point conversion, it just hurts.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: When you don't get that, and then you lose by a couple of points, it just it's unbearable.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I wore the same Grateful Ducks shirt.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: I had to go to soccer games at the tail end of the game both times that we lost.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: I wore the same shirt.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: I love the shirt.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: I might burn it.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: I might, I might burn it if you don't go.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what the hell?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: I had to go stand there like a clown in this green tie-dyed shirt where everybody's like, How'd the game go?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because nobody's paying attention.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's the other problem, is all of our fan base just assumes we're gonna win all the games.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're like, Oh yeah, how'd we do?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: We lost, dude.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't have time to go home and change.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's either me and skins or this.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Which one do you want?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I gotta stop doing it to myself.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta start bringing an extra shirt in the car just because I don't want to relive the hell.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I do not remember a time, Marcus, in the last six or seven years that we were toast this early.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you and I are used to not winning nattties.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: We've sat in the same room and had them burn up on us.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: But to this, with this many games out in the future.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I will say there is an opportunity with help if you win out.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I know it sounds like a joke right now, but if you beat Ohio State, you first you beat Nebraska, and then you beat Ohio State, you would have the same amount of losses as Ohio State, and you both would have one loss in conference and you would win the tiebreaker.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: So there is opportunity because you play the juggernaut, but they are the juggernaut.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you barely beat the underboss in a video game, you don't get to go to the next level with the same weapons and shield or whatever the hell you have and think you're gonna beat the big boss.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Gonna get your ass kicked.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you got to go to his house, too.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's another big part of it here.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, they say the home field's worth about three points.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: You remember how many points we beat that Ohio State team by an odson a couple years ago.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell you, I was there.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was home field advantage.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: There, there were false start penalties.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: That place was electric.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they're gonna do that exact same thing to you when you go to their house.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Can you beat it?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I wouldn't be uh uh confident telling you that we could beat our way out of a wet paper bag right now.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Gonna have to see something change at this Nebraska game before I'm confident enough to say we've got a shot uh once we get to the shoe.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's true.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And their fans are just dicks.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: They really are.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like I can handle just about any fan.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there are some uh beaver fans at Rivalry Time who would get you know sour or toxic when it wasn't a fair matchup, but even them, they're way, I would rather honestly share a room with the beaver for a month than an hour with one of those buckeyes.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they are, and I we were warned by other people in the conference who came to our stadium.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember sitting there one week and they're like, Oh, you got Ohio State coming next week.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, it's gonna be a game.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the exact response was, they're terrible people.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's what they said.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, well, that's gotta be an exaggeration.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've been chased out of Husky Stadium, barked at, had things thrown at me, had people try and fight me, but they are a special kind of entitled over there at Ohio State.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, you're from Ohio, I get it.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's all you've got to hang your hat on, but I wouldn't expect to see much green and yellow when we head over there.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: No, I wouldn't.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And they'll do what all those giant stadiums do, Drew.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: They'll tuck them so far up in the nosebleeds that they're gonna get altitude sickness by the time it's all said and done.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: So uh it's gonna be a rough one.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but hey, like you said, I'd rather sit in this in a room with uh with a beaver fan right now, and and that beaver fan's gonna be chirping.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: So uh that should tell you how we feel about Ohio State.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna take a little break.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: We're actually gonna come back and celebrate those beaves because when we posted about a week ago that the Ducks and the Beavers could meet in the playoff, the laughability of it was the Beavers, not the Ducks.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: And oh how those roles have reversed.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: We'll break it down.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: What happened with San Diego State?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: And does anyone have the mumps?
• 20:00
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• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: All right, Marcus.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, enough whining about the Ducks.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's time to talk about uh basically the best team in the state right now.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oregon State Beavers still in the Pac-12, taking on San Diego State.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: We joked around that uh 14 players had tested positive for the mumps on on San Diego State.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: So they were without some of their players, but I still don't think that's necessarily a big enough excuse for what happened to them over the weekend.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think I feel like the special victims unit had to come out there after that game just to check on what the hell happened at Reese.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, I knew they were gonna be down 14 players, Drew.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know they were gonna show up without cleats and pads on.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this was an absolute beatdown, the likes of which the Beavers haven't put on somebody in a while.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, as I said in the last segment, Drew, the stats tell the story.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at them.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: 66 to 14.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the Beavers take down the San Diego State Aztecs in Corvallis.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's compare quarterbacks real quick.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we've talked a lot about Braden Atkinson on this show.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Another stellar performance under center for the Beaver quarterback, 29 of 38, only had nine incomplete passes uh through almost 40, um, 409 yards and five touchdowns.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: This kid is going to be a freshman all-American if he keeps playing like this, and he might be the freshman all-American quarterback uh on the first team if this keeps happening.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, by comparison, the quarterback for San Diego State drew Jaden Denegal was five for 19 for 78 yards and a touchdown.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, brutal.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's JV numbers.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that the Beavers quarterback is a freshman.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: I believe he is.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Holy crap.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: He's got all that eligibility.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're kind of look, we're looking for a quarterback down in Eugene.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: We might not be able to afford him.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say the 40 or 45 million that we put out this year.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know if we raise that number or we just are more conscientious on what we spend our cash on.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, you know, on the ground, things were similarly bad.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't as great as they were through the air uh for Oregon State, but they were definitely better than they were for the Aztecs.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh AJ Newberry, nine carries, 55 yards and a touchdown.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: We'll take that.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: 11 carries for 43 yards for Javion Kinnard, who is the uh leading rusher for the Aztecs.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And again, once we get to receiving yards, I think you're really going to see the separation here.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Another guy we've talked about a ton on this show is Jesse Legree, the standout freshman for Oregon State.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: I saw that kid at a at a press conference, Drew.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: He looks like he's 14.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: But when he goes out on the field, he does 10 receptions for 191 yards and three touchdowns on the day.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: As compared to the leading receiver for the Aztecs, Jalon Hawkins, great game out there, man.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: One reception, 43 yards.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it, Drew.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, the stats tell the story.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oregon State put up a lot of them.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: San Diego State forgot stats exist, and that's how you get 66 to 14 in Corvallis.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, the Ducks are playing tougher competition, but still, that lopsided victory, that sounds like what we did to Portland State.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's that, it's that type of stuff.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I I read that Oregon State, Washington State, the next home game at Reese Stadium is a sellout.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's the first sellout for the Beaves in, I believe, three years.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, since they re- uh since they renovated the the big burrito there.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and that's pretty incredible.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, yet again, glad the ducks don't have to play them this year because that would just probably be another embarrassing moment.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: But you can see the tides turning in the state where people who have been a quiet beaver fan, kind of beaten down and left on the porch stepchild mode, are now starting to get a little bit of a bravado, as they should.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because now, granted, Washington State will be an easy uh one for them to take care of, but when Boise State comes around, if the Beavers beat Boise State, they're gonna be in the driver's seat to get themselves closer to the playoff.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm and that will be a great moment to personal message every one of those ding-dongs that told us we were insane and that it was impossible.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: But you start winning by 50, and things are possible.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, that's gonna be one crazy day, Drew.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: That that Boise State, Oregon State game is starting to take the shape of a heavyweight matchup.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think if you would have told me two weeks before the season started that we would be sitting here talking about A, Oregon State playing the best football in the state as far as college is concerned, and B staring down an opportunity to Pac-12 title and possibly a playoff berth, um, we would have laughed at you, frankly.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this just goes to show you that college football is in a transition period right now.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of moving parts in college football with NIL and the transfer portal and new eligibility rules.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that we're just at the beginning of it.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: I thought we had already seen the beginning and we were going to start to understand what the transition looked like this year.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not when we're talking about Nebraska being uh, you know, close to being undefeated with only a three-point loss to Ohio State, UCLA being undefeated with a new coach, Oregon State putting up numbers like they are with a new coach.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: We did not see any of this happening.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times people ask me, why what is it, college versus pro?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's this it's the unpredictability, it's the absolute chaos of college football.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: We are dealing with children, essentially, and we're giving them millions of dollars to go out there and put on sweet uniforms and uh try to score more points than the other guy.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what happens sometimes.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they don't get up for the game, sometimes they play with their hair on fire.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: You never know, but can you catch lightning in a bottle?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I would say Oregon State Beavers just screw the lid on a little tighter.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think you've got it.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I I don't know where we go from here with Oregon, but I think Oregon State has a great opportunity here and a small window because, like we said before, if they win the Pac-12 and they sneak in the back door of the playoff, their coach is gone.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: He's gotta be gone.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: And now I hope not.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: I hope he has loyalty on that level.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: But you it's it's the same thing with Willie Taggart.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: He always wanted to be the coach at Florida State.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Mario Cristobal went to Miami.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's his dream job.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: You can't stop these people.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: So with their coach, all he needs is a sniff of one of those dream jobs, one of those can't miss jobs, and it's over.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, even Caleb DeBours, who had everything he needed at Washington to win a national championship, you don't turn down Alabama to be the next Nick Saban.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: You just don't do it.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so I don't think there's as much loyalty there.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: He is a high character guy, so you know that's where you kind of have to hope and pray, but they don't have the money to keep somebody like that if the big dogs back the Brinks truck up.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here's what I'll tell you.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: You if if that happens, if Oregon State wins the Pac-12, uh sneaks into the playoff, even if they don't and end up with a really high, uh, good-looking bull berth, those Brinks trucks are gonna back up.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Oregon State's only recourse is to say uh coach of the Oregon State Beavers, uh uh Coach Stewart and also the honorary CEO of Reeseur Fine Foods, because you've got to find a way to get enough money in this guy's pocket to keep him.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I think it's just a sign of the times, Drew.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of money flowing through college football and money talks.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: It absolutely does.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll be keeping an eye on all of that as we move forward, but it's just as it's a strange time.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I keep thinking back, and uh not to revert back to the ducks too much, but if there was no NIL money, how tragic would the Dante Moore situation be?
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because I was meaning to bring this up to you.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Before NIL, this there would be so many millions lost guaranteed.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: At least he's rich already.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he already has made enough money to where if you did it correctly, you could own a Taco Bell, you could own a franchise of something and just be done right now.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you're a child.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: If he continues to fall down the draft board like he is, Drew, it's highly likely that he will take a pay cut to go become an NFL quarterback next year, if that's what he decides to do.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I think that's a story that's playing out a lot considering how much some of these guys are making.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Look, you can get drafted, but that doesn't mean you've got a spot on the team.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um, your NFL career, we've seen it a thousand times, can be over in a flash.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: It can be an injured injury, it can be a traffic ticket for crying out loud.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: You never know what a team is going to cut ties with you for in the NFL.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I hope that these guys are spending wisely at this point in time because we just took uh generational wealth and we moved it back five full years and we started giving it to kids that were five years younger.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, they still put NFL rookies through the rookie symposium where they have financial advisors and former players and media personalities come to talk to these rookies about how to approach life in the NFL, what to do with your money.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Carter from your Minnesota Vikings always told them, always have a fall guy.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are they learning any of this as they graduate as seniors in high school and jump into college with millions in their pocket?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it remains to be seen here.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna need 10 years to figure out what exactly the impact of this whole change was.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's a really important part.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can you can take that gamble and come back to school and try to win a natty and do whatever, but you're gambling with your future, and we're seeing that play out in real time with Dante.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of layers to it, like insubordination, you know, not doing what you're told and pushing back against the system has got to be on the rise.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, think about a guy who's come out of high school, he was the big man on campus.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Almost every one of these guys were, even the bench warmers.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: You hand them a bunch of millions, which is a sense of entitlement.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then you want them to listen like they did before.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's a business, before it was a school.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it was almost like a teacher-student thing, and now it's employer-employee, but you hand, say you hand a defensive end three or four million dollars for the year.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do you really think that that person feels like you're the teacher?
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you might be the boss, but it's a different relationship when you have already handed them all of that cash.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: And on top of that, and I want you to respond on both of these things, does that also is there some disdain between players where you're not getting paid much, and you know that guy over there is pulling up in a Maserati?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and I feel like I'm as good as you are.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't do a lot for camaraderie.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think that one thing that you see is a lot of these guys take care of their teammates.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, right after during the bye week, Dante Moore pulled up with brand new beats by Dre for everybody on the team.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one, I mean, that's a drop in the bucket, right?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: What are you talking?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a few hundred bucks per person, probably all given to him because of his sponsorship.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, definitely given to him.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you have to start thinking about that.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I hear every year for Christmas what NFL quarterbacks do for their linemen.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, as a 49er fan, I'll tell you, Brock Purdy had a Toyota endorsement, and every single offensive lineman on the 49ers got a brand new Toyota pickup last year.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's like 80 grand worth of a gift.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's Brock Purdy saying, listen, I understand I'm making more money than you because of what I do, but I couldn't do it without you.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: So please, on my behalf, take this$80,000 pickup and do what you will with it.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: You have to start seeing that type of stuff in college to keep those problems from arising.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the other side of that, Drew, or another aspect of that, is that I hope it fuels the drive and the guys that aren't getting paid.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because the one thing that we have seen in college football over and over and over again, Drew Mestimaker, we mentioned him in the last segment, is a really great example of this.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: You never know who you're dealing with until you get them out there on the field and you get them in these environments where the pressure is high.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: How do they handle it?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: And some of these guys are diamonds created in the rough.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: They were not the all-state, you know, McDonald's, all-American style football player in high school, but they were good enough to find their way on the roster.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're just a walk-on.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're paying for your own campus housing right now.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: But look at the guy that's making$4 million play in your position and decide that's where I'm supposed to be, and then make it happen.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just fight the guy in the locker room.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's not how we do it.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: You got to do it out on the field.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that we see pressure create some diamonds here, especially for the Ducks as this season goes on, uh, because the guys with all the diamonds on their wrists right now aren't doing anything for us.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we need some of these younger guys to step up.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: And if that Oklahoma State quarterback goes number one overall, I don't have this stat, but I'd be willing to bet the deed to my house that nobody has ever been taken number one overall and not started a single game in high school.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Never did.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Never did.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Walked onto a team as a backup quarterback that was a career backup quarterback in his four short years in high school, and now has not only taken down one of the teams that was picked pretty ad nauseum to win the national title in Oregon or at least get close to it.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he's on a he's on a gravy train with biscuit wheels right now, Drew.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the hell was going on when they played Tulsa, but different guys got off the bus to play Oregon uh in Stillwater, and they've gotten off the bus with those same guys for every game after that, too.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that and I do love a good, you know, Rudy story, underdog story.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: I hate that it has to come at our expense, but you don't start a single game in high school, and you know what the scouting report said about that guy in high school?
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Five foot nothing, a hundred and nothing.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: Probably at the top, right there on the header.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: But really, the only stat that he could go try and get himself a scholarship with if he wanted to do it was he was one hell of a punter.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: A punter.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now he's one of the best quarterbacks in college football.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: So write that story.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna see what happens with Nebraska this weekend.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: The beaves are back at it.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's battling for position, and we will uh we will, I hope the next time we talk football, we're bouncing back and figuring out how to beat Ohio State to get your name back in the conversation.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: But the one thing we didn't mention, the Ducks have fallen completely out of the top 25.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sad day in Eugene, Drew.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're not uh we're not so excited about the green and yellow outside.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little quieter downtown right now, but one win can turn that around.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we got another game coming up Saturday, so let's see it, fellas.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: New episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: You want to get caught up?
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: ThePnwpodcast.com.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining me, Marcus.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next time.