Ducks football preview 2008-2009

The Quarterback:
No standouts in the scrimmage. I expect some controversy here. Costa will start because he has more expirience and is more mobile. However, he is breaking in a new knee and every one I know personally has had to have a second surgery after their acl tears a second time. With the receivers we have left, I dont expect him to do well. Im looking at a lot of interceptions and dropped passes with the lack of receivers... but Chip Kelley's wizardry last year was phenominal. What he did with Roper in 3 weeks... inceredible. Hopefully, we will be surprised. I would like to see a Darren Thomas excel this year... actually, anyone. I want a standout.

Receiers:
Speed and agility is strong. I have confidence J Will (AKA fifty-fifty) has learned how to use his hands. With his height and speed (4.4-40) I am looking for some performance this year. Dereck Jones got caught with weed again but he is still running witht he track team, so who knows about him. Pflugrad is my man. He will put up huge numbers this year. Its thin pickins for the Duck receivers. Hopefully we can remain healthy. We could use some more talent at this position.

The Blount:
Has anyone seen LaGarrett in action? I saw him at the scrimmage a few months back. The amazing part of his game to me was how indredibly hard it is to take this guy down. Stewart was definatly a work horse, where we would all see him carrying 4 guys down the field but Blount seemed to be much harder to get a hold of, let alone take down. Also, lets remember that this Duck defense is going to be one of the best in the nation. We have many returning starters including reed, thurmond, byrd, bacon and chung(among others) who are arguably among the best tacklers in college football. Blount was unstoppable. He is more than a stewart replacement, he is a Stewart successor. Our back field is stronger than last year. With Johnson and Co. the backfield will do well.

The defense:
Good year for the ducks defense. Our strengths are the corners and safety. Our linebackers are fairly stong with the return of Boyd, but our D-line is the weak link. Now, the D-line is fine, we can hold our own with any team we play in the regular season, however, it is true, they are the weak spot in the defense. The return of Reed helps, but in general, we just need to be tougher, meaner, and more aggressive. Size helps but not essential to Duck success.

Overall:
I have confidence in the coaches. Prediction: 10-2 season. Our season depends on the passing game. If we can develop it, we will do fine, if we do not, we probably wont. The passing game is what has made the Ducks offense so difficult to stop in the past, we'll see what we can do this year.

GO DUCKS