I wouldn't jump to early. Oregon will take another step down this year, but Prukop won't be the reason. He won't even be the starter.
Terry Wilson will more than likely be the starting quarterback next year. He is showing a lot of promise in spring practice so far, and is very dangerous with his feet. To be honest, I heard he is the only guy able to score consistently on the defense. Prukop especially has been terrible from what I've heard.
This team will slip again because their defense will still be bad, and Helfrich is still the head coach. But they'll be good enough to beat Washington one last time next year. Washington hasn't come within 20 points in Eugene since 2002 as I'm sure you all are aware.
For anybody that questions how pedestrian the Oregon offense can be, please go back and watch the 2nd half of the Alamo Bowl.
Oregon's defense will be a disaster and there's very little that Brady Hoke did at Michigan that didn't make one thing that he was anything less than in over his head when it comes to major college football.
The best thing that could happen to UW this year would be for Oregon to somehow go 9-3 or something where they overachieved and somehow was able to hide that Helfrich wasn't anything less than a disaster as a head coach.
Winning/Losing to Oregon honestly hasn't mattered depending on the location because it has all been about whether UW had the players that could stay with Oregon's athletes. If you go back and look at the game last year, Oregon's offense generally speaking was pretty average save for some duck and chuck balls thrown by Adams that he got bailed out on ... such is football. UW's got the athletes to play with Oregon and I honestly don't think that the location will be the difference in the matchup. If Oregon wins, it's going to be because they are able to plug some of the sizable holes that they have. If UW wins, it's going to be because their youth has taken a step forward and they are the conference contending team that we're dooging it up over with our offseason natty.
Of course the location hasn't mattered. Until last year UW hadn't been fewer than three scores from Oregon in the last 12 years. WTF are you talking about?
Now that UW is closer to Oregon in talent, and have a much better coach, location is going to have a much bigger impact. Until last year, these games were over during pregame warm ups.
You, and many others, clearly aren't reading between the lines of what I said.
Honestly, I don't think UW and Oregon are "close" in talent going into this year. I think UW will have better talent at a number of positions on the field.
Oregon's best player is clearly Freeman at RB ... but it's not like Gaskin's a huge step down.
Oregon probably has an edge at WR but how much of an edge is to be determined ... and it's also heavily influenced by the QB play.
Where else does Oregon hold an edge on the field? Is their OL materially better? How about any positional grouping on defense? Kicker? Punter?
Go down the line and tell me where Oregon's got an edge? Coaching?
Maybe playing in Autzen is an advantage. Didn't seem to matter to Utah last year. How about the Cougs?
A lot of people will go into the year placing Oregon towards the top of the conference because of the name ... and while I still need to go look into them in greater detail, I don't see a lot of compelling reasons for me to say that they are going to be particularly good this year and that's with competent QB play. If they aren't able to get that, then they start drifting closer to the .500 range than many probably think.
I think it's entirely realistic to think that Oregon could finish 4th in the North this year. In fact I think it's more likely to think that than to think that they will win the North.
