A "Transition"...Not A "Rebuilding"

During the late part of the third quarter in last night's game one of the camera men that operates the Duck Vision gave a quick shot of what appeared to be Joe Montana and his wife. I turned to my dad and yelled, "No way, Joe Montana is here!" while the two guys sitting in front of me looked at the screen and then shook their heads like I'm a retard that should be working at Goodwill. Here's some proof that I'm not delusional after all: Montana Can't Hide. From what I've been reading Joe Montana's son, Nick Montana, was a surprise recruit at last night's game. He is a recruit for the class of 2010 and appears to have the talent to make some noise apart from the media glitz of being the son of an NFL Legend.

Too be honest I'm not really sure what to take away from last night's game. I know Jeremiah Masoli has the arm and the running ability to make this Oregon offense a versatile and scary one, but I think this year is more of a transition than a rebuilding. I'm not sure "rebuilding" is even pertinent to college teams considering the NCAA doesn't have a draft, free agency or trades. College teams recruit players to the best of their capabilities, but does a team like Arizona truly rebuild? They've been in the bottom half of the Pac-10 for as long as I can remember and they seem to just transition their best players into the key roles of their offense and defense. Teams like USC, however, don't ever rebuild...they just reload. Oregon in a way does this too. The Ducks knew they needed new QB talent for this offense and they went out and got some (One of those QB's is now catching TD's as a wide receiver...go figure). The more Masoli gets to play in this offense the quicker he will transition into a Pac-10 quarterback, and that simply bodes well for the Ducks and their future as a team. Going 5/19 for 42 yards and a TD through the air isn't what most Duck fans would like to see, but his 25 carries for 170 yards is. How would Duck fans feel if Masoli went 14/22 for 180, 2 Td's and 2 Int's that resulted in 10 points for the other team? The kid has only thrown 1 interception this year and that was a desperation pass against USC that we all know he threw against his better judgement...the Ducks were already down by 27 at that juncture in the game. The point I'm trying to make is that he doesn't make mistakes (*knock on wood*) and for a sophomore Junior College transfer that is something that people take for granted. At this point Masoli hasn't lost a game for Oregon and that cannot be overlooked.

Are Pac-10 officials the most god awful bunch in Collegiate Football? The interception by Jairus Byrd in the endzone that was negated by a pass interference call had to be one of the worst calls I've seen since the Oklahoma game...except this one didn't go in our favor. I don't think the final score of the game was indicative of the way the Ducks or Bruins played. If the referee's don't job the Ducks on that call the final score of the game would've been 31-17. Whether it be a ref flagging Washington's Jake Locker for excessive celebration or phantom PI calls against Oregon's secondary it seriously makes me wonder if this is only a part time job for these guys. I've always wondered the salaries of Pac-10 officials over the course of a season, and I'm sure if that information was disclosed to the public we'd all boo for the whole game instead of for just 10 minutes. As much as I hate Oklahoma and everything that embodies that program and their coach I think this photo speaks volumes about the referees in the conference:


(Click to Enlarge)

Then again Oregon did block their game winning field goal and score two touchdowns in under five minutes....sucks to be Stoopid.

Not much has been made of how the recruiting weekend went thus far, but I'm sure I'll have more to report on that front in the next couple of days.