Good Luck Ducks, Week 12: Gopher Guts

It's a Friday night party as Mighty Oregon hosts some greasy and grimies.

We're already three-quarters of the way through the college football schedule now, as the Ducks are back on a short turnaround for a special Friday night appearance against Minnesota. In a conference jam packed full of eighteen schools, I suppose that there just isn't enough room for everyone to play on Saturday (or at least that's how the theory goes.) It appears that it's Oregon's time to play on a Friday this season.

The Ducks held off Iowa in another rainy slog, but there were more positive vibes around this win than the Wisconsin game. For one thing, Iowa is a legitimately good football team that just happens to run an offense that's stuck in some far away decade. To Oregon's credit, they were able to match the Hawkeyes at every step, resulting in one of the most run-dominant Ducks games on both sides of the ball that I can ever remember. Atticus Sappington (there's that name again!) and his 3 for 3 field goal performance, including the game-winning kick, won the day and kept Oregon's record at one loss.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers come in to Autzen Stadium with a 6-3 record, coming off of a blowout loss to Iowa before an OT win against Michigan State. They've been outscored 83-6 against ranked opponents (two of them) this season and most of their wins have come against subpar squads, but they do have an excellent pass rush that can't be discounted. While Dante Moore has adjusted to a more run-heavy offense as the season has progressed, you'll still expect him to make his share of drop-backs. Fortunately, the Ducks offensive line has held up fairly well this season, and their array of ball carriers should keep the Gophers guessing. Health is not on the Ducks side in the receiver camp, so they could be making use of a number of players that haven't gotten as many targets as they were forced to last week.

Notes and miscellany:

• A lot can happen in three weeks, but after Indiana survived a scare at Penn State last week, it's looking increasingly less likely that the Ducks will have a shot at playing Ohio State this year, unless the playoff bracket happens to swing that way. There could be an advantage (i.e. rest) of not playing in a conference championship game, of course. Oregon has a lot of work to do, however, as they haven't consistently looked like a playoff team over the course of an entire game in quite awhile.
• Opponent fun fact: Maybe this should just be renamed "Know Your Mascot", but it turns out that the so-called golden gopher is actually a certain type of ground squirrel and not a gopher at all. (We have an abundance of squirrels locally crawling all over the neighborhood, but as far as I know, none are of the "ground" variety.)
• Opponent history: Minnesota holds a 3-1 edge, with their most recent meetings occurring in the 1999 (Oregon win) and 2003 (Minnesota win) Sun Bowls.
  
• Game time is 6:00 PM PST on FOX in Eugene. Go Ducks!

A Holiday Gift

 

Baseball and football cards -- just the way you like them!

Christmas in sports cards form came late, but that's because I was out of town. I usually end up with a pile of packages and trades around the holidays, mostly because I figure that people are in a giving mood and also maybe have a little extra time off to do the card thing. I'm also out of town for a bit around these holiday maybe every two out of three years, so I was greeted with an avalanche of envelopes of all shapes and sizes once mail delivery resumed after the first of the year. At the top of the pile was a generous holiday package from Dennis of Too Many Verlanders, which is always a welcome sight.

Let's look at the football guys first. This is one of the blue mirror parallels from 2018 Panini Certified and is numbered to just 50 copies. I know some people dropped a lot of money on cards of the Heisman Trophy winner Mariota early in his career, and I've benefitted lately on picking up a few of his nicer cards now that the shine has long worn off.

Here's another Ducks QB in his pro uniform. I think Justin Herbert is going to have to shed the stigma of being a Chargers player entirely if he is going to elevate his status in the NFL, but certainly having Jim Harbaugh around could eventually change things a bit. We'll see.

Of course, this is another card for my Oregon collection, but it reminds me of how strange it feels that I actually rooted for the Chiefs at one point. Like... this decade. Kind of.

It's kind of incredible that I now own two distinct versions of this fairly obscure auto/manupatch card of late oughts Ducks running back Jeremiah Johnson. You can see the other one here. (Same card, different patch!)

For every Jalen Hurts, Donovan McNabb or Randall Cunningham in my time following the Eagles, there's been a couple of Kevin Kolbs and a couple of Detmers. Well, maybe just one Kolb. Anyway, it was a great year for the Eagles and you'd think I'd have more to say about it, but the Super Bowl was kind of surreal... in a fun way!

I'm not a full fledged Eagles team collector in the same way that I am with Cardinals (baseball) cards, but I do have a couple of boxes set aside for them. I did add a bunch of base Duce Staley cards to my want list on TCDB since he was a favorite from the past, and serendipitously ended up receiving this numbered "Premiere Date" parallel from Dennis around the same time. It's great!

Jevon Holland is a really good player, and a free agent. I could certainly think of another bird team whose uniform he'd look pretty good in if you ask me.

Here's another Duck! Ed Dickson is showing off the underrated late '00s Ducks look here.

Of course, the package wasn't all pigskin pushers. (That's a thing, right?) Dennis sent over a nice little stack of baseball parallels and inserts from sets I dabble in from time to time. These two Bowman Heritage cards are both chunky one-per-pack parallels with facsimile signatures. This era used to have a lot of thick cards that would theoretically throw off someone trying to search for similarly thick coveted memorabilia cards.

This trio of lesser known baseball players are featured on mini parallels from the 2005 Bowman Heritage set. Chris Volstad is the only name I remember here. It's possible that the other two never made it to the bigs.

Last up from the set stuff is a 2005 Turkey Red red parallel for the meta collectors out there, and a '74 Highlights card from the 2023 Topps Heritage set. They don't really fit together at all, but what the hell, I was saving some space.

The last card featured here is a Cards card (hey, that's the blog!) Kolten Wong had a decent run with the team and will always been linked with the Mike Matheny era, for better and for worse. I think most of us would welcome something on the level of the Matheny days right now, considering the current state of the team (ahem: mediocrity.)

Good Luck Ducks, Week 9: Ute Talkin' to Me?

Your eighth ranked Ducks hit the road again to tackle a familiar ranked foe. 

 

Oregon bounced back last week from a really tough-to-stomach road loss by winning in relevantly uneventful fashion against the Washington State Cougars, one of the two surviving members of the Pac-12(er 2) Conference. Nearly everyone in the conference is really good this season, which makes the rest of the Ducks schedule quite the minefield. Even the two weaker opponents left to go (Cal, ASU) seem like potential trap games at the very least, and home games against USC (ehhh) and the last ever (?) Civil War meeting with the Beavers are still lurking. And yet, today's game at Utah could be the biggest one.

The Utes are eyeing their third straight conference title, a position that Oregon has frequently been in especially since the conference expanded to twelve teams over a decade ago. While the Ducks squeaked out a victory last season, there has to be a little something extra in this meeting as they attempt to take the title for the last time.

Despite today's game being a road game for Oregon, they are nearly a touchdown favorite over a team ranked just 5 spots below. It goes to show that the polls, especially at this point in the season, are not nearly as big of an indicator as to how a team's overall abilities are perceived as it might seem. The people with the money on the line definitely feel that Oregon is a clear notch above Utah this season on any given Saturday.

Notes and other things: 

• Utah will be without Cam Rising, a Ducks nemesis of the past, under center. Rising was playing with an injured knee and struggled against the Ducks last season, before tearing multiple ligaments in said knee in the Rose Bowl. His status was fairly murky for most of this season until he was recently declared out for the season.
• Where Are They Headed? The Utes are headed to the Big 12 next season, their third conference since 2010, where they will compete with such luminaries as Texas Tech and Central Florida.
• Ducks Ranking This Week: 8 (AP). We're still a few days away from the first CFP ranking this season, the only thing that actually matters. Is Condoleezza Rice still on the committee?
• Bo Nix Heisman Watch: It doesn't seem like he's in the top 3 or maybe even 5 anymore, but at least no one is calling him "Bo Pix" anymore. It's almost like there's a higher profile dude with an even funnier name in contention.
• Game time is 12:30 PDT on FOX in Salt Lake City. Go Ducks!

Good Luck Ducks: Pac-12 Championship Edition

It's the Utes, again. 

 

Oregon took care of business against their in-state rival last week to set up another meeting with Utah in the Pac-12 Championship, with a Rose Bowl bid on the line. Two weeks removed from a critical beatdown at the hands of the Utes in Rice-Eccles Stadium that also knocked them out of playoff contention, the Ducks will attempt to do things... differently this time? Let's hope so! Tonight's game is at a neutral site in Las Vegas, although Salt Lake City is certainly a shorter trip than a trek from Eugene would be. (To be fair, it's usually pretty cheap to fly to and from Vegas.) This year's team has been a bit of a challenge to get behind, but the hope is that won't translate into poor support during the conference title game itself.

Anthony Brown Jr. had one of his best games of the season last week against Oregon State, which should hopefully bring some momentum into his play tonight. There's been talk of the Ducks simplifying their defensive schemes this time around, but it's hard to completely fault the defense for a game when you only scored 7 points. There was plenty of blame to pass around for that debacle, and I'm not sure I'd even start with the defense. Oregon will continue to be short-handed in the receiving game, but they have enough talent (hello, Devon Williams!) to keep Utah honest. As is the usual goal, they will have to establish both a consistent passing presence and the running game to have a shot.

On the Utah side, Tavion Thomas shows no signs of slowing down, and QB Cameron Rising continues to be a threat. There's no reason to expect anything differently out of the Utes offense this time around. The key will be to see if Oregon can adjust to all of the different ways they were stifled defensively in the last game, lest they suffer a similar fate (and a lesser bowl game.)

Series History: Well, now it's Oregon with a 23-11 all-time edge. Perhaps more important is the Utah/Oregon Pac-12 Championship history, where the Ducks hold a 1-0 advantage. You can also look at Oregon's Pac-12 Championship record, where they are undefeated at 4-0.

Opponent Talk: The Utes are looking to rise to the top of the Pac-12 in their 11th season in the conference.

I didn't want to do this, but... remember Kaelin Clay?

Game time is 5:00 PM PST on ABC. Go Ducks!

Birds of a Feather

They flock together. Just ask @forgotaboutblay -

Mega Michigan fan (and Detroit Tigers, don't forget!) Dennis of Too Many Manninghams/Verlanders may have outdone himself this time. In this latest (let's just pretend it's recent) package was a nearly constant parade of autographed cards, something I'm still trying to adjust to now that it's been a couple of months. There were quite a few Ducks alums in the batch, and these usually get held over for a future "Good Luck Ducks" post. Since we're getting closer to year-end, I thought I'd do a blowout on these and show off all the scans that I made so I can start fresh next season. (I did hold out one card from this stellar package for the Rose Bowl.)

Josh Huff was a great all-purpose player (i.e. he was really fast) in his time with the Ducks, and it was cool to see him suit up for my pro team of choice. He got into some legal trouble in recent years, but is still playing professionally... just not in the NFL any longer.

Jeremiah Johnson is always going to remind me of the late '00s college football video game franchises that sadly no longer exist. He played second fiddle to Jonathan Stewart for quite awhile, but he was really good in his way. Since people are actually seriously talking about opening up compensation for college athletes now, I suppose we could eventually see licensed college sports video games become a thing again... maybe?

LaMichael James! I just wish the 49ers didn't instinctively make me feel like throwing up my dinner.

I don't remember James wearing #17 at any point, especially considering that it's more of a wide receiver number. Is this some other guy?

This is a very intricately designed card. It's actually hollow in the middle, apparently. I should probably have more of these, even if (non-college) football isn't really my thing.

I don't really want to talk about what's happened with Mariota and his pro team at this point, so let's check out this really cool die cut insert that features him as a Duck. I was never a huge fan of the feathers on the helmet (uniforms are one of the only places where I turn into a traditionalist), but this card makes them look good. This is a sneaky candidate for my favorite card of the package, despite the fact that it's one of the few that isn't numbered, signed or embedded with some piece of a thing.

Rolls Royce! I wish there was an NFL Red Zone type channel that catered specifically to players from my college of choice, because I just don't care that much about the actual games. (I say this, and yet I'll probably watch my share of playoff games anyway.)

And with this Jack Clark Starting Lineup card, we are officially done with football (for this post, anyway.) Is everyone okay with that? Do you even think this is a baseball card blog anymore?

Here's one for the more-bang-for-the-buck Panini Leather & Lumber set. They sold blasters of this stuff which only contained something like 10 cards for the normal $19.99 price. For this reason, I am going to covet the base cards I need, like this one of Matt Carpenter.

I hadn't seen any gold minis from the 2016 Gypsy Queen set before, but there's always a first time for anything. With Marcell Ozuna's imminent departure, the Cards could certainly use a guy like Piscotty again.

Shiny Waino?! Is it really Christmas? (No, it --was-- October.) This is great, though.

Finally, we swing back to that same Panini Leather & Lumber set, with what Panini came up with as a suitable replacement for those old Upper Deck Sweet Swatch autographs that always used to fade into oblivion. Hopefully Panini got these guys to sign these chunks of baseballs with better pens... or maybe these aren't really baseball chunks at all. In any case, these look really cool (despite the lack of licensing and tiny photo) and I hope to track down more like this soon.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 13: Fork in the Road

The Ducks penultimate conference test is against Arizona State on the road. 

A bit of a scheduling quirk has seen Oregon face both Washington schools in consecutive weeks, and now we have them taking on the second Arizona school in as many weeks. The Ducks have suffered some losses in terms of health on the field, but head into the game before the Civil War as a still functioning solid unit, with Justin Herbert firmly in control and the ground game cooking. Both lines have looked good. This team seems like it could be a handful for any playoff-bound team.

Of course, the playoffs will remain firmly on everyone's minds as long as the Ducks hang tantalizingly just outside of the top four. It may be a cliche to say that the Ducks can only control what they do on the field themselves, but the hope is that mentality continues in the coming weeks. They can't control what Ohio State or Clemson or those dastardly SEC schools do, so why worry about it?

The Arizona State Sun Devils started off the season hot, but have dropped their last four games. Still, they represent a formidable opponent (as do their rivals next week) and victory cannot be assumed. The hope is that Oregon will continue the momentum from last week and shake off their tendencies to start slow. With the season starting to run out of time, they can ill afford any trouble spots in their final road game.

• The Last Game: Oregon led from the outset and put together their most complete conference game of the season, stomping the Wildcats 34-6.
• Know Your Opponent: The Sparky people think that ASU needs to be very aggressive to have a shot tonight.
• The Unis!: White with green helmets. A good road look.
• Mario Cristobal's "Crystal Ball" prediction: "We all feel we haven't played our best football yet." Cannot predict now.

• Luke Skyywalker's Crystal Balls say: Back in the day, many accused ol' Luke of being aligned with the devil, but I'm pretty sure he just wanted to, er, party. Let the beatings begin!

Game time is 4:30 PST on ABC. Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit are on the call. Go Ducks!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 9: The Cougar in the Room

Oregon looks to end a four-game losing streak to Washington State. 

There was a point last week where it looked like the Ducks were going to leave Husky Stadium searching for answers and facing an uphill battle towards regaining conference supremacy. Fortunately, this Oregon bunch looks like a completely different animal than has been seen around these parts in, well... ever? After trailing for most of the game, the Ducks quite confidently and calmly imposed their will against the smaller (?!!) Washington team and just ran right past their line. They bucked most conventional wisdom (and Pac-12 history for the most part) by running the ball when they were behind, even with a highly touted and experienced quarterback taking the snaps. It was an impressive feat to pull off, and it bodes well for the future of a program that seems to be in the process of being completely remade right before our eyes under their former lineman-turned head coach.

Next up are the pesky, dare I say it, dreaded Washington State Cougars. After seeing quarterbacks depart for the NFL for two straight years, it looks like the Cougars are down a bit this year. That doesn't make the four game losing streak to Wazzu any less imposing at this point, however. They're coming off a game where they hammered Colorado, which followed a very close loss to a good Arizona State team. It's a late night game tonight, and there's no doubt that the Ducks will be looking to put this team away early. Injuries and the recent transfer decision of senior Brenden Schooler have begun to limit Justin Herbert's passing targets even further, but they are still in good hands with the offensive line and the powerful running game at the moment.

• The Last Game: Oregon overcame a two touchdown deficit to come back and win 35-31 over their bitter rivals Washington.
• Know Your Opponent: Some are standing up for WSU's defense, which is an interesting position for a team that lost a game 67-63 this season where I swear there were no hoops involved.
• The Unis!: Nightmare green. Thanks, Nike. I guess this is close enough to Halloween, and I am definitely not clamoring for black uniforms to come back.
• Mario Cristobal's "Crystal Ball" prediction: "Complete confidence in them entering this football game." Concentrate and ask again.

• Luke Skyywalker's Crystal Balls say: Uncle Luke apparently coaches high school football now, which would give him unfettered access to Cougar Town. Of course, he's got to be older than most of the players' parents, which is whole different thing altogether. Hood rat, hood rat, hoochie mama 

Game time is 7:30 PM PDT on ESPN. Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Todd McShay and Molly McGrath are on the call. Go Ducks!

Just in Time

Another timely trade post. 

Dennis of Too Many Verlanders / Manninghams sent me a grouping of fun Cardinals and Ducks stuff right before Christmas. In the spirit of the season... whatever season this is (spring?)... I thought I'd release these scans free to the world. Let's, uh, pretend that this was sitting in my scan folder and I didn't just get around to this tonight.

Along with the numbered (to 9000!) Ron Gant card you see at the top of the post, this refractor version of Matt Adams' 2015 Topps Chrome card was a welcome addition to my collection. The Gant card makes me wish all cards were serial numbered, just so we'd be better informed of the sometimes hilariously high production numbers of certain sets. The weird thing is, cards from the '90s that have serial numbers in the thousands are sometimes worth considerably more than stuff that's produced today that's numbered to 199 or whatever. Supply and (especially) demand are strange beasts.

Topps Tribute -- always keeping it classy! Waino had a really nice second start this season, striking out 9 Padres in 6 innings and holding the opposition to 1 run. After an incredibly rare Friday off day for the team, he takes the hill in Monterrey, Mexico against the Reds on Saturday.

As a fellow college football enthusiast, Dennis always finds some amazing Ducks and Ducks-related cards to send me. You'd be hard pressed to spot the actual subject of this card, but the logo patch looks cool and that's Jeremiah Johnson's signature on it.

This one's even more impressive, somehow combining the printing plate concept with an autograph. What will they think of next? I think this makes just the third 1/1 card in my collection if I'm thinking correctly. That's Dion Jordan on the card/plate, a former top pick who recently resurrected his playing career with the Seattle Seahawks.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 4: Sun Devil's Night

The Ducks enter conference play unfazed and undefeated. 

All things considered, the non-conference portion of the Oregon Ducks 2017 football schedule could not have been better. Sure, some injuries occurred, but after 3 games the Ducks lead the nation in scoring and number of rushing touchdowns. The defense has been tested and has passed some tests that the 2016 and 2015 versions likely would have failed. In fact, despite all of the scoring, the real hero of the Wyoming game last week was the Ducks defense. It's been awhile since that side of the ball was the reason to watch an Oregon game.

Arizona State is first up on the conference docket, a road game in Tempe under the lights. The Sun Devils have not exactly gotten off to a roaring start to their season, but all of their games have been close. The Ducks have won ten straight in this series, but will be tested by a team that has been perfect in all of its red zone opportunities so far.

Links and such:

• More than one Duck is getting Heisman mumbles, which can happen after a strong start and a softish schedule.
• This is someone's approximation of what a Tecmo Super Bowl-ized Oregon shirt would be. I think.
• Shortening game lengths seems to be more interesting to Pac-12 commish Larry Scott than actually getting the Pac-12 Network on more TV sets.
• Know Your Opponent: Sparky is smarting after the loss of their senior linebacker and lead pass rusher.
• The Unis! White with chrome helmets. The wings are officially back.

Arrion Springs and the Ducks came out on top in a walkoff shootout win over the Sun Devils during their last visit to Tempe. 116 points were scored!


Game time is 7:00 PDT. Broadcast channel is the Pac-12 Network. Your scheduled broadcasters are Roxy Bernstein, Anthony Herron and Lewis Johnson. Go Ducks!

#DONE

Putting to bed a set I started collecting (in my head) ever since I was a child. 

With the help of a generous blogger and trading partner, Dennis of Too Many Verlanders/Manninghams, I finally am able to put down a set I've admired since I could barely grasp what baseball cards were. A lot of people find the 1985 Fleer baseball set to be ugly or boring, but to me it was one of the first idealistic looks at what baseball cards could be, outside of the venerable The Topps Company. With team color-coded borders, SuperStarSpecials and plenty o' stats on the back, I always wanted a complete set of this stuff. The various rookie cards made it a bit outside of my meager budget for much of my collecting youth, but not many of those rookies (Clemens aside, I guess?) held their value over the years. More than once, I could have snagged a more or less complete hand collated set at a card show for a bargain price, but I decided to put it all together the old fashioned way. I bought some packs (okay, not too many) and put a want list online, occasionally whittling away at it throughout the years. Now, it's done and all slapped away in a binder. I couldn't be happier about it.

Dennis likely was sweating out the MLB trade deadline today, which passed without a trade of his (current) blog namesake. He did find some time to send me a bunch of Cardinals cards that I needed. I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but I used to really like the Topps gold bordered parallel cards. They don't look so great anymore, though.

This may look like a simple base card from the 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings set, but the logo is shiny and reflective and the card itself is numbered to 100. This set is one of the best examples of what people complain about when they talk about modern sets having endless numbers of parallels that are barely distinguishable from each other. And while I agree that it's all pretty silly, I really like these cards. They sort of feel like vinyl.

Speaking of the best things from the '00s, Fleer Greats are... great! Yeah, that's pretty much all I've got. I received another half dozen or so cards of the Wizard for my collection. I've temporarily lost track of how many unique Ozzies I own thanks to the demise of Zistle, but I'm (slowly) working on replacing my online checklist outlet.

Speaking of endless parallels. What was Topps thinking with this Co-Signers stuff? It didn't last, of course.

I don't have many slabbed cards, but since I'm guessing the only way to get this Tyler Johnson silver parallel from 2003 was in uncirculated form, I'll leave this in its cardboard prison for now.

More Edmonds, because... why not?

It certainly wouldn't be a "Too Many" package without a great crop of Ducks cards, and Dennis certainly didn't disappoint on that end. I usually save most of these for the college football Saturdays, but there were so many great cards to be had that I couldn't hold everything back.

Prior to receiving this, my collection of baseball cards in Ducks uniforms was comprised entirely of anything I pulled in that Panini Oregon Ducks Collegiate blaster from awhile back. Cleavinger was a 3rd round pick a couple years ago and was just dealt from the Orioles to the Phillies before the trade deadline. He's been playing at the AA level this year.

They were never my favorite, but I was a defender of the Ducks tire tread or steel grating or whatever the hell uniform look from the late '00s. In recent years, the team has strayed further and further from their primary colors, which is why it was actually refreshing to hear new head coach Willie Taggart announce plans to scale it back and stick to a more basic look.

Yeah, it's uh... a signed card of a shirtless Ducks football legend. Those fringe draft picks/prospects card companies are super weird. I don't actually collect a lot of football cards, but when I do I'm continually surprised at how willing people are to buy cards of players doing everything but actually playing their sport.

Finally, I have to say that I was really happy to get a Max Unger card. Unger plays positions that are generally overlooked when the card companies are setting out to print up some cards. Even though he's been to the Pro Bowl, won a ring and has been a league mainstay since he entered the league, I would be willing to bet that he doesn't have many cards out there.