Welcome to the solid verbal. I'll that for me.
I'm a man, I'm forty.
I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for Dake Ato Steak? Is that whoo whoom?
And Dan and Tie.
Hey everybody, it's yet another show. This one is called only Homer Is Allowed. It's a reference to this from The Simpsons. You're probably old enough to remember, but.
You let in Homer Clublet look, it has no homeers, we're allowed to have one. I felt so left owed.
And so because we're doing deep dives on random teams that we either love or we're just interested in, this week, we're starting with Oregon. They just beat Washington. I throughout the idea of doing a mid season check in with how I'm feeling about Oregon, with how our guest Jeff Schwartz is feeling about Oregon. Former Oregon offense of lineman, longtime NFL offensive line and he now does work on
the radio, does work for the Action Network. So decided that we are just going to box Tie out because he is normally too professional to let me talk about Oregon for too long. So with that, let's just or just I am going to bring on, Jeff, Jeff, how's life in Charlotte?
Life is good. Life is better when Oregon Football win some games.
So it's fantastic, all right, So let's let's this is what we're focusing on. So I guess let's start here and rewind a little bit. How has Oregon looked in comparison to your expectations going into the season. How they looked and how have they performed as it relates to what you were expecting?
Oh, they performed much better. I mean think we all assume that Herbert was going to be good. Just what extent was he going to be good? But the physicality, in my opinion, is something that no one expected out of this Orgon team. I think we thought eventually Mayo Crystobaal would would bring that toughness to our team, but not as quickly as it happened, and not as kind of as much of a bully as I think people have seen this play so far.
And this is probably the most you know, physical is kind of a weird term because all have all offensive line. All trench play is inherently physical, but the degree to which Oregon is relying on plays between the tackles, I would say is surprising that when something even moderately works, they just repeat it. They're they're depending on an offensive line that really, coming into the season was thought of
as a strength. But the depth and degree to which they're they're relying on this is that it's such a surprise.
Well, I agree, I mean they are definitely relying on it a lot. I mean they ran on the ball forty six times. I think against Washington, I went through thirty. You know, we saw against Stanford really a big heavy reliance to the run game. And they're very simple. Man, They're just bludging you to death. They don't care. Four yard carries, three yard, seven yard carries, eight yard carries. They're going to hit you over and over over again. Eventually they'll break out that long run. It keeps a
defense off the field. But what's funny is that I think if actually hinder Justin Herbert because when we watch him play, Yeah, if he throws the ball two times in a row, it doesn't feel very it doesn't happen very often. That second throw often is like a bullet like it's a very good throw, and it feels like they need to let him throw more.
But you can't really, how do you.
How do you tell Mark crystal Ball to do anything different because it's working right now.
Yeah, it seems like it's in a good place, and the perception is probably a little bit inflated because they win that Washington game. You know, part of it is luck and part of it is taking advantage of situations, and that's you know, all football is taking advantage of situations and capitalizing on stuff. Your point, I think is well received on Justin Herbert. I don't think he has the receivers nearly on the level that the offensive line is performing, and I don't think he has the skill
talent general. I think the running backs are fine, but I don't think in terms of looking back to you know, Jonathan Stewart, Legarrett Blunt, Michael James, Kenyon Barner, you know Royce Freeman. There there isn't that guy in the backfield. And to me, it's almost like Mario Cristibal. I know you're you're a healthy eater. And I've made this comparison before.
There's something about a chopped coach versus a top chef coach, and Mario Cristobal with limited talent right now at places I think is getting the most out of his ingredients.
Oh, I had one hundred percent agree with you here, which I think is why it's very impressive what he's doing. And you know, they have supposedly a top five class right now, which Organ has never had.
Who knows they end up there, but yeah, just.
Having the number one recruit in town against the Washington Huskies, and he comes away.
From the game really excited about Oregon.
He even said something about how he might he might move, He might move, you know, has a commitment date up. I mean, I think it's all positive for Organ.
Yeah, that's what it seems. I'm excited, Like honestly, I I don't have huge, huge expectations. I think it's funny to me that people use the word contender with the playoff in Oregon because I think they have a ceiling. I think the defense has a good chunk of a way to go. I'm still not fully in on the secondary, I'm not fully in on the pass rush, and maybe it'll improve over the course of the season. The linebacking corps is uneven, I would say, but again, this is
a PAC twelve. Like, who I guess scares you the most? Is it at Washington State? Is it at Utah. Who's the scariest team to you?
I kind of think it's Washington State this weekend, coming off that big win, going to game day. I mean, the video is already and the bus showed up yesterday. It's ahem in Pullman right now, and they have the offense.
I think they can really bother Oregon. Utah to me, while their offense is getting better and they're starting to really do some things with Tyler Honey they should have done from the beginning, they don't scare me as much because offensively they can go, in my opinion, in the big roles and you don't really you'ren't going to see that as much with Washington States. I think Washington State can score with Oregon where Utah can't.
Yeah, it's a style thing too. To me, like to get Washington State and a wide open throw the ball fifty times compared to what this sort of patience of Washington it seems like a dramatic change it is.
And that's why I think the Washing State to me is the toughest opponent because they don't face this air ra anymore. It's not it's not as often in the Pact twelve you know, Sunny Dice is not there anymore, cal and you face more of the spread offenses, the stuff you see every day in practice than you would this air rate and guarded Minshew's playing such a high level that you know, it's got to worry you a little bit.
All right, I'm going to stay with the Oregon offense just because that's that's received so much of the attention. But something that is sort of concerning to me, and you touched on this a little bit, is is this the best situation for justin Herbert as it stands now? Because he plays really well. He throws the ball really well considering you know, the receiving the general receiving core is not you know where Oregon was a few years ago.
What what are the sort of drawbacks of running the style of offense at Oregon runs, which relies so heavily on power.
Well, the drawbacks obviously are if you can't do it that week, you might struggle, but then you have Herbert to fall back on. I think it's more just getting Herbert in a rhythm, and it's tough to do when you run the ball so much. And Herbert is such a good quarterback that he can he can make plays when he has to, and so I just I think that that when you're playing a tough game, sometimes he needs to score points. Sometimes running the ball is not
the best way to do it. I just worry at times that Herbert is not going to have, you know, the kind of rhythm he needs with his wide receivers. You mentioned probably the least depth on the team is a wide receiver. We saw again Stanford too, they got really considered the second half, and then they started allowing Herbert to throw the ball in the fourth quarter and
they started moving it again. So just being you know, just being mindful of making sure Herbert's still it's enough touches I can still stay active at quarterback.
What is it like? It's hard to ask this question. You're not there but watching Oregon in the second half, and there have been a number of schools with second half issues. What what does it come down to when you you look so good in the first half, as you know Oregon does against Stanford, as Oregon does certainly better than they looked in the second half against Washington.
Even last year against a pretty bad Nebraska team, they get out to that huge I think they score forty points in the first half and just barely hold on what what generally is the diagnosis for why a team suddenly just grounds to a halt.
Well, I think what happens is when you have a big lead like that, your natural inclination is to slow the game down and just make sure that you know that you take, you know, take time off the clock, because you know the clock is basically your your biggest your biggest.
Ally at that moment, right.
And so it happens is when you try to do that, you limit your creativity and you're aggressive, that's on offense. And then when you do that, it's hard to get that back. It's hard to restart the engine once you've cooled it off. And that's why I think that in all these offenses, and we've seen it with you know, West Virginia at times that really in the second half just kind of sputter is because they you can see them, they slowed down with big leads. It's hard to get
that thing back going. And I understand that the coaches want to give their defense rest, they want to eat time up right, you know, because if you score too quickly, of course, it put your defense back on the field and allows the other team to end up scoring.
So understand the inclination to want to do that.
I think it is a fine line between trying to eat some of that clock and also making sure that you stay at grass and scoring enough points.
How is it We've talked about, you know, as they start and stop a sentence, but LSU for example against Georgia, and I mentioned this a couple of times, it's almost like an alley when the offense and defense are working together, where the defense forces a turnover, offense quickly takes advantage. Everybody's energized, everybody's on the same page. What is it like being on the opposite side of the field when
your defense is just making huge plays? Or what is it like when you know you're at Oregon and you know you were there for Chip Kelly's first year as an offensive coordinator and you just go down on go down the field and efficiently score. What is that that push pull like with guys on the other side of the ball.
Well, are you talking about what it's like?
You're saying, like, you know, for your own defense, Yeah, Like, what is what was the Oregon defense like when you and the Oregon offense was rolling. What is it like on the sideline watching your own defense dominate.
You just get fired up because you understand that you don't have to be perfect, and so I think what happens is and I've played in some really poor offense and see to be poor defense, especially in twenty fifteen with the Giants, is Yeah, there's just a lot of pressure to score every drive. I'm the Chiefs professional to deal with this right now. You have to score every drive because your defense can't stop anyone. So it just
puts the pressure on you to score. If you know that your defense is playing well in a game, you know it's fun. Obviously they have your defense get stops and get great field position, which leads to easier opportunities to score. But just knowing that if you have a three and out or you have a bad play, the defense will pick you up.
Do you think this is like, how does this sustain likes? I think the obvious answer is that there's pressure to recruit high level offensive lineman at a huge clip. Is that the only real way is that the only real concern if they can't do that.
I mean, I think they're doing a good job with developing these guys too. It's a lot of it is coaching, right, and we see that offense. So I do you think is organ continues to get better, they're gonna start plucking their coaches away, and you have to be able to brand qualified coaches that they can do the job. Obviously, your head coaches is a former offensive lineman offensive line coach, so that position is probably handled well.
But you know, we know.
It's you know, someone gonna start calling for the assistance, whether it's a Royo or or I mean, Marabell's the name of the offensive line coach. Right, Teams are gonna start calling for these guys trying to get them to be the OC and head coach. So as a matter of just making sure that they can bring in other assistants they can be as good of the program as these guys are.
Now, is it a transition? Is it a like a severe transition? I guess to go from what Oregon had been doing with a lot of sort of outside zone getting guys who are two ninety instead of three thirty five. What is the transition like between going from a more wide open offense to you know, two and a half downs out of every four downs you are going straight at an opponent. What is that transition?
I mean, I'm sure the guys up front enjoy it because there's not as much right, not as much getting back to line of scrimmage and trying to try to stop the ball as quick as possible. It's a lot of finishing guys downfield, and eventually that wears on teams.
Eventually.
You've seen the second half of games teams at times against Oregon because you've been running at them all games. So I don't think it's much of an adjustment. I think the guys front, especially really enjoy it to be able to really get after guys. So I think it's probably a positive development, and guys have really enjoyed.
It, so I am probably correct. And assuming you are extremely high on Mario Cristobal and the potential of this program, are they do you see them?
And I really and I really, I really haven't been I guess up until the season started, and I obviously saw the way he didn't look. He obviously did not handle the Stanford game probably the way that that people had wanted. But he's a good top Against Washington, I wish he'd be more aggressive. I think it's gonna cost organ at some point and his coaching career obviously maybe this year maybe not so. But his recruiting I think, to me and his energy have been something that I
think is most important right now. You know, they'll they'll get the scheme down, they'll get the players in, but just his energy is recruiting and the kids.
Really love him. A lot of positives for working program.
Did you imagine Orgon would be bringing in at least as they are right now, a top five class to Eugene, Oregon.
I don't think.
I don't think people realize how where and how or people get to Orgon, Like that's not a recruiting hotbed. I think people see our facilities and realize that they think that, like we get five star recruits and we do not so right, you know, Mariota winning the Heisman was such a big deal obviously, and then bring in, you know, a bunch of five star recruits would be a new thing for us.
Yeah, it takes. If you are flying to Oregon from anywhere basically outside of the West Coast and even parts of the West Coast, you're probably flying to Portland, and that's a good what hour forty five.
To use me from the problem is from the airport's far east of Portland, so by the time you get out of the airport and down to Eugene's probably almost two thirty.
It's incredible, it really is. So who what is your final record for Oregon at this point? And I say that saying Oregon's final record is probably going to be better than they actually are because of that non conference schedule.
I could see them losing one more conference game. I don't think they'd lose much more than that. I think who win the rest of them? But if you look at Utah and Washington State, it'd be pretty I mean, if they get through both those games, they're a really good team. And so I mean, if you look at their schedule, those are probably the last two games that could really be hiccups for them, and they can get through those two road games, I mean, they could be
twelve and one. I think they would beat USC in the South if they play in the Pacto Chenion, especially they're undefeated, know, the last cost nine games a year or whatever. So I really, I really like their chances to be really good. And the question is do Serbert come back next year?
What do you think they're going to be really good.
If he comes back. I mean, they're going to be a favorite to make the playoff. I think if he comes back, so his brother's coming to you Gene next year, I would advise him to leave, but I kind of think he's going to stay.
What do you think.
I think he'll probably stay, although it's it's getting kind of dicey when more and more people I don't think it's a good quarterback class coming into the league this year. You know, I just saw something where it was like Daniel Jones from Duke being the second best behind Herbert.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Yahoo are right.
And so that to me says he's a smart dude and he knows that if he plays really well next year, and that's he'll have his line in front of him, you know, so will be a sophomore, his left tackle, the receiving core will only be better with some incoming freshman. The defense will only be deeper. I know the schedule is a little bit trickier, but the guy he's from ten minutes, he's like he's he grew up off of MLK in Eugene, and so I think he comes back.
But you know, if I were advising I'd probably stay. I'd probably say to leave, but it's it's hard to Does he look ready to you?
Yeah?
I think he does, Okay from I mean from both a physical and emotional standpoint. I think those are two kind of separate issues.
I think I think he totally does.
What what is the what have you seen from him specifically that you've said, okay, he has the ceiling to be an immediately competent NFL quarterback.
Some of the throws he's made into coverages, you know, from a pro style system. Right, he's dropping back in the pocket.
You know that.
Even go back to Game one, that fourth and fifteen throw he made for the touchdown. Go back to last game, the touchdown.
On the run. He can do that as well.
He's got a canon of an army puts the ball right where the wide receivers need to catch it. It just feels very much like he can do everything that a pro Scott would ask him to do.
All right, Jeff Schwart, thank you very much for your time. Go Ducks, and this was for Homers only. Sorry if you listened and you're.
Not one, love it.
Hey, thanks for listening. Thanks to Jeff, Thanks to listen thanks to Oregon for beating Washington and really bringing this out of us because it's it's all very new if you've watched Oregon football these past couple of years. But we're going to be doing this more often, deep diving teams, just checking in and seeing how we feel about teams, maybe learning a little bit more than what we usually
just have time for on our normal schedule. So thanks for listening, even if you're not an Oregon Homer or just interested, and to homers talking about their favorite team. And hey, follow the solid verbal on Twitter, Facebook, the subreddit, whatever. We have a good time everywhere and I We'll see you soon.
Peace,