Reason? There's no TIME to be reasonable!

Happy New Year y'all and good riddance to the awful decade that's passing.

I hope everybody has a prosperous 2010. Except Buckeyes fans. They're going to start the year off in a foul (fowl) mood.

Dean

But... but I'm a legend.

Okay, so my buddy calls me Friday night and says he has another ticket to the Boise/ Oregon Ducks game if I want to go. Since my son has already pointed out I'd be stupid not to go I was in.

My buddy has great seats in the corner by the endzone between the band and just above the team and cheerleaders. The weather was flat out perfect for Oregon in September as it was an unseasonal 80s for most of the day. The whiskey I snuck in in a pair of flask binoculars mixed well with the 7up they were selling.

The game itself was one of the strangest Duck games I've been to. We lost the game but it was mainly attributable to coaching decisions in my estimation which is a fairly rare occurrence as Mike Belotti is one of the best coaches in the country.

Our first and second string quarterbacks were out with injuries. Our third string quarterback Jerimiah Masoli isn't very mobile but he has a good arm. He started the game and was taken out with a concussion on a cheap late hit on our first series of possesions.

Our fourth string quarterback Chris Harper had a shoulder injury in preseason so he could play but he can't throw the ball. As a result we ran the ball on every single play in the first half. Every single play. The friendly crowd started to get ugly.

When this continued after the half Belotti finally decided way to late to burn the redshirt of our fifth string quarterback Darron Thomas. Thomas burned up the field with three touchdown passes leaving the Ducks just a bit short of the victory. Did I mention that they didn't run the ball at all after Thomas came in after running in on every play in the first half? Not even a draw play to keep them honest.

It was a great game none the same and I had a ball. Here's some pix I took---

Who's the wild man now?!

Mrs. Wormer suggested I post this since I may have mistakenly given you guys the idea I'm Father of the Year material.

Pretty much my favorite thing in the world to do is to go to a college football game. Especially if that game involves my beloved Ducks, of which I'm an alumni.

On Friday night Mrs. Wormer and I were out at the local Octoberfest when I got a call from a buddy telling me his "date" to the Ducks vs. Utah State game had canceled at the last minute and asking me if I wanted to go.

This was a tough call because as tempting as that was, Dean Jr. (12) plays football and his first game was Saturday morning. There was no way I could miss it. So I politely turned down the offer and begged my buddy to keep me in mind in the future.

Dean Jr. played a great game. He got a couple of sacks, stopped a running back cold with a pop that I'm sure they could hear a couple of counties over and all in all did me proud.

After the game we were sitting around unwinding and I told him about being invited to the Ducks game but choosing to go see him play instead. His reaction verbatim: "are you fucking stupid?"

All I could hear was his mother in the other room laughing her ass off.

If God had wanted us to fly he wouldn't have taken away our wings.

Bad luck for the Ducks. There wasn't a person following this team that wouldn't admit that Dixon was the thing keeping them going. Once he went down their season was pretty much over.

Sigh.

Maybe next year...

"Yours truly, Donald Duck. Amen!"

On Friday I sent off a cocky email to a bunch of coworkers in Arizona entitled "Ducks 32 Sun Devils 24."

The final score was Ducks 35 Sund Devils 23.

Now, I'm not saying I'm a genius when it comes to college football.

But I'm not saying I'm not.

Go Ducks, Go PAC!

Surprise, Sidney.

Just left a rubber ducky on the chair of a coworker who happens to be a USC fan.

Bring on the Sundevils!

Desperate ducks commit desperate acts!

So far this year I've had to eat a bit of crow on the Ducks. I was sure we'd see a breakdown by Dixon before now along the same lines as last year. As of yet that hasn't happened.

Still - I expect the fist real test will be facing Cal this weekend. I'm looking forward to this game as it ought to be a real, old-fashioned Pac 10 shootout. The true challenge will be when Dixon faces a tougher secondary than he has so far this year and throws a couple of interceptions. That seemed to be the beginning of the end for the Ducks last year.

You gotta have presence on the court. Presence like a cheetah rather than a chimp.

College basketball is an strange thing. It has a reputation for fairness over the other NCAA sports, especially football. This is probably mainly due to their playoff system in which Cinderalla teams can stun the big conference teams. After watching a few games this season and following the playoffs a little more closely this year I'd have to say I agree with this guy that that reputation is in danger ( http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/6604346)

Both games yesterday featured ticky-tack fouls that seemed to go one way and big guys throwing elbows that weren't drawing fouls. Having almost the entire starting lineup of the Ducks foul out while the Florida starters had no more than 2 fouls each is joke. I don't want to put on a tinfoil hat but it sure looks like the fix is in.

Do you even know how to fly a plane?

Is the University of Oregon's hiring of bigshot Duck booster Pat Kilkenny at the AD position a stroke of genius or a boneheaded play to the monied Duck fans? I'd go with the latter.

Sure a good part of the AD's job is fundraising and Kilkenny's experience on the other side of that equation will probably help the U of O raise heretofore unheard of dollars and get that long dreamed of new basketball stadium built. But it's the other aspects of the job that Kilkenny lacks experience in that make me give the whole thing a thumbs down.

Athletic Directors have traditionally come from one of two sources: one of the head coaches at the university is promoted into the position or a successful AD is hired away from another university. Fat cat boosters usually don't make even the long list.

Since the decision was made by University President and former GOP gubernatorial candidate Dave Frohnmayer we shouldn't really be too surprised. This is a guy that belongs to political party that believes failed actors and failed businessmen are those most qualified to be the chief executive of this country. Why shouldn't we put someone from the business community in that position?

How hard could it be?

Rabbit season. Duck season. Rabbit season. Duck season. Duck season. Duck season. BOOM!

It was not to be for a bunch of reasons but the biggest was that the California Golden Bears showed up to play football and the Ducks didn't.

Can you teach me to football, coach?

I'm kicking myself for turning off the Duck game half way through the fourth quarter. Apparently I missed one of the greatest finishes in college football history. Although it's not without controversy. The last minute onside kick being the focus of Oklahoma fans ire leading to claims they were robbed.

What's ironic is that part of the reason I turned the game off was that the calls (and non-calls) were going against the Ducks and I didn't see how they could pull it out. What's funny is that I didn't need to see some sort of conspiracy, or bias of the refs or whatever. I've been watching college ball long enough to realized dems the breaks, irritating as they may be.

But it seems to me more than a little bit hypocritical to whine about an admittedly horrible call on the onsides kick without also complaining about the blatant push-off that the Oklahoma receiver used to score a touchdown in the third quarter, or the fumble that really wasn't when Stewart was clearly down - both game changing momentum-breaking plays.

It was poorly called for more than just the last two minutes.