Are you ready for some football??

I was scanning through the newspaper last week when I found out that the Atlanta Braves had selected Dennis Dixon in the 5th round of the MLB Draft. Ironically Dixon was drafted higher than any Oregon State player, and OSU is in the College World Series whereas Dixon is still shining his Las Vegas Bowl MVP award. Go figure

This however got me thinking about the 2007-08 College Football Season. Oregon tanked last year but I feel they have the pieces in place this year to make a run at the conference crown.

There are several key things that are necessary for Oregon to have a great football team and all those things are in place this season.

1) Oregon and Senior Quarterbacks. In the Mike Bellotti era every team he that played a senior QB has at once point in the season been ranked in the top ten (1996 Tony Graziani, 1998 Akili Smith, 2001 Joey Harrington, 2003 Jason Fife: ranked top 10 after beating Michigan, 2005 Kellen Clemens). This season Oregon's two primary QB's will both be seniors thus guaranteeing the team will at some point be in the top 10.

2) The every other year phenomenon- In the Bellotti era it seems that every other year the team competes for a BCS bid. 1995-Cotton Bowl, 1998- Team is destroying everybody and takes #4 UCLA to OT before Rueban Droughns get hurt, 2000 and 2001 Team is awesome, 2003 Team goes to Sun Bowl, 2005 team goes 10-1. Every year Oregon falls below expectations the program has responded with a very solid year. I expect 2007 to be no different.

3) The schedule- Last year Oregon had one of the toughest conferences schedules in the country. Oregon played @USC, @Cal @OSU @ASU (the top 4 teams in the conference) as well as @WSU. This upcoming year Oregon gets those 5 teams at home.

4) Losing nobody of importance- Even though Oregon lost a few seniors, almost all of them were overrated southern California players who didn't do shit except for Blair Phillips. Jordan Kent, Dante Rosario, Matt Toeinia, and JD Nelson were all starters but they were not playmakers. College Football is about one thing, playmakers, and the only playmaker Oregon is losing from last year is Blair Phillips.

5) New offensive coordinator- Although Gary Crowton came in with a lot of hype (sound familiar for Oregon athletics), it was pretty obvious that last year he assumed he was calling plays for a video game and not a real football game. Last year Oregon only ran three plays last year: WR Screen, Zone read where QB always hands off, QB scramble off a broken pass play. The hiring of Chip Kelly can only improve the offense and hopefully will keep our coaches from gameplanning on the XBOX

For all of these reasons I guarantee a 9 win season for Oregon Football and am willing to challenge any reader in a college football pick em contest. History will repeat itself again this season and Oregon football will have a season worthy of a Joe Giansante Highlight DVD.

I also have BREAKING NEWS to report here on the BaldingReport. I have confirmed through multiple sources that Oregon President Dave Fhronmayer has signed off on an agreement to bring baseball back to the UofO. This will come at the expense of the wrestling program. Expect the announcement to come in the next few days. Playball!

BaldingReport Out!