TEMPORARY INSANITY by ST

No question some Duck fans are still harboring resentment over the 2001 snub when Nebraska was sent to vie for the title against Miami in their rightful place.  The first BCS poll of 2013 would have ticked me off as well....if I were a Florida State fan.  No question they've compiled the most impressive resume as we speak.  I would never cast a ballot based on anything but the games that have been played this season.  Last year is meaningless.  Tradition has no value.  Who have you played and beaten thus far.  Alabama's best win had been Texas A & M but the Aggies just fell to Ole Miss.  Sure the Rebs just kayoed LSU but that only pushed their record to 4 & 3 overall and just 2 & 3 in the SEC.  Oregon's wins?  Please!  That national stage dismantling of the Huskies in Seattle has dwindled significantly in value with the Dawgs in the throes of a 3 game losing streak that included 2 blowouts.  The Duck opponents, outside of patsie Nicholls State have gone a combined 4 & 18 in their conference games.  Washington State has 2 Pac 12 wins, UW 1 and that Tennessee win over a decimated Georgia team was the Vols first in league.  Cal, Colorado and Virginia are zero for their conference.  Florida State tore up Clemson at Death Valley when the Tigers were #3 in the nation.  Certainly Maryland was overrated at 25 at the time but the Noles set a record for margin of victory over a ranked team with a 63-nothing thumping.  That said, it's meaningless.  If Oregon and Alabama win out, they will play for the final BCS Championship.  Consider the Nole lead in the standings over Oregon.  It would be like two students taking a test with 1000 questions.  FSU got 935 questions right with the Ducks correctly answering 932, but many exams remain.  Oregon has three teams left ranked in the BCS Top 25, while Florida State has one.  Duck fans, take a breath, they win out there is no issue!

COLT LYERLA FROM A FOOTBALL PERSPECTIVE by ST

Let's get this part over with.  Colt Lyerla is 20 and will turn 21 on November 13th.  He's a young guy.  Here's hoping he's okay mentally and physically.  It's a game.  Not as important as those two.  It's October 7th, the Ducks are ranked 2nd in the nation, very much in the race for all of it with 5 consecutive wipeouts and the biggest game of the season on the road in Seattle.  I don't buy any of the positive spin.  Amicable parting of the ways?  So all his mates and coaches are good with his quitting?  Okay, your call.  There is no possible way this enhances his NFL prospects.  Name a great player who left school at this juncture and the career path landed in Canton or Disney World after a Super Sunday performance.  Brady, AP, Peyton, Calvin Johnson, JJ Watt, or whoever if they were healthy, finished their collegiate career in a bowl game then got drafted.  Injuries are a different deal like the Rob Gronkowski case.  Missed his last year at Arizona with a bad back.  Colt is testing history which generally counter punches with tenacity. 
There seem to be 2 extreme schools of thought.  Ducks won't miss a beat with the fast emerging Johnny Mundt and the newly healed Pharoh Brown.  Maybe.  The fact remains Colt's mere presence in the offense equals accountability from the defense.  He's a crazy playmaker with mad skills.  He will be missed.  Other's think it's a distraction.  Not when the whistle blows.  Oregon's next man up has been drilled into everyone's head and it's not like Marcus Mariota will drop back to pass, look for #15 and take a bad sack or throw a pick. 
For 2013 in particular Lyerla has 2 catches and none since the Virgina game and has accounted for zero of the Ducks 41 touchdowns and 296 points.  Different deal if he'd been an offensive focal point, a go to guy for Mariota or Scott Frost to lean on.  He's obviously had half a foot out the door for weeks now.  What this all means exactly remains to be seen, but from a selfish football only point of view, I'm calling minimal ripple if anything at all now that his departure is etched in stone.