Oregon wants revenge

I'd say RichRod did a lot to pioneer the zone read quarterback option out of the spread, but that's just one of many spread variations from a tree that was planted decades earlier. The question at the time was whether a major college quarterback could handle the pounding of running the ball 15-20 times per game and still hold up as a passer. And that question was being asked in the five or so minutes we had to digest this hire after the Les Miles hire was botched (bringing up the question of whether seven years of yeesh was worth getting from point A to point Harbaugh). Was RichRod's innovation from the spread going to work in a major conference? Could he coach defense (or find someone at least competent and be willing to give him the resources)? His quarterbacks ran about as much as they threw. Oregon didn't do that with Chip Kelly. The other question is what he would do with Carr's players. Granted, Carr dropped the ball with recruiting at the very end, but Steven Threet? Tate Forcier? These weren't quarterbacks who could execute the spread read option run. Yet RichRod went 3-and-god-damned-9 trying anyway. Why couldn't he do what Hoke did, or Harbaugh has been doing? Coach with what you have. Watching the Toledo game in 2008 was infuriating. Any trace of wanting to give RichRod the benefit of the doubt should have disappeared after that game. He simply can't pass the Bum Phillips test. The only revisionist history is discounting the heaps of worry over a trend hire. We were shouted down with memories of losing to spread offenses, but no one answered the question of why someone who helped create one variation on the spread would necessarily know or even care about trying to defend all the other variations or anything else. Granted hindsight is on my side here. We saw RichRod put up yet another 3-and-9 with the 118th-best defense in the FBS this season. But there was opposition at the time. Unfortunately, there really wasn't a solid "get this guy instead" argument. All we had was "Bill Martin is really screwing this up." Not a great position of strength. So I get it.