24 on '24: Final thoughts before the Ducks embark on first Big Ten season
On Tosh Lupoi's edge, breakout players, predictions and other thoughts.
Hello, this is Tyson Alger and I’ll serve as the head of the party planning committee for the 2024 college football season here at The I-5 Corridor.
Please remember: There’s a lot of new around here. New conference. New quarterback. New title-or-bust expectations.
You thought 2023 was wild?
I think that was just the warm-up for what 2024 has waiting for us.
That’s the first of 24 thoughts for the 24 season. Here’s the rest.
Buckle in, it’s a long one.
2. Yes, Tosh Lupoi is a meathead.
I think he’d be offended if you’d consider him otherwise. Oregon’s 43-year-old defensive coordinator looks like he just stepped out of an MMA corner. He has the same build he had while an all-Pac-10 defensive end at Cal and the same buzz cut he’s sported throughout a coaching career that’s taken him from Berkeley to Seattle to Tuscaloosa to the NFL and Eugene. He used to train pit bulls, mostly gets credit for his recruiting, constantly talks about intensity and requires his defensive players to check into practice by punching the hell out of a spring-loaded football attached to a pole.
“We don’t do any cruise control shit around here,” Lupoi said during a camp meeting.
Lupoi likes disruption. He wants his defense to thrive on chaos. He doesn’t just want to knock the offense back — he wants havoc.
“It’s an emphasis that we have to accept and embrace and dominate every day,” Lupoi said.
Be sure, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard such protein-packed phrasing around Eugene.
Mario Cristobal?
You mean the former offensive lineman who turned down a career in the Secret Service to get into coaching and wear the ever-living-heck out of the word “tenacity?”
Meathead.
Remember Aaron Feld’s mustache and that whole Fill the Sleeves thing?
Meathead.
Lupoi certainly fits the mold — and his players will tell you their coach isn’t much different from how he’s portrayed in team media, where he’s the coach pushing his linebackers through speed drills in the sand of Cannon Beach.