WizardHawk
Release the Kraken - Fuck the Canucks
I don't think Oregon was just speed, but one of two things will be true to differing extent: He fully adapts to running a very similar style to what these kids were actually recruited to play, or he attempts to take these kids and adopt them into his systems or a hybrid of what he's ran before and what they have already been trained to do.I'm not so sure that really is the case. Oregon's O-Line wasn't amazing in 2009 or 2010. In fact, I remember Oregon fans complaining about Chip's stubbornness because of his commitments to the power running game. I think the line next year has the potential to be better than the line in 2009 or 2010. The problem was Helfrich wasn't committed to a power running game and wanted to evolve the offense into more of a passing offense. This wasn't a huge problem when Mariota was walking through the doors but that's no longer the case.
I think far too many people bought into the misnomer of Oregon as a finesse team because Oregon runs a spread offense and has a lot of speed players. Taggart even said that he remembers how physical Oregon was when he coached at Stanford. I don't think transitioning into Taggart's system will be much of a concern. The concern is around recruiting, building a staff and rebuilding the defense.
Either/both will have some kind of learning curve. Most coaches bring their brand in and teach what they know. Much bigger learning curve typically for the offense which requires tons and tons of reps to get sharp. Honestly I'm not sure any changes on defense could help but be better than where they were at even if some take time to adapt.
Choice of OC and scheme will be quite interesting. I'll still wait for the end of spring to evaluate how long it feels like it might take to get back up to a 10 win + type team again.