Jared Afalava is a 6-2, 220-lb. aggressive, hard-hitting outside linebacker from football hotbed Bingham High of South Jordan, Utah, the 13-0 5A  State Champions.  He was 1st team All-State and junior MVP last season, recording 87 tackles, 5 interceptions and one sack.

Jared has the size and agility to play very early as a collegian.

He's an explosive hitter who drives through ball carriers and sends them backwards, playing with a nasty edge and tremendous pursuit and instincts.  In the highlight video, note his athletic ability carrying the ball after an interception at 2:10, how he ranges into the hook zone and snares the ball out of the air. 

System quarterbacks don't go into their second game starting before 100,000 plus, down by ten with a hostile crowd rocking, and throw two touchdowns with defenders in their face. They don't lead two-touchdown comebacks on the Saturday night national TV game against Andrew Luck. They don't toss a couple of picks in the opening sixteen minutes of the National Championship Game and bounce back to throw for 363 yards, including a tying two-point conversion with a couple of minutes to play.

Thomas is a clutch player who plays better under pressure. He makes good decisions and adjustments, leads by example. He'd succeed in any system. He's a quarterback, period.  He has a great work ethic and he's an excellent student of football.

[Editor's note:  by day, Robert Stroup is a mild-mannered architecture student at Lehigh University.  But as a Duck alum, his heart is in Autzen 365 days a year, and between assignments and projects he sends along periodic contributions to The Duck Stops Here. This week he takes a look at a seminal moment in recent Duck history, the day disgruntled fan Tony Seminary sent Chip Kelly a bill for a refund after the Boise State game.]

The Age of Tony Seminary: The Dawn of a Greater Passion

---guest column by Robert Stroup

A handful of days ago, against all good judgment, I listened to John Canzano interview coach Chip Kelly. After his interview, Canzano mentioned how Oregon wasn’t “an SEC school” and had better things to do. He additionally criticized the loyal fans for showing up and supporting the troops. This is my rebuttal to that comment.

Some of the best, most informative Duck news available daily is found in Rob Moseley's tweets:

BryanDFischer Interesting. RT @KegsnEggs Early college lines: Via @ViewFromVegas, Oregon opens up (-3) vs. LSU.

The wise guys think Oregon is a three-point favorite on the road against a top-five SEC opponent. Hello, big time.

Of course, betting lines aren't predictions of the outcome of games. They are attempts to balance the action so that the house has a guaranteed winner, pocketing the vig. The best advice is never bet college football, but if you do, or you've followed the lines for any length of time, you know that it's startling how often they are dead on or within a point or two.

Which is another reason why fans shouldn't bet college football. Few people can outguess these guys 56% of the time.

From Mike Wines at Oregon Duck Soup:

Recently Bob Wynn of the new Oregon versus LSU blog contacted me for an email interview on the Cowboy Classic.  I thought about giving misleading answers, but with Google and Bing and the permanence of the record on the world-wide web, I figured that wouldn't do much good.  Here's what I told him:

Elite athletes choose schools for a variety of reasons.  Some want a chance to win.  Some are led or misled by their advisors, family or coaches. Others choose the program they think gives them the best chance at the NFL, the right academic program,  the scheme that fits their playing style, or a coach they feel they can relate to.  Location narrows the field for many candidates, as do climate, facilities and tradition.  Some meet a pretty girl on a recruiting trip.  Still others want illegal inducements or a sweetheart deal, like a Gold Trans Am, a 3,000 square foot house in Spring Valley, $185,000 to remodel the church, or $40,000 in memorabilia income.

Recruiting can be a dirty business.  It's part Broadway audition and part cattle auction, and it requires coaches to be everything from father figures to used car salesmen to detectives.

Eddie Goldman, a 6-4, 307 lb. elite defensive tackle from Friendship Collegiate Academy in Washington D.C., will inspire one of the most frenetic recruiting battles of the 2012 recruiting season. 

(photo at left: Goldman running through testing at a Nike Combine.  He has offers from over 50 schools, including Auburn, Alabama, Clemson, Miami, Florida and Oklahoma. Scout.com photo.)

Recently two local writers weighed in on the Terrelle Pryor controversy and how it reflects on college football and the recruitment of elite athletes.  Take a look and see who you feel offered a more credible and carefully-written opinion.

Terrelle Pryor as a high school senior, a man among boys who led his teams to state championships in two sports, becoming the most sought-after player in the 2008 recruiting class. (ncaagridiorngab.com)