Galen Rupp finished third in the recent NYC Half-Marathon – beaten out by Oregon Project training partner Mo Farah (winner), and 2010 NYC Marathon champion Gabe Gebremariam (runner-up). Running in only the third road race of his life, Rupp made an early mistake when he clipped the leg of a runner in front of him, causing himself as well as a few others to tumble to the ground. Fortunately no injuries were sustained and Rupp was able to return to the fray. His third-place finish is very encouraging for the former Oregon standout, 24, who has got to be pretty stoked he killed it against the world’s best medium distance road runners with so little road experience. The real talk of the race was the SICK ninja-style mask Rupp sported for a little more than the first half of the race – specially designed to prevent exercise-induced asthma (which has plagued Rupp since HS). Apparently that type of asthma is caused by wet, damp air entering the lungs during strenuos physical exercise – and the mask is designed to keep more warm air flowing into the lungs. Also, in true Oregon-Nike alignment, Rupp rocked out the double forearm sleeves and gloves, murdered out in all black, with the skintight beanie and mask – Rupp is clearly coming for the souls of the competition.

Side note: Drank at this rich guy’s tailgate at the Natty Title with Kevin Towers (the padres GM) and Rupp – and both got after it hard. Rupp looks way more like a member of the Geek Squad than a world-class athlete. And Towers was rocking some moccasin-like shoes that looked to be worth easily more than anything I own.

Lets just be honest here for one second: Arizona State wasn’t trying to “re-brand” their Athletic Department as much as they were trying to “Out-Oregon”, Oregon. Well sorry ASU, that just isn’t going to happen. If nothing else I would kind of wonder if the boys at Nike that created this look were actually playing a joke on ASU.

A look at the “Cohesive and modern” Sun Devil uniforms:

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, whatever. ASU committed the cardinal sin in uniform creation: being unoriginal.

Moving away from Sparky, ASU went with a “sleek and fiery” pitchfork as the go-to logo for ASU athletics.

Flipped upside down, it could almost pass as the old Seattle Mariners Trident lid.

A stretch? Sure, but it got me thinking and it got me Googling. Remember the San Fransisco Demons? Of course not, but apparently they played in that one glorious year of the XFL.

You know your logo struggles when you’re ripping off the XFL…

Closer look at the Sun Devils inspiration. Trident, pitchfork, whatever, they look awfully similar…

I would say ASU ripped off the University of California, San Diego, but ASU’s “pitchfork” is flaming, so there….

In another ground breaking and original move, I present to you another Wiz Khalifa rip off…

The University of Oregon football team released a updated roster on GoDucks.com today and with it announced a few number changes, including quarterback Darron Thomas.

(What the bloody hell? I just got a Thomas sweater for Christmas! Who am I going to have to murder in the bloody athletic department?)

Put the shiv down, Dame Sir Elton.

Thomas will take departed running back Remene Alston‘s No. 5, but wideout Josh Huff will grab Thomas‘s No. 1. So to all of you who are pissed about having to drop another 60 bones in The Duck Shop, rest assured your yellow No. 1 will be served well on Saturdays.

Josh Huff in high school.

Thomas wore No. 5 in high school and couldn’t use it at Oregon until Alston graduated, so the switch makes sense. The same applies to Huff, who wore No. 1 when he played quarterback for Nimitz High School. He obviously couldn’t take No. 1 with Thomas hogging it.

Donning the No.1 as a wide receiver at Oregon holds a lot of responsibility. Huff now must fill shoes worn by legends Samie Parker — who, oddly enough, also wore No. 4 in addition to No. 1 — and Cristin McLemore.

Time to fade up and shorten that uni, son.

One would hope someone in the Moshofsky compound has clued Huff in to the extra load he now carries with his new number.

A cool thing Oregon fans can take from the Huff change is that it’s a pretty good indicator that he isn’t planning on transferring anywhere, as was speculated after his roommate and best friend Dontae Williams announced he would.

Sharing Thomas‘s No. 5 is grayshirt defensive back, Issac Dixon, who was a three-star linebacker out of Florida who didn’t qualify academically last year and enrolled Winter term.

Darron Thomas in high school.

Some more changes:

• Redshirt freshman wideout Keanon Lowe changed from No. 6 to Nate Costa‘s old No. 7, which is weird because he wore six in high school. Maybe he’s making room for one of the new kids (read: Baby DT).
• Senior linebacker Dewitt Stuckey changed from No. 53 to 52. (Good luck changing that on Twitter, Holmes)
• Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Hroniss Grasu shifted from No. 52 to 55.
• Sophomore linebacker Keloni Kamalani switched from No. 57 to 43.
• Junior linebacker Jennings Stewart from went from No. 64 to Stuckey’s old No. 53.

None of these changes are final until Spring ball starts, and the update doesn’t include any of the incoming recruits from the most recent class.

So basically what you should take from this — ahem — news is that Huff is probably going to stick around, Dame Sir Elton John shouldn’t burn his commemorative Oregon jersey, and your family didn’t waste money last Xmas.

When Nike replaces Reebok as the official uniform supplier for the 2012 season, they might shock the world and drop some–er–fashion into the No Fun League.

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the Pro Combat uniforms are the future, technology-wise, in football uniforms. A bunch of college teams wore them this year and Nike recently unveiled their new designs and technology for the bowl season.

Well, it looks like the collective bargaining agreement isn’t going to be the only thing pissing off the players–and, let’s face it, probably the owners too–when this season concludes.

Here are the samples floating around the internets. Flame away.

For what it’s worth, Nike denies that these are real.

Someone stole the famous and anatomically correct Lee Corso head from the set of ESPN College GameDay this week in Corvallis, according to Erin Andrews’s Twitter feed.

ALERT: The Lee Corso Gm Day mascot head was stolen in Corvallis..a bad way to end our 1st visit..if u took it, or know who did, plz return!

This isn’t the way we want to remember @GameDayFootball 1st trip Corvallis..be cool Oregon St, and get it back to the show..Stay classy

She even solicited the help of the brothers Rodgers.

@J_Rodgers8 lee corso mascot head stolen in Corvallis..get your fans to give it back..if anyone can get it back its u & @JQR1bgs

OSU fans immediately got defensive with Andrews after the tweets about the theft.

apologies to Beaver nation if I jumped to conclusions & no, I’m not accusing the Ducks now. which fan base solves this 1st? Ready, set, go

The head was taken from the set around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, around the same time the Civil War was wrapping up.

The shear logistics of stealing the head and getting it out of the area are mind bottling. Like when your thoughts get trapped like they’re in a  bottle.

Joe G. said during Oregon’s basketball game against Portland State tonight that they got a message from ESPN asking for help retrieving it. They did their part in talking about it, but quickly changed the subject, obviously not giving a shit beyond the fact that it’s funny as hell.

Obviously there’s a bunch of furries somewhere in Oregon who get their jollies dressing like old, stroke-riddled men. Not sure they’re Oregon fans, though. The sweatshirt looks like they got it from Goodwill and gave it and the head to some homeless dude and took a picture in exchange for a pack of Four Lokos and a handy.

Andrews also posted the alert message on her Facebook page, which elicited some quality responses. Worth sifting through.

My favs:

• I guess nobody told whoever it was “not so fast my friend.”
• Must have been a Beaver. The hair on the Corso head does look kind of like sheep’s fur..
• I was there it was matt Lahn he lives off spear and 13th… He was dougie-ing all night in… Shit was tight
• erin if u lookin for head u can always come to my place
• I’d look in Herbstreit’s luggage if I were you

Last dude has a point.

“Rise together”, hmm….that sounds vaguely familiar.

Oh yeah, now I know why:

Very original, OKC…

Though, if  Clay Bennett had no problem ripping the Sonics out of Seattle, stealing slogans for playoff tees, probably doesn’t keep him up at night. I can’t wait until Durant, Westbrook and Green become free agents and get the fuck out of Oklahoma as quick as possible, leaving that shit hole with a team resembling the Vancouver Grizzlies.

A new champion has been crowned in the world of hideous uniforms. This new champion has beat out some of the all time greats, from the old Tampa Bay creamsicle unis to the orange and red Astro disaster. But now we enter into a new dynasty and one that I an see lasting a long time. I give you the new champion New Orleans Hornets Mardi Gras Jerseys.

I don’t even know where to start with these beauties. How about the awesome color scheme. I know people are gonna say it’s just Mardi Gras colors but here’s why it works for Mardi Gras, because your hammered and staring at huge tits the entire time so of course your not going to give  shit about this color scheme. The only way this uniform is acceptable in a game is if they are giving out free beer all game and the cheerleaders are topless otherwise let’s save this for Bourbon street. Now onto the NOLA across the chest of the jersey. Now I’m not from Nawlins but I have never heard New Orleans called NOLA, if anybody knows this info please spread the word out here to the west coast becuase it’s not reaching us. So now it’s time for everyone to lift their glass and pay respect to the new champ. May there reign on top last forever.

Now some of the old classic ugly unis

Houston Astros:

Tampa Bay:

Pittsburgh Pirates:

And yes even the Ducks: