Let's not forget Oregon's ultimate goal during these dark days.
That is, to recreate a football Camelot -- an enchanted land at a rainy outpost in the Pacific Northwest that chased national championships with a pudgy, innovative coach with both a giant Chip on his shoulder and a shoe giant in his pocket.
The day of his home-run introductory press conference, Willie Taggart seemed to be the guy to bring back Chip Kelly's Camelot. Now there are reasons to be skeptical if any of it will ever return.
Not just because of recent misconduct by both Taggart's strength coach and co-offensive coordinator, but because of those lofty championship aspirations themselves. If nothing had happened off the field at Oregon in the last week, a return to glory still looks like a long shot.
To recap: In four short years from 2009-12, Kelly went 46-7, won three Pac-10/12 titles and played for a national championship.
Remember when Oregon's biggest off-field problem during that era was street coach Will Lyles? Now the staff of the new coach, which he brought across the country to the West Coast seems to be disintegrating before our eyes.
It needs to be pointed out: South Florida sources told CBS Sports there were never any problems with Oderinde or Reaves while they were with Taggart at the school.
Be very concerned Oregon, Taggart and Nike -- in that order -- and not only because Kelly is gone. Mark Helfrich failed, and the upper half of the Pac-12 North is threatening to paddle the Ducks.
Kelly stood on the shoulders of those who laid the foundation -- Mike Bellotti and Rich Brooks. He surpassed what they'd done to awaken a sleepy, losing, remote program.
All of them eventually delivered a national program of which Nike could be proud. That all became clear the night before the 2010 BCS Championship Game against Auburn. The corporate apparel giant somehow projected a giant laser image of the Nike swoosh on the side of Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona.
It could be seen for miles. The message resounded from Beaverton, Oregon, to Madison Avenue. Without snapping a football, that piece of guerilla marketing conveyed lasting power and strength. In every sense, Oregon had arrived.
Now? A rather massive comeback is in order on all fronts. The same question asked when Kelly left for the NFL more than four years ago is being asked today: Can Oregon ever get 2010 back?
This is probably not a good week to demand an answer. Irele Oderinde, that strength and conditioning coach, has been suspended after three of his players ended up in the hospital.
"I'm not sure why they suspended him [for only a month]," said reformer Jay Hoffman, a past president of the National Strength Coaches Association. "Is he going to get smarter a month from now?"
Co-offensive coordinator David Reaves -- Lane Kiffin's former brother-in-law -- wasn't on the job for a week when he was busted for DUI. There is no police report available because the Eugene cops still consider it an open case.
Eugene police told CBS Sports that Reaves was arrested at 2:12 a.m. on Sunday after "multiple traffic violations." Reaves made bail. His court date is Wednesday-- ironically a week before National Signing Day.
Oregon is now in the process of firing Reaves.
You might ask why Reaves doesn't get his second chance. It's been done before -- lots of times at lots of places -- when players and coaches get DUIs. But that gets away from what may be the main point.
A no-tolerance policy can take many forms. Eight days before his first Oregon signing day, Taggart is digging himself out from an avalanche of bad news.
It simply cannot continue. This is Oregon's worst pre-signing day look in decades. That follows the Ducks' worst season in decades (4-8) -- 25 years to be exact.
Up to 2016, almost everything at Oregon had been about building, innovating, winning, shining lasers on mountains. Those shoes, those uniforms, that offense, a Heisman Trophy.
Lately, it's been a lot of shock therapy. Helfrich became the first Oregon coach to be fired in 40 years. He reportedly talked to Auburn about the offensive coordinator's job he didn't get.
See how quickly things can change?
Taggart and Oregon will get past these current dark days.
But Oregon's previous magic is waning, if not gone. In the best of times, it's darn hard to recruit to Eugene. These are definitely not the best of times.
Without that magic, the program's essence is that of a try-hard program in a humble Weather Channel-centric burg propped up by a sugar daddy booster.
And even Phil Knight can't find a slot receiver on a hot route against a Cover 1 defense these days.
To get back Camelot, Oregon has to be different. It has to be better. It has to win at a high level. It has to be what it used to be.
It has beat USC and UCLA for recruits in Southern California. It has to get the next Marcus Mariota. The player many project to be just that -- Hawaii's Tua Tagovailoa, a Mariota protégé -- is headed to Alabama.
Oregon has to be more than those 300+ uniform combinations because -- you know what? -- everyone is doing the click-bait uni thing these days.
It has to be more than a spread offense. Kelly was once better than everyone else at running it. He was one of the godfathers of tempo. Now, except for the military academies, it seems like everyone is running some form of the spread.
For gosh sakes, even Nick Saban dived in head first this past season.
Sure, Dana Altman's Oregon basketball program is killing it at the moment. But ask any athletic director: Football drives the bus, even when hoops is in the top 10.
This is about feeding a hungry monster. Oregon football both fuels and supports the Pac-12's No. 1 athletic budget (No. 21 nationally) at more than $100 million. Average spending on Oregon scholarship football players is up 82 percent in the latest measuring period (2009-14).
The Ducks play in raucous, yet modest, 54,000-seat Autzen Stadium that athletic director Rob Mullens is concerned about filling on a year-to-year basis.
In the Pac-12 North alone, Washington is becoming a national power once again. You can just about pencil in Stanford for nine wins each season. Mike Leach has won 17 games combined the last two seasons at Washington State.
Taggart has the look, vibe and swagger of being the right choice. But he wasn't the first choice. We know that because Temple's Matt Rhule turned down the job to go to Baylor.
With his assistants currently acting up, Taggart is knee-deep in recruiting, hustling to improve what is currently 247Sports' No. 30 recruiting class. If it stays that way, it would be the school's lowest-rated class since 2006.
Yes, these are dark days in Eugene and not just because of the weather. The Ducks don't need sunshine to win big again. They need the return of what seems to be a long-ago football Camelot.
