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Urban Meyer: Villain in this tale

(Photo by Associated Press)

The story of the

features a village of Japanese farmers who hire seven lone-wolf samurai to defend their crops against a gang of marauding bandits who intend to invade after the harvest.

Now, pay attention: Oregon's football program is the farm village, the Ducks coaching staff are the samurai warriors and Ohio State is playing the role of the bad-guy marauder. Got all that?

Mark Helfrich during tenure as a Ducks football coach 12 Gallery: Mark Helfrich during tenure as a Ducks football coach

I bring this up because in the hours after ex-Ducks coach Chip Kelly announced his intention to leave the farming villa..., rather, the University of Oregon, newly hired coach Mark Helfrich dispatched his entire seven-member coaching staff out as one unit, himself included, making group appearances in front of the Ducks spring recruit commitments. Helfrich did this as the band of maraud..., I mean, Urban Meyer and his Buckeyes staff, descended upon UO's recruiting harvest, salivating like Pavlov's dog.

, a 5-foot-10, 174-pound running back from Texas, committed to Oregon last spring. He now plans to visit Columbus this weekend. Meanwhile, Ohio State celebrated Kelly's NFL announcement by rushing Buckeyes offensive coordinator Tom Herman to San Diego to visit four-star wide receiver

, another UO recruit. Also in San Diego, Ohio State offered two more critical Oregon commitments, twin basketball/football stars

and

, scholarships after the Eagles-Kelly business went public.

You think the games are only played during the season? Ha. Because the Ducks recruiting caravan is being called "Helfrich and the Magnificent Seven," by those following this recruiting business. But we all know that western was based on the original "Seven Samurai," so when I think about Helfrich, defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti and Co. on the trail of their recruits today, I think ruthless and skilled protectors who understand that if they don't act with life-and-death urgency, this whole football dynasty could fall apart.

Helfrich, incidentally, has not moved into his new coaching office at Oregon. "I left on the road immediately after the news conference," he told me, "and I haven't been back." And so what we have here is the first big test for Helfrich, who knows that if he can't win some key battles on national signing day Feb. 6, his job on Saturdays next fall will be infinitely more difficult.

Five-star

feels safe, mostly. Running backs coach Gary Campbell was reportedly in good defensive position (Read: on campus at Aloha High School) when Kelly's NFL news leaked Jan. 16. But it's Wilson, Carrington and the Robinson brothers, among others, that Oregon is trying to protect right now from the poachers, and I imagine Helfrich and his staff are tooling around a recruit's neighborhood in a shuttle bus as you read this.

Everyone is wondering how the Ducks offense might change. (Helfrich says it will only be "tweaked".) They're wondering how good Helfrich can be with a recruit's family. (Kelly was lord of the living room.) And they're wondering how much of Oregon's brand was Kelly himself and how much was Oregon. (We'll soon find out.)

Helfrich said he doesn't plan to use De'Anthony Thomas a featured back next season, instead he'd like to "present De'Anthony as a moving target." Also, Helfrich confirmed what we all suspected -- that there was a collaboration on game preparation last season but when it came to actually calling the plays, "on Saturdays Chip called it."

I suspect those questions are being asked this week as Ohio State and Oregon mix it up. I further think that the sudden move by recruits to schedule visits at other schools (a departure from Kelly's policy of not allowing commits to make other visits) is fascinating. Helfrich said he'd like to keep the core values, rules and policies of the program in place, but he has almost no leverage here with recruits, and is playing this delicately.

It's why winning 10-plus games next season and playing in a fifth straight Bowl Championship Series game becomes so critical for Helfrich in year No. 1. He's got great talent on the roster now. But he knows he needs more to avoid a letdown in two to three years. Until he gets proof of performance as a head coach, though, Helfrich is hamstrung. Meanwhile, Meyer is selling an undefeated 2012 season and a chance to be part of a 2013 coming-out party in Columbus to recruits.

This is where we find the Ducks coach on his first week on the job. I suppose it's why he laughed so hard when I asked if he'd yet hung anything on his office walls. Hung anything? Walls? He's still trying to defend the village crops against Meyer and his marauders. He'll get to the walls after signing day.

Now, anyone who has seen the "Seven Samurai" knows the samurai successfully protect the village, and the film ends with the surviving samurai watching over the farmers as they plant crops for the next season.

Helfrich should just send Meyer a copy of the film.

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