Good Luck Ducks, Week 1: Begin Again

The Oregon Ducks begin a 13 week journey to discover, among other things, if everyone loves their uniforms after all.

Welcome back to another year of college football games! The Oregon Ducks begin anew today, with a new coach, new athletic complex, new batch of opponents and dates and a new attitude! Well, hopefully they don't have a new attitude. Their old attitude has been serving them well in the past several seasons. There's a bit of trepidation, at least on my part, that the Chip Kelly Era is now over. Mark Helfrich, the offensive coodinator, was promoted from within to be the new head coach. Wide receivers coach and former Nebraska QB Scott Frost is now overseeing the offense. For the most part, the rest of the coaching staff remains the same. I may be just a wee bit nervous about this change, though.

What I'm not nervous about is today's opponent, Nicholls State. This is one of the worst programs in the game right now, a team that dropped their last "contest" to Oregon's bitter rivals to the north(west...ish) by a score of 77-3. Seriously, right before bowl games were happening last December, a counting football was played that had a final score of 77-3. My biggest concern today is that none of Oregon's key players get the slightest bit of an injury. In fact, I don't want the backups getting hurt.

Does this game have to be played at all? The more I think about it, the more it takes away from my excitement about college football season being upon us. I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best. As for my prediction, I think it will be solidly in Oregon's favor, but we will probably see a few early season jitters result in some productivity by the Colonels.

Last season's opener became a laugher early, but Arkansas State would go on to have a big season which included a bowl win.

Game time is 1:00 PDT with national coverage on Fox Sports 1, whatever that is. Go Ducks!