Good Luck Ducks, Week 1: Big Time Opener

Like it or not, it's officially football season as the Ducks take on an SEC foe in Texas. 

It doesn't seem like all that much time has passed since the last boring all-SEC college football championship game, but here we are on Labor Day Weekend where, by decree, there must be football of a collegiate nature. Oregon takes on Auburn at a neutral site (Arlington, Texas where the Dallas Cowboys play) in the weekend's marquee matchup. Both teams have plenty of preseason hype and the meaningless (at this point) rankings next to their names. College GameDay alert!

Justin Herbert is back and is expected to be the #1 pick in next year's NFL Draft, and along with him is four year starter and team leading tackler Troy Dye and one of the best offensive lines in the country. Head guy Mario Cristobal led the team to a 9-4 record, hopefully signaling a bit of a turnaround in a team that was spiraling a bit (and cycling through coaches) since their last appearance in the title game when Marcus Mariota ruled the campus. (He still kinda rules the campus.)

There's plenty of preseason hype for the Auburn Tigers (not to be confused with their conference brethren LSU Tigers) as well. They bring in a highly touted freshman quarterback in Bo Nix, who hopes to make up for his ridiculously short name with a big performance.

• The Last Game: The less said about the Redbox Bowl, the better. The 7-6 win over Michigan State may have been one of the most dreadful bowl games of all-time.
• Know Your Opponent: Tigers fans are understandably nervous about Jordon Scott, but also seem to be licking their chops about the prospects of breaking in a new defensive coordinator and scheme at UO.
• The Unis: White with dark green pants and helmets. "Nightmare" green, they're calling it. Yikes. The uniforms are tweaked a bit this year with a new Nike redesign.
• Mario Cristobal's "Crystal Ball" prediction: Oregon's energy is "growing more and more". Signs point to yes.

• Luke Skyywalker's Crystal Balls say: 2 Live Crew frontman Luke (aka Luther Campbell) is a noted Miami Hurricanes enthusiast, so he can't be giving love to a team from Alabama. Let me hear you say, "Hey hey and more hey"

Game time is 4:30 PDT on ABC. Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Maria Taylor will be on the call. Go Ducks!