Good Luck Ducks, Week 3: Seawolves... Fever?

Oregon's final nonconference tune-up is against an unfamiliar FCS opponent. 

 

After the Ducks pulled off one of the biggest nonconference road wins in Pac-12 history last Saturday, many people probably looked at the schedule to see who was up next. It's... Stony Brook! I couldn't have told you a thing about the Seawolves football program before last week and I'm still fairly certain that I don't know much. Still, the home game against an FCS team comes at a good time in the schedule, after the Oregon put together a max effort performance to defeat the Buckeyes last week.

Injuries are something you always talk about in football. Oregon is going to have to learn to live without Justin Flowe, who was rumored to have broken his foot (or something like that) and is expected to miss the rest of the regular season. It would be fairly surprising to see Kayvon Thibodeaux return this week, considering the relatively low stakes of this game. And Cam McCormick, who had fought through injuries for years to finally return to the field this season for the first time since 2018 ended up tearing his Achilles on his first down catch last week. Tough stuff.

What do we make of the Stony Brook Seawolves? Since joining Division I, they've made the FCS playoffs four times, most recently in 2018. They've graduated five players to the NFL. They're 1-1 this season, with a loss at home to New Hampshire and a win last week at Colgate. They're located in New York. And... that's all I've got. This is a quality opponent in a lower division, but it doesn't feel like a trap game. Oregon should hopefully be able to win comfortably and work on a few things as they head into conference play next week. Let's cross our fingers that the injury bug stays away.

Series History: They have never faced each other.

Opponent Talk: The Stony Brook newspaper is expecting a blowout, but is looking forward to the payday.

Oregon's last matchup versus an FCS opponent was a 35-3 win over Montana in 2019. The Grizzlies are an elite FCS program, and most recently knocked off a Pac-12 opponent in Washington.

Game time is 4:30 PM PDT on the Pac-12 Network. Go Ducks!