Good Luck Ducks: Alamo Bowl Edition

It's Oregon vs. Oklahoma in a battle between teams whose coaches deserted them. 

 

College football is nasty business, isn't it? With head coach Mario Cristobal's sudden but not entirely unexpected departure, the Ducks are a shell of their former selves after a disappointing season. Any season that begins with a road win over Ohio State was bound to find a lower point sometime, but the way Oregon was thoroughly beaten by Utah twice in the final weeks of the season added an already disheartening mood to a season that also saw a boneheaded defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory to Stanford. And then the coach left. The assistants left. Recruits backed out of commitments and current players transferred. The way so many things rely on a single person's job, a person that happens to be one of the highest paid public employees in the entire state, makes it increasingly difficult to root for the school when it's not actually the school that's bringing the players in.

The last thing I'll say about the Cristobal era is that I just felt like the games were a lot less fun to watch than I'm used to, and I imagine that I have similar feelings about writing about them. Today, some interim coaches and players who have managed to stick around (for now) will face off against an Oklahoma Sooners team in a similar situation. They had a season of high expectations that ultimately ended in disappointment. Their head coach bailed (for USC?! That's not even a lateral move these days considering the Trojans haven't been relevant since Reggie Bush was there.) I'm not sure if their recruiting situation is as dire as Oregon's because I don't follow that stuff too closely, but I do know their highly touted first week starting quarterback ended up transferring. Their impending move to the SEC, however, should ultimately have more impact on the future than losing the head coach.

The Sooners are led by true freshman QB Caleb Williams, who took over as the starter mid-season. Williams has had some highs and lows as you would expect from someone that inexperienced. As usual with a Big 12 team, offense is everything, and it will be up to the (remaining) Ducks defense to see if they can slow down Oklahoma. With their ranks depleted on the defensive side as well as at receiver, Oregon will have to bring a perfect game plan and hope to catch the Sooners napping in this post-Christmas late game in San Antonio.

Series History: Oklahoma holds a 6-1 all-time edge over Oregon, with their most recent matchup a notorious win for the Ducks 15 years ago. More on that game in a moment.

Opponent Talk: I was unable to find much of anything written about this game from the Oklahoma perspective, except this hilarious word soup that thinks that three of the four key Ducks players that have left or opted out recently all have the same last name (they don't.) Due to holiday travels, I am writing this about five days before game night, so it's possible that the lack of online content is not due to lack of interest.

That 2006 game was wild, as the Ducks came from 13 down with less than 2 minutes left to knock off the Sooners thanks to some inspired play by Dennis Dixon and some classic Pac-10 officiating. (And they still had to block a field goal!)

Game time is 6:15 PM PST on ESPN. Go Ducks!