Good Luck Ducks, Week 12: More Like...

Oregon faces their final road test of the season in their penultimate conference game. 

 

I probably say this every year at this time, but man, this college football season has really flown by. It's a relatively short season compared to other sports I follow, but you really get to go through the changing of the seasons as the weeks progress. We start things off in late August or early September in t-shirts and shorts and now, all of a sudden, it feels like winter outside. Autumn always feels like the shortest season to me, at least with Portland's weather.

Of course, I'm here to talk about college football, not the weather. The Ducks are flying high after another win last week and take a 10-0 record to Badger territory this week. Wisconsin has had an up-and-down season and for the most part hasn't really been in close games. They've been on both sides of a lot of blowouts. If the trend holds, let's hope that they're on the wrong side of a blowout tonight.

It's also the time of the season where the injuries have piled up, and the Ducks have their fair share. Oregon is still expected to be without ace receiver Tez Johnson this week, and there are a few other key stars that showed up on the injury report as "questionable" early this week: Marcus Harper and two Jordans (Burch and James.)

Here's a bonus card this week thanks to Dennis! This was sent to me in advance of the last meeting between Wisconsin and Oregon in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day 2020. The Ducks pulled off the big one point win in Justin Herbert's final game, and then it was all downhill from there that year as I recall. Let's hope that there isn't another worldwide health crisis coming after this one.

Notes and such:

• Bucky Badger has to be one of the weirdest looking mascots in the game. To be fair, though, he is a badger. Badgers are really something.
• Do they have any history at all? The all-time series is tied at 3-3. Aside from the aforementioned 2020 Rose Bowl, Oregon also beat Wisconsin in the 2012 Rose Bowl and in a season opening match back in 2001. Wisconsin had won the previous meeting in 2000 and before that it gets a little fuzzy.
• Ducks ranking this week: 1.
• Dillon Gabriel Heisman Watch: The Ducks just need to keep on winning and see what happens. There aren't a lot of bad choices for the award this year.
• Game time is 4:30 PM PST on NBC in Madison. Go Ducks!