Good Luck Ducks, Week 1: Student Orientation

Oregon begins another season with big expectations and dreams.

A new college football season is upon us once again! Dan Lanning begins his 5th (!) season at the helm of Quack Central with all kinds of expectations on his shoulders once again. For two years running, the Ducks felt like they were the best team in the nation for stretches only to find themselves unable to measure up to one of their own conference foes when things mattered the most (i.e. the playoffs.) Two seasons ago, it was the second meeting with Ohio State that clipped their wings. Last season, a second chance at Indiana was no more fruitful than the first one.

Nevertheless, Dante Moore, who some had pegged as a #2 pick had he decided to enter the NFL Draft even after some issues were exposed in the playoffs, has returned to lead a stacked Ducks team back to another hopeful playoff run. He's joined by a talented defense and some interesting offensive weapons as Oregon will make their season debut hosting Boise State of the new eight team Pac-12 Conference.

I have a lot more Boise State memories imprinted on my brain than your average early season nonconference opponent. We all know about the Smurf Turf, which they weren't allowed to bring on this trip. There was the glorious Statue of Liberty play, the hilarious Blount punch (not so hilarious for Blount, I suppose) and more recently a Raiders guy named Jeanty doing a modern day Bo Jackson Tecmo Bowl impression all over NCAA opponents circa 2024. This year's Broncos team is at least a couple of touchdowns of an underdog against the Ducks juggernaut in Eugene, but that doesn't mean that they can't make it interesting. After all, it was Jeanty's team a couple of seasons ago that really made Oregon sweat it out. It's difficult for me to have any expectations going into Week 1, especially in the era of shifting conference alignments, the transfer portal and the whole NIL thing.

Notes:

• Welcome back to football season, whether you like it or not! I took my now annual unplanned summer(?) vacation from regular posting here, but you can expect more activity around here this fall beyond the minimum of a post-per-Oregon game.
• With big success comes big coaching losses, and it will be interesting to see how Oregon deals with losing both their offensive and defensive coordinators. It's more than a bit scary to think about.
• Opponent fun fact: It may not be fun for the visitors, but weather here in the Willamette Valley took a strange turn this week when we were greeted with unseasonably cold and occasionally unstable weather. Our consistently dry season tends to run from the beginning of July through early October, so it's been strange. In any case, apparently Boise State's flight to Eugene was held up from landing multiple times before being redirected to Portland where the team had to wait for buses to show up to take them down to Eugene late last night.
• Opponent history: The Broncos lead the all-time series 3-1, with Oregon's lone win coming two seasons ago in a 37-34 squeaker at Autzen.
• Game time is 12:30 PM PDT on CBS in Eugene. Go Ducks!