Good Luck Ducks, Week 3: Everything is Weird Now

The famed Oregon/Oregon State rivalry game... in September?! 

It's already time for the 128th edition of the Ducks/Beavers in-state rivalry bash. (No one really came up with a better name than that when the Civil War moniker was determined to be outmoded and maybe a little offensive.) Oregon meets Oregon State for the first time as a member of the Big Ten, while recent news has shown that OSU will hang onto their Pac-12 conference affiliation for a bit longer, as they've already announced plans to add four more schools beginning in 2026 and are apparently hoping to bring Cal and Stanford back to the best coast.

The Beavs have won three out of the last four meetings between the schools at Reser Stadium where this afternoon's match is scheduled. If the rivalry, such as it is these days, or the recent road results aren't enough motivation, then the Ducks can also look squarely at the way the first two games this season have gone and look at how the national media has disrespected them. All of the elements are there for a breakout performance by Dillon Gabriel and the squad.

And yet, it's still hard to know what to think of this year's Quack Attack. This is at least partially due to the nature of nonconference scheduling, where the full playbook likely hasn't been available to the offense. The Beavers are coming off of a shutout performance at San Diego State, so the much criticized Ducks O-line needs to be on high alert.

If Oregon wants to silence the deafening sounds of a recorded chainsaw over the Reser Stadium PA, it will need to be a lot more dynamic today while avoiding some of the embarrassing errors that have plagued them early in the season. I'm still cautiously optimistic about this team, but at the same time it's hard to know what to make of them.

Notes and such:

• Reser Stadium can be a bit claustrophobic these days, as it only seats around 35,000. Sometimes it's those smaller stadiums that end up sounding the loudest, but I do wonder if the recent conference music chairs and the game being moved away from it's traditional late November rivalry slot will affect the intensity at all.
• Do they have any history at all? Well, yes! It's currently the fifth most contested rivalry in FBS all-time. The only question is how long will it continue. I believe only next season's contest has been officially scheduled.
• Dillon Gabriel (?) Heisman Watch: The numbers are still there. But will the rest of the team pull through for him?
• Game time is 12:30 PM PDT on FOX in Corvallis. Go Ducks!

Too Many Sports

Trying to avoid the end of year sports fatigue. New cards like these will help. 

 

A couple of blog announcements before I get into the good stuff from Too Many Verlanders: 

• If you missed out on the big college bowl contest this year, don't worry. There's still plenty of time to pick a winner of the dumb greasy white condiment bowl game. All you have to do is leave a comment on the original post with your predicted score. Even if you did enter the big contest, you can drop a guess there as well. Winner gets some sort of new pack next year.
• I am no longer active on Twitter for reasons that should be fairly obvious by now. I am on Bluesky, however. Let me know if you need an invite. I don't post tons and tons of content, but you will get a link to any new blog posts as soon as they drop (or as soon as dlvr.it decides to post them.)

 

So, where was I? Oh, yes. Sports. I am suffering from quite a bit of sports fatigue right now. The Eagles seem to be hell bent on pissing away their season. The Ducks made quite a run towards a potential playoff berth but couldn't figure out how to beat Washington... twice. The Blazers are probably going to end up tanking for the third season in a row with an awful head coach. (I can handle a bad Blazers team, but they've never been less fun to watch than under Chauncey Billups.) The Timbers just finished up their second straight playoff-less season in a league where it's increasingly difficult to miss said playoffs. The Cardinals finished the past season with their worst record since 1995, a year where I am quite certain I watched zero baseball games.

And yet, the cards keep rolling on in from great trade pals like Dennis from Too Many Verlanders. Dennis sent tons of great stuff, including cards of lesser known Eagles players like Nate Allen. He also included a bunch of oversized cards, a baseball pin and other great things I can't even fit into this space here. For the sake of brevity (and my sanity), I just chose the cards that I scanned for the TCDB site to show off here.

Fortunately, no current Eagles were harmed in the making of this blog post. I might have had something really grumpy to say about them if they were. To be fair, Miles Sanders would probably rather still be with this trainwreck of a Philly team than his current 2-win Carolina Panthers.

In happier times, there was Donovan McNabb. I did realize the other day that I've seen the Eagles play in 3 Super Bowls (winning 1, though they really should have won all 3.) That's more title opportunities than some teams I root for.

I love the "New Breed" font on this Matt Barkley jersey card. So futuristic!

There was another version of last night's Eagles/Seahawks game that would have had Marcus Mariota starting in place of an ill Jalen Hurts. (And not ill, like '80s cool.) I wonder what that would have looked like.

Hey, it's baseball! Dennis included a few of these Moments & Milestones cards with the package. I'll never have them all, but it's fun to accumulate them.

At some point I may invest in a new scanner. I've had my current one since early 2009 when it was purchased at a Circuit City (!) closing sale. And it still works just as well as it did on day one, but part of me always wants to see if I can solve the "foilboard looks terrible when scanned" conundrum. (It does also tend to wash out certain colors like red, but there's probably a setting or two I could tweak there.)

Clayton Whoson? Apparently he quarterbacked Northwestern, a bit of trivia I would have maybe known if the Oregon Ducks had joined the Big Ten sooner. Erin asked me the other day who all was in the Big 10 now, and I got through maybe half the list before I gave up. I might be able to recite that list from memory by this time next year, but I'm not going to guarantee it.

Here's another of those Moments & Milestones parallel-o-rama cards. This is a rarer black version that is numbered to just 25.

We end things here with Akili Smith, whose son (Akili Smith Jr.) is an Oregon QB recruit for 2025. Of course, with the transfer portal madness, he'll potentially follow in the footsteps of Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel (Oklahoma transfer for 2024) and Dante Moore (UCLA transfer). Or maybe not? Sometimes these dudes just up and leave.

Thanks again to everyone who has sent me cards this year! I'll try to be less grumpy next time.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 8: Beat LA

Mighty Oregon takes on the University of California, Los Angeles. 

 

I grew up hating LA sports teams. A great deal of this had to do with being indoctrinated as a Trail Blazers fan as I was just learning to talk. The '80s were a wild place for this. I heard tales of UCLA's "Lost Weekend" in Oregon, where Bill Walton's John Wooden-led superstar team would be featured on a Sports Illustrated cover. Then Walton-as-a-Blazer was on the same magazine's cover, going up against Kareem as the hometown team made their title run in 1977. By the time I was able to create my own sports memories, the Lakers were constant foes to the Blazers. Oregon State star A.C. Green turned pro and joined up with the enemy. Undersized stalwart Portland center Mychal Thompson eventually signed up with evil and joined Magic towards the end of the decade. My father's team: the Yankees. Who was I told to hate? The Dodgers. Even when the Portland Timbers joined MLS, where I was supposed to loathe the Seattle Sounders (booooooo!) the most, it was the LA Galaxy that pissed me off the most.

The Lakers of college football was always the UCLA Bruins. It's easy to despise USC (hello, Reggie Bush!), and at various times they've fit the "Beat LA" bill just about perfectly. There's something really gross, however, about those gold and blue helmets. Maybe I'm looking back to Akili Smith vs. Cade McNown. I'm still scarred by the first game I attended at Autzen as a former UO student, where Skip Hicks (?!) ran wild over the hometown Ducks. (It was as brutal as watching Ezekiel Elliott against Oregon in the championship game, except with much, much lower stakes.) Chip Kelly coaches the Bruins now, which is bound to provoke some sort of feelings.

Is it the definition of (college football) insanity to watch the same thing week after week but expect different results? The Ducks played nearly the exact same game against Cal last week as they did in their previous debacle versus Stanford. The scores were even identical as the final seconds began to tick off the clock late in the 4th quarter. Granted, Anthony Brown's numbers were markedly better than they were in the loss against the Cardinal, but the only thing that truly differed at the end of these two games is that Kayvon Thibodeaux (who I've managed to mention in every single Ducks post this season) was actually on the field for the end of the game. The defense held Cal out of the end zone in a goal line stand effectively eight times in a row to notch the victory, while in the previous game Thibodeaux had been sent off the field with a targeting penalty. It seemed like it could have been a nice morale booster for an otherwise beleaguered team, but Cal isn't a very good team! It's probably not very reasonable to expect a big win at UCLA today... and I'll leave it at that. That being said, I suppose I'll take another nailbiter if it gets the Ducks another W.

Series History: UCLA holds a 39-30 edge, although the Ducks have won 8 of the last 9.

Opponent Talk: The UCLA SB Nation site seems to be abandoned, as the last article was posted at the beginning of this summer. I know that not every one of these sites was ever representative of their fanbase's online footprint, but it's still quite a strange thing to see. Okay, fine, here's the Daily Bruin, where Chip Kelly (remember him?!) is talking "transative process." 

The Ducks gave UCLA a 60-13 beatdown back in 2010 when Chip Kelly was on the other side.

Game time is 12:30 PM PDT on ABC. Go Ducks!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 13: All Out War

It's Civil War day, with both schools seemingly headed in opposite directions. 

Fresh off the return of their starting quarterback and a solid thumping of Arizona last week, the Oregon Ducks head into their conference finale with a lot of confidence. Justin Herbert shook off some rust and looked impressive in his ability to throw the ball downfield, something apparently no other active members of the Ducks roster can do. Oregon continued to run the ball with reckless abandon and did it well. The defense stepped up and made key plays. In fact, the only thing to find fault with were the penalties, which have continued to plague the Ducks all season. Still, it's not hard to feel good about where Oregon is headed right now.

All of this is before we look at today's opponent. It's seems fair to safe that Oregon State has bottomed out at this point. The Beavers head to Eugene today with zero conference wins and just one victory total, a come from behind squeaker against an FCS opponent (Portland State). Their head coach walked away from this sorry bunch (and supposedly a ton of money) in the middle of the season. Their interim coach doesn't seem like he will be the guy leading the program forward, either, and supposedly they have already hired a new coach even though they're currently denying it to the media. On the field, the Beavers do have one man wrecking crew Ryan Nall, who flattened the Ducks a year ago. They don't have much else, unfortunately.

Rivalry games are fun because you never really know what will happen. OSU, despite being underdogs by multiple touchdowns, could rally for an inspiring victory and dance on Rich Brooks Field in Autzen Stadium. This is their Super Bowl, after all. Not having a single win that counts for anything has to be more of an inspirational factor than anything at this point. But will it happen? It shouldn't happen. Oregon is too talented to slip up again, the way they slipped up last season with a coach that had probably long since lost the team. Today should be a 7th win for Oregon and a bit of an uptick in bowl game selection at the very least. And there's always, you know, the whole winning the state thing.

121st Civil War links:

• OregonLive puts together this list every year, but reading the history of some of the early games in this series is fascinating. "Rowdy, hat-grabbing behavior"
• Thomas Tyner was one of the greatest high school running backs in Oregon history, then went on to star with the Ducks in the 2013 Civil War. He's on the wrong side of the rivalry now.
• Willie Taggart Status Alert: Still coaching the Ducks (for now). Honestly, if he leaves for Florida, he would come across as one of the biggest frauds around, at least this side of the nation's capital.
• Know Your Opponent: The Beavers are going to counter Oregon's newly found run-stopping abilities with, uh, more running I guess?
• The Unis!: All green. Love it.

20 years ago, the Akili Smith to Patrick Johnson connection was on point.

Game time is 4:00 PM PST. Broadcast channel is ESPN2. Your scheduled broadcasters are Roy Philpott, Tom Ramsey and Alex Corddry. Go Ducks!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 4: Watch Out For Flying Objects

Oregon faces their first road test this week in their first conference game as a member of the newly reconfigured Pac-12 Conference. One could easily count the LSU game as a road game, but it technically wasn't. One could also easily never remind me of that game again and I would be perfectly fine with that.

The last time Oregon visited the so-called Zona Zoo has to rank up there with one of the greatest Ducks football games I have ever seen. It was the highlight of the brief Jeremiah Masoli era as he led the team to a seemingly impossible comeback after the "Zoo" flooded the sidelines prematurely, waiting for a celebration that would never be. I don't think I've ever had a more satisfying sports moment, aside from the Cardinals clinching World Series win in 2006, than seeing the students have to climb back up into the stands and go home with their tails between their legs. Oh, and some jackass Wildcats fan knocked one of the Ducks cheerleaders out by tossing a nearly full water bottle at her head. Nice.

Tonight's game should be an interesting one. Arizona's senior quarterback Nick Foles is one of the conference's elite and will probably get a chance to play on Sundays. His passing game has torn apart the Oregon defense in the past, but the Ducks have found a way to win each time he's faced them previously. Meanwhile, it will be fun to see how Oregon's passing game stands up to a worthy conference opponent after seeing Darron Thomas torch some lesser quality opponents.

Above footage from last season's Ducks/Wildcats shootout.

Game time is 7:15 PDT with national coverage on ESPN2. Go Ducks!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 12: One More for the Road

It's time for the Ducks final road game of the season, and it happens to come against a very formidable opponent: the Arizona Wildcats. I'm not going to gloss over the grizzly facts here. The last two times the Ducks played in Tucson, they lost their starting quarterback. In 2005, Kellen Clemens was having his greatest college football season when he broke his leg at Arizona. He was relieved by the backup tandem of a young Dennis Dixon and one Brady Leaf, who eventually led the Ducks to victory in spite of the turmoil. That would be the end of Kellen's college career. Two seasons later, Oregon was ranked #2 in the nation when Heisman hopeful Dixon found himself twisted and torn down to the turf in Tucson, no longer able to play through what was revealed to be an ACL tear. Like Clemens, Dixon's college career ended in the desert.

Here we are in 2009 and the Wildcats have yet to lose at home. Why am I optimistic about this game? I don't really think Arizona has the weapons to handle the Ducks defense. Oregon's D was overmatched against Stanford and probably would have some difficulties with Boise State should they meet again, but there are very few teams out there who I think can't be shut down by Oregon defenders. Should rotten luck prevail, though, at least I can say that this won't be Jeremiah Masoli's last collegiate game. He's a junior.

I am temporarily low on Ducks cards that I haven't scanned already, so I was tempted to recycle a Dennis Dixon card because they've been pretty lucky so far. Ultimately, I ended up going with an Akili Smith 2000 Topps Bengals card even though I couldn't find any Akili Smith highlights versus Arizona. I already covered the 1994 game against the Wildcats in detail last season, which still ranks among my very favorite football games of all time.

I dug up this highlight instead:

5:00 PM PDT start on ABC. It's a split regional broadcast - some of you directionally challenged Americans will end up seeing the Texas Longhorns and the Kansas Jayhawks. Expect that one to be over by halftime. Sorry, guys. Watch the Ducks on the internet or something!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 3: Utah

Utah was the 45th state admitted to the Union. Almost everyone in the state lives in one concentrated area and a great majority of the state's residents subscribe to a particular religion. In that particular area is a university, and that university happens to own the longest top level college football winning streak in the entire nation. And that team happens to be the Oregon Ducks next opponent.

I'm not going to make any wild predictions about this game. These posts are for luck more than anything. I think that, based on the first two games of the season, no one can really say how good (or not so good) this team will be at the end of the season. Normally, you would expect a Mountain West team to feel overmatched on the road at Autzen Stadium, but this is no ordinary Mountain West team and I feel like we still haven't seen the best of the Ducks.

Akili Smith turned out to be a great college quarterback and was the first player in my memory from the northwest to even draw so much as a mention in the Heisman Trophy race. It was really upsetting to see him flame out in the NFL with the Bengals, even moreso than Joey Harrington's NFL experience.

As with the first two games, today's game is on national TV. Check out ESPN during the traditional 12:30 PDT start time if you're football-curious.