Good Luck Ducks, Week 14: Revenge

It's Senior Day as Oregon hosts their hated rivals to the north. 

 

I was watching a bit of the Georgia Tech/Georgia game last night when I got a bit of a pit in my stomach. With the heavily favored Bulldogs struggling with the Yellow Jackets (I didn't see any of the overtime), it made me think back to similar situations the Ducks have been placed in. It doesn't help that Oregon is coming off a game where they just barely survived a sub-.500 Wisconsin team, while the sting of two close fought losses to Washington last season were the only thing that kept them out of the much more exclusive playoff situation.

This year is different, though! It's very different. A loss isn't necessarily the most devastating thing it could be in most previous years. (I try to tell myself this every time things get tight, with mixed results.) Of course, with a #1 ranking, there's really nowhere to go but down, so at this point the end of the season can't come soon enough.

Fortunately, the Ducks have plenty to focus on in their final regularly scheduled game of the season. The dreaded Huskies have been much more of an annoyance in the past decade than the previous ones. A couple of zigs instead of zags against these fools last year could have sent Oregon to previously unreached highs. This game must have been circled on the proverbial calendar all year long, and it's the only one I truly feel that has to be a blowout. With apologies to Atticus Sappington (yes, that's the real name of the Oregon kicker), domination on the field is required tonight.

Let's hope no Kenny Wheaton style heroics are needed.

Notes and such:

• Welcome to Year One of the new end-of-season rivalry game between UO and UW. It works, especially because there's just so much damn history here, but it's still going to take some getting used to. Hopefully everything else is lining up well for the rest of the new Big Ten configuration.
• Do they have any history at all? Oh yeah. There's a whole Wiki entry about it.
• Ducks ranking this week: 1
• Dillon Gabriel Heisman Watch: He's gonna be on the outside looking in among strong candidates with lesser teams, but there's a decent chance he gets invited as a finalist at least.
• Game time is 4:30 PM PST on NBC in Eugene. Go Ducks!

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!

TribeCards Cards Represent, Represent-sent

 

A pile of free cards from an old friend. 

 

Back in August, I received a large box of cards from TribeCards central. David is part of the old-school realm of baseball card bloggers, and as a team collector is someone I can identify with from a hobby perspective. The cards were actually from a giveaway he started way back in 2020, so there were surprises all around.

Here's a couple of Cardinals pitching prospects that I added to my collection. The dude on the right is a bit more familiar than the one on the left. Alkire's card isn't technically a Cardinals card, but he was a Cardinals draft pick and I usually end up throwing these types of cards in my binders even if I don't seek them out. Ankiel, of course, features on a Cardinals minor league affiliate card, which was definitely on my want list.

This was a clear number one for me in terms of the keepers. It's a fairly tough to find photo variation from the 2018 Topps flagship set.

If I recall, you could request multiple teams in this very generous giveaway. I decided to see what was behind door number 2, as in the one that was labeled with a certain green bird on it. This is a 1988 Topps NFL stickers card, which aside from the red background and yellow/black border, is very similar to its MLB counterpart. These also have the Superstar Sticker backs. I ended up with another Steeler on the reverse.

The bulk of the Eagles loot was early '80s Topps base. These are nearly a decade before my time (of actually paying attention to the Eagles), but I added most of them to my Eagles box. I picked the name I'm most familiar (Jaworski) with to represent that lot.

I do love a good Action Packed card. I've added a few of these Monday Night Football themed cards to my collection recently.

The lion's share of the package was actually made up of Astros cards. This must have been during the days when I was still collecting George Springer cards (when he was still with Houston.) I did find a number of Jose Altuve cards for Erin's collection, though.

Here's another 2018 photo variation. It looks like this is more commonly found than the Wainwright card above.

I've already added the rest of the Astros cards I ended up with to my trade list, but I'm sure I'll find a home soon for this Justin Verlander gold parallel from 2020 Topps.

The big prize ended up being this Kyle Tucker Immaculate Collection card from 2019. It features an on-card autograph and five distinct (?) jersey swatches. Even though it's a Panini thing, this is quite a card! It's been earmarked for a certain Astros collector out there.

Thanks again to Dave for keeping the ol' card blog thing going, and for the free cards, obviously!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 11: Turtle Power

 

Oregon hosts an unfamiliar foe as the season officially enters the stretch run. 

 

It's been quite a season! While it still feels like it was just summer around here, especially coming off of a week with a string of 60+ degree sunny days, time is winding down on the 2024 college football regular season. The Ducks enter this weekend with an unblemished record at the top of the class, but there are still a few tests awaiting them before a potentially huge B1G championship game battle.

Next up on the schedule is a home game against Maryland. The Terps were coming off of a decent 2023 season that saw them win big in a bowl game and lose by just one score against the eventual national champs. They started off 2024 decently enough, but have been up-and-down for pretty much the whole schedule. Still, Maryland was 3-1 at one point and are coming off of a bye week, so it would be dangerous thinking to take them lightly right now.

Fortunately, the Ducks are still firing on all cylinders (I need to come up with another metaphor) despite losing their #1 option at wideout in Tez Johnson last week to an apparent shoulder injury. I was pretty convinced that Tez had broken his collarbone during the Michigan game, which was tough because he's the most exciting Oregon player this season in my eyes. (No offense to Dillon Gabriel, who is kind of... boring... because he's incredibly accurate and dare I say robotic in his efficiency at this point.)

I'm guessing we won't see Tez anymore this month unless he happens to make a surprise pop-up appearance against Washington somehow, but there are plenty of other reasons to be excited about the Ducks on both sides of the ball. Jordan James and Noah Whittington make a fearsome rushing tandem while still feeling like they've been underutilized. Having fresh ball carriers in November is definitely nothing to sneeze at. Terrance Ferguson is back wreaking havoc alongside newcomer Kenyon Sadiq, making a pair of tight ends that might not be rivaled. And Gabriel still has a plethora of talented targets on the field while we wait for Tez to return. Yes, it's a great time to be a Duck right now. There's still plenty of work to be done this season, however.

Notes and such:

• Maryland is trying to get in on that uniform game. There's only so much you can do with traditionally white road unis, so I respect this a lot. At least it's a lot better than some of their flag-based uniform designs.
• Do they have any history at all? Nope! This will be their first meeting.
• Ducks ranking this week: 1. The first CFP rankings came out this week at a very unfortunate time. Oregon is on top. No further questions.
• Dillon Gabriel Heisman Watch: I think it's down to Gabriel vs. Cam Ward depending on how the rest of the season schedule plays out. Both have been playing college football for approximately 34 years. If Miami wins out, well, people seem to be more excited about Ward despite Oregon probably being a better team at this point, at least based on their strength of schedule. I don't see the Colorado guy or Ashton Jeanty winning this because of how heavily weighted this usually is towards QBs for top ranked teams.
• Game time is 4:00 PM PST on the B1G Network in Eugene. Go Ducks!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 10: Quack in The Big House

Oregon heads to Ann Arbor to take on the defending champs. 

 

The Ducks bolstered their #1 standing with an impressive takedown of Illinois last Saturday, but there is plenty of work left to do. Next up: the defending champion Michigan Wolverines. Now, of course, Michigan enters today's game with a new head coach, a new quarterback and three losses. But they have excelled at something that should at least give most Ducks fans pause: keeping the scoring down. Oregon has put up a decent amount of points in most games this season, but that's because the opportunities have mostly been there. If you match up against an opponent that limits those opportunities, that should give you some pause.

There's plenty of good news, though. The Ducks could see the return of two key players in defensive monster Jordan Burch and gigantic tight end Terrance Ferguson. These are both two skilled players who should thrive in the massive Michigan stadium no matter what the situation.

A shoutout is due to Dennis of Too Many Verlanders this week. In addition to constantly supplying me with cool cards for my collection, he's often shown support for my Ducks over the years. Once the latest conference realignment moves were put into place, we knew the day would come when his Wolverines were going to start butting heads with Oregon on a regular basis. It doesn't seem like they're play each other every season to be so annoying as to become serious rivals, but a conference foe is what it is. At least I can still be happy when Michigan takes down Washington, like they did in January.

There's only a few games scheduled after this. It has been a whirlwind of a season. In some ways I'm still getting used to it not being summer anymore. Here's to hoping Oregon can hold steady in November to get a decent shot at the new playoff system.

Notes and such: 

• The Wolverines will reportedly be without one of their top defensive players today. Will Johnson has already racked up a couple of pick-sixes this season. Dillon Gabriel has been extremely accurate so far, but this should lessen some pressure.
• Do they have any history at all? Michigan holds a 3-2 edge, including three straight shutouts during early times. Their last meeting was in 2007, which reminds me...
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• Ducks ranking this week: 1 (AP). They gained some votes.
• Dillon Gabriel Heisman Watch: Considering how few mistakes the "veteran" college guy makes, it seems like the team's record is going to dictate how well he does in this race more than anything.
• Game time is 12:30 PM PDT on CBS in Ann Arbor. Go Ducks!