Good Luck Ducks, Week 13: War

It's rivalry week. 

A long time ago, when I was in college, I watched the Ducks play Oregon State in my dorm room with the person I was dating at the time on a tiny black and white TV. It was years beyond the acceptable date to actually own a black and white TV as ones only means of consuming media, but this was the college days where those sorts of things could be understandably overlooked. The person I was dating was rooting for the Beavers, and at some point in the second half it was announced that the Ducks had clinched a spot in the Rose Bowl regardless of the outcome because of the result of the USC/UCLA game. She was rooting for OSU, and upon hearing the news told me that I could relax and root for her team now that Oregon's fate had been decided.

That's not how rivalry games work, of course.

Thanks in large part to Dino Philyaw, the Ducks won anyway, and I probably said stupid things to said person who challenged me.

In 2008, the Oregon State Beavers needed a win over Oregon to reach the Rose Bowl for the first time in 44 years. The Ducks were having a very good year, but due to their conference record the Rose Bowl was out of reach. One could have understandably rooted for the Beavers to play in that coveted game, but I surely didn't because that's not how rivalry games work. Oregon won 65-38, and it wasn't that close.

In 2017, Oregon was having a miserable season under one-and-done joke of a head coach Willie Taggart when they faced the Beavers who had only won a single game. You could argue that the game had no meaning and wasn't watchable, but it's hard to tell that to a Ducks player because that's not how rivalry games work. Oregon won 69-10. They probably dumped a Gatorade cooler on Taggart's head, but he surely didn't deserve it.

Series History: The Ducks own a 66-48-10 edge (10 ties??!) with 11 wins in their last 13 tries. They're coming off of a loss in the pandemic season, however.

Opponent Talk: The Beavers may have been eliminated from Pac-12 North title contention with Washington State's win yesterday, but they're looking forward to the future after locking up former QB star and current head coach Jonathan Smith to a long-term deal.

The 2008 game was one of the most satisfying wins in the big (don't call it Civil War) rivalry.

Game time is 12:30 PM PST on ESPN. Go Ducks!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 14: Civil War for The Natty

Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year again. It's time for the 114th edition of the Civil War. There's a little something at stake this year called the national championship game for Oregon, while Oregon State is trying to just become bowl eligible. A loss would be devastating to the Ducks, still ranked #1 in all of the land but once again #2 in the BCS because of surly computers. Even though Oregon would find themselves in the Rose Bowl, usually the ultimate destination for any Pac-10 or Big Ten team, it would go down in the books as an extreme disappointment.

I don't see a Duck loss happening on Saturday. It would not shock me... nothing is shocking in a rivalry game, especially this one. Oregon is just so much better at so many positions. I call on the power of Dino Philyaw to bring Mighty Oregon home to a win over the pesky Beavers and a birth in the Big Number One Super Game. Philyaw caught the winning TD pass in Oregon's breakthrough win in 1994, putting icing on the cake of a Rose Bowl birth already sewn up with a USC loss earlier in the afternoon. I read an article today that talked about how he's good buddies with OSU's QB from that big game, Don Shanklin. What a name! Don Shanklin.

Oh yes, and The Natty? That's Cliff Harris for you. I would love a Cliff Harris TD at Reser Stadium on Saturday.

Game time is 12:30 PST in Corvallis on ABC. If you don't watch, you have no soul.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 4: Retros

The rumor started before the season even began, if not before. It looked like it might be another case of internet silliness, but the Ducks have proven time and time again that silliness will never get in the way of a good uniform story. The word is that the Ducks will wear retro uniforms ("throwbacks", if you will) in their conference opener today.

After a confidence building yet disturbing win over Utah last week, the focus will hopefully be on the California Golden Bears rather than the uniforms. One needs to look no further than last season's frustrating loss where Oregon was severely outplayed by Cal in a controversial underwater football game. I'm a fan of instant replay in small doses, but I never thought playing in the middle of a lake was good for the game. You could also go back to the 2007 game in Eugene, but if you were to even mention said game I imagine it would feel roughly the same as if you were trying to put a cigarette out in my eye. Let's just say that the name Cameron Colvin will probably make me a little nauseous for the rest of my life.

So you have the close games, the fact that the opposing head coach used to be the offensive coordinator (always more popular than the head coach in good times and the coaching scapegoat in bad times) and the #6 national ranking. Oh, and then there's that whole "disturbing" part I mentioned. Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli completed exactly 4 passes last week, barely more than the number of times he fumbled the ball. In fact, if you look at statistics over the course of many generations of football since the forward pass came to fancy, I think you would be hard-pressed to find many games where the winning team's combined total of lost fumbles and sacks taken outnumbered the amount of passes completed. Oregon overcame that last week. I hope they can take something positive out of that game. In fact, we're already at Week 4 of the season and I still don't know what to make of this team. The game could easily get ugly and out of hand for the Ducks, but this could also be the game that silences the critics and stomps on other [insert tired cliches] and makes me a happy Duck.

Today's game is on ABC at 12:30 PDT. I believe it's regional coverage, so it is probably also available on ESPN Gameplan and ESPN360.com if it's not on the ABC in your area.

Good Luck Ducks: Civil War Edition

It's time for the 112th meeting between the University of Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State University Beavers. There's been a media blitz all week here in Oregon, similar to what you typically here in the week leading up to the Super Bowl. I'm not even going to attempt that here. If you want to read more about this rivalry, here are some links.


What I want to talk about is Dino Philyaw. It was 14 years ago, at Parker (now Reser) Stadium, that Dino Philyaw scored the winning touchdown in what would be the last time* the Ducks won in Corvallis in this series. Oregon would go onto the Rose Bowl, which is what Oregon State is attempting to do here. What I never see written anywhere, however, was that UCLA lost that day and the score was announced during the second half, giving the Ducks the Pac-10 title outright (with a win) and the clinching tiebreaker with a loss. The Rose Bowl was no longer in doubt at that point. My girlfriend at the time was rooting for the Beavers and as soon as we found out that UCLA won, she had the audacity to try to get me to root for the Beavers since it "didn't matter anymore." Sheesh, talk about someone who doesn't understand rivalry games!



Go Ducks!

(*EDIT: Nevermind, Oregon last won in Corvallis in 1996. For some reason I have no recollection of that game.)