Good Luck Ducks, Playoff Quarterfinal Edition: Seeing Red

Oregon heads to Florida for the next round of CFP action.

The Ducks are back in the spot where they found themselves last season before it all went terribly wrong against the Buckeyes. This time, they'll face a different opponent in the Texas Tech Red Raiders, the champions of the Big 12. After opening up a 34-3 first half lead against James Madison, Oregon put it in cruise control and coasted to a decisive win to set them up for the Orange Bowl today.

The Ducks welcomed the return of a couple of their receivers in the first round game against the Dukes as they seem to be getting healthier at the best possible time. Once again, the speculation turns to whether or not it will be Dante Moore's last game in his short Ducks career, as many draft projections have him going near the top of the draft. Personally, I feel like he's got a good shot at staying put if there's anything short of a championship victory, but nothing would really surprise me. With the imminent departure of the offensive coordinator (Will Stein) who lured him back to Oregon, I could also see him thinking that it's time to move on.

Texas Tech retooled its coaching staff after a 8-5 season and found their biggest ever success as a member of the Big 12, finishing at the top of their conference. The Red Raiders are led by QB Behren Morton, one of the few players who was on the roster the last time these teams met in 2023 (he did not play.) Both teams are very similar in that they have explosive, powerful offenses and stellar defensive play to boot. This game truly feels like a toss-up, but one team will definitely be sent home feeling disappointed.

Notes and miscellany: 

• This will be the first Orange Bowl appearance for both schools, as the traditional bowl fixtures and alliances between conference have given way to... whatever madness this is. I think just about everyone wanted a true playoff system in FBS, including me, but this just doesn't feel like "it".
• Opponent fun fact: One of the Red Raiders mascot is named, naturally, Raider Red. He seems like a rough 'n tumble, rootin' tootin' stereotypically Texas style guy. There's also The Masked Rider, some Zorro lookin' dude who rides around on a horse. They like their finger guns, which is something that would almost certainly get a football player in trouble if one was to do it on the field at an opponent.
• Opponent history: The Ducks lead the all-time series 3-0, including the recent 38-30 win in 2023 in Lubbock when ex-Duck Tyler Shough (hey, that rhymes!) started at quarterback for TTU.
• Game time is 9:00 AM PST on ESPN in Miami Gardens. Go Ducks!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 5: White on White

Oregon faces their biggest road test in years.

It's back to conference play for the rest of the season as the Ducks head to Beaver Stadium to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions. Oregon played very well in the B1G Championship Game last season when they took down Penn State at a neutral site that was pretty tilted towards the team in white. That was last year's Ducks, however. I'm not sure that any of the games they have played so far this season have done much to prepare them for tonight's battle, as Oregon State served no purpose other than as a punching bag after their opening touchdown. The Northwestern crowd was certainly hostile, but small. Very small, in fact. There will something like nine times the number of people in attendance tonight.

Oregon may be getting their starting running back Noah Whittington back tonight after he missed the past two games with an injury. The Ducks have had carries from 7 different running backs (and a number of non-running backs, of course), but I'd expect them to pair their rotation down to just a few key players in such a huge game. Dante Moore has been excellent, throwing darts all over the field, but we'll see how he reacts to a wild "white out" megacrowd tonight. The odd thing about the whole "white out" concept is that it's generally the opponent that is wearing white.

Penn State has an experienced senior quarterback in Drew Allar, who threw 3 TDs (and two picks) against the Ducks last December. I imagine Allar has had this game circled on his calendar for quite awhile now. (To be fair, do any college students have paper calendars on their walls? Maybe he set a calendar reminder on his phone: "Beat the Ducks today.") While the current college football playoff format affords strong teams a loss or two against another strong team without completely removing said team from consideration, I doubt anyone on either side is thinking about anything other than winning this big game tonight. Well, and maybe the party tonight. Oh, the college parties.

Notes and miscellany:

• There's a good chance I'll be missing a large chunk of the second half of the game as I'm heading down to Providence Park later to watch the Portland Timbers play FC Dallas. I'll try to keep up with things on my phone, but you know how that goes.
• Opponent fun fact: A "nittany lion" isn't a real thing. Penn State's mascot was named after nearby Mount Nittany and the idea that mountain lions once roamed the area, supposedly. Of course, "seahawks" also aren't really a thing. Ducks, though? VERY REAL (and ferocious.)
• Opponent history: Penn State holds a 3-2 edge after their loss in the conference championship last season. The only other meeting in my lifetime happened in the Rose Bowl in 1995, where Gang Green was stymied by Ki-Jana Carter.
• Game time is 4:30 PM PDT on NBC in University Park. Go Ducks!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 3: Hawaii Time

The Ducks host the Rainbow Warriors in their final nonconference test. 

 

After making it through a close one in Texas last week, the Ducks are back in Autzen tonight to face Hawaii. While the game shouldn't quite be the laugher that the first game against Portland State was, it's expected that this will be more of a tune-up for the conference slate than a major challenge. Of course, Hawaii brings a big passing attack and plenty of talented receivers.

Every season is a brand new thing, and this year it looks like Oregon has no trouble moving the ball, which is fairly expected. The down side of this, at least so far, is that the defense also seems to have no trouble with the ball... moving. Yikes. While Texas Tech was certainly a quality opponent and a road win against another Power 5 opponent is something to be celebrated, I am not convinced that it's too early for concern at least on that one side of the ball.

Here's to hoping that tonight's game is more on the side of prep work for the coming weeks instead of a stressful time against an unfamiliar foe.

Notes and other things:

• I'll have more on this gas station sponsored Ducks trading card set on another date. I can't find a checklist online, so I'm probably going to convince myself to pick up the whole set on eBay just to catalog it fully, which means I'll end up with a bunch of dupes. Are there any weird card collecting Ducks fans out there like myself?
• Ducks Ranking This Week: 13 (AP). Oregon is holding steady, as there's only been one big upset per week so far. Clearly, this trend won't continue.
• Bo Nix Heisman Watch: I mean, he's only ranking third out of other Pac-12 players in some guy's ranking this week, but at least he's in the conversation! Bo Nix still seems to me like the most college player of all college players at this point, which would make it a shame if he didn't win some big college award for all of his college contributions. College!
• Game time is 5:00 PDT on the Pac-12 Network in Eugene. Go Ducks!