EUGENE, Ore. — It’s hard to win a game when your offense is outgained in total yards, rush yards and first downs. That’s what Oregon did in its 38-35 win over UCLA. 

The difference? The Ducks had the best player on the field. 

On Saturday, Devon Williams was the playmaker Oregon desperately needed. The receiver announced his presence — all 6-foot-5, 205-pounds of it — with a career performance, catching six balls for 123 yards and a touchdown. 

“When a guy has that much ability, when they’re blessed with that kind of talent, anything less than getting the very best out of them is kind of cheating the gift,” head coach Mario Cristobal said. 

It’s been a winding road for Williams. A top-ten receiver in the state of California, he nearly became a Duck during his senior year of high school in 2018 before committing to USC. Then, just a year later, he entered the transfer portal and was an Oregon State Beaver for all of two days before spurning them for their in-state rival, the Ducks. 

Three programs in the span of 12 months, and yet it still took another calendar year before an opportunity arose for Williams.  

Even after sitting out all of 2019, he failed to crack the starting lineup, falling behind Johnny Johnson III, Jaylon Redd and Mycah Pittman. With Pittman out for the second consecutive game, Williams finally had the game he, his teammates and his coaches knew he was capable of. He had hinted as much in the weeks leading up to the matchup with UCLA, making athletic catches and crucial blocks in games and consistently standing out in practice. 

“I probably haven’t been harder on anybody as hard as I’ve been on Devon…,” Cristobal said. “It’s the ultimate sign of respect when you really challenge someone and his last two weeks of practice. Everyone has noticed what a tremendous job he’s done pushing himself, learning the system and practicing and working really, really hard.” 

Saturday was more than a breakout game, it was a dominant performance. His 123 yards are the most by an Oregon receiver in a game this season as well as the most UCLA has given up to an opposing receiver, by a long shot. 

First came his wide-open, 19-yard touchdown snag, in which he burned the UCLA secondary for Oregon’s first points of the afternoon. Then, early in the third quarter, Williams took a catch over the middle for 30 yards, using his wingspan to throw vicious stiff arms into the face masks of two unfortunate UCLA defensive backs. 

If those two plays were the lead up to a masterpiece, his 49-yard snag was the finale. 

He stretched the field with his speed before using his frame and body control to wall-off the defender and readjust to reel in the deep ball. Play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti described the play as a 50-50 ball, but with a 6-foot-5 receiver it’s anything but a coin flip. 

“Coach Joe Moorhead, he’s a great offensive coordinator,” Williams said. “He does his thing with dialing up plays. We found the areas that we needed to expose.”

It wasn’t just areas of UCLA’s defense being exposed, it was a player consistently winning his matchups and making momentum-swinging plays at every opportunity. 

Williams is blossoming into the big-play receiver he showed flashes of during his brief time at USC. The lengthy deep-threat has the skill set and wherewithal to be a major contributor to Oregon’s offense moving forward as he and his peers continue to build chemistry with first time starting quarterback Tyler Shough.