On a frigid November night two years ago, Arizona State’s Brock Osweiler made his first collegiate start under center against the Oregon Ducks inside Autzen Stadium.@@http://www.thesundevils.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/osweiler_brock00.html@@
Then a true freshman, Osweiler completed five passes for 14 yards before being knocked out of the game before halftime, and Oregon rolled to a 44-21 win despite being outscored in the second half.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=233&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=204834100@@
Now, two years later, the 6-foot-8 junior quarterback leads his 18th-ranked Sun Devils back to Eugene where they’ll face the No. 9 Oregon Ducks on Saturday at 7:15 p.m.
“My first trip up to Autzen didn’t go how anybody would hope for it to,” Osweiler said to TheSunDevils.com on Monday. “But like I said, we’re a different football team now, I’m a different football player and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity.”
The Ducks (4-1, 2-0 Pac-12) will play host to the ESPN College GameDay crew for the sixth time on Saturday, with production taking place on the academic campus rather than the athletic complex. Due to construction around the new football operations building — where the last few shows have filmed — GameDay will shoot from the lawn outside of the Lillis Business Complex on 13th Avenue.
“I think it’s a real tribute to our fans,” Oregon coach Chip Kelly said. “And I know from talking to the people at GameDay that they absolutely love coming here just because of the atmosphere that our fans create, how excited they are for it, and it’s what’s college football is all about.”
Arizona State (5-1, 3-0) holds the all-time series lead, but the Ducks have won the last six meetings, including the 2007 matchup when then-No. 4 Oregon topped then-No. 6 Arizona State, 35-23, in front of ESPN’s College GameDay crew.@@http://pac-12.org/SPORTS/Football/Standings.aspx@@
This season, the Sun Devils’ strength lies in the hands of Osweiler and the passing game. The junior ranks fourth in the conference with 279.5 passing yards per game, with 13 touchdowns and six interceptions (second most in the league) to his credit.@@http://www.pac-12.org/portals/7/images/Football/2011-Stats/HTML/confldrs.htm@@
The Oregon secondary, which has the best pass defense efficiency in the Pac-12 at 110.7, will be tested by another strong aerial attack after facing Arizona and California the past two weeks.
“They’ve spread the ball around to everybody, so it’s not like they’ve got one go-to guy; there’s four or five guys with the same amount (of catches),” Kelly said. “They throw a ton of bubble screens, they throw a ton of quick game. But if you try to jump them and do those things, they will beat you over the top.”
So far this season, six Arizona State receivers have pulled in at least a dozen receptions, and three of those have more than 25. By comparison, Oregon has only three receivers with more than 10 catches, with De’Anthony Thomas and Lavasier Tuinei leading the way with 17 grabs each.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205266631@@
Jamal Miles’ 27 catches for 191 yards and four scores lead the way for the Sun Devils, along with Gerell Robinson (26 grabs for 403 yards and three scores) and redshirt senior Aaron Pflugrad, a former Oregon player who transferred before the 2009 season, who has also recorded 26 receptions for 380 yards and four touchdowns this season.
Osweiler said he expects a great effort from Oregon’s defense this week, adding that the Ducks play “very hard and very disciplined football” when they’re at home.
“Obviously, there are a lot of things added to this game as far as GameDay, ESPN, going on the road at Oregon and playing a tremendous football team,” Osweiler said to TheSunDevils.com. “But we’re going to prepare the same way and go into this football game playing the way we do every week.”
So far, that’s been a winning brand of football. Arizona State has taken three straight conference victories, against USC, Oregon State and Utah, with an average winning margin of 19 points per game. Oregon, which boasts the second-highest scoring offense in the country at 50.2 points per game, has won its last three contests by an average of 34 points.
The Ducks will likely be without the services of running back LaMichael James as he recovers from a dislocated right elbow. In his place, fellow junior Kenjon Barner and true freshmen Thomas and Tra Carson will shoulder more of the carries against an Arizona State rushing defense that’s allowed just 119.7 yards per game this season.@@http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/1040@@
“I think we’ve got a good group there,” Oregon running backs coach Gary Campbell said. “And I think we’ve got some guys that are going to come in, step up and hopefully won’t even miss a beat.”