The hype surrounding the 2012 Oregon football season began just hours after LaMichael James and the Ducks defeated the Wisconsin Badgers 45-38 in Pasadena on Jan. 2.
The program had just won its first Rose Bowl in 95 years, and after two failed attempts at winning a BCS bowl game, Chip Kelly & Co. had finally gotten the monkey off their backs and won the big one.
Star running back De’Anthony Thomas lived up to billing, running for two rushing touchdowns over 60 yards and setting the Rose Bowl record for longest run with a 91-yard, highlight-reel dash through the Badgers’ defense.
If Thomas was not a household name before the Rose Bowl, he certainly was afterward, and many believed the athletic underclassman had a chance to be a Heisman candidate the following season.
Momentum was building.
While no one in the program would ever say it, a quiet confidence pervaded Oregon fans — 2012 could be the year to return to, and perhaps even win, the BCS National Championship.
Spring arrived and a redshirt freshman quarterback named Marcus Mariota from Honolulu, Hawaii, dazzled spectators during the intrasquad Spring Game. Mariota eventually beat out Bryan Bennett for the starting job and the heralded Oregon offense appeared to be just as fast and effective, if not faster, than the year previous.
The initial AP Poll was released in the fall, and the Ducks found themselves nestled in at the No. 5 spot.
The whispers continued.
As the season began, the Ducks looked as expected. They were fast, physical, dominant. Analysts and the media began to ask the question, “Could Oregon be the best team in college football?”
While there was a clear faction that believed the Ducks were indeed the pinnacle of college football, one glaring weakness shown on their resume: they had not truly been tested or played a team worthy of competing four quarters.
Cue the matchup with USC at the Coliseum. The Trojans, fresh off their NCAA sanctions, touted dual Heisman candidates in Matt Barkley and Marqise Lee, arguably the best wide receiver in the country.
This was the test people had been waiting to see, and boy, did the Ducks pass. Oregon knocked off the Trojans 62-51. Kenjon Barner rushed for a career-high 321 yards.
This was it. Everything was set up and falling into place now. Oregon now controlled its own destiny and presumably all that stood in the way of them returning to the BCS National Championship Game was a matchup with Stanford at Autzen Stadium, one of the best home-field advantages in all of sports.
The excitement in the air was palpable. Oregon fans felt the vibrations.
And then, after a 37-yard field goal by Jordan Williamson, it all evaporated. De’Anthony Thomas and Kenjon Barner returned to Earth, at least for a week, and for the first time Marcus Mariota looked like a freshman quarterback playing in the biggest game of his life.
After the dust settled, Chip Kelly and company found themselves again ranked No. 5 in the BCS standings, now on the outside looking in at the national title game. While stranger and less likely things than the Ducks somehow ending up in one of the top two spots have happened before, they no longer control their own destiny.
With Chip Kelly now being courted by the NFL and the constant uncertainty that is college football, if the Ducks remain where they are and don’t play for a BCS title, the 2012 season will be remembered as the season that could have been, and in all honestly probably should have been.