If you’ve grown up in the state of Oregon, you might know how important Thursday night’s Civil War is to Oregonians. For the week leading up to the game, the state is polarized into yellow-green and orange-black. Families take sides, and Christmas can either be great or awful depending on whether or not your side won.
Add in a Pacific-10 Conference Championship and a Rose Bowl berth to the 113th edition of the Civil War and it is now the biggest college football game in the history of football in the state.
But the No. 7 Oregon Ducks aren’t listening to the hype, although they do understand that the Civil War is more than just a game for fans. “It’s always good,” fourth-year senior Andre Crenshaw said of the seventh oldest rivalry game in college football. “With them being so close, it’s bragging rights all the time. And since I’ve been here, you always want to have them and be the top team in Oregon. We always look forward to playing them. It is what it is, a backyard brawl ­— the Civil War.”
Crenshaw said, however, that in order to prepare, the team will focus on the No. 13 Oregon State Beavers just like any other team in the conference. Senior safety T.J. Ward agreed.
“(It’s the) same as any other week,” Ward said. “There’s nothing special about them. They’re in the Pac-10. They’re a good team and it is what it is. We prepare the same every week. No one gets any special treatment, rivalry or whatnot.”
Oregon has taken a measure to ensure the fewest distractions to the team this week. After coming back from Thanksgiving for practice on Saturday, the University announced that practices leading up to Thursday’s game would be closed. It’s a tradition dating back to former Oregon coach Rich Brooks.
The Ducks are using the practices to work on Oregon State’s offense, which is led by sophomore running back Jacquizz Rodgers. Head coach Chip Kelly has five or six scout team running backs rotating through the position of Rodgers, but he said it’s an impossible task.
“You’re not going to simulate ‘Quizz,” Kelly said.
He also talked some of trying to slow down the Beaver offense.
“I don’t know if many teams have had success slowing them down,” Kelly said. “Maybe forcing them into some mistakes, but they’re pretty efficient on the offensive side of the ball.”
And as the attention ramps up for the game, defensive end Will Tukuafu said it is key to have a balance of football and everyday life.
“I just go home and relax and hang with my wife,” he said. “It’s good to have that down time, too … you have to have balance. It can’t just be football your entire life. You have football and family and church and stuff like that. You have to find good balance in your life.”
Some guys took a break yesterday evening to watch NFL football, especially the Pittsburgh Steelers-Baltimore Ravens game. Former Oregon quarterback ­and top-five Heisman finalist Dennis Dixon made his first career start for the Steelers when starter Ben Roethlisberger was ineligible because of a concussion.
“I was excited when they said he was starting,” said Crenshaw, who still talks to former Ducks playing in the NFL like Jonathan Stewart of the Carolina Panthers and Dixon.
Senior tight end Ed Dickson even texted Dixon to wish him good luck.
“That’s my boy,” Dickson said. “I shot him a text and told him, ‘Man, you’ve been there before. Just go out there and do what you’ve trained to do.’ I told him to win the day and we were going to win on Thursday for him.

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