Is it always BS when an athlete says, “We are taking it one game at a time” or “I only look at the next game on the schedule?”
Not always, but I found a high-profile athlete who cracked under the immense pressure of my questions about Oregon’s schedule at media day on Monday. Actually, the question was whether or not he looked at the schedule and if so, does he think it is daunting?
Expecting the politically correct response I started thinking of my next question, until BAM! He answered with a straight up “It is the hardest schedule in the conference.”
That might not seem like a Pulitzer-generating quote, but having interviewed University athletes for the past year, it is standard procedure to get a robot answer. So when I get a human answer, that athlete will jump onto my “like to interview” list and in this case, that is a good thing because it was starting quarterback Dennis Dixon who spoke his mind.
His statement is correct as well.
Many college football fans, including Oregon’s, will point to the Portland State – another Division I-AA opponent – as a downfall to the schedule. That is a given. It seems like a win over Division I-AA Montana last season hurt Oregon’s Bowl Championship Series chances so for the Ducks to repeat the same mistake one year later is moronic.
Well, there are excuses and Utah State did back out of its contract with Oregon late in the game, leaving the Ducks paddling toward any type of opponent last Spring.
Scheduling a Division I-AA opponent isn’t uncommon in the Pacific-10 Conference. Half of the Pac-10 teams will be playing a Division I-AA school this season, three (including Oregon) will play against Portland State.
Nearly every league team is playing a top-tier opponent, with Arizona playing at LSU, California at Tennessee, Oregon State at Boise State (I know, that’s arguable), Stanford and UCLA both play at Notre Dame, USC will host Notre Dame, Washington at Oklahoma and Washington State at Auburn.
Here is Oregon’s schedule: Season opener against Stanford followed by a trip to Fresno State, where BCS-league schools go to die, according to the Bulldogs. The Ducks return home to face Oklahoma before a bye week.
Oregon then plays back-to-back road games against Arizona State and California, both likely to be top-25 teams with a settle to score after Oregon beat them both last season. Oregon returns home against UCLA, a team that could face success similar to that of last season (10 wins), before a late October game in Pullman, Wash., against Washington State.
The easiest portion of the schedule follows, with back-to-back home games against Portland State and Washington, respectively. Then Oregon travels to Los Angeles to face USC, the favorite to win the Pac-10, before Arizona rounds out the home schedule. Oregon faces in-state rival Oregon State in Corvallis the day after Thanksgiving to finish the regular season.
The schedule is arguably the toughest Oregon has faced in recent years. It is set up for potential disaster if the Ducks suffer a devastating loss early in the season. However, if Oregon can make it through the schedule undefeated or with only one loss, there could be no denying the shot at a National Championship – no matter what Notre Dame’s record is.
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