Make no mistake about it, Saturday’s matchup between No. 1 Oregon and unranked Oregon State will certainly be another thrilling finish to a great year in Duck football.
A season ago, the Ducks topped OSU at home to seal the Pacific-10 Conference title and earn their first trip to the Rose Bowl in more than a decade. This year the sights are clearly set beyond a trip to Pasadena, with aspirations of going a little further south, say, to Arizona.
As Oregon enters Corvallis for a 12:30 p.m. start time, the entire state will have its eyes fixed on a Civil War matchup for the ages. ESPN’s College GameDay will be in attendance, the third time the crew of Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Erin Andrews have broadcast from an Oregon game this season and their first stop ever in Corvallis.
The GameDay team came to Eugene and set up outside the Casanova Center prior to Oregon’s win over Stanford in early October, and then again for the Ducks’ road win over USC in the Coliseum later that month. During those two contests, Oregon outscored its opponents 105-63, and will look to extend that margin against Oregon State this weekend.
On paper, the matchup lacks your traditional GameDay allure.
But you cannot gauge college football’s oldest rivalry west of the Rocky Mountains simply by the numbers. The blood that flows within the Civil War goes beyond rankings and even individual players, though this year Oregon does feature some of the finest ever to suit up for the contest.
The Civil War represents the divide in college sports fans across the state, most of whom make no mistake in letting you know what team they support. The black and orange will overshadow the scattered green and yellow daring to enter the confines of Reser Stadium on Saturday, with the ultimate prize of a national championship bid on the line.
Oregon State’s home crowd will not only be desperately fighting for bowl eligibility, but also the sheer pleasure of spoiling a hated rivals national championship hopes. This year is no different than others in terms of schemes and personnel, but the implications have heightened everyone’s sense of what’s at stake.
Between the lines, it’s clear Oregon has the advantage.
The Ducks have worked as hard as they have since spring ball for a reason, which they hope will come to fruition on a warm January night in Glendale, Ariz. Anything less than an Oregon victory would be extremely hard to swallow, not only for the faithful supporters, but most certainly the team, coaches, boosters and each person who has called the Ducks their own this season.
Oregon head coach Chip Kelly has preached his ‘Win the Day’ mantra religiously, and his team has only a few more days to win before stepping foot on enemy territory. And when that day does come, the Ducks will be ready.
Needless to say, this one is about more than the Civil War, more than the divided state support, and yes, even bigger than Oregon’s guaranteed Rose Bowl berth. And given those circumstances, there are few people I would rather have in the driver’s seat than Kelly. He never wavers from the approach, and the system he has in place at Oregon is something to marvel at. Every workout, every practice, every meeting is planned to the exact minute, and that approach has never shaken.
Getting to watch this program from start to finish, from the Rose Bowl loss on New Year’s to spring camp and on into summer, Oregon has carried itself with a narrow vision: Win the Day.
Come Saturday, the Ducks will do just that.
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