It’s a position Oregon has known all too well. A situation with little realistic promise, only hope.
Idaho’s appearance at Autzen Stadium on Saturday evokes memories of when Oregon was the perennial bottom-dweller, like the Vandals now, desperate for any glance at glory.
The Vandals are 32-point underdogs and have lost 21 straight games to the Ducks, dating back to 1951. But that doesn’t mean Idaho will necessarily fold in the first quarter, especially after seeing the fight Fresno State put up last week.
For Oregon, that means playing with a large target on its back.
“The last few years, Oregon wasn’t really a known program, so we’d go into games with nothing to lose,” safety Keith Lewis said. “Now that Oregon is on top, people are trying to knock us off. We need to try to play with the same passion as when we’re weren’t anybody. I still think we still have something to prove.”
Although their role has been reversed, the Ducks are trying to adjust to being the hunted while maintaining the mentality of a hunter.
“It’s tough to prepare to a team when you’re going in as the top dog,” Lewis said.
The Duck defense has held tough this season and will need to avoid letting down against the upset-minded Idaho Vandals.
Whether they’re the pit bull or the poodle, the Ducks always seem to make games interesting — if not downright scary — in the fourth quarter. Or perhaps it’s the underdog, playing with nothing to lose, that keeps the game close.
Case in point: Oregon’s 28-24 win over Fresno State last week, when the Ducks trailed by nine at the end of the third quarter, only to score 13 unanswered points in the final period.
By no means is Fresno State a pushover (the Bulldogs’ two losses this year are by a combined six points), but the Ducks know they should’ve played better.
“Our kids have to understand that we were fortunate that we won a game we could have lost,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “We didn’t always do what was in our power to do. We need to play hard for 60 minutes. We played hard at the beginning and played hard at the end when it counted (against Fresno State).
“Great teams play hard the entire time.”
Enter Idaho, a team that Sports Illustrated ranked dead last out of 117 teams in Division I college football. A team that Washington State blasted for 49 points last week. A team that Oregon’s second unit could probably beat.
As Lewis said, it’s difficult to prepare for what should be a one-sided contest. So how does the heavy favorite get motivated for an almost meaningless preseason warmup?
Simply trade places, Bellotti tells his team.
The Ducks, the coach says, have to act as if they’re the team heading into one of the toughest venues in the nation, against one of the toughest teams in one of the toughest conferences.
“Those are great things to talk about on the other team’s bulletin board,” Bellotti said.
Like Oregon in years past, Idaho will bring its best shot into Autzen Stadium on Saturday, looking to create the upset of the season against the nation’s 13th-ranked team.
“Everybody wants to be the team that knocks off Oregon,” Bellotti said. “I’ve told our kids all along that we have to be prepared for their ‘A’ game. You have to be ready for them to try every play in the book. They’re going to be ready to play.”
More than anything, though, Bellotti is more concerned about what Oregon will do to itself rather than what Idaho will do to Oregon.
“It’s about Oregon righting its ship,” he said.
Quarterback Jason Fife may have said it best: “It doesn’t really matter who we’re playing, as long as Oregon football is at its best.”
After Idaho, the schedule gets easier for the Ducks with Portland State coming to town, but that, of course, just makes the preparation even harder and the target even bigger.
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