Oregon already secured its spot in the Big Ten championship game, but the top-ranked Ducks have plenty to play for in their regular-season finale.
Revenge may be on Oregon’s mind when the Ducks host longtime rival Washington on Saturday in Eugene, Ore.
Oregon (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten) would perhaps be closing in on its second straight College Football Playoff appearance had the Huskies (6-5, 4-4) not dealt the Ducks their only two losses last season.
Washington edged Oregon 36-33 in Seattle last October, then slipped past the Ducks 34-31 in the Pac-12 title game to secure a playoff spot for the second time in school history. Both teams joined the Big Ten in August.
Third-year Oregon head coach Dan Lanning is 33-5 leading the Ducks. But he remains winless against the Huskies (0-3).
Oregon plots to sprint out of its late-season bye after using time to heal injuries, but Lanning doesn’t believe the break should stall the flow of an undefeated season.
“It’s always about what we’re able to do on the field. Motivation is overrated,” Lanning said. “Our guys have to want to go out there and execute at a really high level. Since the beginning of the season we’ve talked about playing our best football at the end of November. We’re there. This is our opportunity to go play our best football against a good team.”
The Ducks could have star wide receiver Tez Johnson back from a shoulder injury this week. Johnson has missed the past two games.
That would be good news for quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who would regain the team’s leader in receptions (64), receiving yards (649) and receiving touchdowns (eight).
Washington, under first-year head coach Jedd Fisch, is 63-48-5 all-time against Oregon but is just 1-12-1 when facing the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
The Huskies are led on offense by running back Jonah Coleman, who has racked up 1,008 yards and nine scores on the ground this season. Coleman averages 5.8 yards per carry and has 36 runs of at least 10 yards.
In the passing game, wide receiver Denzel Boston is tied for the Big Ten lead with nine in touchdown catches and ranks sixth in the conference with 764 receiving yards.
Whom Boston will be catching passes from is not yet known, however.
Washington has not revealed whether Will Rogers or Demond Williams Jr. will start at quarterback. Rogers has started every game for the Huskies but was benched in favor of Williams two weeks ago after throwing a pair of interceptions in a 31-19 win over UCLA.
Fisch said he has a “good idea” of how he will use his quarterbacks on Saturday, and while he wouldn’t go as far as to name a starter, he did say Rogers responded well in practices last week.
“On the same token, Demond’s energy and Demond’s confidence showed up. His ability to jump right in and feel really good about leading the group whenever it was his turn… he did a really nice job there as well,” Fisch told Seattle Sports.
“I think both guys responded well to the week of practice, and now, really, it’s important for us that the guy we believe will start the game gets a significant amount of reps in practice week. But as you know, we’re not afraid to play two quarterbacks.”
–Field Level Media
