Athlon Sports Preseason Top 25 Has Oregon at #3, Winning Pac 12 North
Jan. 3, 2013; Glendale, AZ, USA: Kansas State Wildcats running back De
There are plenty of Preseason Watch lists that are now starting to appear, one site that I follow quite frequently is Athlon Sports. Their analysis is solid and they seem to know what they are talking about. It was a matter of time as to where the Ducks would end up on their ‘Preseason Top 25’ list.
I’ve been watching the last few weeks and was quite surprised when Stanford came up at Number 7. The Cardinal has the opportunity to play Oregon down on the Farm this year and should be the most circled matchup of 2013, even more than USC(who the Ducks don’t see this season, unless it’s in the Pac 12 Title game). November 2nd will be big.
Oregon returns quite a few starters on Offense and has new Head Coach Mark Helfrich. Athlon Sports takes a look at some of the key players and notes Sophomore QB Marcus Mariota, Running Back De’Anthony Thomas and Cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu.
Nationally, Athlon has the Ducks at #3 and also sees them winning the Pac 12 North.
"It’s a ‘Potentially Historic Transition Year’ for the program."
Hey Mark, if your reading this…no pressure.
Oregon kicks off the 2013 season on August 31st hosting Nicholls State(the team that had travel issues due to a Hurricane in 2012 and faced Oregon State to close out the season last year. The game was played on December 1st to close out the season. Nicholls State was buried 77-3 to then #15 Oregon State, who by the way is on the Athlon Preseason Top 25 list at #25, Arizona State made the list at #23, and of course the already mentioned Stanford Cardinal comes in at #7.
Oregon Ducks This Week: