Duck fans who've been around for a time know The Curse of the Maldonado, the long sordid history of wide rights and hooked lefts that have plagued Oregon's special teams.
In the last few weeks the Ducks have missed kicks from 44 and 36 yards, only to see the opponent nail kicks from 51 and 58.
It doesn't seem to matter who the Oregon kicker is. Ever since Aidan Schneider, who hit 85 percent of his kicks over four seasons out of Grant High School in Portland, the bigger the game the more likely the Webfoot kicker is likely to miss the uprights with a makeable kick.
It's become maddening. It's almost expected when the team lines up for a field goal in a tense game. Over Dan Lanning's first two seasons the Ducks missed two kicks in three games against Washington and lost each by three points while passing up field goals in makeable range, partly out of a lack of confidence in the kicking game in a clutch situation.
If Lanning, special teams coach Joe Lorig or chief of operations Marshall Malchow caught ESPN College GameDay Saturday morning, they might have looked on enviously at the sight of an ordinary Vanderbilt student nailing a kick for $750,000.
That might’ve been good from 45 at least.
— Barstool SEC (@SECBarstool) October 25, 2025
Ice in his veins. pic.twitter.com/LuMW0PtK43
The question remains, if Pat McAfee can pick a kid out of the crowd (Tyler Hwang, a chemical engineering and economics major from Dover, Mass.) to split the uprights with a Home Depot kick to erase his student loans, why can't the Ducks make a 36-yard field goal? McAfee and Lanning are tight, bare-chest bros at 6:30 in the morning. Did the talk show host and ESPN College Football analyst happen to get the kid's number?