Thursday night's action around college football showed just how unpredictable college football can be. After trailing most of the game and looking woeful on offense, Colorado marched down the field with two big pass plays and blocked a 35-yard field goal on the final play to beat Georgia Tech in Atlanta 14-13.
Earlier, perennial Big Ten doormat Rutgers, which hasn't won eight games in any season since 2014, lost as a 29.5-point favorite to UMass in one of the biggest upsets since Appalachian State throttled Michigan in 2007.
Still, after waiting since January and enduring a litany of court cases and talking head screaming it was nice to finally see some football. Ducks will have to be a little more wary about their October 24 road trip to Illinois-- the Illini throttled University of Alabama-Birmingham 42-23 in their opener, getting 13-17 passing for 182 yards and three touchdowns from new quarterback Katin Houser, a transfer from East Carolina who started his career at Michigan State.
Though Houser looked good, averaging 10.7 yards per pass, Brett Bielema's defense gave up 413 yards to the visitors while allowing 3-4 on fourth down and 194 yards on the ground.
First games often have some glitches and weird elements. Doug Scott of the QB-11 podcast came on the Oregon Fan Show Thursday and he said, "It's the first game you're going to be rotating a bunch of offensive linemen be trying out new stuff you got a new coordinator there's going to be there's going to be empty possessions in this game."
"Oregon is going to have two or three or four possessions where they don't score any points and maybe they go three and out a couple times. Don't freak out. It's actually not a bad thing, right?"
Dan Lanning looks to limit errors but accept teachable moments
In the first game most teams suffer a few missed assignments, hiccups like a penalty in scoring territory or a play or two where execution falters. Coaches are trying out new combinations, rotating people in the secondary or the offensive line. A clean performance is uncommon, but with a big disparity in budget and talent, Oregon should still win comfortably.
Sophomore running back Dierre Hill expressed supreme confidence. “I just see it as very scary for our opponent. I mean, not only our ones, but the threes and the fours," he said.
"We have huge depth here, and we have guys that are very hungry."
Remember that last time the Broncos came to Autzen Stadium in 2024, the Ducks needed a punt return touchdown, a kickoff return touchdown and a last-second field goal to win 37-34. This one shouldn't be that close.
A major key for Oregon is showing whether the rebuilt offensive line can protect Dante Moore. Last season he was sacked 17 times, and nine of those came in the two losses to Indiana. Boise State has a decent pass rush, led by senior edge rusher Jayden Virgin-Moss. He'll be working against new left tackle Fox Crader most of the time.
Hill has a role in that protection too. He has said one of the things he's worked on this offseason is improving his pass protection and assignment discipline in picking up free rushers and the blitz.
As Dan Lanning often says, the proof's in the pudding.
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