Oregon football’s five most-anticipated games of 2023 season
Although we are still weeks away from the start of the 2023 college football season, the Pac-12 title race is shaping up to be one of the more competitive ones in recent conference history.
USC, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Oregon State are all bonafide preseason top-25 squads, and all five have every reason to believe they can contend for a trip to the Pac-12 Championship Game.
The Ducks will run the gauntlet during the back half of their schedule as they face the Huskies, Utes, Trojans, and Beavers over the course of a seven-week span in October in November.
Here’s a look ahead at the five most highly-anticipated matchups on Oregon’s 2023 schedule.
5) Sept. 9 at Texas Tech
There were a few other strong candidates for the last spot on this list. But the Ducks’ showdown with Texas Tech in Lubbock will offer fans their first glimpse at Oregon’s overhauled squad against a Power-5 opponent.
The Red Raiders are coming off of an 8-5 finish last season that concluded with a 42-25 win over Ole Miss in the TaxAct Texas Bowl.
Texas Tech will be led by former Oregon quarterback Tyler Shough, who, after helping the Ducks to the Fiesta Bowl in 2020, opted to transfer to Lubbock. He has opened the past two seasons as the Red Raiders starting quarterback but has been hindered by injuries during both campaigns.
4) Oct. 28 at Utah
Oregon exorcised some demons last year when it gutted out a 20-17 win over Utah Eugene.
The victory helped the Ducks atone for the season prior, when the Utes bulldozed Mario Cristobal’s Oregon squad twice in a span of 15 days — once in Salt Lake, and once at the Pac-12 Championship Game in Las Vegas.
Last season at Autzen, though, Bo Nix led Oregon past a very good Utes squad while playing on a bad ankle.
The Ducks have not won in Salt Lake since 2016 when Justin Herbert sealed a 30-28 victory with a game-winning touchdown pass to Darren Carrington.
3) Nov. 24 vs. Oregon State
Oregon’s 2022 season was derailed by one of the more head-scratching losses in modern program history when rival Oregon State scored 21 unanswered fourth-quarter points to shock the Ducks last November.
Lanning’s squad won’t need extra motivation when Jonathan Smith’s Beavers come to Eugene in November.
OSU added former Clemson quarterback Dj Uiagalelei during the offseason and returns a ton of talent on both sides of the ball.
The annual rivalry game could have season-defining implications once again in 2023.
2) Nov. 11 vs. USC
The USC Trojans are the preseason favorites to win the Pac-12 by a considerable margin.
On Nov. 11 Oregon will get an opportunity to prove that narrative wrong in the first meeting at Autzen between the two schools since 2015.
The Ducks and Trojans have not squared off since Oregon’s 31-24 Pac-12 title game victory in 2020. Plenty has changed within both programs since that matchup, but the rivalry is intense as ever.
If both teams take care of business and enter Week 11 within reach of a Pac-12 Championship Game berth, this could prove to be one of the more thrilling Oregon games since the Ducks’ “fright night” victory over the Trojans in 2009.
1) Oct. 14 at Washington
This year’s showdown between Oregon and Washington is going to be one of the most highly-anticipated matchups in the history of the rivalry.
The Huskies crushed the Ducks’ national title hopes last season with a 37-34 victory in Eugene that featured too many ‘what if?’ moments to count. When the two programs meet in mid-October, the Ducks will arrive in Seattle with revenge on their minds.
Both teams are stacked to the roof with offensive talent, and both feature a dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback. The Ducks and Huskies will each be likely favorites in their games leading up to that point, and both programs will be coming off of bye weeks.
The storylines write themselves for this one.
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