As I sat down and took some time to consider what to write in this space, one word kept coming to mind in my attempt to take an all-encompassing aerial look at Saturday’s season opener vs. Auburn in Arlington, Texas.
“Opportunity.”
The word has different meaning compared to the last time the Ducks and Tigers squared off, when Oregon fell to Auburn, 22-19, in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game. For Oregon, that game was an opportunity to be officially coronated as a new college football superpower. After all, the Ducks were just one year removed from a Rose Bowl appearance and had largely steamrolled their way to that moment behind the momentum of offensive innovation under then head coach, Chip Kelly.
It even has different meaning compared to the last time the Ducks had a high-profile season opener in Arlington, when Oregon was outdone by LSU, 40-27, the following season. For the Ducks, that game was an opportunity to notch a win over a top five opponent and prove to the nation that Oregon had legitimate staying power in the conversation surrounding the best programs in college football.
Those were different times, with the program tracking along a different trajectory.
Instead, from this perspective, the sentiment surrounding Saturday’s game feels similar to the one felt in the build up to Oregon’s season opener at Boise State in 2009. That game will be forever remembered for LeGarrette Blount sucker punching Boise State’s Byron Hout, but it also served as Kelly’s debut as Ducks head coach; a game that launched a new era of Oregon football despite the inauspicious start.
Fast forward a decade later, and there are some notable parallels between then, and now.
Like 2009, the Ducks are fresh off a bowl victory and will start the season away from the friendly confines of Autzen Stadium against a top 20 opponent with the eyes of the college football world fixated on them. Also, as they were in 2009, expectations surrounding this team are high, as the Ducks are expected to not only be a conference title contender, but a potential player on the national stage.
The main difference, of course, is that unlike Kelly, this isn’t Mario Cristobal’s first go around as Oregon’s head man.
Last year, in his first season as head coach, Cristobal set the foundation for a new culture at Oregon. One predicated on size, toughness in the trenches, and maniacal recruiting effort more so than speed, scheme, and myriad uniform combinations. And while those latter three attributes still remain as important staples for what Oregon is and hopes to accomplish, it’s the former three that Cristobal hopes will make the Ducks more well-rounded, setting them apart from the competition in the present-day Pac-12.
Oregon’s 9-4 finish in 2018 – highlighted by a win over top 10 opponent and rival Washington – coupled with the program’s best recruiting class ever, demonstrated that Cristobal has the Ducks pointed in the right direction, but it would be premature to go as far as to say that Oregon is “back.”
Saturday’s game versus Auburn, however, could provide an indication as to how close the Ducks are to returning to the door step of the nation’s elite.
With a win, Cristobal will not only have notched perhaps his most important win of his head coaching career, but a much needed win in terms of legitimizing the Pac-12 Conference, which has been maligned in recent seasons after failing to produce anything close to resembling a national title contender since 2016 Washington. A win would also, of course, momentarily re-establish Oregon – fairly or unfairly – as the “it” program out West. It would help prove that the culture under Cristobal is not only taking root behind the scenes, but is also paying dividends on the field, signaling to recruits out West that they don’t need to head east in order to play an “elite, SEC brand” of football.
On the other hand, a loss to Auburn provides only more fodder for the Pac-12’s detractors. After all, what does it say about the conference if one of its top teams fails to win a showcase game against one of the SEC’s (current) middle-tier programs who will be starting a true freshman quarterback? More pointedly as it relates to Oregon, a defeat would be a gut-punch to Justin Herbert’s prospective Heisman campaign and raise legitimate questions as to just how capable the Ducks are of taking that next step under Cristobal and his staff, especially considering this is Oregon’s most talented team on paper since at least 2015.
The results haven’t always favored Oregon if we take these moments from history into account, but this is first time in a long time that the Ducks have faced this sort of challenge with a coach and a philosophy that didn’t branch from the tree that sprouted the tenures of Brooks, Bellotti, Kelly, and Helfrich.
Saturday doesn’t mark the dawn of a new era at Oregon, but the outcome of the opportunity that lies before the program has the feel of one that may define an era, either positively or negatively, for years to come.