The Pac-12 is 1-1 in bowl games after the first week. Washington State got pummeled against Fresno State in the LA Bowl, and Oregon State blew out Florida in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Next up for the Pac-12 is the Holiday Bowl, as the Oregon Ducks face the North Carolina Tar Heels in San Diego.
Oregon fell just short of the Pac-12 title game, losing to the Oregon State Beavers in the Civil War game. Now they have a chance to get to 10 wins in Dan Lanning’s first season in Eugene. They have to beat North Carolina.
This will be the first-ever meeting between these two teams, and both sides live on the arms of their quarterbacks.
Tar Heel gunslinger Drake Maye finished the year with 4,115 yards and 35 scores while adding another 653 yards and seven scores on the ground; he was UNC’s leading rusher. Wide receiver Josh Downs is a threat and a first-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft.
Drake Maye and Josh Downs are a really fun combo pic.twitter.com/P2J9qJwLGR
— Shervon Fakhimi (@ShervonFakhimi) December 20, 2022
The Ducks have Bo Nix, who excelled in his first season in Oregon after transferring from Auburn. However, Nix’s health is a question mark after he got hurt in the Oregon State game.
Ducks Wire and Tar Heels Wire have done an extensive breakdown of this game. Both teams can score big. Oregon is 13th in the nation with 39.7 PPG while North Carolina is 43rd with 35 PPG. Both teams are top 25 in yards per game and in the top 30 in passing yards, so this could be an offensive explosion at Petco Park.
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