Tag: Autzen Stadium

Autzen Stadium overlooked as one of toughest environments in EA Sports College Football 25

The Oregon Ducks’ Autzen Stadium was not ranked among the top 10 toughest places to play in the new EA Sports College Football 25.

If you’ve been to a college football game in Eugene, Oregon, then you know the allure that Autzen Stadium has.

It may not be the biggest stadium, but it is certainly among the loudest. Late in the season when the weather gets bad and the rain starts falling — though never inside Autzen — facing the Oregon Ducks on their home turf is considered one of the toughest things that a visiting team can do.

Year after year, decade after decade, former players and coaches have remarked that playing inside Autzen Stadium is not a fun experience and is one of the toughest places to win.

So why does EA Sports College Football 25 not have Autzen listed as one of their 10 toughest places to play in the new video game?

That’s a good question.

My guess would have been that Tiger Stadium would be at the top of this list, followed by Ohio Stadium and Bryant-Denny Stadium. But having Texas A&M’s Kyle Field at the top is certainly a choice.

Also putting a place like Florida State’s Doak S. Campbell Stadium ahead of Autzen, which is officially ranked No. 11, is up for much debate.

Now with the Ducks in the Big Ten Conference, maybe we will see Autzen Stadium start to get some of the recognition and respect that it deserves. Perhaps it will crack the top 25 in EA Sports College Football 26.

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Top photos from Oregon Ducks’ 2024 spring game

Photo Gallery: The Spring Game was a complete success for everyone

It wasn’t exactly a sunny day at Autzen Stadium for the 2024 Oregon Spring Game, that didn’t stop anybody from not having a great time on the field and in the stands.

Fans got a glimpse of what this football season might look like as the Duck offense and defense were impressive. Dillon Gabriel made his unofficial debut in an Oregon uniform as did many other players.

Overall, the Ducks showed there is talent up and down the roster and not only talent, but a deep depth chart that is ready to be successful in Oreogn’s first season in the Big Ten Conference.

Here are the best pictures from the Spring Game.

Senior Day Honorees: A look at the 16 seniors who will make their last appearance at Autzen

Senior Day Honorees: A closer look at the 16 seniors who will make their last appearance at Autzen

There’s a lot on the line in this last regular-season game with Oregon State. It’s the Civil War. A trip to Las Vegas and the Pac-12 title game is on the line as well as a rematch with Washington.

Perhaps lost in the hype is that Oregon will say goodbye to a group of 16 seniors who made their own special impact on the program. The group includes some lifelong Ducks as well as some that were Ducks for a short time, but nonetheless, they made a lasting impact on Oregon that will be remembered for a long time to come.

Here are the seniors who will be making their last appearance inside Autzen Stadium and their career stats.

Justin Wilcox says Cal has a plan for ‘significant’ noise at Autzen Stadium this week

Justin Wilcox says Cal has a plan for ‘significant’ noise at Autzen Stadium this week

If there’s one person on the California sideline that knows how loud Autzen Stadium can be, it’s the Bears’ head coach Justin Wilcox.

He was a linebacker for the Ducks in the 1990s and before that, the Wilcoxs, out of Junction City, are a legacy family within the program. Justin’s father Dave was a defensive end for the Ducks in the early ’60s and his brother Josh was a tight end on the 1994 team that went to the Rose Bowl.

But in preparing his California team, Justin Wilcox has decided to downplay the noise Autzen creates and instead concentrate on the talent Oregon brings to the field.

“It’s a great environment to play in and out guys will enjoy it,” he said of Autzen. “The noise is significant and we have a plan for that.”

But then he quickly wanted to talk about the challenge that will present itself on the field and on both sides of the ball.

“He (Bo Nix) does a lot at the line of scrimmage. They have a great scheme, no doubt,” Wilcox said of the Oregon offense. “Some teams they get up there, freeze it and everyone looks over at the sideline. But Nix handles a lot at the line of scrimmage, so he knows what he doing.”

As a former linebacker and overall defensive guy, Wilcox can appreciate what kind of job the Ducks are doing on that side of the ball as well.

“Defensively, they are impressive physically. They play 10 to 12 guys up front. There are some talented, talented players in that group,” he said as part of his scouting report on the Ducks. “They rotate a bunch of players and they’re really big. They’re even really big on the edges. The interior D-line is as gifted as anyone you’ll see and the edges are like 280-290 (pounds).”

Although he won’t admit it, Wilcox knows very well his Bears are in for quite the challenge in every respect possible. He also knows the Autzen crowd will bring it.

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Washington coach Kalen DeBoer breaks down top-10 matchup vs. Oregon

Washington coach Kalen DeBoer breaks down top-10 matchup vs. Oregon

Washington coach, as well as Oregon’s own Dan Lanning, know how important this game and the rivalry is between the two teams. If they didn’t know it before last season’s game, they certainly know it now.

Both coaches are in their second years at their programs and for DeBoer, the rebuilding process was a little more daunting than in Eugene. But he says he’s happy with the giant progress the Huskies have made and they’ll ready to go on Saturday.

“The thing for us is that we wanted to make sure that this weekend was big,” DeBoer said in his weekly news conference. “I’m proud of the guys on how they’ve weekly taken care of business. Hopefully you saw this as inevitable that it came to this point. We have a lot of respect for Oregon and what they’ve done with their season.”

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The two programs are at a point in time where they mirror each other and for a long time, it hasn’t been that way. It seemed as if one program would have the upper hand on the other, but even down to having problems with too many penalties, the Ducks and Huskies could be considered twins in some respect.

On Saturday, however, the Dawgs will have a tremendous advantage with the game being at Husky Stadium and DeBoer hopes the atmosphere will be the difference.

“I think there is another level (of noise and craziness) and I’m excited to see it this weekend,” he said.

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Husky Stadium is certainly one of the loudest football stadiums in the country and rivals Autzen Stadium. But that doesn’t mean the road team doesn’t have a shot. Washington managed to win in Eugene just last year and DeBoer says that win created a belief within his program and is a large part of why they’re at where they’re at now.

“There was a good build-up to that game with a close win over Oregon State and as we’ve building up and winning close games and fighting through some adversity,” DeBoer said. “We were learning about ourselves and how we can get through it. That one (the win over the Ducks) certainly put us over the top in the belief and the trust in what we were doing at that point,”

Washington is 8-0 since that win in Eugene and the Huskies look for their 13th straight win overall, while the Ducks will be trying to halt all of that momentum.

Photo Gallery: The Ducks had a great time with their big 55-10 rout over the Rainbow Warriors

Photo Gallery: The Ducks had a great time with their big 55-10 rout over the Rainbow Warriors.

Oregon wanted to make a statement in its last non-conference game of the season right before the grind of the Pac-12 season begins.

The Ducks made that statement and then some with a 55-10 win over Hawaii in front of a sold-out crowd inside Autzen Stadium Saturday night. Bo Nix was an efficient 21-of-27 passing for 247 yards and three touchdowns, with two of those scores going to Tez Johnson.

While the offense was lighting up the scoreboard as usual, it was the defense that was perhaps the most impressive as they kept the pass-happy Hawaii offense off the board for most of the night. Only a late touchdown put the Rainbow Warriors in double figures.

Here is an exciting night of Oregon Duck football in photos.

Where Autzen Stadium ranks among biggest stadiums in Big Ten

Autzen Stadium holds a lot of prestige and respect, but the Ducks will now travel to “the cathedrals of college football.” Here’s what they can prepare for.

With the Oregon Ducks announcing earlier this week that they will be joining the Big Ten in 2024, everything we know about the Ducks’ frequent opponents changes. One of the fundamental things that will shift, is the venues Oregon will visit during away games.

On Monday, Oregon’s defensive lineman Casey Rogers — who spent three seasons playing for the Nebraska Cornhuskers — said that the Big Ten is home to “the cathedrals of college football.”

While the Pac-12 has plenty of impressive football stadiums, the Big Ten is home to some of the largest football stadiums on the planet, amateur or professional, which breeds a different atmosphere on Saturdays than any Oregon fan will be used to.

Below is the stadium of every team that will be in the Big Ten for 2024, the city it is in, and the capacity.

Ducks predicted to be part of two loudest games in 2023 college football season

The Oregon Ducks are expected to play part in two of the loudest games of the 2023 college football season.

We all know Autzen Stadium can be as raucous of an environment as any in the nation when it comes to a Saturday night in the fall. When the Oregon Ducks are rolling and a big-time opponent comes to town, few places in the nation can compare to Rich Brooks Field.

When looking at the landscape of games in the 2023 college football season, 247Sports recently predicted which stadiums would play host to the loudest games of the year. Based on the matchup, the magnitude, and the size of the stadium playing host, it’s not hard to guess which places ended up on the list.

Unsurprisingly, Oregon’s home game against the USC Trojans on Nov. 11 made the list. What will likely be a top-15 or a top-10 matchup should set the stage for one of the best games of the year.

Autzen Stadium is special in the fall as one of college football’s most underrated environments. When reigning Heisman winner Caleb Williams and the Trojans come to town, that’ll be the Pac-12’s single-most difficult ticket on the secondary market — and for good reason. Oregon fans will be rabid in this one as every throw from Williams could have USC’s playoff hopes hanging in the balance. The same goes for Bo Nix and his own Heisman opportunity. This is a must-watch game in the Pac-12.

Of course, Oregon is also picked to be involved in one of the loudest games of the year outside of Autzen Stadium when it travels to Seattle to face the Washington Huskies in Husky Stadium.

One of two Pac-12 environments that should be borderline chaotic this fall, Husky Stadium has a way of trapping sound with fans essentially riding on the shoulder pads of players given the way this venue’s structure is built. If you’ve been on field level for game day, the volume is deafening when Washington is elite — and that’s the expectation in 2023. This could be a preview of the league championship game unless USC or Utah has something to say about it.

When the Pac-12 teams are good, the fan bases are as loyal and rowdy as almost any in the nation. With the top of the conference expected to be as good as they are this year, we should be in for a very fun season.

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Pac-12 has sent some greats to play Oregon inside Autzen Stadium

There have been so many great players from all of the 11 other Pac-12 teams to make their way through Autzen Stadium. These are some.

Autzen Stadium opened its doors for the 1967 season and ever since the Pac-12 (Pac-8 and Pac-10) Conference has had so many great players make their way into Eugene.

In doing a podcast with TrojansWire.com editor Matt Zemek, we discussed the history of USC vs. Oregon as the Trojans will be playing their last season in the Conference of Champions. USC makes its way to Autzen in 2023 and it could be the last trip to Eugene for quite a while.

We mentioned towards the end of the podcast that Reggie Bush might be the absolute best opposing player we’ve seen play against the Ducks. He was unstoppable.

That led to the thought of who was the best player to make their way through Autzen for each conference team. It doesn’t mean they had a big game(s), however and we could have gone a number of places with this. But below is the 11 memorable conference opponents to meander their way through Autzen Stadium.

Here’s the latest edition of Trojans Wired.

Autzen Stadium ranked as one of the top atmospheres in college football

Autzen has had the reputation of being one of the toughest places to play for opponents, but how does it rank with other stadiums?

Before the Autzen expansion in 2002, the stadium was figured to be one of the loudest stadiums in college football. When the capacity increased to 56,000, that noise level went to an 11.

But how does the home of the Oregon Ducks compare to other places in the country in terms of atmosphere? There are stadiums with a lot more people inside and the atmosphere of those places can’t hold a candle to Autzen.

According to CBS Sports, there are a few places that rank a bit higher than the friendly confines of Autzen Stadium, but not many. As expected, Autzen ranks as the best stadium on the West Coast, beating out the Rose Bowl.

Here are 10 college football stadiums around the nation with the best atmospheres.