Rivalry games in any sport are special. They pit familiar foes against each other, with fans from neighboring area codes, elevated stakes, and pride on the line.
Rivalry games in college football are a different beast. When you get hometown fanatics yelling across the fence at one another, competition for trophies like The Golden Egg (Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State), The Little Brown Jug (Michigan vs. Minnesota), or The Bronze Boot (Colorado State vs. Wyoming), it’s clear that emotion is likely to take over. We’ve seen rivalry-fueled bad blood lead to historic trees being killed in Auburn and trimmed hedges in Athens.
Rivalry Week is here in the 2024 college football season, and it’s a special time.
That’s as true as ever for the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies, who will be playing for the 117th time on Saturday. It’s a battle for Northwest supremacy, and while meaningful stakes in the grand scheme of the College Football Playoff race may not be on the line, this 2024 meeting between Ducks and Huskies might carry more emotional weight than any we’ve seen this century.
Despite what Dan Lanning and his players will tell you.
“Ultimately, it is another game,” Lanning said in his press conference on Monday night. “It’s the next game.”
He’s not wrong. But anyone expecting the Oregon head coach to dive into the emotions of this rivalry clearly hasn’t been listening to him speak to the media over the past few years.
What about his players?
“Every week is the next biggest week,” right tackle Ajani Cornelius said on Tuesday. “We’re ready to take on that challenge and do our best to play our best game.”
That’s some elite coach speak from one of the savviest vets on the roster.
What about a former Washington Husky who experienced this rivalry from the other sideline?
“It’s just another game, honestly,” cornerback Jabbar Muhammad said on Tuesday. “I’m just ready to go out there and compete with my bros.”
This will be the second “Cascade Clash” — or whatever you want to call the nameless rivalry between Oregon and Washington — for both Cornelius and Muhammad, a pair of players who transferred to Eugene in recent years. Seeing them walk the straight-and-narrow was expected, and props to them for doing it so well.
What about someone who has lived in this rivalry for his entire college career? What would one of the only players on this roster who was around the last time the Ducks beat the Huskies — all the way back in 2021 — have to say about it?
Jeffrey Bassa, what can you tell us?
“It means a lot,” Bassa said.
Yes.
“It means a lot to all of the players who have come before us, and all of the alumni,” Bassa continued. “It means a lot to the state of Oregon, to the Pacific Northwest. Facing these guys the last three times, it has not come out to the result we wanted. We know what’s ahead of us, and we’re focused on this week, tremendously. We’ve got to take care of business.”
Thanks, Jeff.
Bulletin board material is often used in college football, with snippets and soundbites being pasted on locker room walls each and every week of the year to try and instill motivation into players. We know that Lanning is well-read on all of the tricks of the trade, expertly detailed in each and every week’s ‘Ducks vs. Them’ cinematic recap.
So while I commend both Cornelius and Muhammad for sidestepping on Tuesday, and avoiding any sound bite that gives this weekend’s matchup between Oregon and Washington more weight than it deserves, I am especially grateful to Bassa for saying something that we all know to be true.
This 2024 matchup between the Ducks and Huskies means more.
After a gut punch in 2022 was followed by a double-serving of heartbreak in 2023, how could it not? Dan Lanning is 33-5 in his coaching career at Oregon, but 0-3 vs. Washington. Oregon was 8-1 going into Lanning’s first career game against Washington with aspirations for a CFP berth. A misplayed ball from Bennett Williams and an unfortunately timed injury to Bo Nix aided in a 37-34 loss at home, leading the Ducks to unravel at the seams.
2023 was worse, if you can imagine, with a game-tying field goal kick from Camden Lewis sailing wide right as the winds gusted off of Lake Washington in October, sending the No. 8 ranked Ducks home with a second-straight loss to the No. 7 Huskies, 36-33.
An attempt at revenge came in Las Vegas at the start of December in the last-ever Pac-12 Championship Game. Washington left as 34-31 winners and went on to make it to the College Football Playoff, and the National Championship Game before falling to the Michigan Wolverines.
Three games. Three losses. All by three points.
And you want us to believe that this game isn’t more important than any other on the schedule?
I know what players have been encouraged to say, and I appreciate that they are as buttoned up and well-coached when speaking to the media as they are on the field.
This weekend, the No. 1 Oregon Ducks are hosting their final regular-season game at Autzen Stadium, and looking to send the seniors off on a high note against a team that happens to be located 285 miles away. The two teams have happened to play each other 116 times. One of those teams has won 63 times, the other has won 48 times. They’ve tied five times. One team will clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff with a win — but still likely get in with a loss — while the other is playing for pride. All of these things are facts.
You know what else is a fact? That this interaction of Oregon vs. Washington has some extra juice.
That Oregon fans want this win over Washington more than they have in a long time. That Dan Lanning knows he can’t truly be accepted in Eugene until he beats the Huskies. That the Ducks could live in a world where they go on to win the first National Championship in program history later this year, but unless it is accompanied by a victory over that team from Seattle, there would be an asterisk next to it.
Dan doesn’t have to say any of that for it to be true. Because on Tuesday, Jeffrey Bassa admitted enough for me to feel vindicated in the thought that this one means more.
“You always feel that sour taste in the back of your mouth,” Bassa said, when asked about the last three years. “We know it’s not the same team from last year, but it’s the same program.”
Thank you for being honest, Jeff. Now, on to Saturday.
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