Tag: Oregon Bowl Game

Stock Report: Which Ducks impressed the most in Holiday Bowl win over North Carolina?

From Bucky Irving to Keith Brown to Terrance Ferguson, it’s clear that several Ducks made a statement to close the 2022 season.

Throughout the season, we often spend the morning after Oregon Duck football games looking back at the contest and determining the players who did the most to improve their standing and those who hurt their standing in a “stock report” format. We look at the tape, the stats, and the general outlook of the game, trying to highlight those who stood out the most and those who can stand to get better.

After the Holiday Bowl victory over North Carolina on Wednesday night, a 28-27 thriller that came down to the final seconds, we don’t want to do that, though. It’s the end of the season, and we want to stay positive. Of course, there are several players who didn’t play to the peak of their powers, but we’re not going to focus on that today. Instead, we want to look at players who impressed us the most and used the final game of the season to boost their stock going into the long off-season.

Here are the guys who stood out in the bowl game victory:

12 Oregon players who could be poised for a breakout in the Holiday Bowl

Every year, we see a handful of young guys show their true potential in the bowl games. Who are those players going to be for the Ducks on Wednesday?

There are a lot of college football fans who have grown frustrated with the way that the bowl game landscape has changed over the past few years, where it becomes the norm for veteran players to often opt out of the game with eyes on the NFL draft, and teams often dealing with depleted rosters because of the transfer portal.

While those complaints are valid, bowl games are still incredibly fun to watch for a lot of fans because it gives an opportunity to see some players you may not be used to. While the regular season doesn’t usually see underclassmen and freshmen get on the field, there’s a chance that we could see a lot more of that this week for the Oregon Ducks.

“Certainly, there’s gonna be a lot of young guys out there for us for both teams,” coach Dan Lanning said on Tuesday. “there can be negative connotations with who’s in and who’s out of these games, but I’d rather see the end of the positive side. That’s the side of some young guys are gonna get opportunities that all year have been sitting there waiting for their chance. You hope that they’ve done everything they can to prepare themselves for that moment.”

When Lanning and his squad go up against the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Holiday Bowl on Wednesday afternoon, both sides will be without a number of key players. The Ducks have had guys like CB Christian Gonzalez, LB Noah Sewell, and DE DJ Johnson declare for the NFL Draft, while others like WR Dont’e Thornton and TE Moliki Matavao have transferred to new schools or are in the portal.

That leaves a lot of spots to fill on the field, and we can assume that the players lower down on the depth chart will likely get a chance to prove themselves. In essence, this game against the Tar Heels is sort of like a spring game in a sense, giving Oregon fans a chance to see who some of the next best players will be. Last year in the Alamo Bowl vs. Oklahoma, we saw Troy Franklin have a major impact, acting as a launching pad.

Here’s who I think could end up having a breakout game against North Carolina:

Bowl Projection Round-Up: Where each Pac-12 team is slotted to play ahead of last regular-season games

There are a lot of bowl game ramifications riding on this last week of the regular season. Here’s where everyone is projected to land at the moment.

The Pac-12 is among the strongest conferences in the nation this season.

At this point, six of the 12 teams in the Pac are ranked inside the top 25 in the nation which is the most of any conference. The USC Trojans are in contention to make it to the College Football Playoff, and a handful of other teams have a shot to make it to a New Year’s Six Bowl Game as well.

Things could get interesting in the coming weeks, though.

While USC faces a tough matchup against Notre Dame, and Oregon heads to Corvallis to battle the Oregon State Beavers, the Pac-12 Championship game will have major ramifications for whichever team is going to get to which bowl game.

At this point, here is where everyone in the Pac-12 is projected to land.