It’s not yet game week, but the Ducks are starting to think about the season opener with Portland State.
The Oregon Ducks football team officially starts to prepare for its season opener after an off-season that has seemed to last longer than usual.
It’s not quite game week yet, but the Ducks are thinking about that season-opening game against Portland State. The Vikings are quite the contrast compared to last season’s opening opponent, the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs. The contest will be in Autzen, not Atlanta, and the Ducks will be overwhelming favorites.
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said that Oregon will not overlook its FCS opponent from the northern part of the state.
“One thing, when you play Game 1’s, who are you going to see, who are they going to be? Each team is different, especially in college football now, from the last year to the next year,” he said. “I will say this, I have a lot of respect for their coach and their coaching staff. They’ve been there for a long time. They have some continuity there. There’s been some moving parts, but they do a good job, and they do have some explosive players on their team.”
Quarterback Bo Nix was asked about what success looks like when you play an opponent that you are expected to not only defeat but to defeat by a lot. Nix is already starting to sound like a coach.
“Run the ball to win, have some explosive plays, win situational football, don’t beat ourselves, don’t have any penalties, don’t turn the ball over, just do what we’re supposed to do and it will be a fun day,” Nix said. “We’ll put ourselves in a great position. We’ll be in good shape and go into Week 2 having some confidence and building off Week 1. We’re going to each week as a very important game and we just want to win.”
The Week 2 matchup will be a sneaky tough one as the Ducks will go down to Lubbock, Texas and face the Red Raiders of Texas Tech. The more confidence the Ducks have coming into that road game, the better.
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