Instant Reactions: Ducks outplay Liberty in Fiesta Bowl as Nix, Irving shine

Instant Reactions: Oregon blows out Liberty 45-6 in the Fiesta Bowl and ends the season on a high note.

It was Liberty 6, Oregon 0 before Bo Nix touched the ball.

Forty-five straight points later, the Ducks had pasted Liberty 45-6 in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. Nix broke all sorts of school records, including the single-season pass completion percentage record.

He threw for four touchdown passes in the second quarter alone and receiver Tez Johnson made Duck fans forget about Troy Franklin for a moment. Johnson finished the game with 11 catches for 172 yards and a touchdown.

While the offense was moving up and down the field with relative ease, the Oregon defense had one bad possession, the opening possession, but after that, the Flames never had much of a chance. The Ducks took the spread-option out of the game for the most part and limited quarterback Kaidon Salter’s play-making abilities.

2024 Safeties Outlook: Ducks need to find some help in the portal

Oregon is in some serious need of an immediate infusion of talent and experience when it comes to the safety position for 2024.

The 2023 season is now behind us, and while there is still a bowl game to be played — The Fiesta Bowl vs. The Liberty Flames — Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks are working hard on the construction of their roster and hitting the transfer portal in attempts to formulate what this team will look like going into the 2024 season, the team’s first year in the Big Ten Conference. While they work on bringing new players in via the transfer portal, we want to look at the future breakdown of each position, detailing current players on the roster, incoming recruits, and potential targets on the market right now.

So far this offseason, we’ve broken down the future of the Quarterbacks, Running backswide receivers, tight ends, offensive line, cornerbacks, defensive line, and edge rusher. Now let’s focus on the safeties.


Oregon has some recent success with the transfer portal in getting safeties to come to Eugene and make an immediate impact and the Ducks need to most likely do it again for the 2024 season.

They lose a lot of talent at that spot due to graduation and outgoing transfers. While the players on the roster are talented, they are lacking in experience for the most part. It’s not a spot you want to be in as you go into the Big Ten Conference. Securing the services of a couple of safeties in the portal might be almost as important as getting Dillon Gabriel at quarterback.

Here’s a breakdown of Oregon’s safety position going into 2024, and some transfer targets that the Ducks are looking at.