Washington Huskies – Syndication Server

ESPN ‘College GameDay’ crew makes picks for Oregon Ducks vs. Penn State Nittany Lions

The ESPN College GameDay crew made their official picks for the showdown between No. 1 Oregon and No. 3 Penn State Nittany Lions.

The No. 1 Oregon Ducks have a major opportunity on Saturday afternoon, looking to win the Big Ten Championship Game in their first year as members of the conference.

A win would not only give the Ducks an official place atop the conference, but it would clinch the No. 1 see in the College Football Playoff and a first-round bye in the postseason. They will have to beat the Penn State Nittany Lions to do so, which will be no easy task.

ESPN’s “College GameDay” was in Georgia for the matchup between the Bulldogs and the Texas Longhorns, but they still spent some time on this game and previewed what will go down.

ESPN’s “College GameDay” crew made its picks for Saturday’s winner in the Autzen. Here’s how they selected:

Desmond Howard: Oregon
Pat McAfee: Oregon
Nick Saban: Oregon
Guest Picker Timothy Chalamet: Oregon
Kirk Herbstreit: Oregon

The game between Oregon and Penn State kicks off at 5:00 p.m. PT on CBS in Indianapolis.

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Oregon flips Washington 4-star OT Zac Stascausky after blowing out Huskies

The Oregon Ducks picked up a big recruiting win over the Washington Huskies, flipping 4-star OT Zac Stascausky.

The Oregon Ducks picked up a big win over the Washington Huskies on Saturday night, blowing out their rival 49-21 and getting their first victory in the series since 2021.

On Sunday, they continued to beat Washington, this time on the recruiting board.

4-star offensive tackle Zac Stascausky announced that he was flipping his commitment from Washington to Oregon, joining the Ducks’ top-10 recruiting class in 2025.

Stascausky is rated by 247Sports as the No. 164 overall player in the 2025 class, and the No. 19 OT. Standing at 6-foot-6, 275 pounds, he brings a high ceiling with him in Eugene.

He is also the second Husky that Oregon has been able to flip from Washington this year. In November, Dan Lanning got a commitment from 4-star tight end Vander Ploog, flipping him from the northwest rivals as well.

With the addition of Stascausky, Oregon now has the No. 7 ranked recruiting class in the nation, and they are looking to flip several more players before the early signing period on Wednesday.

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Photo Gallery: Ducks hammer Dawgs at a chilly Autzen Stadium

Photo Gallery: The Oregon Ducks hammered Washington at a chilly night inside. Autzen Stadium.

It was a chilly Autzen Saturday for the last day of November, but it was the Ducks that gave the Huskies the cold shoulder.

Oregon defeated the Washington Huskies for the first time in four tries and the first victory over the Dawgs in the Dan Lanning Era. The Ducks dominated the Huskies in the second half en route to a 49-21 victory to secure their first perfect 12-0 regular season since 2010.

The Ducks scored on their first possession on Noah Whittington’s 9-yard run and never looked back. Despite the chilly temperatures, the 59,603 inside Autzen Stadium didn’t care. Oregon was defeating the Huskies and for a few moments, everything was right in the world.

Here are the best photos from the regular season finale in Eugene.

Bryce Boettcher’s supercharged effort makes him the Ducks Wire Player of the Game

After a stunning 11-tackle performance, Oregon Ducks LB Bryce Boettcher earns the Ducks Wire Player of the Game.

The best college football recruits — the ones with five stars next to their name — typically come from a handful of recruiting hotspots such as Texas, Florida, and California. The Oregon Ducks are filled with 5-and-4 stars from those football factories, but on occasion, the Ducks’ most important players come from places much closer to home.

So many players made massive contributions in Oregon’s 49-21 victory against the Washington Huskies — the Ducks’ first in three years — but Bryce Boettcher, who was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, shined above the rest. With 11 tackles, 2 TFLs, a sack, and a forced fumble, Boettcher’s performance was the best performance by an Oregon defender of the day and perhaps the season.

Boettcher’s forced fumble may have been the most important play of the game. Oregon was struggling for momentum early on against the Huskies, leading 7-6. After a few drives, the Ducks punched in a second touchdown, making the score 14-6 in the second quarter.

On the first play of Washington’s following drive, Boettcher flicked the ball out of Huskies’ RB Jonah Coleman’s hands, allowing Derrick Harmon to recover the fumble. The Ducks quickly extended the score to 21-6 with a Jordan James touchdown, and the Huskies were zapped of momentum from that point on.

Growing up in Eugene, Boettcher excelled in many sports, but his talents were always brightest on the baseball diamond. In high school, Boettcher earned an offer to play baseball at Oregon, and after enrolling at UO, he worked hard to make the Ducks football team.

Boettcher’s first football season in 2022 was uneventful, but in 2023, and especially 2024, Boettcher has been an invaluable member of the Oregon defense. Over the last two seasons, Boettcher has compiled 119 tackles, 10 TFLs, 3 sacks, a pick, and two forced fumbles. His total of 11 tackles on his senior night against the Huskies is tied for the most in his career.

His other 11-tackle game? Oregon’s other rivalry matchup of 2024: the Ducks win over Oregon State Beavers on Sep. 14th.

After the 2024 baseball season, Boettcher was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 2024 MLB Draft. Despite a strong 2023, Boettcher’s play in centerfield was still seen as his primary talent. These days, it’s hard to know if Boettcher is more valuable in football or baseball, but against Washington, he showed he has the chops to play football at the pro level.

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Oregon’s 3 Keys to Victory against the Washington Huskies

The three most important things for the Oregon Ducks to do against the Washington Huskies to ensure defeat.

It really feels like the college football season just began and the Oregon Ducks were struggling to seal the deal against Idaho. But the Ducks — and the rest of the college football world — have come a long way from early September, and Oregon has just one regular season game to go before an important postseason.

The Ducks’ Week 14 opponent doesn’t have a great record (6-5), but this week’s game still holds a lot of weight. Oregon is hosting the Washington Huskies — their top rival — who they haven’t beaten since 2021. Oregon Head Coach Dan Lanning has never won against Washington, so a win on Saturday would be a big milestone for him.

The Huskies have taken a major step down this year from their run to the National Championship game last season, but they’re skilled enough to challenge Oregon if the Ducks aren’t careful. Below are my three keys to an Oregon victory this Saturday.

Run the ball well

The only Big Ten team with a better pass defense than Ohio State is the Washington Huskies. Allowing just 160.5 passing yards per game, it’s not easy to pass on the Huskies. Oregon will be the best passing offense Washington has faced, but it will still be easier for the Ducks to get things done on the ground — which the Huskies are the fourth-worst Big Ten team at defending. I’d like to see Ducks’ RBs Jordan James and Noah Whittington combining for 20-25 carries on Saturday.

Pressure Will Rogers

Washington quarterback Will Rogers is one of the worst quarterbacks in the Big Ten when pressured by the opposing team, completing just over half of his pressured throws. The Ducks have prolific pass rushers in their front seven who will need to have a big game. If Oregon can get to Rogers early and often, it will be arduous for the Huskies to move the ball.

Prevent Big Plays

Oregon’s defense had been good all year at bending without breaking, and against the Huskies this week, preventing the big plays will be paramount. One of Will Rogers’ biggest strengths is his deep ball, and an easy way for Washington to stay in this game will be long-bomb TDs. If the Ducks can keep everything in front of them, and keep up their QB pressure, they’ll succeed in this game.

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Previewing the Washington defense ahead of Saturday’s showdown

Washington has had a tough time on the road, but the defense should still plenty of problems for Oregon to solve on Saturday.

Washington is undefeated at home and winless on the road. That difference isn’t because of the defense, however.

The Huskies will bring one of the better defenses in the Big Ten into Autzen Stadium as Washington visits Eugene on Saturday. They are giving up barely 20 points a game, but in their last road game, the Huskies gave up 35 to Penn State.

There will be a different dynamic in this game with the Huskies looking to make it four straight over the Ducks. They’ll attempt to shut the Ducks down at Autzen, something no team has yet been able to do. Wisconsin might have provided a blueprint, but Oregon was playing its eighth straight game in as many weeks and it was in one of the tougher road environments in the conference in Camp Randall.

None of those factors will play a part on Saturday. Oregon, as did Washington, enjoyed a much-needed bye week and the Badgers didn’t have to contend with Tez Johnson at wide receiver. He’s expected to be back for this game coming off a shoulder injury.

Tez or no Tez, Washington brings a good secondary with them. Opponents are averaging just 160 yards through the air against the Dawgs. They are led by corners Ephesians Prysock, a transfer from Arizona and senior Thaddeus Dixon. Defensive backs Cameron Broussard, a transfer from Sacramento State and Jordan Shaw, a redshirt freshman are also expected to start for the Huskies.

“They’re really sound and they understand the strengths and weaknesses are of every defense they call,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said of the Washington secondary. “They also do a good job of changing it up. They can play zone and man. I just think they’re extremely well-coached.”

Linebackers Carson Bruener and Alphonzo Tuputala are the heart of the Huskies’ defense with Bruener leading the team with 86 tackles and three interceptions. Tuputala has 69 tackles and 3.5 sacks. But according to Lanning, it’s Bruener that makes that defense function.

“He’s an active player. Those guys make those that play around them better,” he said. “What you see is 11 guys playing the same call at the same time. It sounds easy, but it’s not as easy as it looks at times.”

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Oregon Ducks unveil black and silver uniforms for Rivalry Week vs. Washington Huskies

The Oregon Ducks are breaking out a black and silver uniform combination for Week 14 against the Washington Huskies.

The rivalry game between the No. 1 Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies may not hold major weight as far as the College Football Playoff race goes in 2024, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a team that Dan Lanning and his team want to beat more than that squad from Seattle.

After three-straight losses to the Huskies over the past two years, this is a massive opportunity for the Ducks, not only to complete an undefeated regular season in their first year as members of the Big Ten but also to get Lanning a win over his biggest rival finally.

The Ducks are showing up to the party on Saturday afternoon dressed to impress.

On Wednesday night, Oregon unveiled the uniforms that they will be wearing for the rivalry matchup, breaking out the chrome helmets for the second time this year to go along with the black ‘Fly Era’ uniforms, and brand-new grey pants.

Oregon Ducks Rivalry Week Uniforms

The game between Oregon and Washington kicks off at 4:30 p.m. PST on NBC.

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30 years after ‘The Pick,’ Oregon looks ready to snap another Washington win streak

A look back at the ups and down of one of college football’s great rivalries: the Oregon Ducks vs. the Washington Huskies.

The biggest unknown when conference realignment made its way into college football was how the long-standing rivalries that give the sport its juice would be affected.

When the Oregon Ducks moved to the Big Ten, it effectively killed the Civil War — the annual game between instate rivals Oregon and Oregon State. Sure, the Ducks played the Beavers in Corvallis this September, but I think we can all agree that the game just didn’t feel the same. But, there were some positive repercussions of conference realignment for the Ducks.

This year, and for the foreseeable future, Oregon will play the Washington Huskies during rivalry week (the final regular season game of the season) instead of Oregon State. Many Ducks fans feel Washington is Oregon’s chief rival, and the Ducks and Huskies’ move to the Big Ten allows the right game to be played during rivalry week.

Oregon and Washington have played 116 games in their history, beginning with a 43-0 Ducks victory in 1900. Since that first game, the Ducks have won 47 more games, the Huskies have won 63 games, and five have ended in ties.

While the Ducks lead the series in the 21st century 16 to seven, the last two seasons have been all Washington. The Ducks and Huskies have played three times since 2022, with all three games going to Washington — each by a margin of three points.

All three losses diminished — or crushed — Oregon’s College Football Playoff hopes, particularly the Ducks’ most recent loss in the Pac-12 Championship Game last December. Instead of Oregon in the playoff, it was the Huskies who advanced to the National Championship Game.

Ducks Head Coach Dan Lanning has accomplished a lot, with a 33-5 record and two bowl wins accenting his resume, but short of the National Championship itself, Lanning has one last hill to summit: beating Washington. Lanning’s risk-seeking nature has brought the Ducks a lot of success, but in Oregon’s three losses to Washington during his tenure, Lanning’s dice rolls (particularly on fourth-and-short situations) have hurt the Ducks more than they’ve helped.

Of course, there’s far more history to the Cascade Clash than the last two seasons. The most famous play in Oregon football history came against Washington in 1994. With Washington on a five-year win-streak, the Ducks finally had a chance to knock off the Huskies with a 24-20 lead late in the game, but Damon Huard and the Huskies were driving. Just when it looked like Washington would score a TD and continue their streak, Kenny Wheaton — a freshman cornerback — picked the ball off and housed it.

Since that October day in ’94, the play is known simply by Ducks’ fans as, “The Pick.”

This year, Washington doesn’t have the power to snuff out Oregon’s College Football Playoff hopes. Even with a loss in Autzen, the Ducks are still playoff shoe-ins, but that doesn’t mean this game is any less important. Rivalry games like this are a big reason why fans turn on their TVs and buy season tickets. The Huskies are unranked and facing down the barrel of a .500 season, but a Ducks victory on Saturday is still essential to the growth of Oregon’s program.

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Previewing the Washington offense before Saturday’s game in Eugene

Washington has the pieces to become a good offense, but for whatever reason, it hasn’t quite all come together yet.

Washington’s offense was as prolific as any offense in the country last season with Michael Penix at quarterback.

The key word in that sentence is was.

Without Penix and a handful of receivers that left after the 2023 season, the Huskies have had a difficult time replacing that talent, and the offense on the whole has suffered.

Replacing Penix is Will Rogers, a senior transfer out of Mississippi State. While he is nowhere near what Penix did for the Huskies, Rogers is having a very good season in his own right despite being benched a couple of times in favor of true freshman Demond Williams, Jr.

Rogers is completing 71 percent of his passes good for 2,458 yards and 14 touchdowns, but it’s those seven interceptions that has caused first-year coach Jedd Fisch to go to the true freshman from time to time.

In the ground game, the Huskies feature one of the best tailbacks Oregon is going to face, according to Oregon coach Dan Lanning. Besides Ashton Jeanty of Boise State, Washington’s Jonah Coleman is one of the better running backs that appears on the Duck schedule. The transfer from Arizona hasn’t disappointed. He has a career-high 1,007 yards and nine touchdowns.

Washington has a good tailback, a better-than-average quarterback, and the Huskies have a pair of receivers that can do damage as well.

Wide-out Denzel Boston had plenty of reasons to transfer out of Washington with the coaching change and the uncertainty of his role as a first-year starter. But he stuck it out and now leads the Huskies with 764 receiving yards and nine touchdowns.

On the other side of the field is receiver Giles Jackson, a veteran who started his career at Michigan in 2019. After two seasons in Ann Arbor, Jackson found his way to Seattle. This season, he leads the team with 68 catches, good for 663 yards and two touchdowns.

Oregon vs. Washington means more in 2024, despite what Dan Lanning’s Ducks will tell you

The Oregon Ducks vs. Washington Huskies game means a bit more in 2024, despite what Dan Lanning and his players will tell you.

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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