The Oregon coaching staff and players will never say it publicly, but they’d like nothing more than to march into Allegiant Stadium this Friday evening in Las Vegas and pummel the Utah Utes on national television much like they pummeled the Ducks two weeks ago in Salt Lake City.
The Ducks left Utah battered, bruised, humiliated and humbled after reaching a national ranking of No. 3 in the country and sitting comfortably on the doorstep of the college football playoff.
That dream crumbled though after a 38-7 beat down at the hands of the Utes who used their physicality and toughness to hand the Ducks their second loss of the season.
But as karma and the sports gods would have it, the Ducks get a second shot at the Utes and with a win this time around comes a third Pac-12 title and a most coveted invitation to the Rose Bowl on New Years Day.
And while the oddsmakers, and college football in general, don’t give the Ducks much chance of winning on Friday, there’s an old adage that plays in their favor.
It’s extremely difficult to beat the same team twice in one season.
The Ducks and head coach Mario Cristobal understand that.
“I think as the year goes on, every week there’s always, whether it be a fair amount or just a tinge of carry-over from week to week as it relates to people playing you” explained Cristobal when asked about meeting the Utes for a second time in the span of three weeks.
“Sometimes it’s drastically different when you watch an Oregon State or Washington State, all the stunts and live movements that they have,…that’s different, you know. But there’s a significant amount of pressure from Utah on first and second downs, as well as third downs,…and great exotic looks on third downs that are hard and hard to block.
So, there’s always carry-over. There’s always retention. But it is a brand new game with coaches that are working on both sides because everybody wants it, right? Everybody wants it, and wants it bad.”
And while some may believe you can cruise into a second match-up with basically the same game plan hoping to execute it better a second time around.
That’s not really the case for Cristobal and his staff.
And although Cristobal would never release complete details of his game plan, he did say on Monday during his meeting with the media, that the preparation is sometimes more targeted inward.
“The preparation,…yeah there’s some,” said Cristobal.
“You have to prepare for what you see. You probably have to spend a lot of time self-scouting to see how people have attacked you throughout the entire season because whatever has hurt ya, is bound to show up in a championship game, right? Whatever has affected you in what you do and what is your staple, is bound to show up.”
INJURY UPDATE
Heading into Friday’s Pac-12 title contest, Cristobal provided an update on the status of several players who were injured Saturday versus Oregon State, or players who’ve been out for several weeks.
The biggest news that was released was the significant improvement of safety Bennett Williams. Cristobal said Williams has been making incredible strides for his return which won’t be this week, but likely a return for a bowl game.
In other injury news, Cristobal gave a thumbs up for defensive stalwarts Noah Sewell, MyKael Wright, and D.J Johnson telling reporters each is good to go this week. In addition, Cristobal said LB Keith Brown will be a game-time decision on Friday versus Utah.
MONDAY PRESSER WITH MARIO CRISTOBAL