It’s said every college football season when it comes to Oregon versus Washington.
It’s husky week and the venom between these two teams and fanbases runs deep.
And even more so this time around.
Two Top 10 teams doing battle to determine, at least for now, who the superpower is in the final season of the Pac-12 Conference.
On Saturday, No. 8 Oregon visits No. 7 Washington in one of the most heated rivalries in college football.
The winner will certainly be in the driver’s seat for the conference championship.
And, oh yeah, there’s also another piece of the puzzle hanging in the balance – a top seed and shot at the college football playoff.
In his second year of this Pacific Northwest rivalry, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning understands the underlying vitriol but also continues to preach his message of this being just another game.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s necessary” explained Lanning on Monday when asked if he places any extra emphasis on this matchup.
“I think every one of our players knows exactly what this game means to them personally in that room. And also to everybody that’s a Duck fan. They want to win. When they step on the field it really doesn’t matter who we’re playing. They want to go out there and compete at a high level.”
And this Oregon defense will have to compete at a high level to shut down Heisman hopeful QB Michael Penix Jr if they want to come out of Montlake with a win.
“They probably give the biggest variety of pre-snap motions and shifts of any teams we’ve played so far this year,” said Lanning.
“They have a great deep passing attack, but I think Mike ( Penix ) also has the ability to get rid of the ball when he does have pressure on him. So I do think he knows,…when somebody’s free he knows where it’s coming from and he does a good job of eluding that pressure.”
“There was a couple times last year we had him hemmed up and we didn’t finish. He did a good job of avoiding,…and he probably doesn’t get enough credit for that.”
WATCH MONDAY’S PRESSER WITH DAN LANNING