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 Oregon DucksOregon Ducks maintain No. 1 spot in College Football Playoff rankings Ryan Clarke | The Oregonian/OregonLive Updated: Nov. 12, 2024, 6:14 p.m. Amid upsets and deck shuffling across college football, the Oregon Ducks sit undisturbed atop the latest College Football Playoff rankings. Oregon remains No. 1 in the CFP rankings, the selection committee announced Tuesday night on ESPN’s live rankings reveal show. The Ducks (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten) are a unanimous No. 1 in both the AP and Coaches polls after beating Maryland 39-18 this past Saturday. As the projected Big Ten champion, Oregon would have a first-round bye and automatic bid into the 12-team playoff. The No. 1 seed Ducks would play in the Rose Bowl, where they would take on the winner of a Dec. 20 or 21 first-round playoff matchup between projected No. 8 seed Tennessee and No. 9 seed Notre Dame. Under the new College Football Playoff rules, the five highest-ranked conference champions receive an automatic bid, and seven additional teams receive at-large bids based on the committee’s rankings. The four highest-ranked teams among the conference champions receive a first-round bye and bid into a regionally advantageous major bowl game, played on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1. First round games for seeds 5-12 are played at the higher seed’s home field. If No. 1 Oregon were to advance beyond the Rose Bowl, the Ducks would have their pick of this season’s CFP semifinal sites: the Cotton Bowl and the Orange Bowl, held on Jan. 9 and 10 in Dallas and Miami, respectively. The CFP national championship game is on Jan. 20 in Atlanta. |
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Escaped an upset 11-0 |
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Sports psychology x.com |
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Rivalry game today But rivalry games are unpredictable and the Huskies have won the last three meetings. Quack quack 🦆 |
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Well And Ohio State got clobbered |
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Zorro www.youtube.com |
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Actually |
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Undefeated Quack!! m.youtube.com |
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Oregon stands as the only undefeated FBS team left. Will it stay that way following Saturday? AP Photo/Lydia Ely What does Oregon need to do to win? Played indoors at Lucas Oil Stadium, the Big Ten championship game often favors teams with superior speed. Oregon checks those boxes and can also match opponents at the line of scrimmage. The Ducks recorded their biggest win of the season against Ohio State by challenging the Buckeyes' secondary with receivers Evan Stewart and Tez Johnson, who combined for 14 receptions, 224 yards and two touchdowns. Oregon needs to force Penn State's defensive backs to stop downfield passes. The Ducks' defensive line has held up very well against the run, allowing 81 rushing yards or fewer in five games. Oregon allowed explosive runs to Boise State's Ashton Jeanty and Ohio State's TreVeyon Henderson and will need to limit Penn State's talented tandem of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. Penn State lacks the wide receiver threats that Ohio State had, but tight end Tyler Warren presents a major matchup problem for most defenses. Coach Dan Lanning and coordinator Tosh Lupoi must craft a plan to limit Warren. What does Penn State need to do to win? Since the start of the 2023 season, Penn State leads the FBS in yards per rush allowed (2.66). The path to beating Oregon starts with stopping Jordan James, who averages 5.7 yards per carry with 13 touchdowns and, while not a burner, consistently gains yards. Penn State ideally wants to mimic what Wisconsin's defense did against the Ducks. The Badgers twice turned away Oregon in their own red zone and allowed only one play longer than 25 yards. Penn State must make Oregon work for its points and ideally play a low-possession game in which field position, takeaways and special teams become the difference. The Lions also need innovation from offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who has been masterful in using Warren and getting more out of quarterback Drew Allar, despite some limitations at receiver. Penn State will need to generate some chunk plays against an Oregon defense that has been susceptible to them through the air. -- Adam Rittenberg |
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Quit whining Dan Lanning: 'Shame on You' to SEC Teams Complaining About College Football Playoff Rankings Dec 6, 2024 1:09 PM EST The past couple of months in the world of college football have been filled with fans and now coaches complaining openly about the weekly College Football Playoff rankings, and where their team stands. Whether it's Lane Kiffin tweeting his thoughts about Ole Miss, or Mario Cristobal complaining that Miami should be considered for the postseason, this is the time of the year when coaches turn into lobbyists, and try to campaign their way into a championship opportunity. Well, most coaches, at least. One coach wants nothing to do with that. And fortunately, his team is so good that he hasn't had to get on a soap box and talk about why his squad is deserving of making the playoff. Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks let their perfect 12-0 record do all of the talking. This past week while giving a radio interview ahead of Oregon's game against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Big Ten Championship, Lanning was asked about the relationship between the SEC and ESPN, and the fact that many ESPN pundits have been pining for 3-loss SEC teams to get into the playoff over other deserving teams. To Lanning, none of this comes as a surprise. “They pay the bills, right?" Lanning said on The Bald Faced Truth, with John Canzano. "Doesn’t the (ESPN) pay their bills? I mean, who’s their contract with? Isn’t that ESPN’s contract? So that’s how it works. Like, let’s not pretend like it doesn’t work different than that." ESPN and the SEC are certainly in business together, and it behooves the sports network to get as many SEC teams into title contention as possible. So while the No. 1 Ducks aren't benefited by that relationship as members of the Big Ten, Lanning has a solution to being on the outside of the cozy love-affair between the SEC and ESPN. "Just win," Lanning said. "Just win. They can’t deny you if you just win. You can’t complain if you just win. So, you know, if you lose three games, shame on you, right? If you lose two, shame on you. Right? Win.” It's pretty hard to argue with that logic. So far, Lanning and the Ducks have just been winning this season. They are the only team in the nation to finished with a 12-0 record in the regular seaso, and they stand as the current favorites to win the national championship at the end of the year. So while other coaches around the nation, particularly in the SEC and ACC, are going media appearances and stating the case for why their team should be considered for the playoffs, Lanning and his team are sitting back and focusing on what matters in the end — winning. At this point, the record speaks for itself. |
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Penn State Hopefully. Should he a good ganez Quack |
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Coach Dan Lanning 34-5!! |
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Quack quack 🦆 🦆 🦆 🦆 |
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Great game Highlights m.youtube.com |
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Bracket College Football Playoff bracket revealed: Oregon No. 1 overall, SMU gets in over Alabama Ralph D. Russo The first 12-team College Football Playoff will include SMU but not Alabama. The Crimson Tide were the first team out of the field when the selection committee released its final ranking Sunday, setting the bracket for the first expansive, pro-style playoff in the history of major college football: four rounds, 11 games over one month. “We looked at the number of wins Alabama had against ranked opponents. We looked at SMU’s schedule — they were undefeated in conference. Their losses were to ranked teams. But we also looked at Alabama’s losses to unranked teams. It was quite a debate,” committee chairman Warde Manuel, who is Michigan’s athletic director, said on ESPN’s selection show. Unbeaten Oregon of the Big Ten will be the No. 1 seed, followed by SEC champion Georgia at No. 2, Mountain West champion Boise State at No. 3 and Big 12 champion Arizona State at No. 4. They will all receive first-round byes to quarterfinals that will be played in traditional bowl games on Dec. 31 and Jan. The first-round games played at campus sites on Dec. 20-21 will be: No. 5 Texas versus No. 12 Clemson, which earned its bid by winning the ACC on a walk-off 56-yard field goal Saturday night. The first meeting between the Longhorns and Tigers will be played Saturday, Dec. 21. The winner goes on to face Arizona State in the Peach Bowl. No. 6 Penn State versus No. 11 SMU, which slipped in as the final at-large selection ahead of the Crimson Tide even after its heartbreaking loss to Clemson. The game will be the first of a tripleheader on Saturday, Dec. 21. The winner will face Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. No. 7 Notre Dame versus No. 10 Indiana in an infrequently played in-state battle. The Fighting Irish and Hoosiers have played 25 times, but only once (1991) since 1958. The winner goes on to face Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Notre Dame will host the first game in the new format on Friday night, Dec. 20. No. 8 Ohio State versus No. 9 Tennessee in an SEC-Big Ten matchup that will be played as the tripleheader nightcap on Dec. 21. The winner plays Oregon in the Rose Bowl. The semifinals will be played Jan. 9 at the Orange Bowl and Jan. 10 at the Cotton Bowl. The latest championship in college football history will be played Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. After conference championship games were played Friday and Saturday, the only drama that remained for selection Sunday was between Alabama and SMU. In one corner, the mighty Crimson Tide, with 13 national championships, six since 2009. In the other, the Mustangs, who needed almost four decades to work their way back from the NCAA death penalty to playing power conference football. After losing 34-31 to Clemson on a last-second field goal in Saturday night’s ACC Championship Game, the Mustangs (11-2) ended up being ranked 10th in the committee’s final Top 25, two spots lower than they were coming into the weekend but one ahead of the Crimson Tide and good enough to grab the final of seven at-large bids. “When the announcement happened, honestly, I got emotional, just because I’m so happy for our kids,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said on ESPN. Alabama was ranked higher than No. 12 Arizona State and No. 16 Clemson, but those teams earned their way into the field by winning their conferences. Alabama (9-3) touted its strength of schedule that included three victories against teams the committee ranked, including SEC champion Georgia. The Crimson Tide also lost twice to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, neither of which broke .500, in their first season since legendary coach Nick Saban’s retirement. SMU didn’t beat any teams ranked by the committee, but the Mustangs’ only losses were by a combined five points to BYU and Clemson, with a combined record of 20-5. “We value strength of schedule, which is why Alabama with three losses is ranked ahead of other two-loss teams,” Manuel said. In the committee’s final Top 25, the Tide were also ranked ahead of No. 13 Miami (10-2) and No. 17 BYU (10-2). Alabama made the four-team CFP eight times in 10 years. A year after Alabama bumped unbeaten Florida State out of the final version of the four-team CFP, the ACC got the benefit of the doubt over coach Kalen DeBoer’s Tide. The Big Ten put four teams in the field (Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State and Indiana), the SEC three (Georgia, Texas and Tennessee) and the ACC two (Clemson and SMU). The Big 12 was the only Power 4 conference that ended up being a one-bid league. |
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Quack By Dennis Dodd 13 hrs ago • 5 min read INDIANAPOLIS -- The season basically began for Oregon here in Indy five months ago. The school kicked things off by inflating a 1,600-pound Duck (capital D) that floated ominously on the White River during Big Ten media days in July. The obvious message from the new birds on the block: Game on, Big Ten. Its latest game ended Saturday night with a much more significant and ominous message for the entire country. These Ducks are built for more than floating. They can fly, too. Conference champs, swamping Penn State 45-37. New conference? No problem. Now comes the hard part: Not only winning the waterway and the league, but winning it all. With the victory, Oregon will go down as the first No. 1 seed of the expanded playoff era. Based on recent history, that and five bucks will get you a Panera gift card. The No. 1 seed in the old four-team format won exactly four championships in 10 years. (For what it's worth, all four have come in the last five seasons.) You can imagine how tough it will be in a 12-team field playing three more games over a month's time. Still, there is something to be said for surveying the landscape from the mountaintop at this point. And the rarified air Oregon occupies is thus: It is the betting favorite to be the first first-time national champion since Florida in 1996. In a season of parity, Oregon was the best of the best. It won a shootout Saturday with the offensively challenged Nittany Lions, but who cares how it looked? Georgia had to survive two straight overtime games to make the field. Only three other teams in the discussion have even one loss -- Notre Dame, Indiana and Boise State. MORE: Sorting out the drama in College Football Playoff projections SMU had its heart broken against Clemson in the ACC Championship Game, but its effort might be enough to nudge Alabama out of the field. While there was discourse and upheaval and social media outcry below them, the Ducks kept quacking. Seven of their wins came by three touchdowns. Their biggest game, aside from Saturday night, came in a one-point thriller against Ohio State on Oct. 12. A week later, the Ducks ascended to No. 1 and have been there since. Now what? The Ducks receive a first-round bye and play a quarterfinal game Jan. 1, most likely in the Rose Bowl. Nothing new there. Oregon and Marcus Mariota blew out Florida State in the Rose in the first-ever CFP almost 10 years ago. This will be the Ducks' ninth trip to Pasadena for the postseason. But starting Sunday in Grapevine, Texas, No. 1 is just a number. The games are the thing, not a Tuesday night conference call. Undefeated means little. Oregon can't afford a loss, just like everyone else. But someone has to be the favorite. Ohio State was supposed to be here but turtled against Michigan. It's four years and counting since the Buckeyes won the Big Ten. Penn State's effort Saturday was laudable, but James Franklin is now 1-14 against top-five teams. Heck, Penn State most likely would have been the No. 1 seed had it survived the Ducks. "We are the best team in the country," Oregon receiver Tez Johnson proclaimed amid the confetti at Lucas Oil Field. It was that kind of year. Alabama lost three times and still entered Saturady with a playoff conference. Arizona State went from worst to first in the Big 12. Clemson backdoored into the ACC Championship Game and won the dang thing. One of the original BCS busters, Boise State, is playing for a national championship for the first time. Meanwhile, the Ducks won a 130-year-old conference in their first season. "We expected this," tight end Terrance Ferguson told reporters. "We had goals of being in this championship game." Literally while that Duck was floating in the river last summer, Ferguson's family was visiting here and had the idea to rent a house, assuming Oregon would be back. "I told my family I was coming back to win a championship. We had the team to do it," Ferguson told CBS Sports. "I booked it for them. I told them, 'We're going to be here anyway for media days. I want to be back.'" That's confidence without planting a flag at midfield. The Ducks changed conferences. They didn't change philosophies. Coach Dan Lanning has built a program that dominated the Big Ten and could clearly win the SEC. The coach also built a reputation as the No. 1 motivational speaker in the game and a sterling recruiter. For the third time in the last six years – over the course of two coaches – the Ducks won their league. Five times in that span, Oregon has played for the conference title. Lanning has been known for taking risks. Those failed risks were arguably the difference in the Ducks missing last year's CFP. They lost twice to Washington -- including by three in the Pac-12 Championship Game. The Huskies lost their coach (Kalen DeBoer) and declined. The Ducks retooled and didn't blink. They won the first league championship game between two top-three teams in 12 years. It was the first ever outside the SEC to win such a game. He not only embraced the portal; Lanning ruled it. Johnson came from Troy. Johnson caught 11 passes for a career-high 181 yards Saturday to become the game's offensive MVP. Cornerback Jabbar Muhammad came from Washington. Gabriel came from UCF and Oklahoma. An invite to New York for the Heisman ceremony should arrive shortly after Gabriel threw a season-high four touchdowns. "Yeah, once," Gabriel said when asked if he had ever been to New York. "You want to make it twice?" Defensive end Matayo Uiagalelei became the most famous Uiagalelei in his family this season in posting an All-America-worthy season. He was one of three first-team All-Big Ten Ducks. (Gabriel and offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr. were the others.) You should understand how difficult it was to go undefeated this season. Every team in the SEC had at least one loss by Halloween. Everyone in the Big 12 had at least two losses. Alabama lost most visibly to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. Ohio State is likely to host a first-round playoff game, but the season feels like a failure to some after another Michigan loss. Four Big Ten teams have started 12-0 – ever. The last was 22 years ago (Ohio State). Aside from that, you have to go back to 1902 (Chicago) and 1904 (Minnesota). Oregon got to 13-0 by being as invested as anyone. Perhaps more so. They were just quieter about it. Oregon patron saint/benefactor Phil Knight, 86, is all in on getting the Ducks to the promised land before, well, before any more time passes. Oregon is this season's last team with a zero attached to its record. Will it stay that way? For the first time, major college football enters a multi-bracket progressive playoff where it's win or go home. Where does Oregon go from here? "It's the new day and age," Gabriel said. "I guess we'll figure it out." |
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Heisman candidate James Crepea | The Oregonian/OregonLive Published: Dec. 09, 2024, 3:57 p.m. One year since the day he committed to transfer to Oregon for his final season of college football, Dillon Gabriel is a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. Oregon’s quarterback is one of four players headed to New York City, where the 90th winner of the top individual award in college football will be presented Saturday night (5 p.m., ESPN). Gabriel is joined by Colorado receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and Miami quarterback Cam Ward. On the anniversary of his decision to come to Oregon, Gabriel reflected on the last year. “To take a step back and look you understand that there’s a why behind where we’re at, and that’s the work we’ve put in,” Gabriel said. “The countless hours of grinding to learn this offense, to be around the guys, to connect with others so that we can go into the season feeling really good. I also look at all the plays that were made. Special teams don’t get here just because they play normal games and dominate consistently. There’s ups and downs. There’s adversity. There’s loss of players. The whole season has its own challenge within the day, within the week. Gosh, you appreciate the journey; the work to get just to where you are right now, where your feet are. Because you understand that you put in all the time and effort. You’ve sacrificed. You wanted to accomplish this goal. “Far from over, but one of our goals was win every game and winning the Big Ten Championship and putting us in a good spot. I think when I look back I trusted my heart and it’s always done me right. I’ve trusted coach (Dan) Lanning and that initial phone call and we got in person and talked, he hasn’t changed. He doesn’t change for no recruit spiel. Who he was is who he is and I appreciate that the most. Then when you get around the guys, that’s the most fulfilling part. I smile every day because I truly enjoy going into the building everyday. I enjoy working with those guys. I love putting in the work, the time, the energy. I love mature conversations from the veterans. I love the young guys who keep us young. It’s not because of success. It’s because of the way we’re able to create a positive environment for anyone. That to any athlete, to any player, that’s where people thrive and that’s why success has been happening.” |
