Oregon is Playoff Bound 12/1/2025

Psalm 136:1,26 (King James Version)

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Oregon punched its ticket to the College Football Playoffs by beating their Northwest Rival Washington. It is only fitting since this was the team which brought the most frustration to Oregon during the 90’s when it was moving from the bottom 10 to respectable and finally winning its first Pac Championship in ‘96.

Growing up in Eugene has been an experience watching Oregon go from nobodies to the darlings of the country. Back in the day Eugene was a fitness capital being TrackTown USA hosting Olympic Trials pretty much every four years. Bill Dellinger was a legend in the track world and Steve Prefontaine put Oregon Track and Field on the map.

Where else in America or the world would you have a sold-out track stadium for a duel meet between Oregon and USC, UCLA, or Washington State? Where else would you have people screaming and yelling or have rhythmic claps while runners ran the 1500 or 5000? Eugene is a special breed of people who love athletics and sports since most have competed at one level or another whether it be running, biking, or hiking there were plenty of opportunities with the surrounding hills and mountains to challenge yourself.

The screams from the fans would will runners to win and fans watched athlete after athlete exceed their personal bests and pull victories out of losses again and again. One of the runner was a miler from Portland named Phil Knight.

This yelling and clapping spread to Mac Court and the basketball teams with the Kamikaze Kids who overplayed their talent upsetting UCLA twice when they were multiple National Champions where Ronnie Lee became a legend in Eugene as the place was the loudest gym on the West Coast.

Once the FB team started becoming competitive the same loud crowds turned Autzen into the toughest place in the Pac to play. Oregon became the experimenters for Nike shoes and they would get the latest technology and were test subjects for that technology leading to the newest uniforms with everything focused on making athletes faster and stronger.

The FB team had innovative coaches from Mike Belloti who brought the pro-style offense to college and Chip Kelly with his spread to even out the talent shortages. How do you recruit against places like LA or the SE where they have tens of millions of people when you have maybe 2-3 million spread over 100,000 sq miles? You need gimmicks to get those kids to move to Eugene rather than SC.

Once Nike U became known and began winning on national TV they got a following for having great Unis and incredible speed. What looked like a handicap became an asset when you could tell kids they could be like Rocky against the Russian, you can move a hundred miles from anything and train for four years to become the best athlete you can become. You are in Eugene a town of 200,000 at the end of the Willamette valley with nothing to do except train and increase your speed and skills for a pro career. Parents loved the idea of their kids moving away from the city traps and get as far from them as they could.

Oregon soon became the nation’s darlings. They were that team with cool unis from out west somewhere on the Oregon Trail and fun to watch. Now all the top athletes want to be a Duck and are one of the top watched teams since everyone knows they are going to see spectacular plays and Autzen has become one of the bucket list stadiums for most college FB fans.

This team has the best player from Georgia, Bama, LA ,TX, OH, PA and every other state. Most think it is just NIL money yet it is far more than that. The kids all say they dreamed of playing for Oregon since they were little. This little engine that could back in the day have become the Cinderella for FB fans nationwide and are pulling for them as the playoffs begin.

One of the funniest lines after the win, Bryce Boetcher the walk-on All America was wearing a CCU tee and the reporter asked what it meant. He said he and free safety Thieneman had them made stood for Caucasian Collision Unit with a picture of both of them in uniform. QB Dante Moore could not stop laughing at that one. It was one of the funniest lines ever in sports.

Pray for Oregon’s Revival