Thirteen
By 
2016 has not been kind to Oregon football. It began with one of the worst defeats in the history of the program. That defeat exposed major problems with the Ducks, primarily the inability of the defense to matchup against a barely competent offense, and the inability of the offense to move when it had anyone but Vernon Adams under center. The offseason brought some hope; Prukop looked as good or better than Adams on paper, and arrived in Eugene much earlier. The Ducks hired Brady Hoke as defensive coordinator, apparently under the theory that the defense couldn’t get any worse, and that Hoke would help if he could be kept away from concussion-prone players. The offense had legitimate weapons, although there were big questions about the line.
Nothing has really worked out. Prukop has apparently peaked at adequate-but-uninspired, and still looks periodically lost in the offense. The line hasn’t been good. A questionable decision to use Olympian Devon Allen as gunner on punt coverage predictably led to a season-ending knee injury. The run game, at least, has been fine. It turns out, however, that a terrible defense that loses a first round draft pick on the line can, in fact, get worse. The Ducks lost close at Nebraska, close at home against Colorado, and not-so-close in Pullman against the Cougs.
The broader news about the program hasn’t been much better. The whole “crazy uniform thing” seems about played out. Recruiting has suffered. NFL success has been uneven; Vernon Adams, despite enthusiastic recommendations by some analysts, was not drafted. He found a home in Montreal, but did not play extensively in his first year. Chip Kelly has a job, I suppose, and to his credit he’s handled the Kaepernick controversy well. The 49ers are awful, though, and there doesn’t seem to be any indication that they plan to get better in the near future. Marcus Mariota, uneven but promising in his rookie year, has not played well this season. The Titans combine terrible coaching with terrible offensive personnel, but even given those constraints Mariota hasn’t looked good. LaMichael James’ professional career appears to be over.
There are some bright spots; Armstead and Buckner have developed (despite injuries), and Kenjon Barner has found a role in Philadelphia. Kiko Alonso is playing well in Miami. Hopefully Dion Jordan will work his way back into football shape.
And today we get the Huskies, unbeaten, fifth ranked, and angry. The twelve game winning streak has been the centerpiece of the Late Bellotti-Kelly-Helfrich era. Few of the games in this streak have been close. Some 25% of the world’s population has never had to endure a Husky victory in this series. But this game… it’s not looking good. The current line is Ducks +10, and as your Responsible Gambling Advisor, I’m not going to tell you to bet on Oregon. Oregon may start QB Justin Herbert, true freshman, for the first time. If the Ducks lose, and especially if they lose by anything close to the margin of the UW-Stanford game, it’s going to get very ugly for Mark Helfrich. To be honest, it’s not hard to see this team go 3-9.
But hey, that’s just reality talking. Farley the Duck Fan believes that the Ducks are better than this, that either Prukop or Herbert will have enough weapons available to open up the passing game, and that Royce Freeman will run roughshod. Farley the Duck Fan expects the admittedly excellent Huskies to choke under the pressure of breaking a program-defining losing streak. And most importantly, Farley the Duck Fan believes in the Spirit of Kenny Wheaton:
Go Ducks!