It was a moment Josh Huff said he has dreamed about ever since he was a little kid.
Tonight, in a game marking the last time he would ever play at Autzen Stadium, in a year where he has been in the spotlight for not just his on-field performance, the senior wide receiver from Houston, Texas, scored the game-winning touchdown to give the Oregon Ducks a 36-35 win over the Oregon State Beavers in the 117th Civil War.
“It’s everything that I have dreamed of,” Huff said in the post-game press conference. “As a little kid growing up in the backyard playing with my dad and my cousins, we would always go with that scenario and it finally came true … To think about the note that I left out on, it’s pretty amazing.”
With 29 seconds left in the game, quarterback Marcus Mariota found Huff for a 12-yard touchdown.
“All week I have been talking to Marcus,” Huff said. “When we are down and need a big play, just look at me.”
Huff finished the game with nine receptions for 186 yards and three touchdowns. After his performance tonight, Huff became the ninth Oregon player to earn at least 1,000 yards in a single season.
When asked about how to describe his emotions Huff said, “I have no idea. They’re happy, I can tell you that.”
When asked about Huff’s effort in tonight’s win, fellow teammate and Oregon cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu said that they had a talk at halftime and Ekpre-Olomu believed he responded to it.
“I just said we got to keep working. You are one of the leaders of this offense. You got to keep their heads up and keep moving,” Ekpre-Olomu said. “You are going to have obstacles in your way, but when it comes down to it who is going to make that big play? And he was able to do it.”
Freshman Thomas Tyner, who filled in for an injured Byron Marshall, echoed similar thoughts about Huff.
“He had a big role throughout the whole game,” said Tyner. “The way he finished and played … it helped us push through. He led the team.”
Mariota said that on the final touchdown, the Beavers came out in a look where he knew he would have Huff across the field. However, according to Mariota it was a bad throw and Huff made a great catch.
“I said ‘Thank you, man, because that would of looked bad if you didn’t catch it,’” Mariota said in the post-game press conference. Although Huff disagreed and jokingly said that it’s the best throw Mariota has made all season.
“That guy is a warrior,” Mariota said. ”He’s been doing plays like this his whole career. I have all the confidence and all the trust in the world in that guy.”
Huff, who has been known for being a player with a lot of emotion, said this moment is one he plans to remember for a while.
“It’s definitely up there with one of the best games I have been in. I’m going to be able to tell my kids about it and thery’re are going to be able to tell their kids,” Huff said. “It’s just amazing to go out on top and do it with my teammates. Ones that I have played with, ones that I have cried with, ones that I have went to battle with. I am always going to remember this moment.”
After making headlines for his comments about the Ducks going to the Rose Bowl a few weeks ago, Huff said that he went out there tonight to play for his teammates despite a lot of negative reaction to his controversial comments.
“He had something to prove, so to speak,” head coach Mark Helfrich said. ”He had a couple of rough games and obviously said a couple of things he wished he would have said differently.”
Huff has made an imprint on the Oregon football program, although according to Huff it has done so much more for him.
“This program, it changed me, it changed my life in so many ways,” Huff said.
Follow Beth Maiman on Twitter @bethamaiman