This Saturday will feature the 117th game in what many consider to be the biggest college football rivalry on the West Coast —  the Washington Huskies vs. Oregon Ducks. The two universities in Eugene and Seattle are separated by 285 miles and an approximately five-hour drive.

In the 124 years since the two teams began facing off, Washington has won 63 times, Oregon has won 48 times and they have tied five times. At home, Washington’s all time record in this rivalry is 34-30-4, and Oregon’s home record is 18-28-1. 

Their first game in 1900 was played in Eugene, and the Ducks dominated with a 43-0 win. Washington holds the largest blowout in the rivalry with their 66-0 win in 1974, while Oregon holds the largest winning streak which lasted 12 games from 2004 to 2015.

The majority of lifelong Ducks fans would say the most iconic moment in all of Oregon’s rich football history was a play on Oct. 23, 1994 that is known today as “The Pick.” 

At the time, the Huskies came into the game ranked at No. 9 in the nation and held a five game winning streak over the Ducks. Unranked Oregon clung to a 24-20 lead with just over a minute remaining in regulation and Washington had the ball in the red zone. Quarterback Damon Huard took a shot towards the endzone and the pass was intercepted at the 3 yard-line by defensive back Kenny Wheaton, who ran 97 yards for the game-sealing pick-6.

At the end of the first quarter of every Ducks’ home game, fans get to relive this priceless moment in Mat Kearney’s “Coming Home” video as broadcaster Jerry Allen’s voice echoes throughout Autzen Stadium, “Kenny Wheaton’s gonna score! Kenny Wheaton’s gonna score!” Oregon would go on to make their first Rose Bowl appearance in 37 years.

Unfortunately for the Ducks, it’s been a few years since a game-changing moment went their way. Their last win over the Huskies was in 2021 when they won 26-16 in Seattle during Mario Cristobal’s final season as head coach. 

Current head coach Dan Lanning is 0-3 against Washington, and all three games were decided by three points. Lanning has just two losses against other teams during his time in Eugene, and they were both in his first season. Washington is also the only team who has beaten Lanning at Autzen Stadium. 

This past summer, both universities embraced a new challenge by joining the Big Ten. Oregon has fit right in and has not lost a game since the Pac-12 Championship Game. For Washington, the transition hasn’t been as smooth.

In addition to losing a lot of their talent from the past couple years to the NFL Draft, head coach Kalen DeBoer accepted a job coaching at the University of Alabama. The coaching job at Washington was taken over by Jedd Fisch, who previously coached Arizona and took them from a one-win team to a 10-win team.

Despite his previous success, Fisch has found himself in a serious decline with the reigning National Championship runner-ups.

Washington currently sits at 6-5. Quarterback Will Rogers has thrown for 14 touchdowns and 7 interceptions while being sacked 18 times. Running back Jonah Coleman has rushed for 1,008 yards and 9 touchdowns, while wide receivers Giles Jackson and Denzel Boston have combined for 1,427 receiving yards. It is still a talented team, but it doesn’t compare to last year.

Washington will finish the season undefeated at Husky Stadium, where they haven’t lost since their last loss to Oregon in 2021. On the flip side, they do not have a win on the road or on neutral fields this season.

The No. 1 Ducks are looking to continue that narrative and finish off their first 12-0 regular season since 2010 with some long awaited revenge over the Huskies.

The No. 1 Ducks (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten) continued their rampage through the Big Ten in their inaugural season on Saturday, dismantling Maryland (4-5, 1-5 Big Ten) 39-18 in front of their home fans. 

A somewhat sloppy, penalty-filled contest was won on the backs of defensive turnovers and some crafty trick plays. 

Maryland won the coin toss and elected to put its offense out right away. The Oregon defense was having none of it and forced a 3-and-out, but Maryland caught a break when the Ducks’ special team unit was called for roughing the kicker to keep the drive alive. The Terrapins marched down the field, but the Ducks came up with a redzone stop to hold Maryland to a 37-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead.

The Oregon offense had a slow start, going 3-and-out on its first possession, but the defense held its ground. The Ducks’ offense was ready to go on the next drive, covering 92 yards on 14 plays including a 4th-down conversion at the 40-yard line. It ended on a 3-yard touchdown run by Jordan James.

“We were calling the plays we normally call,” head coach Dan Lanning said about the first drive. “They just didn’t work.” He didn’t seem overly concerned about the slow start.

With the Ducks’ leading receiver — Tez Johnson — out, it was up to other guys like Evan Stewart to step up. Stewart finished the game with 55 receiving yards and a touchdown.

“I’ll definitely have to look back at it and see how I can help [the depleted receiving room] and how we can help each other,” Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel said.

Gabriel finished with 183 passing yards on 23/34 attempts. He threw for a trio of touchdown passes and had an impressive passer rating of 142. He also broke the NCAA passing touchdown record with his 139th touchdown pass.

On the next drive, Maryland was facing 3rd-and-6 at the Oregon 38-yard line when Jordan Burch came up with a strip sack, leading to a 62-yard scoop-and-score from Brandon Johnson. A huge, momentum-building moment handed the Ducks a 14-3 lead.

With just over three minutes remaining in the first half and the help of three costly penalties against the Ducks’ defense, the Terrapins finally scored their first touchdown of the game. The Autzen crowd made its displeasures heard on a controversial pass interference call in the endzone that put the ball at the 2-yard line.

Again, Oregon had an answer.

The Ducks’ offense took the field and marched 75 yards on 12 plays. It ended with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Gabriel to Terrance Ferguson on 3rd-and-goal to take a 21-10 lead into halftime.

“I think there’s a little bit to [the team’s mindset],” Dillon Gabriel said. “And I think that when there is a pass interference call, and maybe you don’t necessarily agree with it, those are situations where you gotta have it, and put a drive together.”

“It’s been a long time coming,” Ferguson said of his first touchdown reception from Gabriel on the year. “It’s been a drought for the tight end room, and for us to finally connect on a touchdown was an amazing experience. Dillon is doing stuff at an elite level, so to be a part of that … it was really nice to finally connect with Dillon in a game for a touchdown.”

The third quarter has been the worst quarter for the Ducks this season, which remained true when they went 3-and-out to start the second half. They appeared to have the same fate on their second drive, but a fake punt allowed Jordan Burch to run for 36 yards and give the offense a huge momentum boost. With the help of two penalties against Maryland, five plays later, a 3-yard pass to offensive lineman Gernorris Wilson put the Ducks back in the endzone. Then, another lineman, Josh Conerly, took a direct snap and ran it in for a two-point conversion to go ahead 29-10.

“We’ve been running that play for a minute now,” Wilson said, “I’ve had a lot of time to get ready and get things done, but I didn’t really believe it was going to actually happen … so I was happy to get the experience.”

“That’s been rolled up for about three weeks,” Conerly said regarding his two-point conversion, “So a lot of practice on it … It went how it went in practice.”

Maryland got within field goal range on its next drive, but opted to go for it on 4th-and-9. The defense stepped up once again for Oregon and the Ducks got the ball back at their own 25-yard line. On the other end, it was Oregon’s turn to go for it in four-down territory, but Gabirel’s pass went wide and the Ducks too were stopped short.

On the next drive, the Terrapins finally converted on 4th-and-2 in the redzone, and four plays later found the endzone. A roughing-the-passer penalty on the touchdown pass put Maryland in a great position to pick up a two-point conversion and cut the deficit to 11.

Oregon did not score on the next drive, but on the third play of Maryland’s next drive, an interception by Tysheem Johnson put the Ducks right back in the redzone. They were held to a field goal, but Jestin Jacobs got the next pick on the next possession for the Ducks’ defense. This time, they did find the end zone one more time five plays later on a 17-yard touchdown pass to Stewart.

“I always say ‘turnovers come in bunches’,” Lanning said. “They came in bunches tonight.”

The two late turnovers put Oregon’s 10th win on ice. The Ducks will stay unbeaten for their next game in Madison, Wisconsin against the Badgers on Nov. 17. Kickoff is set for 4:30 PST.

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Saturday’s matchup between Oregon and UCLA was their first as members of the Big Ten. The two teams played each other 71 times over the years as conference opponents in the Pac-12 before transitioning into the Big Ten just under two months ago.

Despite its name, it has been a very long time since the Big Ten actually had 10 schools. Headquartered in Illinois, the conference primarily consisted of schools in the Great Lakes states. It expanded to the East Coast in 2014 with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers, bringing the conference up to 14 schools. This year, it officially added four West Coast universities.

UCLA and USC were the first Pac-12 schools to make their move when they announced they were joining the Big Ten in June 2022. A little over a year later, Oregon and Washington joined the party. These changes all became effective Aug. 2, 2024, bringing the conference to 18 schools, and covering 2,800 miles.

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti stated, “We are excited today to officially welcome the University of Oregon, UCLA, USC, and the University of Washington to the Big Ten Conference. All four institutions feature a combination of world class academics and athletics.”

In addition to a new conference for the athletes, joining the Big Ten opened the door to more research opportunities for the students and faculty. The Big Ten Academic Alliance leads the country with more than 75,000 staff members, 810,000 students, $17.4 billion for research expenditures, and 145 million library volumes. The Big Ten and SEC provide more money for their schools than any other conference.

The obvious downside to this move is that it calls for a lot more travel. In the Pac-12, there weren’t any schools east of the Rocky Mountains, and the longest trip between any two schools was a two-hour flight. 

Now, the teams are required to make several cross-country trips per season. Not only is that more time and energy for the student-athletes, but many of the smaller sports don’t have the funding for that type of travel. While this definitely makes the situation more challenging, the coaches and players of the former Pac-12 teams refuse to use this as an excuse not to compete at a high level.

Fox Sports commentator Joel Klatt broke down how these conference realignments were the result of poor decision making within the Pac-12 Network. 

“The Pac-12 made a poor decision with their own network where they didn’t get the distribution that they needed, and because of that, the value and the revenue distribution was not there per school. When that happened, then the teams didn’t get the revenue, nor the exposure that they expected or needed.”

Klatt went on to explain that the collapse of the Pac-12 was a continuing domino effect that started in 2021 when the Universities of Oklahoma and Texas announced their move from the Big 12 to the SEC, which made the Big 12 and Big Ten want to expand as well.

The four new schools have combined for 302 NCAA Championships across all their sports and had a total of 49 olympic athletes this past summer. In football, they have combined for 10 Heisman Trophies, 73 College Football Hall of Famers, 41 Rose Bowl wins, and 173 first-round picks in the NFL Draft, six of which were this year.

UCLA entered the Big Ten as the No. 1 ranked public university by US News & World Report for seven consecutive years. It’s the most applied-to university in the country and has more than 700 student-athletes competing in 25 sports. It holds 123 NCAA national championships, which ranks No. 2 in the country. Its football team came to Autzen Stadium two years ago as the No. 9 team and lost 45-30 to the No. 10 Ducks. Now in a new, bigger conference, former faces meet again.