Dan Lanning and his Ducks handled their business at home on Saturday, beating No. 15 USC by 15 points to inch closer to a College Football Playoff berth.
ESPN’s College GameDay was in Eugene for the game. All eyes in the sport were on the Ducks.
But that may have also had something to do with the schedule. Oregon-USC occupied the mid-day slot on CBS. ABC, which has dominated the major networks in all 3 windows this season, aired a blowout Texas win over a winless (in league play) Arkansas team.
The SEC had an uneventful weekend. Three teams played FCS opponents. Georgia played a 1-9 Charlotte team. South Carolina blew the doors off Coastal Carolina. It was a quiet week ahead of what should be a loud Week 14.
Lanning doesn’t seem to be much of a fan of the late-season cupcakes.
“We didn’t play Chattanooga State today like some other places,” Lanning said in his postgame presser. “We competed.
“It’s tough playing 9 conference games. It’s tough playing in this league. And we got to take advantage of playing a good team today.”
For years, coaches in the Big Ten have made similar comments in November. The Big Ten plays all its conference games at the end of the season. The SEC, with an 8-game league schedule, usually has a lighter week later in the year.
Big Ten coaches have claimed their way is tougher. Oregon, for what it’s worth, played Montana State in Week 1 and then faced one of the worst Oklahoma State teams in program history in Week 2.
Lanning’s contention, however, seems to be that facing USC a week before traveling to Washington on the road in a rivalry game is a bit more challenging than, for instance, facing Eastern Illinois a week before traveling to Auburn.
Alabama ran the football 49 times in a 56-0 win over the Panthers. The Crimson Tide were probably able to look ahead and spend some time working on Auburn prep throughout the week. Oregon had to keep all of its focus on USC.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
