Home-and-Home: It's Oregon vs. Washington, minus the sizzle?

Our semi-regular conversation with Christian Caple of On Montlake.

Home-and-Home is a regular conversation between Christian Caple of On Montlake and Tyson Alger of The I-5 Corridor. With more than two decades of combined experience covering football in the Northwest, join On Montlake and The I-5 Corridor for their unique views on the Ducks, Huskies and Pac-12 football.

ALGER: Caple, greetings.

I’m writing this from Big 12 Country — we’re visiting some family in Tucson for Thanksgiving before flying back on Friday for the game — and it has me feeling a bit nostalgic for what we once had. I know it had to bother you as much as it bothered me this season seeing all those East Coast writers fire off their sightseeing tweets from the Alcatraz Ferry while we, the former Pac-12 media corps, transitioned into our new lives of getting hyped for yet another trip to the Midwest.

The Corridor just booked its tickets to Indianapolis for next week’s championship game. I think I miss Vegas. And Boulder. And Tempe. And Berkeley.

Anywho.

The travel schedule is one of the only things one can shake your head at during this first year in the Big Ten from an Oregon perspective. The Ducks are No. 1. They got their showcase game (Ohio State) at Autzen and are fully basking in the spotlight of being the conference’s shiny new toy.

On the other hand, it’s been an expectedly tough season for Washington as it made its transition from Kalen DeBoer to the Jedd Fisch era. And while I would assume most of the fanbase understands the challenge the Huskies faced this year, I’m curious what the level of Big Ten excitement stands for you all up north nearly a season into this thing?

Are the fans still into it? You did the entire road schedule this season — are you chomping at the bit to do it again?

CAPLE: It was worth it in some ways. Penn State earns its reputation as a bucket-list road trip, and the “White Out” only heightened that experience. Kinnick Stadium is a great place to see a game. Indiana was sold out and rocking. So was Rutgers, and they’ve got a pretty sweet pregame boardwalk there. I always enjoy seeing a college campus for the first time. Same with the stadium and press box. It’s been a fun little tour.

The logistics, though, aren’t so fun, especially after growing accustomed to direct flights and minimal driving in most Pac-12 cities. I can’t remember the last time I rented a car on four road trips in the same season. At least we got two or three hours back on those long flights home.

As for the fans, there are a variety of opinions. Some have said they’ve enjoyed seeing UW play against different schools. I know plenty who miss the Pac-12, but probably still liked seeing the Huskies take down Michigan at home. Others flat-out hate life in the Big Ten. The Huskies being 0-4 (and counting) in conference road games probably doesn’t help.

It all has me looking forward to Saturday morning, and a familiar drive down the interstate to yet another sold-out stadium. Yet it’s hard to say this feels like all that big of a game. There’s just no real juice, you know? Oregon is undefeated and ranked No. 1, and Washington is 6-5. The Ducks are 18.5-point favorites. These teams played two all-timers last season, but this year’s game doesn’t really mean anything in the big picture. The Ducks could even lose and still wind up the No. 1 seed in the CFP, and the Huskies can’t do much better than merely being bowl eligible, which they already are.

Is that where you come down? Or is the Oregon vengeance factor enough to make it more interesting?

ALGER: There would be a vengeance factor if UW could petition for one last game of Michael Penix Jr. eligibility. A lot of therapists in this state bought new cars thanks to that man. I keep telling everyone he can’t hurt us anymore.

But I largely agree with you. This feels lackluster. I know it was easy for us to wear the loss of the traditional rivalry games this week because Oregon/Washington was at its apex when the change was announced. But this year is far from that. In a way, it feels a bit like all those people — including myself — who became F1 fans in 2021 (its most exciting season, possibly ever) who were disappointed by the mostly average seasons that came after.

We’ve been pretty spoiled with this lately. We had three great Nix/Penix matchups. We had “academically prowess,” those postgame Cristobal F-Bombs, missed kicks and that CJ Verdell run up the middle in overtime.

We’re about due for a clunker, aren't we?

The last time these teams were this mismatched, Chris Petersen put a 70-spot — and the largest nail in the coffin — on his good friend Mark Helfrich. So there’s pieces of the rivalry’s story that can take place in these games, but I do think something is being lost here with the 12-team playoff format.

In past iterations, at least Washington could throw a stick in the spokes of Oregon’s playoff hopes. Now, we just get to make a big deal out of Dan Lanning finally getting the Huskies off his back in a game that has a fraction of the stakes of his previous attempts.

Hey, I know it’s not a national championship run like it was last year, but at least you have some storylines. It’s been a bit since you’ve had to write about November quarterback battles.

Are we going to see Demond Williams Jr. this week?

CAPLE: That’s what I’m expecting, though I wouldn’t put it past Fisch to devise some kind of two-quarterback plan. For most of this season, folks who clamored for Williams did so based on a relatively small sample size. He’s played nearly four full quarters in UW’s last two games, though, and has led the Huskies to points on five of his six possessions.

Last time out, he entered a 14-13 game in the third quarter and helped make it 31-13 by late in the fourth. I don’t see him as any kind of silver bullet against the No. 1 team in the country, but the argument that he gives UW the best chance to win has never been stronger.

What sets this Oregon team apart from the 2023 version? Are the Ducks definitely better? How does Dillon Gabriel compare to Bo Nix? Who wins head-to-head between this year’s team and last year’s team?

Alger: Offensively it’s about the same.

Nix and Gabriel are eerily similar. They both complete passes at a high rate and use their legs when necessary, I just think Nix was a little bit better at everything he did — that’s not outlandish to say considering the guy is in the running for NFL Rookie of the Year.

Oregon’s line was better in 2023. It’s about a wash at running back — Bucky Irving was very good, and so is Jordan James. The Ducks have better weapons than they did last year, especially with the addition of Evan Stewart at receiver and the emergence of Kenyon Sadiq at tight end.

But what sets this team apart is its defensive front. Just about any other version of this Oregon team would be sunk if it lost this many games from its best defensive end. But even though Jordan Burch and his six sacks has barely played in the second half of the season, the Ducks have barely noticed thanks to the play of Matayo Uiagalelei (8.5 sacks), Teitum Tuioti (4 sacks) and Derrick Harmon (3 sacks).

This group just has that little extra bite defensively, and I think it would be enough to get by last year’s team more often than not. Remember, the Ducks were really good last year. They just happened to run into a buzzsaw of a Washington team.

The bye was nice timing for both these teams with signing day coming up. Anyone from this 2025 Washington signing class you expect to have an impact on this game any time soon?

CAPLE: I guess it depends on what they get done in the portal, but it seems like four-star linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, the top recruit in the state, should have a chance to earn early playing time with current starters Carson Bruener and Alphonzo Tuputala moving on. Fisch does love to play freshmen. Four-star athlete Dylan Robinson is a big athlete who could earn some early snaps in the secondary, likely at cornerback. Maybe four-star receiver Chris Lawson can make an early impression on offense, considering the impending departures of senior starters Giles Jackson and Jeremiah Hunter.

A few weeks back, I’d have said four-star tight end Vander Ploog. But, well …

Does Oregon relish its ability to poach UW commitments as much as Huskies fans hate losing those guys to the Ducks?

ALGER: Hey, the Ducks haven’t been able to get the Huskies on the field as of late. Consider it insurance. Jabbar Muhammad has been great, by the way.

As for Oregon’s signing class, I don’t want to go chalk here, but Dakorien Moore seems like he’s going to be plug-and-play. With the Ducks losing Tez Johnson and Traeshon Holden, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound 5-star from Duncanville could slide right into becoming Oregon’s next top target. Moore is the No. 4 recruit in the country, Oregon’s second-highest rated commit of all-time and turned plenty of heads this season when he posted a 249-yard, 4-touchdown performance against nationally-ranked DeSoto.

I’m still not convinced the Ducks aren’t going to take a look around at the QB portal market. I haven’t heard anything about backup Dante Moore that sounds the alarm, I just think the Ducks have grown accustomed to having two of the most experienced college quarterbacks of all time play the position for them the last three years, and it’ll be hard to give up on that efficiency if they don’t have to.

Now that we’ve gotten this far in here, I’ve changed my mind a bit. There’s a lot riding on this game, Christian, because while the Ducks obviously have larger fish to go after this season, Washington is the last reasonable thing Lanning has yet to accomplish with this team. He’s beaten Oregon State. He’s beaten the new Big Ten rival Ohio State. He’s won a big bowl game, won the offseason hype train and lost five stinking games in three years — with three of them being to Washington.

This isn’t a season that will be graded by whether or not the Ducks beat the Huskies. But if the Ducks don’t win the national title and they somehow don’t beat the Huskies, that’ll be quite the crown for Lanning to carry around for another season.

Curious, how’s Washington view Lanning? Does it feel like just a matter of time, or is there something about him that actually allows UW to have his number?

CAPLE: I think it’s easy for Washington fans to laugh at Lanning’s, uh, aggressive coaching style, given that so many of his, uh, aggressive decisions have backfired (against UW, anyway) over the past two seasons. The cigar photo and “national champion” graphic have certainly made the rounds. But I think those wins in 2022-23 had a lot more to do with Penix and Rome Odunze and Dillon Johnson and a great offensive line than with any sort of Lanning curse.

Oregon and Washington were two evenly matched opponents who played highly entertaining, competitive games against one another. They don’t appear so evenly matched this year, which means we’ll get our answer as to whether there’s just something about the University of Washington that Oregon’s otherwise wildly successful head coach can’t overcome. If Lanning can’t beat Jedd Fisch and the Huskies in 2024, when will he ever?

Storylines like this one are among the few remaining differences between college and the NFL. If this were pro football, Oregon would maybe be expected to rest some guys and give itself the best possible opportunity to win the Big Ten title game and claim the No. 1 seed and first-round bye in the CFP. But this is college football, where rivalries still matter, and where it is simply unfathomable that a coach like Lanning would do one single thing to lessen his team’s chances of beating Washington and getting to 12-0. If anything, I bet he’d love to run up as lopsided of a score as possible.

Considering what will be at stake for the Ducks in a mere eight days, would a loss to UW register the same for Oregon fans? Would anyone still be thinking about it by the time the Playoff rolls around?

ALGER: It would register for this reason: Oregon and its fans think the Ducks can win a national title this season and there has been little evidence provided to the contrary. A loss, at home, to a Washington team in transition would be quite the Exhibit A.

I don’t think that will happen.

Then again, I didn’t think any of last year’s losses would happen, either.

— Tyson Alger and Christian Caple