The Best of 2022 along The I-5 Corridor

Our favorite stories from another great year of sports up in the Pacific Northwest.

It’s about to be 2023 and these emails keep sending.

I’m as surprised as any of you. Still, I can’t help but look back on 2022 and feel an inordinate amount of pride in the work The I-5 Corridor has been able to produce.

This year the Corridor took you along the journey for Dan Lanning’s first year as a head coach. The Corridor also treated a story about this man as if it was a sit-down with the Pope.

Our goal is to always be a little different around here. And in 2022, at the very least we accomplished that goal with a blend of funny, unique and off-the-beaten path stories that we hope you enjoyed as much as we did writing them.

In no particular order, here are some of our favorites.

Bo Nix is having more fun than anyone in college football

Sometimes the timing just works out. This profile of Nix came right at the height of his stellar first season with the Ducks and was our most read item of the year. And now that Nix is coming back for Year 2 in Eugene, the former Mr. Alabama potentially has a spot on Oregon’s Mount Rushmore ahead of him.

It’s just playing catch — until it’s not.

As the Northwest has been pelted with rain, snow, sleet, hail and the current winds that are whipping through my neighborhood, I often thing of that afternoon I spent in Camas last summer, playing catch with some guy I met on the Internet.

The Good Old Days.

At North Marion, Randy Brack has stood the test of time

I like to take aerial photos of baseball fields with my drone, and once I came across the beautiful Bob Brack Stadium at North Marion High School, I was even more delighted by the story of how this diamond got its shine.

So, the Ducks are back

Eric Evans photo

Ultimately, Oregon fell short toward the end of the year. But with Nix healthy and the offense taking shots, the football was as fun as it’s ever been in Eugene this season.

Our gamer after Oregon’s upset of No. 9 UCLA reflected that.

From Canada, with Joy

We’re always going to have space on the Corridor for good writers to tell stories about things they care about. Plus, when else am I going to have a TORONTO byline after one of the craziest postseason games in baseball history?

Thanks for this one, AJ. What a memory.

‘The genius is in the simplicity of it:’ How Dana Altman slow cooks late-season runs

Eric Evans photo

From Shane Hoffmann: This was one of, if not the most exhaustive reporting processes I’ve undergone in my young career. Yet, the work felt necessary. Dana Altman’s last-season runs are bandied about yearly, often on a national scale and I hadn’t ever read a definitive story on what clicks and why things just seem to come together for his teams over time. And of course the season I put it together, the Ducks flailed in the water and sank to the NIT, missing March Madness altogether. 

A few thoughts after The Oregonian and John Canzano part ways

I had an idea that John was going the Substack route when I wrote this column about his departure from The Oregonian back in March. What I didn’t know is that John was on his way to becoming the No. 3 paid sports Substack across the whole platform.

Slow and steady my ass.

Breakfast with Barny

Last year, Bruce and Portland State made our favorite stories of the year thanks to his purchasing of beer for everyone in attendance for their season opener. There’s no beer in this one: Just some coffee as the I-5 Corridor joined along in the wee hours for one of PSU’s first spring practices of the season.

'We need some anxiety': Now tested, Linfield digs in for playoff run

Photo by JJ Anderson

What can the Oregon Ducks expect from an expanded College Football Playoff field? I went down to McMinnville to check in with Linfield, which has made the D3 Playoffs its second home.

10 years after record-setting day, Oregon still hasn't quite seen anything like Thomas Tyner

These days, Thomas Tyner is an avid outdoorsman living in Central Oregon, far away from the football field. Ten years ago? He was unlike anything we’ve seen in this state.

What it feels like to run a lap at Hayward Field

Admit it, you thought I’d be slower, right? Now if I could just get Jeff Oliver to quit asking me how training for next year is going.

A party five years in the making

From Shane Hoffmann: Much of this game, and its fallout, is a case study in expectations. Result aside, Oregon State’s 3-loss season feels a lot better than Oregon’s, doesn’t it? Those expectations, which led to end of season discontentment for the Ducks, or lack of such, which rolled out the red carpet for one of the most exciting, and successful, Beavers seasons of all time, is what made covering Jonathan Smith and his program so rewarding this year. 

It all came together for the Beavers in their win over the Ducks at Reser.

“The whole thing felt like a fitting homage to this team’s ascent,” I wrote.

The Nate Costa Exit interview

After spending much of his career with Oregon, Nate Costa hit the road this spring for his new job as Nevada’s quarterbacks coach. Before he left, we recorded a thorough and enlightening podcast about his time in Eugene, the Mario Cristobal era and whether or not Phil Knight gets in on the play calls.

Hsin-Yu Lu and Oregon's 'Team Taiwan' have turned the Ducks into a golfing force

No Corridor curse here: Right after publishing this profile of Oregon’s dominant sophomore, Lu cruised to the Pac-12 title on her way to a second-team All-American season.

He’s always looking for an advantage

Way back in January we brought you to Elizabeth Street, where the plans of Dan Lanning’s eventual coaching career started to hatch around late-night whiteboard sessions.

Turns out, Phil Knight is an Adidas fan

After writing this story about Olli Haaskivi, who played Phil Knight on HBO’s “Winning Time,” I posted the link to my Facebook page and immediately got a comment from someone I haven’t spoken with in more than a decade.

“CLICKBAIT.”

I thought it was a good story.

Brian McAndrew channels the spirit of Prefontaine in post-Supwitchugirl return to music

Maybe these fall in the “A few for you, one for me” category, but writing stories about other creatives really inspires me. I go through a lot of writer’s block and sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation every day without teammates. Writing Brian’s story hit at the right time for me — and my Spotify Wrapped is proof.

Written Q&A: Kenny Farr, Oregon Equipment Administrator

A great conversation with Oregon’s equipment guru on throwback uniforms, Chip Kelly's font preferences, Dan Lanning's style, the coolest era of Oregon football and why the 2012 Rose Bowl helmets had him so worried.

Adopt-a-Highway: Brian Tovey

This is an unpaid endorsement about a paid advertisement. Brian was the first to jump on our “Adopt-a-Highway” program that absolutely kept the lights on here at the Corridor during last offseason. So big shout out to Brian — and the guys at Dark Star Barbers — for going above and beyond in their support of local reporting.

Yet another story about how young Kenny Dillingham is

And now they can write these in Tempe.

Finding the Oregon version of the "Carrier Classic"

News broke last week that the NHL is looking to host the Winter Classic next year in Seattle. If Gary Bettman and the powers that be want to get creative and bring the event a little further south, well, we have some suggestions.

Mike Bellotti on the return of Chip, Lanning's start and those times he turned down UCLA

Ask Bellotti what a retired coach does and he’ll tell you it’s really not that complicated.

“I watch football about five days a week,” he says. “Basically, it’s college football or pro football on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.” 

On the football-less Tuesdays and Wednesdays? He might sneak in a recording.

Our check-in with the long-time Oregon coach.

— Tyson Alger
@tysonalger