Week one of college football is always something akin to a mad dash: fans rushing to see if their favorite team lives up to expectations, teams struggling under the weight of said pressure, coaches being placed on and off the proverbial hot seat, star players crashing and burning in new, transfer-aided homes. All in all, it’s exactly what the college football world has been waiting for since the minute the last national championship game ended. It is a welcome and glorious return to the heartbreaking ups and downs that make this sport one of the best the U.S.A. has to offer. For Oregon and Boise State’s respective programs, their first week in this raucous arena did not initially seem like one that would provide many challenges. Oregon began their non-conference schedule against a middling Mountain West team in the Idaho Vandals. Boise St. also played a non-conference opponent in the Georgia South Eagles of the Sun Belt conference. Both had home-field advantage and went into these games favored, although Oregon’s -49.5 spread dwarfed Boise St.’s -12.5, and yet the score in both cases was closer than expected. However, the real shocker was Oregon, who needed a strong fourth quarter to squeak out an unimpressive ten-point victory against the (supposedly) underdog Vandals. Boise St. handled business more easily, scoring fifty-six points in an eleven-point victory.
Other than more general worries about their supposed juggernaut team’s performance, Oregon supporters were entirely focused on the status of quarterback Dillon Gabriel’s hand after their game vs. Idaho. A Vandals player’s helmet hit Gabriel’s hand in the first half; he was checked by their medical staff midgame and was allowed to play through the entire game. When asked, this was his update on the matter, “The hand is good. I guess I had my real moment of not wearing the red jersey. It is what it is. It’s football. It comes with it. A little ice, a little ointment” (via 247sports). With him ready to go, the focus on offense should be shaking off the considerable amount of rust the unit showed last Saturday and producing consistent scoring drives throughout the game against Boise St. The Duck’s offensive line, in particular, put together a shoddy showing vs. Idaho, letting the Vandal’s defensive line dominate them physically which forced Gabriel into a huge amount of short yardage, “dink and dunk” style of passes. To aid in this hopeful turnaround, offensive lineman Matthew Bedford and wide receiver Gary Bryant Jr. will likely return from the injured list this Saturday vs. Boise State. Bedford was an offseason acquisition, transferring in from Indiana, and should be a starter. Bryant Jr. started twelve games for the Ducks last season as a sophomore, collecting 442 yards and four touchdowns, and will help bolster an already talent-loaded receiving corps (via OregonDucksSI). However, while these two being inserted into the lineup will, of course, help Oregon, the real test will be Lanning and co. being able to utilize the gargantuan talent disparity and already loaded roster in a less scattered and much more productive way against another opponent they should absolutely dominate.
On the opposite side of the field, Boise State will be coming into Autzen with a newfound sense of swagger, considering the fact that the team they’ll be playing almost lost to an FCS team the week prior. Funnily enough, though, the biggest name on the team, quarterback Malachi Nelson, will most likely not be playing a snap. If you haven’t heard the name, Nelson was a consensus five-star QB coming out of California in 2022, initially committed to Oklahoma, swapped his commitment to USC in early 2023, and then left that program after not appearing in a game to transfer to Boise State in late 2023. However, he mysteriously lost the job to sophomore Maddux Madsen in training camp, and it seems like the team will be riding with the latter as the starter, at least for this early portion of the season. Madsen did not play his true freshman season in 2022 and then split duties with Taylen Green (now at Arkansas) as a redshirt freshman last season, appearing in nine games and throwing for 1191 yards and nine touchdowns (via SRCFB). However, the real star on offense that Oregon will need to focus on stopping is returning junior running back Ashton Jeanty, who lit the Mountain West on fire last season to the tune of 1347 yards and 14 rushing touchdowns, to go along with nearly 600 receiving yards and five receiving touchdowns. Jeanty had a massive game last weekend against Georgia Southern, amassing 267 yards on the ground to go along with six(!) rushing touchdowns (via SRCFB). On the defensive end, Oregon will also have to watch out for third-year linebacker Andrew Simpson and fourth-year defensive end Ahmed Hassanein, both of whom have played their entire collegiate careers in Boise and led the team to the fourth-best defense in the Mountain West last season (via SRCFB). (general Boise State via CollegeFootballNetwork).
While last week’s surprising result in Autzen could possibly lead you to think that Boise State has a good chance in this Saturday’s matchup, the oddsmakers still favor Oregon by a healthy margin, setting the line at ORE -19.5 (via ESPN). Expect an exciting, high-scoring game that could start close but will likely give way to a Ducks win as the contest continues.
Prediction: Oregon W, 41-21
