Stanford Fueling the Oregon Ducks

By Alex Drude @Alex_Drude on October 30, 2014

During the Chip Kelly/Mark Helfrich era for the Oregon Ducks, the mantra has been: “Every game is our Super Bowl.” It’s a nice thing to say in public because it stops the media from asking questions about next week’s game, and it keeps the players focused on that week’s game whether the opponent is a struggling Tennessee or top-ten Michigan State.

But what that doesn’t cover is motivation during the offseason, or spring practice or when the kids are on break; and I will bet you that if Marcus Mariota didn’t want to run more wind sprints or Ifo Ekpre-Olomu didn’t want to study more film, they had a one-word mantra that they will never dare admit in public kept them going: “Stanford.”

For the past two years, Oregon’s national championship hopes have been squashed by the Stanford Cardinal. The 2012 Oregon team may have been Kelly’s best Oregon squad. They rolled through Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl and finished No. 2 in the country, but the BCS title game featured a horribly overmatched Notre Dame team getting thumped by Alabama because Oregon’s only loss was in overtime to Stanford — at Autzen Stadium, no less.

That win gave the Cardinal the division and ultimately the Pac-12 title. Because there had been such an uproar about non-division non-league champs making the BCS title game, Oregon had no shot of getting there.

Last season, even with a visibly hurt Mariota, Oregon nearly came back to beat Stanford, but insisted on running the ball at the goal line against a massive Stanford defense with tiny De’Anthony Thomas. The Ducks ended up getting dismantled by Arizona a few weeks later and went to the Alamo Bowl, while Stanford again won the division and the conference.

This time, Stanford is unquestionably on a down year, and even with one loss, Oregon is in the College Football Playoff hunt. However, if the Stanford beats Oregon and win out, Stanford is again at least the North Division champ, and the Ducks may be Alamo Bowl-bound once more. For Oregon, it’s a potential berth in college football’s first Final Four if they win out.

The Ducks have likely pushed themselves individually with one word for an entire year. Right now for Oregon, that word stands for two straight losses and two seasons that have gone awry. This is likely Mariota’s last chance to beat the one team he hasn’t beaten as a starting quarterback.

Has the fuel of that one word done enough for Mariota and the Ducks? Because you know that this game is Stanford’s Super Bowl.