Kirk Herbstreit tried to warn everyone back in September. Oregon was blowing the doors off people and somehow nobody seemed to care. The Ducks had just hammered Oklahoma State 69-3, looked electric in every phase, and still weren't cracking the national noise machine.
Videos by FanBuzz
File
"It's like they're taking the year off," Herbstreit said during the Michigan-Oklahoma broadcast on Sept. 6, via Awful Announcing. "People need to remember they're playing ball up there in Eugene." At the time, it felt like a hot take. Now it feels like a prophecy.
Because according to Joel Klatt, not much has changed. Oregon keeps winning, keeps surviving a brutal November schedule, keeps knocking off real teams in real environments... and the national conversation keeps drifting elsewhere.
The Ducks are 10-1 with a road win over Penn State — a team Klatt said was "four plays from being 9-2" — plus victories at Iowa, Minnesota and Saturday's 42-27 handling of USC.
And yet here we are, still wondering who's paying attention.
"Excellent performance from Dan Lanning and the Ducks," Klatt said on his podcast after the USC win. "This is a legit team. Because of their location, there's a tendency in the college football media sphere to lose sight of them."
Klatt pointed out everything Oregon has going for it: Dante Moore playing poised football, Kenyon Sadiq returning and dominating at tight end, a deep backfield, a strong offensive line and a defense that has gotten better every single week.
He said the Ducks learned from their loss to Indiana and now protect their quarterback far better.
As for the rankings? Klatt believes Oregon should "easily be the six seed, maybe higher," expecting them to jump Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff and maybe sneak past Texas Tech as well.
But the story remains the same. Oregon has done everything asked of them since that early stumble. They have one massive rivalry game left with Washington, and a chance to lock in a first-round home playoff game.
Whether the media notices or not, the Ducks are playing like a contender — exactly what Herbstreit said all the way back in Week 1.
