Interviews with Frenemies: Oregon

It’s been hit or miss finding interviews here in the early half of the season, but we have a good one this week with Thomas Cicansky from our sister site Addicted to Quack joining us for a little conversation about this weekend’s big game. As a reminder, we shared answers last year prior to the Big Ten Championship game and we are right back at it here early this season. Please check out Addicted to Quack for all kinds of coverage of Oregon and this game, including my own answers to questions that included a prediction.

Before getting to this year, let’s remember that we just talked back in December ahead of No. 1 Oregon’s 45-37 win against Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game in Indy. What has impressed you the most about seeing the Ducks reload so quickly and look so good in the opening weeks of the 2025 season?

The first 1/3 of the regular season has gone pretty much as well as I could have hoped for, there are a lot of areas of the team that are firing on all cylinders. If I had to limit it to what has impressed me the most it would have to be a tie between the growth of Dante Moore (more on this later, no pun intended) and the depth of the skill talent Oregon has displayed. So far this season Oregon has used no joke 6 different RBs during meaningful play and our best RB in this moment, Noah Whittington, was held out the past two games for what I suspect is solely NBA style load management. It’s more of the same in the receiving core as the offence hasn’t focused on 1 or 2 “go to guys” but has really spread the ball around to a lot of talented players.

Let’s get the “environment” and “narrative” question out of the way first: Penn State hasn’t played anybody. We fully acknowledge that. Oregon, meanwhile, has played three teams with recognizable helmets, but an extreme dearth of talent. What do you expect to learn about the Ducks this weekend in a big-game setting in a hostile place against a team with similar goals and talent?

That’s the reason I’m really looking forward to this week’s game. To learn something about this team. It feels like we have played the same game 4 times this season and Saturday’s game against Penn State will be something completely different because in my view championship caliber teams need to be able to broadly do 2 things

1.      Comfortably beat over matched opponents

2.      Beat other great teams

Oregon has proven they can handle the first part but the 2025 Oregon Ducks haven’t played anything close to what they will face Saturday as your point about playing recognizable helmets but overmatched teams is spot on.

All that to say that I’m not trying to avoid your question, but the bottom line is I’m not sure what we will learn about the 2025 Ducks, but I’m looking forward to finding out. Speaking of I was curious about this but had more pressing questions for you so I thought maybe your readers could answer this in the comments. But is there a reason Penn State decided to play no one in conference play this year? Did a marquee non-con matchup fall through? Or did they purposefully take an Indiana approach to scheduling this season?

Oregon has gotten the job done in recent years with extremely experienced transfer quarterbacks. While Dante Moore is still a transfer, he’s taken a more patient approach to becoming the starter. What has he brought to the offense and how do you expect him to lead Oregon’s offensive attack against the defensive coordinator who helped end the Ducks season last year (that sounded too mean – he also owned Penn State the past few years)?

While Penn State has some great defensive players the good news for Dante is that Jim Knowles can’t put Caleb Downs out there on Saturday who was probably the biggest reason our offense looked lost on New Year’s Day. In all seriousness though I think what Dante has brought to the offense this year is a mastery of all 3 levels of the defense. While the deep shots that he has connected with make the highlight reels what has impressed me the most is his work at the intermediate level, especially when Oregon has been behind the chains. I think Dante’s best game this season was the game he had his ”worst” stat line against Northwestern. The run game had a hard time getting going that day and Dante and the passing game were consistently asked to move the sticks on 2^nd and 3^rd and long. He consistently made accurate throws in the 10–20-yard level of the defense to keep drives alive and turn them into points.

The reason I mention all of that is because I think that’s what he will need to do again this Saturday if Oregon wins. I suspect Oregon may have a difficult time running the ball and Jim Knowles is a smart guy who will have a plan to take away the easy yardage from Oregon. For the Ducks to win Dante is going to need to make plays when Oregon is behind the chains.

Penn State ran the ball effectively against a veteran Oregon front last year, but the Ducks forced a couple critical Drew Allar turnovers last December. What will be the gameplan and adjustments you look for this time around? Who will be Oregon players who can wreck Andy Kotelnicki’s plans?

Philosophically on defense Oregon prioritizes stopping the pass and explosive runs. Against the average big ten team that wants to run for 4 yards and a cloud of dust Oregon is content to give that to the opponent and make the bet that a team can’t do that for 15 plays without making a mistake. This is kind of how Oregon held Northwestern to 0 points before garbage time. The problem is when the Ducks face a team like Penn State that is much better than the average Big Ten team and has a properly strong running game it can lead to trouble just like it did in last years Big Ten Championship game as Allen and Singleton can turn 4 yards into 12 more often than the average running back.

If it were me, I would commit more players to the run against Penn State and make a Tyler Warren-less Drew Allar win the game, but doing so is kind of out of character for the Ducks so it’s hard to say what the game plan will be defensively.

Regardless of how much Oregon commits to stopping the run the key players Saturday will be our defensive tackles. Oregon rotates in 4 guys in the interior of the defensive line but the name to know is Amauri Washington. Washington was the first to rotate into the interior last season but is now the starter and some Oregon fans think he may be just as good as Derrick Harmon who was our interior D-Linemen from last season that was selected in the 1^st round by the Steelers.

It’s a big one – one of the two or three biggest Big Ten games of the regular season. How do you see this one playing out and what’s your score prediction?

Before the season I was confident this would be a loss for the Ducks. Penn State is a legitimate national title contender, the more veteran team, playing in the best night environment in College Football. But so far this season Oregon’s play has exceeded my expectations. If they answered pretty much all of the questions I have had about them than I have to pick my Ducks right?

28-24 Oregon, if it happens I promise I won’t be a sore winner, and if I’m wrong you lovely people can make as much fun as me as you want.

Looking forward to it, and I enjoyed answering your questions.

We thank Thomas for his time and, once again, we encourage everyone to go over and check out Addicted to Quack.