With Dominant Winner For So Long, Where Does UW-Oregon Series Go From Here?
After everyone left the field at Autzen Stadium, following Washington's 42-14 victory over Oregon in 2002, coach Rick Neuheisel ill-advisedly encouraged his Huskies to go back outside and celebrate some more. For the next 20 minutes, they did so in a raucous manner, stomping on the Ducks' O logo at midfield and insulting everyone in Eugene.
Twenty-three months ago, once Oregon put together a 26-16 victory at Husky Stadium, Ducks coach Mario "Take a Damn Knee" Cristobal mugged and posed for his fans as he left the field, clearly enjoying himself at the UW's expense.
Warm feelings and a sense of decorum have never been part of this Northwest football free-for-all, one of the most intense college rivalries found anywhere across the nation, where off-field piling on is practically expected rather than discouraged.
"Hated? I think amongst the fans for a week, but it's healthy," Husky coach Kalen DeBoer said, ever the diplomat. "In my mind, that's what college football is all about. You look around the country and there were some games this weekend. That's what fun. You can't help but turn the channel to that game."
Still, Don James absolutely owned the Ducks. The late and legendary University of Washington football coach beat his Northwest neighbors the first five times he faced them, won 11 out of the initial 12 meetings and he went 15-3 overall.
Husky followers, of course, were merciless throughout in letting the other fan base know how superior they felt their football team — as well as themselves, the ardent supporters — had become.
Naturally, this sort of over-the-top gloating always comes back to bite you somewhere, especially in the win column.
Since James retired, the Huskies have lost 20 of 28 games to Oregon, including a dozen outings in a row through 2015, with eight different coaches walking the UW sideline in the shadow of that legend and just trying to maintain rather than take over.
Duck fans naturally have relished each and every step of the evening-out process, and, in fact, have became as insufferable as their Husky counterparts once were in the stands while thoroughly enjoying their own run of one-sided success.
Yet entering the 115th meeting on Saturday at Husky Stadium, this UW-Oregon football series appears to have come to a crossroad, an intersection or a precipice per se, where it actually could venture off in any one of three directions.
With DeBoer's stirring 37-34 debut victory in Eugene last year, could the UW be prepared to reclaim the series dominance?
On the other hand, if last year's outcome was a mere blip or interruption, such as a pair of Chris Petersen victories proved to be, could the Ducks simply just shake it off once more and continue on with their new-millennium mastery?
Or here's a novel concept to consider for all of those concerned with the annual blood-letting and chest-beating from Montlake to Eugene: could these two sides finally settle in and just go back and forth trading powerful blows, like a pair of heavyweights who won't go down?
It's been exactly 30 years since James stepped away and each of his successors thereafter have failed to restore anything that resembles his Husky upper hand that came on the heels of Jim Owens having reasonable success against the Ducks himself.
James and Owens were a combined 26-9-1 which, again, Oregon has countered with its impressive 20-8 splurge.
Overall, just 11 of 24 UW coaches who have faced the Ducks have winning records against them (see chart below), and some not by much.
Petersen and Neuheisel enjoyed a moment or two of success against Oregon but nothing long-lasting. Steve Sarkisian had no answer whatsoever for the Ducks in his time at the UW and got skunked. Same for Tyrone Willingham, who did an 0-for-Oregon during his forgettable tour of duty. Jimmy Lake lost a game and eventually a job all in one fateful outing against Oregon.
Now comes DeBoer, who is more tactician than historian, more about the game than gamesmanship. While Lake said something disparaging about the Ducks in 2021 before cleaning out his office, the new guy tiptoes around all the outside noise.
He used last year's trip south to fully establish his program for the short-team with that shootout win over the Ducks in Eugene. He's 1-0 trying not to become 1-1, staying humble, looking only at what's in front of him rather than what's behind him.
"I wouldn't know all of the ebbs and flows of where it's gone, but I certainly know where it's at most recently," DeBoer said of the series. "Just the hype that surrounds it, it's fun to be a part of, and the excitement, and what it means not just to our fan base, but what it means to our team and our season. It's a big game, for sure."
UW COACHING RECORDS AGAINST OREGON
J.S. Dodge, 1900 (0-1)
James Knight, 1902-04 (1-1)
Oliver Cutts, 1905 (0-0-1)
Victor Place, 1906-07 (0-2)
Gil Dobie, 1908-16 (6-0-1)
Claude Hunt, 1919 (0-1)
Tony Savage, 1918 (0-1)
Leonard Allison, 1920 (0-1)
Enoch Bagshaw, 1921-29 (4-3-1)
Jimmy Phelan, 1930-41 (5-6-1)
Ralph Welch, 1942-47 (4-2)
Howie Odell, 1948-52 (4-1)
John Cherberg, 1953-55 (2-1)
Darrell Royal, 1956 (1-0)
Jim Owens, 1957-74 (11-6-1)
Don James, 1975-02 (15-3)
Jim Lambright, 1993-98 (2-4)
Rick Neuheisel, 1999-02 (2-1)
Keith Gilbertson, 2003-04 (1-1)
Tyrone Willingham, 2005-08 (0-4)
Steve Sarkisian, 2009-13 (0-5)
Chris Petersen, 2014-19 (2-4)
Jimmy Lake, 2020-21 (0-1)
Kalen DeBoer, 2022-to date (1-0)
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