As far as debuts go, it was a bit of a nightmare last Labor Day weekend when Georgia pounded Oregon's faces into the Mercedes Benz Stadium artificial turf in Atlanta. Afterward, however, it wasn't too bad last season for Dan Lanning, who won ten games in his first trip around the track at Eugene after a near cross-country move from Georgia. Though it would be offense that had Phil Knight and all of the Ducks backers abuzz (as usual), especially as Auburn transfer quarterback Bo Nix became a peripheral Heisman contender by passing for nearly 3600 yards and 29 touchdowns. It was quite a shock to those who watched Nix's career go mostly sideways in the SEC. Pac-12 insiders give much of the credit to offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, who earlier had been on Gus Malzahn's staff at Auburn during the early stages of Nix's college career.
Dillingham, however, now holds the top job at Arizona State, and even with the Nix fireworks and the ten wins last year, many regional sources believe Oregon might have still left something on the table in 2022. Not even a narrow Holiday Bowl win over North Carolina rinsed away the bad taste of a mid-November home loss to old enemy Washington. Not to mention a few weeks later, when the Ducks blew a big fourth quarter lead in a grudge match with Oregon State, a bitter loss to the hated Beavers that cost Oregon a spot in the Pac-12 title game...
Bruce Marshall's full breakdown of Oregon's 2023 outlook, which includes how he's playing their win total, can be found below as part of SportsLine's preview of the Pac-12 season.
Pac-12 preview: Conference winner | Arizona | Arizona State | California | Colorado | Oregon | Oregon State | Stanford | UCLA | USC | Utah | Washington | Washington State
What do you need to know about Oregon before locking in your Pac-12 futures bets? And which side of their win total makes for the best play? ... Join SportsLine right now to see Pac-12 futures betting strategy from a veteran college football expert!
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