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Bill Oram: Oregon Ducks are worthy of playoff berth if they can take care of ‘unfinished business’ in Pac-12 title game

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Bill Oram: Oregon Ducks are worthy of playoff berth if they can take care of ‘unfinished business’ in Pac-12 title game


Tez Johnson first dreamed of playing at Oregon as a 5-year-old growing up in Alabama, when his stepfather showed him the Ducks on TV.

He was taken by the colors. The speed. The success.

So, even though the Troy transfer — who played high school football with Bo Nix and lived under the same roof, has played only 11 games with the Ducks — you can be sure he knows this about Oregon football.

“Nobody here likes U-Dub,” he said.

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Next up: Washington.

Again.

Or, as Dan Lanning called the matchup: “Unfinished business.”

The two Pacific Northwest powers who spent a season dancing around each other, met once in a mighty collision that knocked the Ducks down but not out, will get the long-awaited rematch in the Pac-12 title game.

The Ducks overpowered No. 16 Oregon State 31-7 on Friday night, closing the curtains on one venerable conference rivalry while turning their attention to another.

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“U-Dub and Oregon State,” Johnson said, “are the main two teams that we want to beat.”

One down, one major act of revenge to go.

Johnson hauled in 11 catches for 137 yards from Nix, whom he calls a brother, while Troy Franklin added 128 receiving yards.

What Johnson used to watch on a screen has come to life in blazing technicolor, with the Ducks now heading to Vegas to bet it all on green and yellow.

Just don’t expect a lot of celebrating from the Ducks. Not yet.

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“I expected us to be here,” Lanning said. “I don’t know what everybody else thought, but I expected us to be in this position because I know what our team’s capable of.”

Lanning’s team is a win away from potentially securing a spot in the College Football Playoff. They have won their last six games — against ranked Utah, USC and Oregon State teams — by an average of 26 points.

The best team in the country? They’re playing like it and you won’t find any statistical evidence to disprove the point.

It’s just that one loss, a 36-33 heavyweight bout on a gray Seattle afternoon, that mars the résumé.

Does a win in the rematch over the Huskies automatically propel them into the top four and a national semifinal? You’ll hear that question a lot this week. But it has to count for something that the playoff committee has consistently slotted the Ducks as the best one-loss team in the country since the rankings first came out last month.

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To get in they would have to potentially leap a one-loss Big Ten champion, still undefeated Florida State, and still fend off surging one-loss teams like Texas and, potentially, Alabama.

It doesn’t help that the Longhorns just obliterated the one other team that nearly beat the Ducks, Texas Tech, by a tidy 50 points.

So, yeah, let the discourse begin.

But after watching the Ducks for 12 weeks, they have passed not only the eye test, but repeatedly handled every on-field test, as well.

If they do go out as the Pac-12′s final champion, they are CFP-worthy.

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Any system that does not have room for a team as thorough and dominant as the Ducks is not a system worth believing in. But hey, that can all be for next week.

On Friday night, the Ducks celebrated senior night, turned the lights out on their in-state rivalry, Pac-12 football in the Willamette Valley and, potentially, on Jonathan Smith’s Oregon State tenure.

From a nine-minute, 14-play opening drive, the Ducks were in command. At one point in the first half, the play count tally was Oregon 34, Oregon State 8.

When the Beavers finally put together a drive of their own and cut the score to 14-7 with 54 seconds remaining until halftime, the Ducks went 78 yards in 40 seconds, culminating in wide receiver Troy Franklin’s 25th career touchdown, a school record.

The Beavers’ typically stout defense, which had a week earlier forced Michael Penix Jr.’s least efficient performance since arriving in Seattle, was just like every other opponent in the Pac-12 when facing Nix: Powerless.

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Nix, who tightens his grip on the Heisman Trophy with every outing, completed 33 of 40 passes for 367 yards, completing 83% of his passes and making it seem routine.

That’s what the Ducks do. On a weekly basis, they take their opponent’s greatest strength and scoff at it. The Beavers’ vaunted running game? Totaled 53 yards.

Last time against Washington, the Ducks were very, very close.

Three yards away, in fact. And while football doesn’t reward almost, you can’t help but wonder how we would be talking about the Ducks if they had picked up that fourth down at midfield.

They would be the ones with the targets on their backs going into next week’s title game. The Huskies would be the ones using terms like “unfinished business.”

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Instead, the Ducks go to Las Vegas next week with momentum and something to prove.

“Earlier in the season, when we lost to them, I couldn’t talk to nobody,” Johnson said, “because it’s personal.”

MORE FROM BILL ORAM



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Oregon

Former Oregon Ducks guard Jermaine Couisnard signs with New Orleans Pelicans: Reports

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Former Oregon Ducks guard Jermaine Couisnard signs with New Orleans Pelicans: Reports


Former Oregon Ducks guard Jermaine Couisnard will get his shot at NBA Summer League.

After going undrafted in the 2024 NBA Draft, Couisnard signed a summer league contract with the New Orleans Pelicans, according to multiple reports Friday.

Couisnard averaged 16.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists in his final season at Oregon, his sixth in college basketball. Prior to his two seasons at Oregon, Couisnard played four seasons at South Carolina.

The 25-year-old will have a chance to audition for either an NBA or international contract at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas July 12-22.

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Couisnard’s former Oregon teammate, N’Faly Dante, also went undrafted and signed a two-way deal with the Houston Rockets on Thursday.

— Ryan Clarke covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten Conference for The Oregonian and co-hosts the Soccer Made in Portland and Ducks Confidential podcasts. He can be reached at rclarke@oregonian.com or @RyanTClarke.

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Oregon Ethics Commission nixes investigation into Gov. Kotek, First Lady

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Oregon Ethics Commission nixes investigation into Gov. Kotek, First Lady


The commission said its analysis would be different if Aimee Kotek Wilson received a salary or other private benefits

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Oregon Government Ethics Commission has decided against launching a full investigation into complaints concerning Gov. Tina Kotek and her wife, Aimee Kotek Wilson.

At a meeting on Friday, the agency examined the preliminary report on the case involving a potential Office of the First Spouse before determining that the governor did not violate any ethics laws — including those on conflicts of interest or nepotism.

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“We note that had the Governor unilaterally decided to provide the First Lady with a salary or other private benefits, the above analysis would be different,” the commission wrote in its preliminary review. “The analysis would also be different if there was any suggestion that the public duties of the First Lady could financially benefit a private business with which the First Lady was associated.”

In late March, news broke that Kotek Wilson had an office in the governor’s base of operations at the state library and an on-loan staffer from the Department of Administration Services. With a master’s degree in social work, the First Lady was also known to attend official meetings regarding behavioral health.

The following week, the governor clarified that her wife was solely an “unpaid volunteer with both lived and professional experience.” Kotek also announced she had asked the Ethics Commission for guidance on a potential Office of the First Spouse, but the commission later said it couldn’t advise her because of its plans to review complaints on the same matter.

Subsequently, the governor abandoned plans to create the First Lady’s office.

“After listening to and reflecting on the concerns of Oregonians who have contacted my office, as well as the advice of staff, I want to be clear about next steps: There will not be an Office of the First Spouse,” Kotek said.

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The announcement came after her office released several emails from senior staff members who abruptly left their positions earlier in the year. In one email, Kotek’s former Chief of Staff Andrea Cooper said she was “asked not to attend” a meeting where events were added to Kotek Wilson’s calendar.



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U.S. Supreme Court sides with Oregon city, allows ban on homeless people sleeping outdoors • Maine Morning Star

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U.S. Supreme Court sides with Oregon city, allows ban on homeless people sleeping outdoors • Maine Morning Star


The U.S. Supreme Court Friday sided with a local ordinance in Oregon that effectively bans homeless people from sleeping outdoors, and local governments will be allowed to enforce those laws.

In a 6-3 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the opinion that the enforcement of those local laws that regulate camping on public property does not constitute the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

“Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it,” he wrote. “The Constitution’s Eighth Amendment serves many important functions, but it does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this Nation’s homelessness policy.”

The case originated in Grants Pass, a city in Oregon that argues its ordinance is a solution to the city’s homelessness crisis, which includes fines and potential jail time for repeat offenders who camp or sleep outdoors.

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent arguing that the ordinance targets the status of being homeless and is therefore a violation of the Eighth Amendment.

“Grants Pass’s Ordinances criminalize being homeless,” she wrote. “The Ordinances’ purpose, text, and enforcement confirm that they target status, not conduct. For someone with no available shelter, the only way to comply with the Ordinances is to leave Grants Pass altogether.”

During oral arguments, the justices seemed split over ideological lines, with the conservative justices siding with the town in Oregon, arguing that policies and ordinances around homelessness are complex, and should be left up to local elected representatives rather than the courts.

The liberal justices criticized the city’s argument that homelessness is not a status protected under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The liberal justices argued the Grants Pass ordinance criminalized the status of being homeless.

The Biden administration took the middle ground in the case, and U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler offered partial support.

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“It’s the municipality’s determination, certainly in the first instance with a great deal of flexibility, how to address the question of homelessness,” he said during oral arguments in late April.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.



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