Oregon
Record vs. Ranked Teams: Oregon
Moving forward into the Big Ten is also a time to look back and remember the Pac and a lot of great times. One of the knocks that people “Back East” like to say about West Coast football is the notion that “they haven’t played anybody,” as though there are no good teams on our side of the country, or that West Coast teams don’t play intersectional games, either in bowls or the regular season, or that they don’t play anyone good.
In the first article in this series, I looked back at the past 50 years of games for the Washington Huskies to see every time they played a ranked opponent. That needs a little update, since the Huskies completed the season beating SIX ranked opponents after knocking off #3 Texas in the Sugar Bowl, though sadly they didn’t quite make it seven after they dropped the national title game. Still, 6-1 vs. ranked teams is their best season ever in terms of beating ranked foes. There’s a lot of transition going on and a ton of uncertainty, so we’ll see what happens next year.
As we’re heading to the Big Ten, though, it might be fun to look at our former Pac brethren who are making the trip as well and to see how well they’ve done over the same time period and look both at their overall success as well as the teams they’ve beaten.
NOTE: For the sake of ease and uniformity, I’ve used the AP poll at game time as the measure of “played a ranked team.” I know this can lead to some kinda weird results (like Colorado vs. Oregon last year – ranked when they played, in the toilet bowl by the end of the year), but over the course of 50 years I’m going to lean on the law of averages evening that out with teams that were unranked when we played who might have ranked up later (like this year’s Arizona squad). This is for fun, not for my dissertation, so those are the ground rules.
First up is Oregon, which this year had a winning record vs. ranked teams, going 4-2 vs. teams ranked at the time (see the first article for the ground rules on how ranked wins were calculated and why), beating Colorado, Utah, OSU, and Liberty and, of course, losing twice to UW. This was only the second season since 2014 that they had a winning record vs. ranked teams (2019 was the other, going 3-1).
This matched their 4-2 record vs. ranked teams in 2000 (losing to OSU and Wisconsin) and 2009 (Ohio St. and Boise St. in the game with the infamous LeGarrette Blount postgame punch). Only twice have the Ducks won more ranked games in a season, going 5-1 twice in 2012 (losing to Stanford) and 2014 (losing to Ohio St.), though arguably their best season vs. ranked opponents was in 2001 when they went 4-0 against ranked teams, beating UCLA, WSU, Colorado, and Wisconsin. Their worst season in the past decade in 2016 had kind of a funny quirk in that they only played 2 ranked opponents that year, losing to UW 70-21 of course, but also upsetting #11 Utah on the road in the second-to-last game of the season.
Oregon has played a lot of ranked teams over the past 50 years, sometimes when they were ranked, sometimes not. Sometimes they were ranked higher, other as the underdog. They’ve played teams in conference and out, blowing out some ranked opponents and getting blown out by others and had nail-biters go both ways.
The question for today is how UW has performed against AP-ranked opponents during those years. They’ve played a total of 174 games against ranked opponents, with a total record of 76-96-2, a 0.437 winning percentage. Considering the quality of opposition, it’s a solid record. No fattening up on Directional State U. when you’re only counting ranked games.
That total of 174 games over 50 years gives us an average of 3.5 games per season. Due to quirks of scheduling, they played only 1 ranked team each season in 1984 (UW) and 1985 (Nebraska), losing both. The highest number of ranked games ever for Oregon is 6 in 1997 (going 2-4), 2000 (4-2), 2009 (4-2), 2012 (5-1), 2014 (5-1), 2022 (3-3), and 2023 (4-2).
With all that said and done, I created a quiz to see if you can guess which teams we did the best and worst against among those ranked opponents. One caveat is that this quiz does not include teams that Oregon only played once when they were ranked (like Liberty in this year’s Fiesta Bowl). It also includes only ranked teams played in the last 50 years, so your memory might play tricks on you if you think too hard on big games played way back when. Check it out and look forward to upcoming articles on USC and UCLA soon. Go Dawgs!
https://www.sporcle.com/games/JasonNelsonUWDP/best-oregon-winning-percentage-vs-ranked-foes
P.S. – You can check out the Washington vs. Ranked Teams quiz here.
BLUE RIVER, Ore. (KATU) — The founder of a former disaster relief nonprofit is being sued for allegedly diverting nearly $837,000 in donations and grants for personal gain.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed the lawsuit Thursday against the founder and executive director of Cascade Relief Team (CRT), Marcus Brooks. In the complaint, Rayfield calls CRT “a sham.”
Brooks is accused of stealing donations and government grants meant for disaster relief following wildfires and flooding in 2020, and using it for personal expenses including casino visits, travel, vehicles, and more.
CRT was founded in 2020 and was hired for cleanup and relief services following the Labor Day Wildfires that burned over 1 million acres across Oregon.
In Blue River, an unincorporated community in the McKenzie River Valley, the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire destroyed nearly 800 homes and burned more than 173,000 acres.
I am angry that my community was taken advantage of
Just months after the fire, long-time Blue River resident Melanie Stanley said CRT stepped in and promised help to the community.
“For us, it was…like a savior at that point,” Stanley said.
Stanley was the manager for the Blue River Resource Center and worked for Brooks to help facilitate recovery efforts. She said CRT operations slowly became questionable.
“None of us knew the level at which all of this stuff that finally came out was at,” Stanley said. “We knew that there was some stuff that had started to look hinky or feel hinky, or there was just some lack of communication that was happening. There were some other things that were happening, and so we just all were kind of guarded.”
In fall of 2023 the nonprofit was reported to have run out of money, and Brooks allegedly fired staff without disclosing the organization’s financial conditions and did not notify donors or beneficiaries. Stanley was one of those people fired.
The state now claims the funds that were meant to go towards communities like Blue River, never made it out of Brooks’ hands, including donations given by Blue River neighbors.
“I am angry that my community was taken advantage of, and I am angry that they now have to worry about trusting when something else happens, because we know something else is going to happen,” Stanley said. “We hope to God it’s never anything as big or as bad as what has happened, but you know, we also have learned that groups like Locals Helping Locals…they are our foundation, and they are because they’re us.”
The state is seeking to recover the money, permanently bar Brooks from serving in a leadership role at a charitable organization and dissolve the nonprofit.
Stanley said Brooks’ actions have tainted reputations.
“We as a community and as the people from the community who helped kind of put all of these things together, we did what was asked of us,” Stanley said. “We did help clean things, and we did help get things to provide, you know, more progress and get things moving forward, and we did good work, and so I just really hope that this is not overshadowed.”
According to Stanley, Blue River’s recovery now stands at 50%.
“We will be very picky from here on out about who and what groups gets let in to help with anything,” Stanley said. “And sadly, it may be to our detriment, but he did more damage now, as far as reputations go, and for that I’m angry. I’m very angry.”
The Oregon Ducks have been progressing through the class of 2027 with hopes of landing some of their top target’s commitment on both the offense and the defense.
With many names left on the board, the Ducks have started to receive some great news, including some news from someone they have been targeting since they offered back in January of 2025.
Darius Johnson Releases His Top Four Schools
One of the Ducks top targets’ in the 2027 class at the cornerback position is Darius Johnson. Johnson recently released his top schools with Hayes Fawcett, as he is entering a crucial part of his recruitment. The four schools he has listed at the top include the California Golden Bears, Michigan Wolverines, UCLA Bruins, and the Oregon Ducks.
Johnson is one of the better cornerbacks in the country. He currently ranks as the nation’s No. 178 prospect in the country, No. 20 player at the position, and the No. 14 player in the state of California, according to Rivals. Landing his commitment would be major for any of the schools, as he is someone who could see the field early due to his size, and his growing ability to lockdown a side of the field all by himself.
More About Darius Johnson
Johnson currently measures in at 6-1 and 155 pounds, and will be someone who continues to add weight through his high school program, and will eventually have the chance to really improve his frame when he gets to college. As of now, each of the four schools has a solid chance to win its recruiting battle, but there seems to be a clear leader at this moment.
The leader for the Ducks target seems to be the Michigan Wolverines, who have the only scheduled official visit at this moment. It seems likely that the talented prospect will schedule his other official visits sooner rather than later now that he has officially cut down his list. If the Ducks want to land his commitment, they will need to get him on an official visit because they are likely trailing at this point.
What If He Committed to Oregon Today?
If he were to commit to the Ducks today, he would be the ninth commitment for the Ducks in the class of 2027. He would also be the third cornerback commit for the Ducks in the class of 2027, which is a position they have been recruiting heavily. The cornerbacks the Ducks have at this moment are four-star Ai’King Hall from the state of Alabama and four-star Josiah Molden from the state of Oregon.
Some of their other commits at this moment include four-star EDGE Rashad Streets, four-star defensive linemen Zane Rowe, and four-star EDGE Cameron Pritchett. This class is shaping up to be another top-five class if the pieces continue to fall into place for Oregon coach Dan Lanning and his staff.
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