We have every reason to believe the Cougar Curse it is behind us. The Ducks beat Washington State last year (barely), Mike Leach has moved on, and WSU has a new head coach and starting quarterback.
The Cougars seem to be descending from a certain perch of theirs.
On the other hand, the Ducks are the more talented team, they’ve been dominating the Pac-12 in recruiting the past few years, have a solid foundation, and are now a program that “reloads,” (careful, Perkins), not “rebuilds.”
So, it sounds like the Ducks have absolutely nothing to worry about. But the truth is, given the reasons mentioned above, we should fear a Washington State program that has absolutely nothing to lose. Careful everyone, these guys can still score a lot of points, and against Stanford, the Oregon defense didn’t exactly look like a “shutdown defense.” It just takes one young and over-confident quarterback who doesn’t know any better to slay a giant.
Yeah, I watched him against the Beavers, you’ll know his name soon enough.
Oregon had a four-year blip on the radar against WSU from 2015-2018. The Ducks were in rebuilding mode and had some critical injuries (i.e. QB) in most of those games, while the Cougars were peaking under Mike Leach.
Those days are over, but is the Cougar Curse?
On Saturday, we’ll find out…
Darren Perkins
Spokane, WA
Top Photo Credit: Kevin Cline
Darren Perkins is a sales professional and 1997 Oregon graduate. After finishing school, he escaped the rain and moved to sunny Southern California where he studied screenwriting for two years at UCLA. Darren grew up in Eugene and in 1980, at the tender age of five, he attended his first Oregon football game. His lasting memory from that experience was an enthusiastic Don Essig announcing to the crowd: “Reggie Ogburn, completes a pass to… Reggie Ogburn.” Captivated by such a thrilling play, Darren’s been hooked on Oregon football ever since. Currently living in Spokane, Darren enjoys flaunting his yellow and green superiority complex over friends and family in Cougar country.
