Under normal circumstances the 9 A.M. Big Ten game doesn’t hold much interest for me. Usually I would spend Saturday morning sleeping in, taking a leisurely shower, and maybe taking the wife out for an early lunch, before settling in for hours of college football. The Ducks play a lot of late afternoon and evening games nowadays, so I have plenty of time to warm up by rooting against OSU or the Purple Plague before our game. Last Saturday wasn’t normal circumstances, though. Penn State v. Nebraska was must see college ball.

De’Anthony Thomas is not the next Reggie Bush. He’s not the next anyone. He’s the first De’Anthony Thomas. Which makes him one of the most exciting and dynamic open-field runners you will ever see. In space, as the announcers like to say, with one man or a couple of defenders to beat, he often makes them look helpless, a blur …

Something strange happened to Stanford on the way to flexing its muscle and piling up 246 yards of total offense in the first half Saturday night against Oregon. The Cardinal never held the lead. That’s a problem against the Ducks. A very bad problem. Trail for long and the chances of catching up are about as good as keeping Phil …

It’s #4 versus #7 for the PAC-12 North Championship, and everybody wants a piece of the Ducks. Today in my inbox Allen Kenney of the website Crystal Ball Run, a national blog covering college football and the race for the BCS championship, weighed in with his “Five Burning Questions”: 1. Will Darron Thomas be ready to rock? That’s a key …

Game of the Century Round II? This is truly a special matchup late in the PAC 12 Season. Can Oregon match up with the powerful Cardinal run attack, and contain Andrew Luck in the same game? Can Stanford stop the improving Ducks Offense? In a game with such even categories, and a game that isn’t the first game of the …

I’d stop running these, but the kid keeps finding the endzone. Fabian Moreau’s latest tape lists him at 6-0 185 with a 4.38 40. Even with hand-held high school 40 time inflation, all those touchdowns suggest maybe he’s fast enough to be a pretty good wide receiver/Tazer, and he keeps catching footballs. Oregon could use a couple of guys who …

SEATTLE — The old place made noise. The press box shook. Oregon players had trouble hearing. For the longest while Saturday night, it appeared Washington might be capable of an upset in the last game played in Husky Stadium As We Know It. For the longest while, it felt like this long-standing border-state rivalry was just that again — a …