This year, in their first season in the Big Ten, the Oregon Ducks have made it a priority to introduce themselves to their new conference mates.
Oregon floated a giant rubber ducky down the river in Indianapolis during Big Ten Media Days last summer, their mascot has been anywhere and everywhere , and they’ve dubbed themselves as “That Team Out West.” It’s a lot of talk. If you’re going to make that much noise, you better be able to back it up.
And back it up they have.
Now the No. 1 team in the country for the last three weeks, with a home win against No. 2 Ohio State in Autzen Stadium and a road 38-17 beatdown over Michigan in The Big House on their resume, it’s safe to say they’ve announced their presence.
Last week in Ann Arbor, head coach Dan Lanning set a tone of competitiveness that is jaw-dropping. All week long, he prepared his team with the mindset that he would be taking a late timeout to point out the fact that the stadium was emptying, that dejected fans were heading to the exits when the outcome was all but decided. He spoke it into existence, and then did exactly that.