Schedule/Predicted Wins
OregonvsGeorgia
Eastern Washington@Oregon
BYU@Oregon
Oregon@Wazzu
Stanford@Oregon
Oregon@Arizona
UCLA@Oregon
Oregon@Cal
Oregon@Colorado
Washington@Oregon
Utah@Oregon
Oregon@Oregon St
Predicted record: 9-3
Floor: 7-5
Ceiling: 10-2
What a great schedule for rookie head coach Dan Lanning (Georgia’s Defensive Coordinator last year) to get his feet wet with; now if only he had a quarterback that won’t shit the bed in big moments. I’m banking on Oregon to be ranked, getting national attention down the stretch and Bo Nix screwing the pooch against Utah and Oregon State. The defense will have to win games for them with their every-down bellcow runningback Travis Dye transferring to USC and Devon Williams leaving for the NFL. They’ll be heavily Sophomore dependent with a mix of Mar’keise Irving, an explosive back from Minnesota; and power back Byron Cardwell. Sophomore pass catchers Kris Hutson, Troy Franklin and Terrance Ferguson will have to deal with Bo Nix’s bullshit.
Noah Sewell, Penei Sewell’s brother, is an absolute monster at linebacker and returns to a defense that should get an upgrade with Lanning’s pedigree. Jeffrey Bassa slides over an interior linebacker position after playing well a WILL last year. A former safety in high school, Bassa is a bit undersized, but makes up for it in athleticism and nastiness. The dude is a dawg–think Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah from Notre Dame (now with the Browns).
50/50 games
Obviously, Utah and Oregon State are both winnable games for a talented Oregon team, but there will be some growing pains and doy doy plays from Bo Nix. Weeks 5, 6 and 7 could be intriguing and give us a real sense of this Oregon team. Stanford has always given Oregon fits and will undoubtedly be better this year, theres nowhere to go but up for Arizona and UCLA is returning a ton of talent. If they can win 2 of those games, they’re progressing ahead of schedule, if they can win all 3, they have a legit shot at the Pac-12 title.
The Morning Flush 
This is going to be a fun season to watch. They could compete with Georgia reloading but that’ll be tough in Atlanta. BYU, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, and Utah games are all at home which is huge. Can’t slip up at Oregon State but I see the returning talent on this team for 10 wins. Could see as low as 8 wins if “Big Game” Bo chokes. I’m also predicting 9 wins though but I like Lanning and the fact that Dillingham the OC has worked with Nix before. Vegas has them at 8.5 wins so I’d definitely take the over.
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