College Football

5 Things To Watch: Holiday Bowl

5 Things To Watch: Holiday Bowl


SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The Oregon football team will try to secure the 13th 10-win season in program history Wednesday, 22 years after capping the very first 10-win season in school history by winning the Holiday Bowl.

The No. 15 Ducks face North Carolina in that same bowl game on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Oregon is making its fourth Holiday Bowl appearance, having won here in 2000 over Texas, lost to Oklahoma in 2005 and defeated Oklahoma State in 2008.

The victory in 2000 came over a Longhorns team coached by Mack Brown, who will be on the sideline as the Tar Heels’ head coach Wednesday. The Ducks bring a 9-3 record into the Holiday Bowl, after a regular season that saw them drop their opener in Georgia, win eight straight to enter the College Football Playoff race, then drop two of three following an injury to quarterback Bo Nix.

North Carolina brings a 9-4 record into the Holiday Bowl. This is the first ever meeting between the Ducks and Tar Heels.

Wednesday’s game is slated for a 5 p.m. kickoff on FOX, with Gus Johnson on play by play, Joel Klatt as analyst and Jenny Taft providing reports from the sidelines.

Some storylines to watch Wednesday evening …

1. Coaching changes and player departures to the NFL draft or the transfer portal has impacted both teams leading up to this game. Oregon’s offensive coordinator in the regular season, Kenny Dillingham, is now the head coach at Arizona State, and the Ducks will be without at least three starters on defense who won’t play Wednesday after declaring for the NFL draft.

But in a press conference Tuesday, both head coaches opted to focus on the personnel that remains on both sidelines for the Holiday Bowl. For Dan Lanning, that includes some notable seniors including several offensive linemen who used a sixth year of eligibility due to the pandemic to play for the Ducks in Lanning’s first year as head coach this fall.

“My experience sitting here would have been so different without those guys,” Lanning said. “They didn’t stick around because of me, they stuck around because they love Oregon, and they love football and they love their teammates. But this season wouldn’t have been the same without those guys on our team — it wouldn’t have been remotely close.”

2. Oregon’s postseason might have looked much different if not for the injury to Nix late in the Washington game. With Nix hobbled, the Ducks were unable to close out what would have been their ninth straight win, and he remained limited in the loss to Oregon…

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