With fall camp just around the corner, the Oregon football season is just over a month away.
The Ducks, looking to build off a 12-2 season and a Fiesta Bowl win in 2023, will open its season in late August against Idaho.
Before Oregon lines up at Autzen Stadium, here is a look at some of the most interesting matchups on the 2024 schedule.
1. Ohio State at Oregon, Oct. 12
2024’s Big Ten matchup between Ohio State and Oregon should be a doozy and could be a matchup between two teams ranked inside the top five in the country come October.
After the Ducks defeated the Buckeyes in Columbus in 2021 as part of a home-and-home series that never featured a matchup in Eugene due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ohio State is finally making the return trip to Eugene in what will be the most important Big Ten matchup of the season at Autzen Stadium.
The two preseason conference favorites, the Buckeyes have won five Big Ten titles over the last decade, including four in a row from 2017-2020.
The Ducks, which are looking to win their first national championship in their first year in a new conference, need to knock off the top dog if they want to accomplish that goal. Oct. 12 against the favorites in the Big Ten will go a long way in building momentum toward a potential playoff run.
2. Oregon at Michigan, Nov. 2
The three-time defending Big Ten champs won’t look like they have in years past, but still represent a massive roadblock in Oregon’s quest for a conference championship.
The Wolverines return just five starters from a team that won the national championship a year ago led by now NFL coach Jim Harbaugh. But previous offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore has kept much of the same identity that Harbaugh’s teams were known for at Michigan.
The Wolverines haven’t lost at home since 2020, going a perfect 22-0 over the last three seasons at The Big House.
New team or not, taking on the defending champs in Ann Arbor will be no easy task.
After Ohio State and Michigan, there is a considerable drop off in terms of intriguing matchups. The Buckeyes and Wolverines have won the last seven Big Ten titles.
The last team on Oregon’s schedule to win the Big Ten other than those schools was Michigan State in 2015.
The Spartans are now long removed from that season and era, having struggled in recent memory before hiring former Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith to lead them into 2024. Smith’s last game as head coach of the Beavers was a 28-7 drubbing at Autzen Stadium, and he’ll make the return trip with Michigan State in Oregon’s first matchup against a Big Ten foe that wasn’t part of the Pac-12 last year.
The Ducks will recognize a few familiar faces on the opposing sideline with Smith, like former Oregon State players Jack Velling, Aidan Chiles and Tanner Miller, but also former Oregon defensive back coach Demetrice Martin, who joined Smith’s staff at MSU this year.
4. Washington at Oregon, Nov. 30
This matchup may have lost a lot of luster given the Huskies’ losses in the offseason – including its coach and 20 of its 22 starters either to the NFL or the transfer portal – but you can bet the Ducks have this matchup circled on its schedule in their season finale.
UW has taken each of the last three matchups against the Ducks under Lanning, all by three points and with major stakes. The most recent loss was in the Pac-12 championship with a playoff berth on the line.
Though Washington doesn’t project to feature in the Big Ten title chase and would surprise many if they were in position to make the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, Oregon will be looking for some revenge and could be playing for a playoff spot or conference title position come the final game of the year against its rival.
5. Oregon at Wisconsin, Nov. 16
A sneaky game toward the end of the season, the Ducks have to travel to Madison just before a bye week. It will be its eighth straight week without a bye to that point, with its first bye of the season just before conference play.
The Badgers shouldn’t be a pushover, either. Wisconsin hasn’t had a losing season since 2001, and though they’ve stumbled to 7-6 records each of the past two seasons, second-year head coach Luke Fickell has reloaded his roster with talent, including grabbing quarterback Tyler Van Dyke in the transfer portal from Miami.
Van Dyke has almost 7,500 career passing yards and 54 touchdowns over three seasons at Miami, and could make the Badgers a potential dark horse surprise in the Big Ten.
6. Oregon at Oregon State, Sept. 14
It’s weird having this game so low. It’s also weird that this game is being played in September and is a nonconference game. Nonetheless, the Ducks and Beavers don’t play in the same conference and will play in the lowest stakes game they’ve likely ever played in from a national perspective.
That doesn’t mean the game doesn’t have its own meaning, though.
The Beavers are looking for revenge after a 28-7 drubbing at Autzen Stadium a year ago, and for the Ducks leaving the crumbling Pac-12 behind and choosing to join the Big Ten.
It’ll be Oregon’s first road game of the year, and though Oregon State has had to replace most of its roster and its head coach, the Beavers will be more than amped to spring an upset at Reser Stadium.
7. Oregon at UCLA, Sept. 28
Funny that Oregon’s first official Big Ten game will be played against a familiar foe at an all-too-familiar place, but that doesn’t take away from the history at play between the Bruins and Ducks in each team’s Big Ten opener at the Rose Bowl in late September.
The Bruins also have a new coach, after former Ducks coach Chip Kelly departed Los Angeles to become the offensive coordinator for Ohio State over the offseason.
UCLA will be led at quarterback by Ethan Garbers, who beat out current Ducks QB and transfer Dante Moore for the starting job last year after the pair went back and forth for most of the season with starter reps. Former Duck Bryan Addison will also feature in the defensive backfield after leaving Oregon midway through last season due to personal reasons.
8. Maryland at Oregon, Nov. 9
The back half of Oregon’s schedule features some interesting matchups against teams that are a bit of an unknown. The Terrapins are one of those teams, breaking in a new quarterback but showing some promise in the defensive backfield and at their skill positions.
Kaden Prather is one of their top playmakers after transferring from West Virginia, and Maryland returns three DBs who played at least 300 snaps last season and added another great corner in Jalen Huskey from the transfer portal.
9. Illinois at Oregon, Oct. 26
A matchup right before the trip to Ann Arbor, this could be another potential trip-up for the Ducks if they worry about the following week rather than what’s directly in front of them.
The Fighting Illini finished 5-7 a year ago but showed promise under fourth-year coach Bret Bielema in 2022, going 8-5. Illinois had a strong defense a year ago, ranking in the top third in the country in run defense and return most of its front seven, but need quarterback Luke Altmyer and the offense to step up to make some noise this season.
10. Oregon at Purdue, Oct. 18
The second of two Friday night games the Ducks will play this season, and the only one on the road, the trip to West Lafayette comes less than a week after a big date against Ohio State at Autzen.
Outside of that, Oregon shouldn’t have much problem with the Boilermakers, who have been picked dead last in most preseason Big Ten polls. Purdue finished 4-8 last season but won three games in the Big Ten over Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana.
11. Boise State at Oregon, Sept. 7
Oregon’s nonconference schedule doesn’t feature any Power Four teams, and outside an in-state rivalry game against Oregon State in Corvallis, the Ducks should breeze through its two nonconference matchups, at least on paper.
Boise State added former top quarterback recruit and USC transfer Malachi Nelson to a roster that went 8-6 last season but didn’t beat a Power Five opponent in 2023.
12. Idaho at Oregon, Aug. 31
Now an FCS program after dropping down from FBS in 2018, recent history says the Ducks should have no problem in its season opener against the Vandals.
Idaho went 9-4 in 2023 in the Big Sky, beating Nevada 33-6 and losing to Cal, 31-17, in nonconference play, though it’ll have to replace its top quarterback, Gevani McCoy, who transferred to Oregon State over the offseason.
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon football 2024: Ohio State among most intriguing matchups
