5 Things To Watch: Oregon-Illinois

EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon football team will take the field as the No. 1 team in the country for the first time in more than a decade Saturday.

The Ducks will host a second straight home matchup of ranked teams, against No. 20 Illinois in Autzen Stadium at 12:30 p.m. It's Oregon's first game as the top-ranked team in the country since November 2012.

The UO football team brings a 7-0 record into the game, including 4-0 in Big Ten play. The Fighting Illini are 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten, with three wins over top-25 teams and their lone loss at then-No. 9 Penn State.

Both teams have played Purdue, with Illinois beating the Boilermakers at home on Oct. 12 in overtime, 50-49, and Oregon shutting them out on the road the next week, 35-0.

Oregon leads the all-time series 2-1, having lost at Illinois in 1970 before sweeping a home-and-home series played in 1993 and 1995. The Ducks' win at Autzen Stadium in 1995 is the subject of this week's "Turn Back the Flock" hosted by former UO defensive back Verone McKinley III.

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— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) October 25, 2024

Saturday's game will be televised by CBS, with Brad Nessler on play-by-play, Gary Danielson providing analysis and Jenny Dell reporting from the sidelines.

Some storylines to watch once the game kicks off. …

1. The Ducks ascended to No. 1 in the country Sunday, in the wake of the loss by Texas to Georgia. A day later at his weekly press conference, UO coach Dan Lanning was asked for a reaction, and he offered a short and to-the-point response: "Who cares?"

Longtime fans of Oregon football went decades in which they probably couldn't have fathomed a time when the Ducks would seem unfazed by a No. 1 ranking. But that's the mentality Lanning sought to instill in his team this week.

"I think it's really simple for us when our messaging hasn't changed the entire year," he said. "You don't sit halfway through a meal and say you're done eating when there's still a lot of food left on the plate. That's where we're at. We're at the midpoint of the season; we're not done yet. There's a lot of things that we still want to accomplish, so that doesn't really matter for us."

2. The Ducks are settling back into a normal routine, after a couple of short weeks this month.

Oregon played at Purdue on a Friday night, the UO football team's second game in October played on a Friday. That provided an extra day to prepare for the Illinois game, after which the Ducks can settle into a standard routine through November, with all Saturday games except for a bye week.

"Just in general when you're in a short week, you lose a day of prep, right?" Lanning said. "This allows us to really be able to hone in on each piece — not that that doesn't happen in a short week, it's just a little bit condensed when it comes to time and practice reps, for sure. You have one less practice you can take advantage of. So we get an opportunity to hit every one of those situations."

3. In Monday's press conference, Lanning identified a couple of keys when facing the Fighting Illini.

One of them is taking care of the ball — Illinois is tied for second in the Big Ten in turnover margin, at plus-1.0 per game. And Illinois brings that classic Big Ten mentality of wanting to control the line of scrimmage, particularly in the run game on both sides of the ball.

"They're an identity team," Lanning said. "They have a clear identity: that they want to be more physical than you. Those situations are situations that we have to be able win."

4. Through seven games, Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel has completed six passes this season of 50 yards or longer. Nobody in the FBS has completed more.

And that doesn't include a 49-yard completion by Gabriel just last week at Purdue, to Evan Stewart. Yes, the deep ball has been a serious weapon for the Ducks in the first half of the season.

What makes Gabriel so adept at those deep shots? "I just think being decisive, knowing where he's taking the ball," Lanning said. "And then having guys up top win when you get those opportunities. We have some wideouts that will go win and go attack the ball on those situations."

5. The Ducks could have another of those wideouts back in the fold this week. Traeshon Holden didn't play at Purdue following his ejection from the win over Ohio State, but Lanning said Holden should be available this week.

Still uncertain is the status of tight end Terrance Ferguson, after he missed the Purdue game following a procedure to remove his appendix. But young tight end Kenyon Sadiq stepped up in his absence to help fill the void.

"Kenyon is a talented guy and I think for a lot of guys it's, when they get their opportunity and their name is called, you're able to see what they can do on the field," Gabriel said. "It's definitely exciting for him and I think it's something he's been working for this whole time and now we're able to see it. I'm proud of him."