Why the Oregon Ducks Will Roll Against a Reloading Idaho

By SPENCER McLAUGHLIN

Contributor, 750 The Game

Oregon fans are going to enjoy Saturday afternoon against Idaho. The gap between FCS teams and high-end Power 4 rosters like Oregon’s is substantial. Idaho was a much better team than Portland State last year, the last FCS team to come to Autzen Stadium in 2023.

Final score: Oregon 81, Portland State 7.

This Vandals team should provide more pushback than the Vikings did last season, but we aren’t talking about Montana traveling to Husky Stadium in 2021. Oregon is going to dominate, it’s just a matter of when the backups get into the game.

Dante Moore will finally take the field for the Ducks on Saturday once the first-team offense builds a sizable lead and finds a good rhythm. He was committed to the Ducks in the 2023 cycle before flipping to UCLA, and transferred in to be the backup behind Dillon Gabriel before presumably taking the reins in 2025. 

I’m interested to see how both of those QBs look in Will Stein’s offense with elite weapons and a good offensive line. Will we see third string QB Austin Novosad? I would like to, he was incredibly sharp in the Spring Game back in April.

Idaho is replacing 7 starters from last year’s FCS Quarterfinal team including starting QB Gevani McCoy, now at Oregon State. They have questions on the perimeter for expected starting QB Jack Layne. He started 1 game last year against Idaho State and threw for 275 yards with six touchdowns. I’ll go out on a limb and say this Oregon defense presents a different challenge.

Washington transfer CB Jabbar Muhammad will be Oregon’s #1 corner this year, but who starts on the other side with Jahlil Florence out due to injury? Who fills out the defensive line rotations after losing 4 players from the interior D-Line to graduation? What do the rotations look like at the safety position?

Those are all questions I’m more than a little interested in having answered, at least in part, this Saturday at Autzen Stadium. I’ll be up in the tailgate area before the game before heading to the press box. Hope to see some of you there.

The Ducks are favored by 43.5 points, thanks in part to an offense that could legitimately go 7 deep at the wide receiver position. If WR Gary Bryant Jr. isn’t able to go, could this be the first real breakout opportunity for former 5-star WR Jurrion Dickey?

Oregon is the preseason #3 team in the AP Poll, and will want to avoid any sense of uneasiness to stay in the favor of poll voters nationwide. I expect that to be fine, even though they’re playing a tougher FCS opponent than they faced last year. It’s why I’ve posed all these “first world problem” questions that I’m interested to see when pads finally pop between teams in different colored jerseys.

And yes, I’m interested to see what uniform combo Oregon comes out with on Saturday. I may feel old at 26 years of age but I’m not dead.

Oregon will cruise, and should look impressive on both sides of the ball with all the talent they have. 

Wait, one more question! Who’s going to do kickoffs and can Oregon make field goals?

Score prediction:

Oregon 66, Idaho 10

Spencer McLaughlin is an Oregon Ducks football contributor to 750 The Game. He also hosts the “Locked On Oregon Ducks” and “Locked On College Football” podcasts and has work featured throughout the season here.