Pac-12 Football: End of Oregon Ducks’ dynasty ushers in new exciting era

Oregon has ruled the Pac-12 football in recent years, but when the Ducks suffered a 62-20 home loss to the Utah Utes it marked the beginning of a new, exciting chapter in the conference.

Sure, the Oregon Ducks looked vulnerable this year after the departure of Heisman trophy winning quarterback Marcus Mariota, but no one thought what happened Saturday in Eugene was even possible. The defending Pac-12 champions, participants in the national championship game last January, and the class of the conference over the last six years, was blown out at home by the Utah Utes.

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Utah hung 62 points on the Ducks, and thoroughly dominated what was once the most feared offense in college football. Utah has a great front seven and an athletic, playmaking secondary, but this was unthinkable.

Nevertheless, Oregon was still favored prior to kick-off, and the Utes offense has not looked capable of producing that kind of output in their first three games of 2015.

Grantland.com’s Matt Hinton accurately compared this humiliation to another game that effectively ended a Pac-12 dynasty:

"During Utah’s thorough, 62-20 humiliation of Oregon on Saturday night — somewhere between the halfback pass that slammed the door on a potential Ducks comeback and the funky punt return that extended the Utes’ lead to 42 points in the third quarter — I couldn’t help but think back to Halloween 2009. That was the night that Oregon, then regarded as an ostentatiously uniformed upstart led by an obscure, first-year head coach named Chip Kelly, laid waste to the then–West Coast overlords from USC in a 47-20 ambush on the same field, bringing the Trojans’ nearly decade-long reign of terror under Pete Carroll to an abrupt and emphatic end."

The USC dynasty had plenty of close calls over the years, and while the Stanford upset of then No. 1 ranked Trojans was more of a shock, Hinton is right on the money when he talks about the feeling that we had just witnessed the end of an era in that Ducks’ upset.

Carroll would end up leaving the program after that 2009 season, getting out just ahead of the NCAA’s heavy handed, and some would say unfair, sanctions. The Ducks would then go on to dominate the conference in the years since, alternating with the Stanford Cardinal for the Pac-12 title. The finality of the end of that Trojan program’s ownership of the conference was obvious.

Everyone knew it would be a long time before they would be able to regroup. In fact, here in 2015 they are still trying to regain the same swagger and relevance.

The biggest difference between the end of the USC era in 2009, and the end of the Oregon era in 2015, is that there is no one team ready to jump into the void left by the Ducks. In the season following Carroll’s departure, Oregon quickly grabbed the reigns, and by mid-October of the 2010 season, the Ducks were ranked number one in the AP poll. They would go to finish 12-0 and play in the BCS championship game, losing to Auburn, 22-19.

There was no question about who was the top dog in the conference. The Ducks ripped the title right out of the hands of the Trojans and proceeded to keep it for themselves for the next half-decade. Here in 2015, there is no one team that is clearly ready to take and hold that fictional title belt.

The conference is as wide open as it has been in the last 14 years. Not since 2001 has there been a feeling that any number of teams could end up claiming the conference title. USC, Utah, UCLA, Stanford, and Cal all have legitimate claims as being the best team in the conference right now.

While Arizona just lost in brutal fashion to the UCLA Bruins, they did play in the conference championship game last year. That is six teams with at least an outside shot of claiming the conference title, and when was the last time this conference could say that half of its members’ teams might end up on top?

Sep 3, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats linebacker

Scooby Wright

III (33) adjusts his helmet during the first quarter against the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners at Arizona Stadium. Arizona won 42-32. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

If you are a fan of west coast football then this is a wonderful development. The king has been overthrown and there is no successor. The crown is there for the taking for any team that muster up the courage and fortitude over the gauntlet of Pac-12 play.

This is a fine time to be alive, and you can be sure that every team in the conference has had a sudden change of attitude. No more are the other programs competing for second place. No more are they looking at next year’s schedule praying that they miss the Oregon Ducks. No more are their fans wistfully recounting the days when an 8-3 Stanford team could claim the conference title.

Those days are back, and while the ultimate winner of the conference might not have the same prestige in the national media as the Oregon and USC programs of old, it still beats playing second fiddle to a dominant program.

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Oregon has ruled the Pac-12 football in recent years, but when the Ducks suffered a 62-20 home loss to the Utah Utes it marked the beginning of a new, exciting chapter in the conference.

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