The No. 1 Oregon football team now knows who it will play in the Rose Bowl as it is set take on No. 8 Ohio State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals on New Year's Day.
The game will kick off at 2 p.m.
Ahead of the matchup, Oregon coach Dan Lanning spoke with members of the media over Zoom on Monday. Here's what he said.
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The Ducks and Buckeyes seemed fated to matchup in the Big Ten championship, but after OSU dropped its regular season finale to Michigan, the rematch had to wait another couple of weeks before coming to fruition.
After the Ducks defeated Ohio State 32-31 at Autzen Stadium in October, the Big Ten rivals will face off with higher stakes at the Rose Bowl. The No. 1 Ducks were awarded the No. 1 seed and earned a bye, while the Buckeyes had to defeat No. 9 Tennessee in the first round in Columbus last Saturday to advance to the quarterfinals of the CFP.
"We're excited," Lanning said. "Getting the opportunity to play great teams, that's what it's all about. This part of the year, I think when you play great teams it gives you extra motivation to go work really hard to be prepared and be ready to be on the field. Ohio State is a great team and the path to the end is tough, which is exciting for the team and for me."
Oregon is just 2-9 all-time against the Buckeyes, but has won each of the last two matchups, including a 35-28 win in Columbus in 2021 and the 32-31 win in October in Eugene.
The last time Oregon played Ohio State in the Rose Bowl was on Jan. 1, 2010, when Jim Tressel's Buckeyes defeated Chip Kelly's Ducks 26-17. Kelly now serves as Ohio State's offensive coordinator almost 15 years later.
With a whole season of tape and familiarity with Ohio State, Lanning knows exactly what the Buckeyes have done to get to this point in the season.
Though Oregon will lean on its previous matchup with OSU in October, it has also taken a deep dive into coaching philosophies, historical philosophies and the entire body of work during the extended time off.
"You've got the time to do it so you look at all of it," Lanning said. "You look at what worked, you look at what didn't work, you look at how your teams change and you try to play to your strengths. You look at how your opponent's team has changed. There's going to be some differences in this game from the last time."
Similar to his comments before Oregon and Ohio State's regular season matchup, Lanning was complimentary of the Buckeyes and their weapons Monday morning.
"They're a really good team," Lanning said. "I don't know if there's a more talented team in the nation."
Though Lanning spoke briefly about the talent OSU possesses at receiver, tight end, in the trenches and on defense, he spoke at length about the growth of quarterback Will Howard on Monday.
"He has good size and he's a big body that's hard to get down," Lanning said. "More than that I think he's built a lot of confidence in the guys he gets to throw the ball to and even some confidence in the quarterback run game. I think you've seen him utilized more in the QB run game later in the season."
Howard, a Kansas State transfer, has thrown for 3,171 yards and 29 touchdowns to just nine interceptions while completing 73.2% of his passes in his fifth season. The senior has also rushed for 168 yards and seven touchdowns this year.
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.