Oregon vs USC: A History
A lot of Oregon's best moments have come against the Trojans
As with Washington and UCLA, Oregon’s rivalry with USC won’t come to an end with tomorrow’s meeting, but it will move into a new phase. Within the Pac-10/12, USC has been the standard that everyone else looked up to, so beating USC always felt a little different, even if the Trojans were in a bit of a down year. I’m not sure that will feel quite the same way in the Big Ten where teams like Ohio State and Michigan have the same revered tradition but also have experienced more recent success.
Here’s my best and worst moments from Oregon’s rivalry with USC.
Best Moments: 1994-2001
Since most of my core memories regarding Oregon football start with themagical ‘94 season, I’m going to skip right over the period from 1972-93 when USC went 15-1-1 against the Ducks. But I should at least mention that tie in 1980 when the Trojans came into Autzen ranked 2nd in the nation, but the Ducks played them to a 7-7 draw thanks to a late-game stop of Marcus Allen on 4th-and-goal.
As with Oregon’s rivalry with Washington, the other big kid on the block in the ‘80’s and early ‘90s, this rivalry really flipped in 1994 as the Ducks began a streak of five wins in six meetings from 1994-2001. Let’s just touch on each those wins quickly:
1994: Oregon won 22-7 thanks to backup quarterback Tony Graziani filling in for an injured Danny O’Neil. Fun fact: it was Oregon’s first win in the Coliseum since 1971 when another backup quarterback, Harvey Winn, filled in for an injured Dan Fouts to lead the Ducks to victory.
1998: A year after losing 24-22 because of an inability to convert a late-game two-point conversion, Oregon prevailed 17-13 thanks to a 55-yard touchdown pass from Akili Smith to Tony Hartley in the third quarter and a 62-yard run by Smith in the fourth quarter. If you’re looking for a two-play sample of why Oregon fans still talk about Akili Smith with some sort of awe, these are the two plays to look at.
1999: Oregon won 33-30 in triple overtime thanks to a 27-yard field goal by Jason Frankel. Frankel was filling in for Oregon’s All-American kicker Nathan Villegas who injured his knee while celebrating his game-tying kick at the end of regulation.
2000: Oregon won 28-17 thanks to a breakout performance from Joey Harrington who threw for 382 yards and four touchdowns.
2001: Oregon won 24-22 thanks to a game-winning field goal drive by Joey Harrington in the final 56 seconds. This was the 8th come-from-behind win of Harrington’s career (with more to come) as the Harrington legend really began to take form. Meanwhile, the Oregon defense picked off Trojans’ quarterback Carson Palmer three times.
Worst Moment: USC 44 Oregon 33 (2002)
Worst Moment: USC 45 Oregon 13 (2005)
Worst Moment: USC 35 Oregon 10 (2006)
This was the last time in the rivalry that USC won consecutive games over Oregon and let’s be honest, they would have won five straight times if they played in 2003 and 2004 when the Trojans won back-to-back national titles. There’s not much to say about the first two meetings as 2002 was Carson Palmer’s Heisman-winning season and 2005 was Reggie Bush’s Heisman-winning season. The Trojans were in the midst of a 22-game winning streak for that 2005 game and while it was the only regular season game that Oregon lost that year, there was no illusion that the Ducks were on the Trojans’ level..
The 2006 game is worth mentioning only because my parents attended the game in-person and my mother was horrified to see a group of sorority sisters wearing matching shorts that said “Booty Time”, not realizing that USC’s quarterback was named John David Booty.
Best Moment: Oregon 24 USC 17 (2007)
Four weeks after Oregon’s devastating loss to Cal on a fumble through the end zone, Oregon found themselves back in the national title hunt as they hosted USC in the first matchup of top-ten teams. It was only a seven-point win, but that seven points made it USC’s most lopsided loss in a five-year stretch. Jonathan Stewart ran for over 100 tough yards, Dennis Dixon put himself squarely in the Heisman race, and defensive back Matthew Harper sealed the win with his second interception of USC quarterback Mark Sanchez. This Oregon season turned to tragedy a few weeks later (more on that in my recap of Oregon vs Arizona), but this was arguably the best regular season win of the entire Mike Bellotti era.
Best Moment: Oregon 47 USC 20 (2009)
A buddy of mine asked my father, an Oregon season-ticket holder for more than two decades, what his favorite Autzen Stadium moments were. My dad immediately mentioned three games: “The Michigan game (in 2003), the Oklahoma game (in 2006), and the game against USC on Halloween”. It’s interesting to me that my dad didn’t mention any of the games from Oregon’s 2010-14 run, which is the greatest era in school history, and it makes me think that being an Oregon fan will never be quite as fun as it was during that Halloween night in 2009.
The Trojans brought the 4th-ranked team into Autzen that Halloween night and the Ducks were just a few spots behind them, in the midst of a delightful first season for new head coach Chip Kelly. I was in attendance for this game as well, and while I remember feeling good about Oregon’s chances, I also remember this game unfolding as a sort of revelation. Oregon fans didn’t know how good LaMichael James really was until they saw him run for 183 yards on the Trojans and they didn’t know what they had in Jeremiah Masoli at quarterback until they saw him almost match LaMichael with 164 rushing yards of his own.
Oregon’s breakneck tempo seemed to break the brain of USC coach Pete Carroll and former Pac-12 coach Rick Neuheisel later suggested that USC’s loss to Oregon was a motivating factor in Carroll pursuing an NFL job after the season. I’m not so sure about that. Slick Rick never passes up on the opportunity to troll a rival, but it’s worth noting that Carroll left USC with a 3-3 record vs Oregon and back-to-back losses in his last two trips to Autzen.
Best Moment: Oregon 53 USC 32 (2010)
This game came in the midst of Oregon’s only 12-0 regular season and it was one of the few games that was somewhat competitive. The Trojans were actually leading 17-15 in the second quarter when Oregon’s Boseko Lokombo forced a fumble on USC quarterback Matt Barkley. When Oregon’s offense came onto the field, I remember thinking “I bet they score here.” Sure enough, Darron Thomas found Jeff Maehl for an acrobatic 45-yard touchdown on the very next play. That’s what rooting for a Chip Kelly-coached team was often like.
Worst Moment: USC 38 Oregon 35 (2011)
This one is on the short list of most heartbreaking losses in Oregon football history. USC came into Autzen and dominated the 4th-ranked Ducks for the better part of three quarters. It was 38-14 when Matt Barkley completed his fourth touchdown of the night.
Just when the door seemed to be slamming shut on the Ducks, De’Anthony Thomas returned the ensuing kickoff for a 96-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 38-20. Then Oregon got the ball back and drove 75 yards in 2:16 to cut the deficit to 38-27 after a Kenjon Barner touchdown run. A John Boyett interception set up Oregon for another score to cut the deficit to 38-35 and a USC fumble gave the ball back to the Ducks with a chance to tie or take the lead. Taking over on their own 14-yard line with 2:25 to play, there was plenty of time for the high-powered Oregon offense to find the end zone one more time.
It doesn’t make complete sense, but I’m convinced Oregon would have won this game if they were trailing by 4 points instead of 3. I’m convinced that weird things happen when coaches know they can attempt a field goal to send a game into overtime (see this year’s Oregon vs Washington game as another example) and things got weird at the end of this final drive for Oregon. The Ducks drove 43 yards in 1:12, but then only managed to drive 23 yards in the last 1:13 in part because Chip kept a couple of timeouts in his back pocket while precious seconds ticked off the clock. Alejandro Maldonado missed a 37-yard field goal as time expired.
Best Moment: Oregon 62 USC 51 (2012)
In a previous post, I said the closest thing to offensive perfection that I had ever witnessed in-person was Oregon dropping 60 points on UCLA in 2010. Well, that was before I went to the Coliseum and watched Oregon drop 62 points on the Trojans in 2012. Marcus Mariota was an incredibly efficient 20-for-23 for 304 yards and 4 touchdowns, Kenjon Barner set a school record with 321 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns (on what seemed like the same play over and over again), and the Ducks rolled in a game that was not as close as the final score indicated (USC’s last touchdown came with one second to play).
My favorite thing about this game is that I was in grad school in Pasadena at the time and I got my buddy CJ to go to the game with me. CJ is a passionate Iowa State Cyclones fan, but he was happy to put on an Oregon shirt and head to the game with me. On the metro ride to the stadium, more and more Trojans boarded with at each stop along the way and a few would always say “F*** the Ducks” under their breath. CJ took it all stride. He didn’t even cause a scene when a USC fan gave him a two-hand shove to the chest as we walked past him on the way to the stadium. After the game, those same fans were mysteriously quiet and respectfully kept their hands to themselves, just like the USC defense had done.
Best Moment: Oregon 48 USC 28 (2015)
The best example for the “what-might-have-been” aspect of Vernon Adam’s tenure as the Oregon quarterback. With a healthy Adams throwing for over 400 yards and six touchdowns and Royce Freeman running wild on the ground, Oregon crushed the Trojans. This was a week after Oregon upset #7 Stanford, a week before they dropped 52 on the Beavs, and a couple weeks before Vernon Adams got hurt in the Alamo Bowl and the Mark Helfrich era started to come apart at the seams
Best Moment: Oregon 56 USC 24 (2019)
I’ve taken a few shots at Mario Cristobal with these retrospectives, so let me take a moment to celebrate that Mario went 2-0 against USC. The 2019 win may have been the most complete game of Mario’s coaching tenure at Oregon. Justin Herbert threw for three touchdowns, the Oregon D picked off Trojans quarterback Kedon Slovis three times including a pick six by Brady Breeze, and Mykael Wright added a 100-yard kickoff return for good measure.
Best Moment: Oregon 31 USC 24 (2020)
2020 was a miserable year for all sports fans. For Oregon fans, the loss of March Madness hit especially hard as the Oregon women were Pac-12 Champs and legit national title contenders behind Sabrina Ionescu while the Oregon men were Pac-12 Champs and fringe Final Four contenders behind Peyton Pritchard. It was so heartbreaking to see the same school have the two best point guards in the nation only to have both tournaments canceled.
I would say the Oregon football season made up for it, but that’s not really right. The Pac-12 was the last conference to start playing football in front of empty stadiums in the fall of 2020. I remember Oregon’s season opener occurred so late in the season that it was interrupted by President-Elect Biden’s victory speech after the major news networks finally called the election in his favor.
The Ducks won their first three games of the year, which was somehow good enough to give them a top-ten ranking, but that didn’t feel well earned. Then they lost back-to-back games to Oregon State and Cal and had a division-deciding game vs Washington canceled because of a COVID outbreak amongst the Huskies. With the Huskies unable to settle the Pac-12 North on the field, the Ducks were sent to the Pac-12 Championship and that didn’t feel well earned either.
For all those reasons, there are some who think Oregon’s Pac-12 Championship in 2020 should be noted with an asterisk. That’s fine. I don’t argue with the fact that the 2020 Oregon team wasn’t a vintage Oregon team. When they represented the conference in the Fiesta Bowl, they got smoked by Iowa State. But they also gave me the best four hours of sports viewing that I enjoyed during that entire miserable year when they beat an undefeated Trojans teams for the conference championship.
Fun fact: The Ducks picked off Trojans quarterback Kedon Slovis three times, with two of those interceptions coming at the hands of sophomore safety Jamal Hill. Jamal Hill is still on the Ducks’ roster as a fifth year senior and was converted to linebacker this year, where he has wreaked all kinds of havoc in pass coverage, in run support, and as an occasional pass rusher. In their early season win over Texas Tech, Hill forced a key fumble on Red Raiders quarterback Tyler Shough, who of course was the Oregon starting quarterback back in 2020 during this when the Ducks last won the conference.
Next Moment:
Three things make me nervous about this last meeting for Oregon and USC as conference rivals.
First, Trojans quarterback Caleb Williams is arguably the most talented quarterback in the country. He’s the reigning Heisman winner and even with a shaky offensive line and a non-existent defense, he’s good enough to win a game like this all by himself.
Second, USC just fired their defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. The Trojans’ defense has been a trainwreck all season and I was looking forward to seeing Oregon play the version of this defense which gave up 52 points to Washington last week and had given up 40 or more points to five of their last six opponents. Yet by replacing Grinch with a couple assistants as co-DCs, there’s now a potential worst case scenario of the promoted coaches getting the USC defenders to run around like their hair is on fire and play their best game of the season. Need an example of what I’m talking about? Arkansas recently fired their offensive coordinator after the Razorbacks scored just 3 points against Mississippi State, then immediately turned around and scored 39 against Florida after making the coaching change.
Third, it’s the Pac-12 After Dark and we all know that nothing ever goes according to plan in Pac-12 After Dark games.
Half of me is concerned Oregon is going to lose 49-45 and half of me is convinced Oregon is going to win 70-28.