University of Oregon and Oregon State have a long history of competition against each other. This year, despite the two football teams being in different conferences, the annual Rivalry Game continues this weekend.
The Ducks and Beavers first faced off in 1894- it’s a rivalry that’s one of the oldest in the nation. They’ve met 127 times and since the 1960s, they’ve not only been in-state rivals, but in-conference rivals as well.
But that all changed this year as Pac-12 teams fled for other conferences, leaving Oregon State and Washington State as the only two remaining members of the Pac-12. Oregon officially joined the Big Ten.
The annual Rivalry Game was known as the “Civil War” until 2020. Through 2023, the game was traditionally played on Thanksgiving weekend as the final regular-season game for the two teams. The change in conferences moved this year's match-up to near the beginning of the season; it will be each team’s third contest of the year.
Both teams are off to a 2-0 start, though the No. 9 Ducks have struggled against unranked opponents.
At this week’s press conference, Oregon Coach Dan Lanning acknowledged issues with their offensive line. He said that, after watching tape from last week’s game against Boise State, they “found some highlights-at times- of guys looking well, but also had some lowlights at multiple positions and it didn’t matter, necessarily what position a guy was at.” He said there were “mistakes at all of those.”
While the two teams are officially “rivals,” Ducks and Beavers coaches are traditionally complimentary of each other’s teams.
Lanning says he’s impressed with Oregon State’s start under new head coach, Trent Bray.
“They’ve had some success these first couple weeks, done a really good job running the ball,” said Lanning ahead of this week’s match-up. “I think they’re a really well-coached team- their run game is really good, defensively like they’ve always been since I’ve been here, really sound and creates some tough looks. So it’s going to be a fun challenge for us.”
Meanwhile, Bray shared laudatory feelings about his team’s rivals when he addressed the press this week.
“Obviously the opponent we got this week is a very talented team,” Bray said. "We’re going to need to improve and play better than we did last week to beat these guys. But they’re very talented, and we know the rest of who they are.”
The Beavers host the Ducks at Reser Stadium in Corvallis Saturday. Kickoff is at 12:30 p.m.
In the first two weeks of the season, fans have had a difficult time watching the games on television. OSU’s games have not been televised nationally, and Comcast customers have been blocked from the Ducks games amid an ongoing dispute between the Big Ten Network and the media giant. This week’s Rivalry Game will be televised on Fox Sports.
