Following its biggest win of the season by far last week against No. 4 Ohio State, the No. 2 Oregon football team will hit the road on another short week when it plays Purdue Friday.
The Ducks (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) will play the Boilermakers (1-5, 0-3 Big Ten) at 5 p.m. Friday at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Here are three keys to a successful outing against the Boilermakers.
Oregon football must avoid letdown after emotional win over Ohio State
The Ducks had an undoubtedly emotional weekend in their most recent outing against the Ohio State Buckeyes. With ESPN “College GameDay” on campus at 6 a.m., a thrilling 32-31 victory over a top-3 opponent, along with a field storming following the game, Oregon had to settle down quickly to prepare for a short week against Purdue.
“Football is fun, football is exciting,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “So I don’t think it’s hard for us to get back and get to work, but you do have to squeeze a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. And that’s the challenge of making sure you’re still really consistent and thorough with what matters, not putting too much on your players in a short window. But it’s not hard to get excited about going to play football.”
Oregon is a near four-touchdown favorite against the Boilermakers on the road, and though history says the Ducks should have no issue beating a 1-5 team, that doesn’t mean Purdue couldn’t spring an upset under the right circumstances.
Take Alabama’s loss to Vanderbilt a week following a win over previously top-ranked Georgia, for example.
“The key is for us is our process shouldn’t change,” Lanning said. “We’re always playing Oregon and how we can improve and get better? I think our guys are certainly aware of other situations in college football. It’s what makes this sport so great and hard, so that you got to go out there and earn it every Saturday, every weekend, Friday this week, and that starts with your preparation during the week.”
Get sleep, rest, and preparation in before first cross-country trip in Big Ten
Marcus Harper II, a Midwest native, has been on cross-country plane trips before.
The Oregon senior offensive lineman says the key to preparing for a game across three time zones is getting sleep, and lots of it.
“You’ve got to get a lot of sleep because you lose a day of recovery,” Harper said. “You’ve got to get a lot of sleep just to get your body ahead of the process … you can do all the treatment in the world but I heard the best treatment is just sleep.”
The Ducks have played on a short week already this season, winning a Friday home game against Michigan State, 31-10, Oct. 4, but haven’t yet hit the road for a Friday game like this week.
Harper said he’ll be taking any chance he gets at napping, but also stressed that the Ducks take advantage of every moment to prepare and game plan against a Purdue team that’s better than its 1-5 record.
Contain Purdue QB Ryan Browne and new-look Boilermaker offense
After the Boilermakers fired previous offensive coordinator Graham Harrell in late September, head coach Ryan Walters has taken over play-calling duties and promoted Jason Simmons to acting OC.
Though Purdue has struggled to score throughout the season, it had a breakthrough in a 50-49 loss to No. 21 Illinois last weekend.
Backup freshman quarterback Ryan Browne accounted for over 400 yards of total offense along with three touchdowns against a ranked foe and nearly came away with an upset on the road. The challenge for the Ducks is to adjust to Purdue’s new schemes and tricks with little film to work on.
“When there’s a coaching change, you’re trying to evaluate who you’re going to see, what’s going to carry over from the previous offense, what’s different and new now,” Lanning said. “So that’s part of our job to kind of figure that out, but they certainly present some new challenges, and will make it tough for us on Friday.”
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.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon football at Purdue: 3 keys to victory for Ducks
