Coming off the biggest win of his two-plus seasons as head coach of Oregon football, Dan Lanning and the No. 2 Ducks get a short week of preparation ahead of traveling to West Lafayette, Ind., to face Purdue on Friday night.
The big key for the Ducks (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) is to avoid a letdown after they outlasted then-No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday. Now comes the first lengthy trip across the country from the Pacific Northwest to Indiana for Oregon as a Big Ten team.
Quarterback Dillon Gabriel, the Big Ten’s Co-Offensive Player of the Week, led the Ducks to their highest-ranked home win in school history. Gabriel completed 23 of 34 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns, and he ran for a 27-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Gabriel has thrown multiple touchdowns in each of his first six games as a Duck and is second in the nation in completion rate at 76.1 percent.
The Ducks have the players at the skill positions to complement Gabriel, their offensive line has not allowed any sacks since the second game of the season and their defense was athletic and deep enough to topple mighty Ohio State. The defense played without Jordan Burch last week due to injury, but it appears the star defensive lineman will return at some point this season.
“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,” Lanning said Monday, of playing on a Friday. “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.”
Oregon already played a Friday game this season, a 31-10 home win over Michigan State on Oct. 4.
Purdue (1-5, 0-3) enters having lost five straight games, but the Boilermakers’ offense showed life on Saturday in a 50-49 overtime loss to then-No. 23 Illinois. Purdue trailed by 24 points in the second half but scored two touchdowns inside of the final five minutes to take a 43-40 lead prior to the extra session.
Ryan Browne made his first collegiate start at quarterback and will get the start this week against Oregon, coach Ryan Walters said Monday.
Browne threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 118 yards against Illinois.
Walters became the play-caller against Illinois and said he would continue in that role this week.
“I’m proud of the way he played, and it’s because of the way he prepared,” Walters said of Browne. “I’m looking forward to watching his growth and maturation this week.”
Browne has stepped in for Hudson Card, who was injured but is expected to be available Friday.
Walters expressed frustration about commentary he saw on TV last week that his team has quit on the season. He met with his players to address it prior to the Illinois game.
“I just talked to them about, I don’t care what you’re doing in life, where you’re at, what your occupation is,” Walters said. “As a man, don’t ever let the perception be that you quit when things got tough or that you quit when adversity hits.
“In life, as in football, adversity is guaranteed. At the bare minimum it should be that you fight.”
The Ducks and the Boilermakers last faced off in 2009, when the Ducks earned a 38-36 home victory to take a 2-1 lead in the all-time series.
