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The Oregon Ducks will take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup, which will also act as the Orange Bowl.
The game will be played on a neutral site despite Texas Tech being the No. 4 seed in the bracket. It’s a notion that Ducks head coach Dan Lanning had a hard time wrapping his head around. With the Playoff format the way it is now, only the first round sees home games for the highest seeds. The next rounds are considered bowl games, keeping some of the old ways intact.
Lanning also took issue with the timing of the quarterfinal games. Oregon defeated James Madison, 51-34, on Saturday but won’t face Texas Tech until New Year’s Day. Texas Tech hasn’t played since the Big 12 Championship on Dec. 6.
“I don’t know if there’s a side advantage. I think it’s just more of an indicator that the way we do playoffs in college football is messed up. I mean, in my opinion, we’re really excited to be going to the Orange Bowl, but this game should be played at Texas Tech. They’re a higher-seeded team. We should play a week like right after the last game. The next playoff game should be the next Saturday. The next playoff game should be the next Saturday. The next playoff game should be the next Saturday, then a championship game.”
Lanning said that part of the challenge is to keep the same rhythm for his players despite there being a lack of sequence in Playoff games in this part of the year.
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“There’s definitely a skill and an art to making sure that your team’s prepared when you have long breaks. And I think that was clear last year,” he said. “Certainly, it’ll be clear now. You got a little bit more time to prepare for this game, but a little bit different than the last one.
“And that’s the other part that doesn’t make really a lot of sense is the sequence of days in between each game and each Playoff. There’s just not really a rhythm. And for us as a coach, it’s about how do you create that rhythm? How do you challenge yourself to say, ‘OK, how can we keep things the same as much as possible for our players?’ And it’s tough when you have big gaps and big breaks like that.”
Oregon will certainly have a challenge on its hands against Texas Tech.
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Joey McGuire’s team is 12-1 with their lone loss being against Arizona State earlier in the season. The Red Raiders average about 42.5 points per game, which is ranked third in the nation. The defense allows 10.9 points per game, which is also ranked third in the nation.
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