A look at the Huskies-Ducks rivalry from both perspectives

by Chris Leeper

In our preview of the upcoming game between UW and Oregon this Saturday at Husky Stadium, we got opinions from both sides of the rivalry. For the Ducks perspective, we talked with Travis Demers of 1080 The Fan in Portland. In rivalries, each side looks for anything they can to use against the other team. For Oregon, an easy target for UW fans is their uniforms. However, Travis feels Phil Knight helps bring attention to the Ducks program. Rivalries generally imply both sides experience success, but lately Oregon has had UW’s number. Travis believes winning the last five meetings has not swayed the perception of the Oregon media:

“It looks like a pretty good game. Actually more of an even game than you would expect from what Washington has come off of the last couple years, and the way that Oregon has just battled them the last five years in a row winning, I think, 209-85.”

Representing the Huskies is the Everett Herald’s Scott Johnson. Scott believes this is “…as big a game as they’ve had in years.” Looking at the bigger picture, Husky fans are still holding on to hopes of a bowl appearance in Steve Sarkisian’s first season. With that in mind, we asked Scott if this was a must win game in an effort to achieve that goal:

“I kind of think even if they lose this game, there’s still a pretty good chance that they go in to that Cal game with a 5-6 record if everything goes to form. Who knows what Cal’s mind-frame will be – As long as they have a chance going in to that last game at Husky Stadium to get in to that bowl game I’m not going to count them out.”

Here are the full interviews with Travis Demers and Scott Johnson.

For more perspecitive on this topic, we also interviewed Ted Miller. You can hear his thoughts on the rivalry here.