Oregon at Texas Tech labeled a 'sneaky game' in 2023

The second week of the college football season has several matchups that are worth keeping your eye on. That includes Oregon’s road trip to Texas Tech which, to On3’s J.D. PicKell, is a contest that could spook the Ducks early on in the year.

PicKell labeled Oregon’s game against the Red Raiders as an under the radar game for this fall in a segment from ‘The Hard Count’ last week. He said one reason that it is is that, for as good of a game as it’s going to be, what’s going down 900 miles east over in Tuscaloosa at the same kickoff slot is going to overshadow it.

“This is going to, potentially, even be a ranked matchup. But the reason why it’s sneaky? The same day as Oregon at Texas Tech, you’ve got Texas at ‘Bama,” explained PicKell. “That’ll have College Football Playoff implications. You’ve got Quinn Ewers going on the road, they almost took them down a season ago in Austin. There’s a lot of buzz around that game. That’s going to get all the spotlight.”

“But this game right here? I’m telling you. This is going to be some good football being played,” said PicKell.

From there, PicKell started his breakdown of the game by analyzing Oregon offensively. With a change at offensive coordinator, he believes the Ducks might not be at their best yet on that side of the ball by the time they arrive.

“First of all, Oregon going to Lubbock? Tough place to play, pretty straightforward there,” PicKell said. “A new offensive coordinator for Oregon? A lot of praise was given to Bo Nix last year. We’re going to find out how much of that was attached to what Kenny Dillingham did for him offensively.”

“Willie Stein is now calling the offense. When it’s early in the season? Again, it might take a second to get this whole thing to mesh,” continued PicKell. “I’m not even saying it’s going to be a similar scheme to what you saw last year for Oregon. But I just think, when you have a new OC, you cannot just automatically have blind faith that it’s going to be the exact same result. So if Oregon kind of sputters out of the gate and it takes them some time to get rolling? That would not surprise me.”

After that, PicKell reminded everyone just how good the Red Raiders were on offense a season ago as a Top-30 offense in the nation. With a motivated quarterback taking snaps, he thinks Texas Tech will run an offense that could cause problems for an Oregon defense that was susceptible to pass attacks last year.

“Texas Tech offensively? I don’t know if they get enough credit because they’re in Lubbock, Texas but Zach Kittley is going to be a head coach here very, very soon. I wholeheartedly believe that. That dude just draws up touchdowns,” PicKell said. “They have 75% of the offense coming back from last year that scored over 30 points a game. They spread them out, they throw the ball around. Yes, that’s true. But they’re also balanced.”

“Tyler Shough, the quarterback for Texas Tech? It’s personal for him. He transferred from Oregon at one point in time,” pointed out PicKell. “You don’t think he would love to take Oregon’s playoff hopes down just a notch? I have a hard time believing he wouldn’t.”

An early loss in the season isn’t something that’s impossible to overcome. However, considering Oregon has hopes to make the College Football Playoff out of the Pac-12, PicKell sees this as a matchup that will hold a ton of weight when it comes to the Duck’s postseason aspirations considering what the Red Raiders could cost them on September 9th.

“If Oregon were to drop this game? The ramifications on their College Football Playoff hopes would be enormous. Because you drop game two to Texas Tech? You’re staring down the barrel of still having to go to Washington, you have to go to Utah. Then you play USC and Oregon State still on the schedule. You’ve got to go 4-0 against the stretch,” PicKell explained. “I’m not saying it can’t happen but I’m just saying that is not the situation you want to find yourselves in in week two of the college football season.”

“Keep an eye on this game,” said PicKell. “I would not be surprised at all if Texas Tech were to handle business and win that game.”