Rece Davis picks Washington to beat Oregon

No. 7 Washington and No. 8 Oregon will square off in one of the biggest games of the season tomorrow. It’ll hold all kinds of implications for the Pac-12 and the College Football Playoff and, with College GameDay set to be on site, Rece Davis has now shared his pick for the Top-10 matchup.

On the ‘College GameDay Podcast’, Davis broke down Huskies vs. Ducks with Pete Thamel and ‘Stanford Steve’. In his eyes, he sees this as a playoff-type contest. That’s both because of the quality of team as well as the hate that each side has for one other.

“I think this is a College Football Playoff-level game,” said Davis

“It is also a passion play in which both sides hate every wretched breath the other one sucks into their greedy lungs. I mean you have some incidents in this, in the history of this series that are almost unparalleled,” Davis continued. “I think it shows you the depth of disdain between these two.”

In Davis’ opinion, these are the top two teams out west over his preseason pick in USC with this being the first of two matchups between the two in his mind. They’ve shown it to be true to him both on the field while their statistics reflect as much as well.

“Washington hasn’t been great at stopping the run and Oregon is going to run the ball, in terms of success rate. Washington is so good in big plays, Oregon goes about it differently. The Oregon defense ranks very highly right now but they haven’t faced an offense like this,” Davis noted.

“I think they’re going to play again in the Pac-12 Championship. This is from a guy who, before the season, picked ‘SC to go to the playoff,” admitted Davis. “I think, right now, these two teams are more complete and better than USC.”

Then, at that point, it was time for Davis’ pick as he went with the Washington Huskies.

Again, he didn’t see this as the nail in the coffin for either considering his expectation that they’ll meet again in Las Vegas in December. However, with it being in Husky Stadium and how they have played this fall, Davis believes Washington will win for the second straight year, and cover the three-point spread as well, in what he expects to be the first round between them and the Ducks.

“I think both teams are playoff-caliber and I don’t think the loser is eliminated from this,” said Davis. “Washington got them last year. I think they get them again and I also think they cover, largely because of home field and big plays.”

“I think they’ll play Saturday, Washington will win and cover. And then it remains to be seen, if they rematch, who I’d pick then,” Davis said. “Give me the Huskies in this one.”