This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Four months in advance of Oregon's visiting Rice-Eccles Stadium, coach Mark Helfrich good-naturedly addressed what happened in the last meeting between the Ducks and the Utes.
"I've been asked 97 times about the Utah game," he said during the Pac-12 Media Days, "and I'm trying to forget it with every question."
The subject will become popular again in mid-November, when a lot of other questions about the Ducks will have been answered. The issues of how another new quarterback will perform, how the defense will respond to a new coordinator and how the Ducks will deal with the rise of Washington in the Pac-12 North will be resolved one way or another by then.
Oregon may be the most mysterious team in the conference, just because of the challenge of maintaining high standards in a division where its opponents keep improving. Many observers seem to have forgotten that even with that 62-20 loss to Utah, the Ducks finished 7-2 in Pac-12 play last season — posting the second-best conference record among all 12 teams.
Yet the questions about them are reasonable. After having Vernon Adams as his quarterback for one season, Helfrich likely is turning to Dakota Prukop, another graduate transfer from the Big Sky Conference. Prukop started for two seasons at Montana State.
The Ducks' offense will be built around running back Royce Freeman, while they hope receiver Devon Allen returns to the team after finishing fifth in the Olympic 110-meter hurdles in Rio de Janeiro. Freeman rushed for 1,836 yards last season, although Utah held him to a season-low 77 yards.
Former Michigan coach Brady Hoke was hired as defensive coordinator. Asked what will be different about the defense, Helfrich said, "Hopefully, they're playing with total confidence, passion, speed, commitment to our scheme. Just for whatever reason, that never totally, 100 percent clicked last year."
The Ducks will host former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall's Virginia team in the second game of the season and then visit the Nebraska team coached by Mike Riley, their former rival with Oregon State.
Oregon's key conference game could be Oct. 8 vs. Washington. The Huskies have lost 12 straight games to the Ducks but were picked to finish ahead of them in the Pac-12 media poll and have a No. 14 ranking to Oregon's No. 24 in the AP Top 25.
Twitter: @tribkurt —
Oregon
Coach • Mark Helfrich (fourth season, 33-8)
2015 record • 9-4 (7-2 Pac-12)
2016 media poll • Third in North
Schedule
Sept. 3 • UC Davis
Sept. 10 • Virginia
Sept. 17 • at Nebraska
Sept. 24 • Colorado
Oct. 1 • at Washington St.
Oct. 8 • Washington
Oct. 21 • at California
Oct. 29 • Arizona State
Nov. 5 • at USC
Nov. 12 • Stanford
Nov. 19 • at Utah
Nov. 26 • at Oregon St.