The No. 8 Oregon Ducks (12-2, 8-2 Pac-12) ended their season with a Fiesta Bowl win on Monday, blowing out the No. 23 Liberty Flames (13-1, 9-0 Conference USA) in a dominant 45-6 victory, as Oregon head coach Dan Lanning wins his second straight bowl game.
“I think it just speaks to the direction,” Lanning said. “The base that these guys have created for where we're headed and what we're about to do. They believed in what we wanted to accomplish.”
As the Bo Nix era came to an end, the Alabama native walked off into the Arizona desert setting program and NCAA records in his final game as a Duck.
Nix set the NCAA single-season completion percentage record (77.45%, breaking Mac Jones’ record of 77.37%), Oregon’s single-season passing yards record (4,508) and single-season passing touchdowns record (45) as he torched the Flames, throwing for 363 yards and five touchdowns. Nix also broke Marcus Mariota’s single-season passing yards (4,454) and passing touchdowns (42) records he set in his 2014 Heisman season.
“It's been a great career,” Nix said. “It's been a lot of ups and downs. And there's been some great adversity too that I've been able to learn from. I wouldn't be here without every year. Every step has been another journey, and I wouldn't have traded anything.”
Even though Nix had a record day against Liberty, the Ducks got off to a slow start in their fourth Fiesta Bowl.
The Flames marched down the field on the first drive of the game and put up six, scoring off a play action pass as Kaidon Salter hit Bentley Hanshaw for a 17-yard touchdown. That would be the last time Liberty would score all game, but at the time it seemed the play action heavy and triple option offense led by Salter would impose their will on Oregon’s defense.
On Oregon’s first drive, Nix went to Tez Johnson early, syncing up on his first three passes of the day. The offense stalled out in the redzone, settling for a field goal on their first possession.
The offensive struggles continued for Oregon in the first quarter, as the Ducks went three-and-out on their second drive. Oregon only held possession of the ball for 4:12 while Liberty controlled the clock, possessing the ball for 9:18.
Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell’s gameplan of keeping Nix and Oregon’s explosive offense off the field was going as planned, but it was a completely different story once the second quarter started.
The Ducks opened up the second quarter with three straight Bucky Irving plays (1 pass, 2 runs), as Irving took the ball to the five-yard line and exploded for a 44-yard run.
Irving’s big drive ended with Nix finding Gary Bryant Jr. in the back of the endzone for a 2-yard touchdown with no one near him.
The Ducks never looked back, scoring on three straight drives in the second quarter.
“We were a batted ball and a poor inaccurate throw from having success on the first two drives,” Nix said. “Just like we did all year, we've got to settle in and continue to go. We knew that the defense was going to continue to get us the ball back. We just had to go down there and score the first time. Once we did that, once Bucky [Irving] had that long run, that really started things.”
Oregon’s last touchdown of the first half came off of a Steve Stephens interception, as the ball went through Treon Sibley’s hands. The Ducks had 1:12 left to score again before receiving the ball in the second half.
After Nix scrambled for a first down, he hit Johnson running up the seam for a 40-yard reception putting the Ducks in the redzone. Nix then hit Treashon Holdon on a high post for a 17-yard touchdown and Oregon went into halftime up 31-6.
The Ducks opened up the second half scoring on back-to-back drives, extinguishing the Flames as Oregon scored on six straight drives.
Nix wasn’t the only Duck who had himself a day, Johnson and Irving also went off against the Liberty defense. Johnson broke Troy Franklin’s single-season receptions record (81) that he set this year with his 172-yard and one touchdown performance, putting him at 86 receptions on the season. Irving ran for 117 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries, averaging 8.4 yards per carry.
“Tez had a Tez day,” Nix said. “If you watch him every day, that dude goes out there, he gets open, he catches the ball, and he continues to do it over and over and over.”
Oregon’s top-ten rushing defense did their job holding the best rushing offense in the country to 168 rushing yards, the lowest yardage for Liberty all season.
“Knowing that they were the number one rushing offense in the country,” linebacker Jeffrey Bassa said. “I think a lot of the guys looked up to the challenge of stopping that run. That's something that we didn't do in the previous game.”
This was Oregon’s fifth 12-win season in program history and the Ducks are now 3-2 in New Year’s Six Bowl games.
“I think Oregon has cemented itself as a premier program in college football,” Lanning said. “I'll say, more than anything, certainly grateful for some of the great games that exist in the Pac. But probably just as excited about what's happening in the future for us, where we're headed, the direction we're headed. The clarity, what that brings.”
Lanning is undefeated in bowl games in his first two seasons at Oregon. The future looks bright for the Ducks as they get ready to move onto the Big Ten conference.
“We coming,” Johnson said. “We coming to the Big Ten. The whole team is coming.”
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