Another rivalry matchup brings more audible reminders to Oregon’s practice fields.
Dan Lanning had Washington’s fight song played ad nauseam leading up to the game two weeks ago. On Wednesday, the Ducks broke out a chainsaw to prepare for the third down sound effects they’ll hear at Reser Stadium on Saturday (12:30 p.m., ABC).
“It’s a very highly anticipated rivalry so we try to play the game before the game as much as we can,” safety Steve Stephens IV said. “We’re going to hear the chainsaws out there, so we try to bring that situation to practice. It’s pretty unexpected; in my five years of being here I haven’t seen anybody come out with a chainsaw, but it was cool.”
No. 9 Oregon (9-2, 7-1 Pac-12) lost its last trip to Corvallis in 2020 in an empty building on a foggy night. Of course, Lanning wasn’t a part of that game and few of Oregon’s offensive skill players were either.
“Every game is different,” Lanning said. “Try to figure out ways to continue to motivate and improve.”
Even with significantly reduced capacity due to construction at Reser Stadium it should be a decided homefield advantage for No. 22 Oregon State (8-3, 5-3), which is considerably better on third down defensively at home (34.72%) than on the road (43.59%).
It’ll be largely up to Oregon’s offense to silence the crowd and the buzz of the chainsaw.
“Today they brought out a real chainsaw just walking around yanking it, cranking it out loud,” outside linebacker Mase Funa said. “We’re all annoyed from it but that’s the reason behind it, get us riled up. We’re going to hear it all game, get used to it. Knock out the noise. It’s working; we’re all annoyed of it and we’re tired of hearing it.”
