The Civil War, Ducks vs Beavers, is not so civil!!! There couldn’t be bigger differences between the two schools that are only about 47 miles apart. The rivalry is like Big Brother vs Little Brother, the Haves vs the Have-Nots, or the popular vs the unpopular kids. The Beavers look at themselves like blue-collar, hard workers who are the meat and potatoes of this country. They feel they earn everything they get, but we get everything handed to us on a silver platter. So when the Beavers play the Ducks they have a big chip on their shoulder, because they live in the humongous shadow of the “O”. If the Beavs feel the Ducks look down on the kids that play for Corvallis, they should. We do! OSU is a team to be respected and never taken lightly, but Duck players and fans feel we should never lose to “little brother”. The guys from Corvallis take our hand-me-downs and left-overs. We didn’t want Orange so they took it. We get the newest uniforms, they get what is left. We get nationally televised games, they get the occasional regional broadcast plus radio. The Ducks are striving higher for National Championships while the Beavers are trying to climb fast to where we currently are.

Why is my disdain for the Beavers so great? Simple. I’m a Duck. During my four years at Oregon the Beavers beat us twice!!! That includes a 45-24 Shellacking in Corvallis my last year at Oregon. Until 3 days ago I had blocked that memory out of my mind. Honestly until I was reminded I really thought we won (I’m blocking, I know lol). It still haunts me. So yes, when we get a chance to knock off the Beavers for a Pac-10 championship and a Rose Bowl Bid, I’m going hard.

Classic Civil War story: One time during the week of the civil war Samie Parker, Onterrio Smith and I were in Red Robin and I saw TJ Housh “Your daddy” (OSU wide receiver) sitting there with his wife and daughter. I had our waitress deliver him a note that said we were gonna beat the breaks off of him. TJ is a friend of mine now and a great guy. I was talking to him about that before the season started and he said, “man, I thought I was gonna have to fight ya’ll with the family there”. LOL, it was all done in good fun. TJ got the last laugh tho, Oregon State won the game.

What makes the “Un”-Civil War so great? You never know who is gonna win. What’s on the line in this game? BRAGGING RIGHTS! Two great programs competing with their whole heart and soul to represent the state of Oregon. If you win no one can say a word to you, if you lose you have a year of heckling to deal with. Both schools alumni have so much pride and love for our perspective schools that a loss is devastating. In addition, we want to be the team to represent the Conference of Champions (Pac-10) in the Rose Bowl.

This is the Biggest game in recent UO/OSU history. Winner goes to the Rose Bowl. The Ducks haven’t been to the Rose Bowl since ’95 (We did go to Fiesta Bowl in 02′ though). The Beavers haven’t been since 1965… That’s a long time for both schools. And the intensity in Autzen Stadium will be nothing less then ELECTRIFYING!!!!