Oregon football: 5 best seasons in Ducks history, ranked
By Ethan Lee
3. Chip Kelly leads Oregon football to a Rose Bowl win in 2011.
The 2011 season got off to a rough start for the Oregon football team, but that didn’t keep the season from being one of the best in program history. Despite opening up the season with a 40-27 loss to the No. 4 LSU Tigers.
After falling in Arlington to LSU, Oregon went off on a tear, crushing just about every team in its path. The Ducks won nine games in a row, beating the likes of No. 18 Arizona State and No. 3 Stanford (who they beat 53-30) in the process. As a result, Oregon was able to rise from No. 13 in the polls all the way up to No. 4, putting the Ducks right back in the midst of the national title discussion.
But another rough game derailed what could have been for the Ducks. Right after Oregon thumped Stanford, No. 18 USC decided to prevent Oregon from remaining in the national title picture. The Ducks stumbled and fell to USC 38-35.
Oregon wound up winning against Oregon State in the regular-season finale and then went on to beat UCLA in the Pac-12 championship game. After claiming a conference title, Oregon then went on to beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.
Oregon’s nearly unstoppable offense took the Ducks pretty far in 2011. The trio of LaMichael James, Kenjon Barner and Darron Thomas carried Oregon all the way to a Pac-12 title and a Rose Bowl trophy.
The only teams to beat Oregon in 2011 were the LSU Tigers (who had one of the best defenses of all time in 2011 and finished the season as the SEC Champs and the national runner up) and the USC Trojans (who went 10-2 and ended the year No. 6 in the AP poll).
Oregon ended the year at No. 4, finished with a 12-2 record, and was clearly one of the best teams in the country during the 2011 season.