You’re never quite prepared for the end.
Bo Nix wasn’t.
Five years and 60 games into his college football career, the Oregon quarterback woke up Friday morning three wins away from a national championship. By the end of the night, there was nothing left to play for.
“You don’t prepare for losing,” Nix said quietly.
Purple confetti still littered the field inside Allegiant Stadium. Work crews had begun removing the OREGON painted in the south end zone. The scoreboard still read Washington 34, Ducks 31.
All of the evidence was there. But Nix wasn’t quite able to process the finality of it all.
“I think that’s why I’m in shock,” he said, “because I’m expecting a game next week and expecting to go prepare for another opponent.”
Nix put into words what Ducks fans — and, while we’re here lighting candles, fans of the Pac-12 — were feeling as the No. 3 Washington Huskies turned the lights out on the 108-year-old conference as well as the Ducks’ title chase.
Heartbreak.
“Football’s a tough game,” Nix said, “and sometimes you put it all out there and you come up short.”
Said UO coach Dan Lanning: “That one hurts.”
The Ducks were favored by nearly 10 points at any one of the many sportsbooks within punting distance of Allegiant Stadium. They had blown by their past six opponents by an average margin of 26 points.
But in the biggest moment of their season and of Nix’s career since his rocket ship touched down in Eugene, the Ducks were undone by the team that always seems to be on the other end of their most painful moments.
A year ago: 37-34. A month ago: 36-33.
This time the Huskies, whom the Ducks will see in the Big Ten, delivered the knockout punch. Sure, there is still a bowl game to be sorted out. The Ducks are likely headed for the Fiesta Bowl. Nix declined to say whether he thought he would play in that game.
Nix’s career, which started with a win over Oregon in Dallas all those years ago, spanned the most disruptive period in college football history. He pointed out that he started playing in an age before NIL, before realignment had totally changed the landscape and before the transfer portal.
He is the bridge from what college football was to what it has become.
In his two years in Eugene, Nix became the backbone of Oregon football. A son of the South, discarded by Auburn, his second act was nothing short of dazzling and identity-setting for the Ducks in the hard reset under Lanning. He became the first apostle of the coach’s blueprint for success.
A hard-nosed, head-down runner and a precise passer. As much a gambler as his head coach.
Now, Lanning begins the unwelcome task of replacing a player who joins the legacy of masterful Oregon quarterbacks.
A win in Vegas could have sealed Nix as one of Oregon’s greatest football heroes.
He entered Friday night as a, if not the, Heisman frontrunner.
Losing twice to Penix and the Huskies might have just knocked him out of the race.
Nix still managed to lead Oregon on four touchdown drives on Friday, including two in the third quarter to help the Ducks take a 24-20 lead after trailing by 17 points shortly before halftime.
He lamented his third-quarter interception after his Washington counterpart, Michael Penix Jr., had thrown a pick to the Ducks’ Khyree Jackson. The Ducks were nursing a lead and the way the offense had been clicking on its previous drives, was in position to give themselves some breathing room.
Instead, Nix’s third interception of the season would prove to be his most costly.
“It’s those kinds of things that leave you scratching your head,” Nix said. “It hurts.”
Washington proceeded to score and reclaim the lead, then after a sputtering five-play series from the Ducks, scored again.
That pretty much sealed it.
“It was my goal my whole entire life to be a college quarterback and to play and to win a national championship,” Nix said. “Even though that may be off the table and it’s not necessarily something that can be obtained anymore, it was still a goal and I worked for it every day.”
Nix was not the only player experiencing those emotions on Friday night. Having something so meaningful ripped away is something he shared with teammates and the people who reserve their autumn Saturdays to cheer for the Ducks and dream of one day seeing a national championship trophy to Eugene.
There are those who believe this Oregon team was as good as any the Ducks have had. It would have been fun to see them play Michigan in the Rose Bowl in a national semifinal.
But on Friday, it didn’t matter how good the Ducks looked for the last three months. The offense started slow and the defense, particularly the short-handed secondary, didn’t have enough answers for Penix and, more surprisingly, running back Dillon Johnson.
“That’s the good thing about any kind of competition, any kind of sports,” Nix said. “There has to be a loser, as bad as it feels, that’s why you play the game. That’s why you go out there and put it all out there and not be ashamed to do it.”
I don’t know if he truly believes that or if it was what he needed to say to get through the brutal pain of an unwanted ending. But Nix’s maturity and perspective has been welcome over his two years here and might be his most irreplaceable quality. The finality of it must have been starting to settle in, because he said he wanted to enjoy the plane ride back to Eugene, to savor those final moments with a team he led with such poise.
“That’s life,” Nix said. “I’m going to be OK, we’re all going to be OK. Going to get up tomorrow and back to work and see what life provides in the future.”
For the first time in a long time, for the first time in his life, it may not be a college football game.
-- Bill Oram reported from Las Vegas.
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