Oregon football to face Liberty in Fiesta Bowl

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Oregon will end its season in a New Year’s Six bowl.

No. 8 Oregon (11-2) will face No. 23 Liberty (13-0), the highest ranked Group of Five champion, in the Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on January 1 (10 a.m., ESPN).

“Got done meeting with our players not too long ago and our guys are thrilled and excited about the opportunity,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “One of the best things about bowl games is the opportunity to go finish this season with a highlight. And our guys are really pumped about this game in particular, to have the opportunity to play such a formidable opponent. Coach (Jamey) Chadwell has done an unbelievable job there at Liberty playing this season and finishing with an undefeated season. Our guys, we just finished our game last Friday and didn’t finish quite the way we wanted. So getting an opportunity to play in a game like this is exactly what our guys are wanting to do and excited to do and to get to do it in a venue like the Fiesta Bowl is really important.”

This will be the first-ever meeting between Oregon and Liberty.

Conference USA champion Liberty is 3-1 in bowl games since joining the FBS in 2018.

“You can only dream of playing and an opportunity to play in a Fiesta Bowl,” Liberty coach Jamey Chadwell said. “To be able to have that happen, we all started at Division II and that’s how we sort of view ourselves, to be able to have that happen, to be able to play and compete in one of the premier bowls in this country, that’s special and where we came from. More importantly, our team and the season they had, and getting knocked along the way, to be able to finish it out, finish it strong, play the way they did and then get rewarded to be in the Fiesta Bowl, I’m happy for them.”

Oregon is 16-20 all-time in bowl games, including 2-1 in the Fiesta Bowl. It’s UO’s first appearance in the Fiesta Bowl since 2021, a 34-17 loss to Iowa State. The Ducks also beat Kansas State in the 2013 Fiesta Bowl and beat Colorado in 2002, when the game was played in Tempe.

UO has never faced a Conference USA team in a bowl game and despite outsiders being underwhelmed by the matchup, Lanning said Oregon’s players are excited about the matchup and cited last year’s Sugar Bowl as an example of a Group of Five champion being capable of winning against better competition.

“To go undefeated in a season I think speaks volumes,” Lanning said. “More than anything the opportunity for our players to go out there on the field one more time and have a great experience, to go perform, show up, put our best foot forward. We talk about playing our best ball towards the end of season, well, this is your opportunity to do that. To get to do it against a team that has gone through the season unblemished, I think is really special.

“I’m thrilled for our guys to get to step on the field against the team that we get to play and prepare and put our best foot forward knowing last year, you look at a game similar to this, Tulane was able to go upset a team in USC when they got their opportunity to go play in this game. So we know exactly what Liberty is capable of. I’m excited to dive in on the film. I know exactly what coach Chadwell is capable of and his performance I think and record speaks for itself.”

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