Stanford @ Oregon preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 7, 2009 ) Oregon 42, Stanford 51

It may be early, but Pac-10 supremacy is at stake when Stanford visits Oregon Saturday night.

The No. 13 Cardinal are off to a surprising 4-0 start with victories over UCLA and Notre Dame. No. 4 Oregon yielded 597 yards to Arizona State last week, but took advantage of seven Sun Devil turnovers on the way to a 42-31 road win.

Saturday’s game could go a long way in determining the eventual conference champ and has certainly caught the nation’s eye. The start of the game was moved up to 8:15 p.m. to accommodate a primetime national TV audience. It will also be host site of ESPN’s "College GameDay."

The last time the Ducks hosted the ESPN "GameDay" crew they upset USC last year on Halloween.

The Ducks have dominated the series recently. Oregon has won seven of the past eight contests and the last four by an average of over 26 points. The Ducks have won 12 straight home games, nine straight in the conference.

Points should be aplenty. Oregon leads the nation in scoring at 57.8 ppg while Stanford is fourth, scoring over 47 points. And the Ducks strike in a hurry. Oregon has scored 11 touchdowns on drives of under a minute.

Oregon is led by sophomore running back LaMichael James who eclipsed the 2,000-yard mark for his career last week. James paces an offense that rushed for 528 yards against Portland State earlier in the year.

Senior linebacker Casey Matthews has a pair of interceptions and three fumble recoveries on the season and leads the Pac-10 in both categories.

Duck quarterback Darron Thomas made his Pac-10 debut against ASU and tossed a pair of touchdowns and ran for another score.

Stanford is paced by quarterback Andrew Luck who has passed for 912 yards and 11 touchdowns on the season. The Cardinal routed UCLA 35-0 in its Pac-10 opener. Stanford has also rolled over Wake Forest and Notre Dame on the season.

Stephan Taylor ran for 114 yards in Stanford’s 37-14 win at Notre Dame last week. He leads the team with 265 yards on the ground this season.

A win on Saturday would give Stanford its first 5-0 start since 1951, when the team won its first nine games out of the gate en route to the Rose Bowl.

Stanford’s Ryan Whalen will miss his second straight game with an arm injury. Whalen is one of Luck’s favorite targets. Running back Jeremy Stewart is questionable with an ankle injury. He was injured in the Cardinal’s opener.

Oregon tight end Brandon Williams is questionable with a hand injury.