The Oregon team Fresno State will face on Saturday isn't the team that won last year's Rose Bowl, nor the team that played for the national championship two years ago.
It's also not the team that barely beat the Bulldogs in 2002, when Fresno State was playing without quarterback Jeff Grady and receiver Bernard Berrian, both out with injuries.
Oregon was ranked 13th and scored the go-ahead touchdown with 1:07 to go to win by four, 28-24.
In 2005, Fresno State was the team that was ranked. The Bulldogs were 23rd, and QB Paul Pinegar threw for a career-high 418 yards. He threw three touchdowns and completed passes to eleven different receivers.
But Fresno State committed 16 penalties and lost by three, 37-34.
The two teams met again the following year, in 2006. That game was in Fresno, only the second time in the series a Fresno State-Oregon game wasn't in Eugene. (The other was in 1981, won by the Bulldogs).
They didn't win this one.
20th-ranked Oregon used its kicker, Paul Martinez, to fake a field goal and score on a four yard run with just under five minutes to go. The Ducks won, 31-24.
At that point, Fresno State and Oregon had played a total of six times. Each game was decided by seven or less points.
That changed the following year; 2007 was the only blowout in the series.
Fresno State was coming off a triple-overtime loss at Texas A&M, and ran into an Oregon team that ran over it for 307 yards! Final score: 52 to 21 Oregon.
