Bo Nix, Tez Johnson make for special story in Oregon's Fiesta Bowl win

After putting the final punctuation mark on one of the best seasons in program history Monday, Oregon coach Dan Lanning reflected back on "one of the easiest recruiting deals ever" and one of the most significant for this Ducks team.

"Bo [Nix] walks into my office and says, 'Hey, I think we have this guy who can maybe play for us,'" Lanning said, telling the story. "It was like, 'Okay, what do you think? We're going to have to recruit our tail off? What's it going to take?' Bo says, 'No, no, no, Oregon is his dream school.' And today, that guy that walked away with Oregon being his dream school set the single-season record for receptions for an Oregon receiver. Big accomplishment for Tez [Johnson] and nice recruiting job by Bo."

Nix and Johnson, who were raised together and consider each other brothers, delivered one of the great stories of bowl season while sharing the spotlight in No. 8-ranked Oregon's 45-6 Fiesta Bowl win over previously-unbeaten No. 23 Liberty in Glendale, Arizona.

Nix completed 28-of-35 passing for 363 yards and a Ducks bowl-record 5 touchdowns, including completing 18 of his last 19 attempts to finish the season with a completion rate of 77.45 percent — beating the previous NCAA record of 77.36 set by Alabama's Mac Jones in 2020. Much of his big day involved Johnson, who reeled in 11 receptions for 172 yards and a touchdown.

Both are now stamped in the Oregon record book.

Nix broke multiple program records set during Marcus Mariota's Heisman Trophy season of 2014, finishing the season with 4,508 passing yards and 45 passing touchdowns, breaking Mariota's marks of 4,454 and 42, respectively.

Meanwhile, Johnson finishes with 86 receptions this season (for 1,182 yards and 10 TDs) — 5 more than the 81 that Troy Franklin had through the Pac-12 championship game, which had broken the previous program record of 77. Franklin opted out of the bowl game to turn his attention to preparing for the NFL.

"Tez had a Tez day. If you watch him every day, that dude goes out there, he gets open, he catches the ball, and he continues to do it over and over and over. I mean, I can't explain how awesome it was to get to play with him for a whole season," Nix said. "To see him do what he did and to see him cap it off with the day that he had today, it was like I told him going in, 'I'm going to throw you the ball as much as you're open. You just get open and we'll take care of it.' Sure enough, that's what he does.

"I mean, it's so fun watching him, because I understand what he's been through to get to this moment. I understand what he's been through to get to this point in his career. He has had to overcome a lot of adversity, a lot that I probably don't even understand. But I think he's such a great human being, such an awesome person. He's one of the kindest people that you could meet. He's got a great heart, and I think it overflows on the football field. The energy and the effort you get is how he lives his life."

RELATED: Everything Dan Lanning, Bo Nix, Tez Johnson and Jeffrey Bassa said about the Fiesta Bowl win

Johnson, who played the last three seasons at Troy, shared his sentiments on the experience this year with Nix and the rest of the Ducks program.

"I had a lot of fun. I got pushed to limits that I didn't even know I had, and that's from the teammates. The teammates pushed me so hard at practice. Even when I'm not feeling the greatest at practice, they were the ones that are going to come out there and build me up every day," Johnsons said. "'Tez, we need you to get a good look right here. We need you to compete today.' Those little words, those simple little words, encouraged me to even do better. I know I'm doing it for the right reason. And thank you to the defense."

Johnson declined to comment on whether he'll return to Oregon for his final year of eligibility or head to the NFL, but he had a lot to say about Franklin, crediting the star receiver with helping Johnson break Franklin's own recently-set receptions record.

"The one thing that I can say is Troy was on the sideline -- this is how smart Troy is, he sees the coverage from the sideline. He hasn't even been on the field with us not one time and he comes to me and just tells me what they're in. Do this, do that.' And I trusted him, and I had a highlight night tonight. I give very unbelievable thanks to Troy. Troy Franklin is the best receiver in the country," Johnson said.

"... I told him today after the game, I was like, 'Boy, I didn't even know I beat your record.' ... He said, 'Because I didn't play, fool.' But, yeah, Troy is a good guy. Troy is a great receiver. Nobody can cover him. When he gets to the next level, he's going to showcase the same thing."

Overall, Oregon's 584 yards of offense were third-most in Ducks' bowl history, behind 639 against Florida State and 621 against Wisconsin in the 2015 and 2012 Rose Bowls, respectively.

The Ducks (12-2) earned the sixth 12-win campaign in program history while continuing on an upward trajectory in Lanning's second season after finishing 10-3 last year.

"I think it just speaks to the direction, the base that these guys have created for where we're headed and what we're about to do," Lanning said. "They believed in what we wanted to accomplish. Really, this is all about our players. Our players had a buy‐in. They knew what the goal was and what to accomplish. We're going to build off that in the future, and they really set the stage for that. ...

"The great thing about football is every team has an individual identity in itself. What these guys built, they created a legacy and created a tradition about what we expect and our standard of play. But the reality is, it has nothing to do with next season. It's going to be about the next group, going back to the fundamentals and starting from scratch. Starting from zero and figuring out exactly what we have. But they certainly put the building blocks down for what it means to be an Oregon football player and an Oregon football team."

Nix and Johnson both threw the credit back on Lanning on his coaching staff ...

"Coach Lanning can say what he wants, but a lot of it is because of him that we were in the situation we were in. He coaches us extremely hard, and he gets the best out of us. That's what you want out of a head coach," Nix said. "And his humility is going to give it to the players, but we wouldn't be here without him and his leadership. I've learned so much from him over my time, over two years. Like I said, I wouldn't be here without him and the coaches that he's put around us as players. As a team, I felt like we set the bar really high. We had a standard, and we just wanted to go out there and match it every Saturday."

Said Johnson: "We just need to stay on course and believe in Coach Lanning, which he's the greatest coach of all time, I feel like. He knows what buttons to push us to get a little bit more out of us to compete every day. We've got to trust the process. I feel like the playoffs, with them expanding, is going to put some teams in there that's really good and going to really try to get to that next championship game and playoffs. It's going to be really good. You're going to see some teams in there that's going to shock the whole world. That's going to be us next year."

The Ducks stayed the course after a bit of slow start Saturday, as Liberty scored a touchdown on the game's opening possession and Oregon then settled for a field goal and three-and-out punt to start.

But Nix and Co. would be locked in the rest of the way, scoring touchdowns on each of their next six possessions through the end of the third quarter.

The scoring started with a 7-play, 82-yard touchdown drive, spurred along by a 44-yard run by Bucky Irving -- who had 14 carries for 117 yards and a TD -- to the Liberty 5-yard line, which set up a 2-yard TD toss to Gary Bryant Jr. in the back of the end zone.

After the Ducks defense forced a three-and-out, Nix led the offense on a 10-play, 75-yard drive ending in a 2-yard TD pass to TE Terrance Ferguson on a broken play that the QB improvised while coming under pressure following a fake handoff and teased end around.

"We've been practicing that play a lot. We were expecting it to go to Pat Herbert, to be honest, in the corner. And when we came off the fake, somebody kind of ran with him and there was the dude right there, so I just tried to avoid -- I thought somebody was going to be on the other side and probably hit me pretty good because I kind of lost my balance. But Ferg just stayed alive. He kind of found his way over the middle. When I looked up, I saw his number and threw it to him," Nix said. "It's exactly how we practiced it."

Said Lanning: "Not at all like we practiced it, but it worked. That's what Bo said to me as soon as he came to the sideline. He said, 'Just like we practiced.' I said, 'Right.'"

Following another Flames three-and-out, Nix got the Ducks moving with a 50-yard connection to Bryant and capped the 95-yard scoring drive with a 3-yard forward toss to Kenyon Sadiq.

Liberty was actually moving the ball on the ensuing possession, until Steve Stephens intercepted Kaidon Salter at the Ducks' 32 with 1:12 on the clock, which was enough time for Nix to get Oregon back in the end zone again with a 40-yard pass to Johnson and ultimately a 17-yard touchdown to Traeshon Holden for a 31-6 halftime lead.

For Nix's final touchdown of the day, he connected with Johnson on a 24-yard pass off a reverse flea-flicker screen that Nix had to throw off his back foot and Johnson had to scoop just above the turf before running behind his blockers into the end zone.

"It's one of those, like, we had it in our back pocket. We just waited for the coach to call it. When he called it, I knew I was going to score the whole time," Johnson said. "Running behind big Steve [Jones], that's the biggest guy on the field all the time. It was pretty good."

Irving capped the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

Nix eventually gave way to freshman quarterback Austin Novosad, who completed 5 of 7 passes for 38 yards.

For all the spotlight on the Ducks' ever-prolific offense, the defense certainly did its part while holding Liberty to 294 yards -- only the second time all season the Flames were held under 422. They came into the game leading all FBS teams in rushing at 302.9 yards per game but managed just 168 Saturday.

Linebacker Jeffrey Bassa led the defense with 8 tackles and a tackle for loss.

"I think it just went down to the preparation. Knowing that they were the No. 1 rushing offense in the country, I think a lot of the guys looked up to the challenge of stopping that run," Bassa said. "That's something that we didn't do in the previous game. We didn't do that very well. Accepting that challenge, I know a lot of the defensive linemen were fired up. Guys like Taki [Taimani] and [Brandon] Dorlus were fired up to go against that offensive line. Then obviously Coach Lanning and Coach [Tosh] Lupoi calling the calls that they wanted to call. A simple call sheet. We were ready to strike and fit the gaps."

The Ducks were ready in every phase to remind everyone one more time that they are one of the best teams in college football this season.

"We said this season, and really this game, was about unfinished business. We said we're writing the last chapter to our book, and we had the pen. I thought our guys wrote a phenomenal chapter," Lanning said. "Started off a little hairy, but they finished it off the way Oregon is supposed to play. So, really proud of these guys."