Oregon football kicks off its 2017 season on Saturday evening against Big Sky opponent Southern Utah. On paper, this is a FBS vs. FCS mismatch. But the Thunderbirds have a conceivable path towards putting up a fight at Autzen Stadium in Eugene.

While the Ducks are an unknown quantity under first-year head coach Willie Taggart, Southern Utah is coming off a 6-5 season with a senior and junior laden roster. They have momentum after closing out their season with wins over Idaho State (52-27), Montana State (38-21) and Northern Arizona (48-21) while Oregon is coming off a dismal 2016.

And, as Big Sky conference officials have been happy to point out, Eastern Washington did beat Washington State in 2016.

All that said, SUU is not going to beat the Ducks. It would take something disastrous, like a minus-6 turnover margin, for that to even be a possibility.

SUU head coach Demario Warren said earlier this week that the key to them winning is scoring over 30 points. While that may have been an outside possibility against last years’ sorry performance by the Brady Hoke defense, the chances of it happening tonight are slim.

Last season, SUU scored all of zero points against Utah. In 2015 they managed only 10 against a hapless WSU defense. It takes a journey back to 2012 to find the time they bested the 30 barrier vs. P12 with a 50-31 loss to league bottom feeder Cal.

Against the type of athletes that they will face from Jim Leavitt’s group, they will be hard-pressed to move the ball consistently on any drive barring a series of defensive breakdowns.

For Duck fans, this game is still a must-watch situation because there are so many questions to be answered.

· How will the defense look after being one of the worst statistically in the Pac-12 last year?

· Can the offense combine the quality of their RB depth along with a year of experience for their QB and OL to make a potent scoring machine?

· Which of the 11 true freshman on the two-deep will make an impact?

· Which receivers will become the go-to guys?

· Was last year an aberration?

· Will Oregon look like an 8+ win team that the fans expect?

· Will we be able to tell against a Big Sky team?

So as the Willie Taggart era of Oregon football opens on the field at 5:15 pm on Saturday evening, Duck fans can rejoice that the answers to the questions will soon be coming. And they can begin to rinse the taste of 4-8 out of their mouths for good.