Two years ago, in the middle of an already -- and uncharacteristically -- lost season, Oregon started looking toward the future.
The Ducks named Justin Herbert, then a scrawny and unpolished 6-foot-5 true freshman, as starting quarterback the week of their game against No. 5-ranked Washington. Herbert had thrown only five passes in his fledgling college career, all in the fourth quarter of an 18-point loss at Washington State the previous week.
What followed was one of the lowest moments in the recent history of Oregon football.
Herbert threw an interception on the first play of the game, an appropriately inauspicious start to a 70-21 defeat to the Huskies that snapped Oregon's 12-game winning streak in the rivalry and signaled a dramatic shift in power in the Pac-12 conference.