Fiesta Bowl: 3 Things To Know About #8 Oregon vs #23 Liberty

New Year's Day will mark CUSA champ's Liberty's toughest game of the season. The undefeated Flames will face a top-ten team in the Oregon Ducks in the VRBO Fiesta Bowl at Noon ET. 

As both teams get ready for the showdown in Arizona, here are three things to keep in mind about how both teams are preparing. 

Bo Nix Will Play

It's not uncommon to see star players in the upcoming draft class to opt out of playing in their team's bowl game. However, Oregon's Heisman finalist quarterback Bo Nix has made the decision that he will play in the Fiesta Bowl. Nix has passed for over 4100 yards this season with 40 touchdown passes and just three interceptions. Between his time at both Auburn and Oregon, Nix has passed for 14,989 yards. This game will almost surely put him over the 15,000 mark. 

"You want to have guys on your team that want to play for the love of the game. Bo Nix is one of those guys," UO head coach Dan Lanning commented to the media when confirming Nix's status.

Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell and Nix's father Patrick actually have a professional stop in common. Patrick Nix was an assistant at FCS Charleston Southern 2010 to 2012. Chadwell had two stints coaching at Charleston Southern: 2004-2008 as the offensive coordinator and then as the head coach from 2013 through 2016.

"He's tremendous," Chadwell said of the Oregon quarterback. "I was able to catch [Oregon] versus a couple people here and there...it's going to be the biggest challenge we have obviously faced. What makes him so good is, one, his accuracy, and two, if something breaks down, he obviously can beat you running, but he keeps his eyes downfield and can still hurt you from the pocket or out of the pocket...you're not going to stop him. Can we hopefully minimize some of the damage that he does? That's what we got to try and figure out, how to do that."

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Liberty Are CUSA's First Representative in the New Year's Six

Since 2014, the AAC has reached a New Year's Six game seven different times. The MAC and the Mountain West have each had a team in a NY6 game once in that span. Neither CUSA or the Sun Belt have had a team reach those games until this moment.

Even in the BCS era, a CUSA team never reached a game of this high profile. 

Liberty will be playing in a venue roughly 2.5 times the size of their home venue in Phoenix, with millions more watching at home.

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Liberty Has The #1 Rushing Offense In The Nation

In Chadwell's version of the run-pass option, the Flames have had more success running the ball this season than anyone in FBS. Liberty are averaging 302.9 rushing yards per game and an impressive 6.13 yards per carry. While it's impressive that Liberty's put up those numbers against any competition, Oregon will be a considerable step up in all facets. This is especially true of the Ducks' run defense, who allow just 97.5 rushing yards per game.

"The thing you know about Coach Lanning is that they play great defense wherever he's been," Chadwell stated. "He obviously follows the Georgia model from that standpoint. So they're going to be stout, they're going to be tough, and it's obviously going to be a challenge for us. That will be the fastest, biggest, strongest group of d-line, linebackers that we're going against." 

Fans can tune in for the clash between the Flames and Ducks on ESPN on New Year's Day at 1 PM ET.