It's not just Oregon. UW is very good this year and Utah is tough. USC was supposed to be a contender, though they haven't shown it. Wash St and OR st are now pretty good teams, making the PAC more thick than it's been in recent decades.
Not sure if you knew, but Biff apparently was an OL for Spurrier at Duke. Kinda funny that he still looks like a HS coach with his attire.