Oregon has hired an assistant coach from Washington State during each of the past four seasons.

Mark Helfrich took David Yost as quarterbacks coach, Willie Taggart added Joe Salave’a as defensive line coach, and Mario Cristobal brought running backs coach Jim Mastro and linebackers coach Ken Wilson to his staff during the past two seasons. None of those four assistants have been able to beat Mike Leach after leaving him for the Ducks.

“They should just call me up and I’ll see if I can help them with anything they need,” Leach said Monday as the Cougars (4-3, 1-3) prepare to face the 11th-ranked Ducks (6-1, 4-0) Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Autzen Stadium. “What are you looking for, Oregon? Well, I’ll see if I can help you. That’s what I need to do.”

As his assistants have flocked to Oregon, Leach led WSU to four straight wins over the Ducks by an average of 15.5 points per game.

“We’ve always played extremely well against them,” Leach said. “I think we have played complete games against them.”

Leach is the first coach to beat Oregon four straight times since UCLA’s Bob Toledo did so from 1996-99. The last team to beat Oregon five straight times was Washington from 1989-93 with Don James coaching the first four wins and Jim Lambright closing out the streak.

Leach is 4-3 all-time against the Ducks including a 2-1 mark at Autzen. WSU won 45-38 in double overtime in Eugene in 2015 and followed up with a 33-10 win two years ago.

“I’ve always liked Autzen Stadium a lot,” Leach said. “I think it is an outstanding stadium, actually one of my favorite in the country. Most people have it as the loudest in the conference and I’d agree with that. I like it because it has got such a unique atmosphere. On the outside, it looks like it’s Middle-earth. It has waterfalls going and all that other stuff. Inside the stadium as far as all the uniforms and facilities, their players and coaches, it’s got this real urban vibe. Then you go in the stadium and folks will have all their hunting gear on and just came out of a duck blind or a deer stand or something like that to watch a little football. You have got this contrast between the university and the team and the Oregon faithful that attend games. I think it is a great contrast, a great stadium and I’ve always enjoyed it a lot.”

Washington State has finished ahead of Oregon in the Pac-12 standings during each of the past three seasons despite always falling behind the Ducks in the recruiting rankings. Oregon is three games ahead of the Cougars this year as it closes in on clinching the North Division title.

“They’ve always had quite a bit of success,” Leach said of the Ducks. “Everybody’s all stunned by this and everybody said that Oregon has one of the best recruiting classes in the nation and everybody’s surprised that Oregon wins something. The surprising thing to me is that people are surprised. How the hell can you be surprised?

“We get article after article, story after story. Oregon’s explosive on offense, Oregon’s explosive on defense. How are all these four-stars going to play? They got this four-star guy, that four-star guy, a third-ranked recruiting class in the country. And then ‘Oh my God, can you believe Oregon won?’ I’m so stunned Oregon won. Oh Oregon? You know that guy is a good player at Oregon. Yeah, he’s a five-star guy coming out of high school. You bragged about how brilliant it was that they got him and everything and now you’re surprised that he made a few plays. I mean it’s the craziest thing ever.”

Washington State quarterback Anthony Gordon, a senior who served as the backup for the past three seasons while appearing in a total of two games, leads the Pac-12 with 2,981 passing yards and 29 touchdowns with seven interceptions in Leach’s “Air Raid” offense. Oregon senior Justin Herbert has thrown for 1,882 yards and 21 scores with one interception.

“I think he’s a talented guy,” Leach said of Herbert. “But I’m very pleased we have ours instead.”

Herbert took over as Oregon’s quarterback when he replaced Dakota Prukop late in a 51-33 loss at Washington State in 2016. He was 3-for-5 for 70 yards while running for a touchdown in that game.

Herbert missed the game against WSU during his sophomore year due to injury and went 25-for-44 for 270 yards and a score last year in a 34-20 loss at Washington State. The Cougars led 27-0 at halftime before Oregon closed within 27-20 in the final quarter.

“We were extremely excited to play and we did a good job stacking plays up,” Leach said of last year’s meeting. “I thought we played hard throughout the game. I didn’t feel like Oregon was close to making a comeback, but they are an explosive team and we knew we wouldn’t be able to keep them bottled up all game and they did get on a run. They are explosive, Oregon will make some plays.”