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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1977)
football MIKE MARINO Mel Cook: actions speak louder than words Besides being one of the best football players in the Pac-8, Mel Cook is honest. Voted the outstanding defen sive player of the game last Satur day against Stanford, Cook would trade all the accolades for a win. “It's nice to have the big plays and be nominated as I was," Cook said. "But our purpose is to please the coaches. When you do, it makes life worthwhile." With the play Cook has shown thus far this season, it's no doubt that he s making his coaches lives worthwhile, too "Mel has just played outstand ingly this year, said Defensive Coordinator Howard Tippett. He s consistently been the best player we ve had on defense this season Certainly it showed against Stanford. Cook spent the entire af ternoon in the Cardinal backfield, continually harassing the much feared Guy Benjamin. He s a great mtimidator with his reputa tion. Cook said But we put the heal on him all day long Cook himself is quite an m timidator At 6-4, 210, he regis tered 11 unassisted tackles in earning Chevrolet s nomination as Saturday s defensive star He was picked as the player of the game. Tippett said, but the should have been the player of the week m the Pac-8. If anybody did more than he did last week, I don t know who Of course it didn't help that we lost And it s just that, the losing that has Cook trying harder Were 1-3 now and people say that we ve improved so much over last year Cook pointed out Sure we ve gotten better, but there s no way lm happy with 1-3. Last year we were 3-1, but I feel 100% better at this year I see no way that we re going to have a losing season—we just have to get it together As a senior. Cook is undoub tedly one of the leaders of this new day And the leadership, which is something Rich Brooks and his staff are counting on, comes both on and off the field The younger kids will look at the films Monday morning and see what Mel has done. Tippett said It II be a pointer for what they have to shoot for. What the younger players saw last week few could ever hope to imitate. When problems de veloped on defense. Cook was told by coach Andy Christoff that Ken Page, shown here breaking the Luv*\o unmaiw nuuuw against aiarrrora, is one or the football in 1977. So far Page has caught touchdown bombs of 60 and 70 yards. people are more optimistic about Oregon he might be played at the other linebacker spot. "It was different, but it was the same position I played last year, Cook confes sed But the first thing I thought about was that Stanford would be stunting alot on my side, so it would give more changes to get at the quarterback. Get at him he did, but thegame s end result had Cook anything but pleased. Giving up 475 yards in total offense was way too much. Cook said If we re gonna do something we re gonna have to cut that down to 250 or less But the real result is what s on the scoreboard. Weve given up 27 points, then 24. then 22, and then 20. It II just have to keep com ing down There s been alot of talk, espe cially last weekend, of all the star Oregon high school athletes that have gotten away After all. it was an interception by Larry Reynolds of Corvallis and a touchdown run by Phil Francis of Beaverton - not to mention several key catches by Bill Kellar of Hillsboro - that even tually did in the Ducks. But Mel Cook, now he s another story He s one that didn t get away. Actually, Oregon was my last choice," said the 74 grad of Aloha "I played basketball, though and I couldn t get the chance to take all my recruiting trips back East. So it came down to Oregon, because it was here, and Hawaii, for the prestige. ' But when I went to Hawaii, the coach quit and they had a big gambling scandal, so that left Oregon." Which is a decision that Cook says he doesn t regret, despite all the years of hardship The fans in Oregon have to be the best in the conference—even better than USC or UCLA, he said flatly. They stand behind the team bet ter than any fans I ve seen. We ve had some real bad years, but they keep commgg back, and now they re filling the stadium." Filling Autzen despite a record of 1-3 We re going to have a winning season—my goal is to be 7-4 or 6-5 at the least," Cooks predicted People say that we don t have the talent, but that's a bunch of crap. We have the talent, it's just that some people don t think it's fun to win as it is just to improve. Against Wisconsin, their of fense knew they had to march 80 yards and score to win the game, he continued "They knew they had to score, but our defense didn t have a total feeling—we didn t have the feeling we had to stop them We had the players and the formations, but we didn t have the desire. That s what we have to improve Cook insists that he doesn t say much to the other players about it, but rather he lets his actions on the field talk for him And so far, he s said a season-full But with Oregon at 1-3, Mel Cook will be saying alot more as the season progresses. There are people who say we re 1-3 and that s o k. Those are the people that I want to prove something to. And coming from a player-of the-week, you get the idea that he means it. 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