International Students Get to Know Us — yo(i^ The campus ptae to 13th & Aider* On Campus' 343 0681 SAVE $$$ ON TEXTBOOKS! • one block from campus • same low prices • expanded floor space Bring your Textbook Information author, title, edition We'll help you save $$$ Sell some of last year's Textbooks and help pay for this term's books Smith Family Bookstore 768 East 13th • (503) 345-1651 Eugene, Oregon 97401 Ducks, Bears overcome labels Sikh: Minis he 1993 Pacific-10 Con ference football season .A. has barely begun, but one thing is already evident The p rosea son prognosticators. or so (billed "experts." are once again wrong. Every Par-10 team has played either three or four games so far this year and the only ones still unbeaten are Arizona. California and Oregon. Of these threo teams only the Wildcats were expected to be where they are. This week's Oregon-California game will be a fight between two teams battling to keep their "sur prising" undefeated records intact Neither of these teams was given much chance to com pete for a bowl game, much less the Rose Bowl, when the season began, but both teams have ignored the predictions and played tho games anyway. A quick scan of eight presea son media polls shows that Ore gon (3-0) and California (4-0) were expected finish seventh and ninth, respectively. The main reasons the Ducks and Bears have started so much better than many expected them to has been a combination of easy schedules and simply being underrated to start with. Many people figured that Cal would finish near its 4-7 mark of a year ago because of the loss of its two best offensive players, wide receiver Sean Dawkins and running back Russell White. What people did not realize was the depth this squad had behind those two, as well as having one of the most stable quarterbacks in the conference in Dave Barr. t.indsev Chapman has filled in nicely for W'hite. rushing for IH6 yards in four games, hut that should surprise few since he ran for over 10(H) yards the past two years backing up White Mike Caldwell, Dawkins' replacement, leads the Bears with 16 catches and 320 yards receiving. This too should not be a shock, as Caldwell caught 76 balls during his three previ ous yoars at Berkeley. The fact is Cal was underrated because most experts looked solely at the losses they suffered and not at the depth behind those players It has become rou tine for preseason magazines to base their picks on the number of returning starters a team has and ignore players returning after playing significant roles off of the bench. Another mason why the Bears have been successful is that they have beaten inferior non-confer ence foes San lose State and Temple, and they beat UCLA when they were without top linebacker (amir Miller, who was out due to a suspension. However, California's 44 points per game scoring average is impressive no matter who they played. As for the Ducks, they are in the same boat as the Bears, tak ing advantage of a light schedule and low expectations. Oregon was picked no higher than fifth by most magazines and as low ninth in the conference by a couple of them. These picks showed an obvious lack of respect and research about a team that returned 14 starters from a bowl team one year ago. It has become almost a tradi tion for the national media to pick the Ducks to finish behind traditional Pac-IQ contenders like Stanford. UCLA and USC even though the- Ducks have fin ished ahead of at least one of those teams in every year but one since 1986. Oregon head coach Rich Brooks addressed Bus issuer before the season. "Although UCLA has been to one bowl game in four years and we have been to three, almost This week’s Oregon-Califomia game will be a fight between two teams battling to keep their 1surprising’ undefeated records intact everybody in the county will pick UCI.A to finish ahead of Oregon," brooks said. "Even though that hasn't been true in recent years." Oregon has also taken advan tage of a kind schedule that has seen it play overmatched Col orado State and Montana. Illi nois is the only team of its cal iber it has faced. But give the Ducks a lot of c redit for winning on the road against a Big 10 opponent that had been to five consecutive bowl games. Nobody could have expected the explosive start of junior quarterback Danny O'Neil, but this team hardly needed pity from the media. Oregon returned seven starters from one of the league's top defensive squads, an experienced offen sive hackfield and a special teams unit that could hold its own against anyone. Oregon is still seen as the perennial loser it was in the 1970s and mid-1980s, even though they have recently built a competitive program in what is arguably the best conference in the country. California has overcome the early lack of respect and is now ratnd 17th in the country. It has been installed as a 12-point favorite over the Ducks by the oddsmakers. As for the Ducks, they will have to take the field and once again do as their coach knew they would before the season began. "We just take our preseason pit ks. show up at prat tice. go out and play, and sot* if we t an show some of the so-called experts wrong." Brooks said Slr\ r Mims is thr sports editor of the Emerald. Simple Bike Sale! We simply have too many ’93 bikes. 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