Sigh of relief heard as quarterback returns to field
■ COMEBACK: Four and a half
games after going down with a knee
injury, Tony Graziani makes his
return
By Andrea DeYoung
Assistant Sports Editor
It’s homecoming in more ways than one
for Tony Graziani.
The senior quarterback returns to North
ern California to play in a stadium an hour
and a half from his hometown.
He returns to his home, back on the field
behind the offensive line.
He is back as the team leader, both in spirit
and in running the offense.
The most important part is that he’s back.
Graziani has been declared the starter for
Saturday’s game against Stanford after sitting
out the past four and a half games. A medial
collateral ligament injury on his right knee
sent Graziani tumbling to the turf against
Nevada, and his estimated return was four to
six weeks later.
Five weeks and many hours in the Casano
va Center treatment room later, Graziani is
healthy. He has been practicing for three
weeks and was dressed for both the Arizona
State and UCLA games.
“Sitting on the sidelines watching every
body — that’s the hardest part,” Graziani
said. “It’s been tough watching them struggle
in the last three weeks. You want to be out
there and you want to help them out as much
as you can, but you know you have no part in
the game.”
But Graziani admits it was more difficult to
be in pads for the past two games than it was
to be in street clothes for the other games.
“Saturday was tough because there might
have been a chance that I would have gone
in,” he said. “Against Arizona State I knew I
wasn’t going to go in, but I just went down
for moral support or in case both [Ryan Per
ry-Smith and Jason Maas] went down. But
last week was kind of hard because there
was a question about whether or not I was
going in.”
There doesn’t seem to be any question for
the Stanford game, though, as long as
Graziani feels healthy.
“Based on what I saw, if he continues to
practice like the way he did [Tuesday] and
he has no setbacks, he will start,” head
coach Mike Bellotti said on Wednesday.
Graziani has proved himself ever since he
took over the starting role with the gradua
tion of Danny O’Neil. In 11 games last sea
son, he completed 231-of-426 passes for
2604 yards and 13 touchdowns. He ranked
eighth in the nation in total offense at sea
son’s end.
In his six quarters of play this season,
Graziani threw 59 passes, completing 33, for
543 yards, three touchdowns and no inter
ceptions. He was also instrumental in Ore
gon’s comeback against Fresno State when
the Ducks tied the game in the last seconds
of the fourth quarter to send it to overtime.
Oregon won the game thanks to Graziani’s
first pass in overtime to tight end Josh
Wilcox in the endzone.
With the Ducks struggling in the past
three games, Graziani may be the spark
needed to ignite a fire. But he will be coming
back to a team that looks drastically differ
ent than the last time he was on the field. In
juries have forced receivers and running
backs to sit. The lack of depth at tailback, es
pecially, is continually presenting a prob
lem for the offense.
“It’s tough,” Graziani said. “We’re a little
thin right now. We’ve got a lot of key players
out and hopefully we can just step up, and
some of the young guys can come in and
play real well.”
There is also the concern of the mental as
pect of the first game back after an injury.
But Graziani said it won’t take long before
all bad thoughts are out of his mind.
“I think I will be nervous until the first
play is done,” he said. "It’s always tough to
get back into game speed, so I think I just
have to take it easy until then. ”
But being so close to home will help
Graziani deal with a hostile road crowd.
“I’ll have a lot of friends and family down
there. I don’t think it’ll be any worries get
ting pumped up,” he said.
With Graziani back into the starter’s posi
tion, Perry-Smith resumes his role as the
backup. Although he jumped into the No. 2
spot for all-time Oregon single-game pass
ing yards with a 468-yard game against Ari
zona State, the Ducks’ 1-3 record since
Graziani went down was not enough for
Perry-Smith to keep the starting job.
But both Bellotti and Graziani were
pleased with Perry-Smith’s accomplish
ments, and Graziani said he knows his first
goal for Saturday’s game.
“Being consistent. I think that was one of
those things that Ryan did real well,” he
said. “Hopefully I can do that for a whole
game so we can win. ”
Jordan: Leadership role suits the linebacker
■ Continued from Page 2B
been called on to carry quite a load
as a veteran on a young and inex
perienced defensive squad. All
the while, he has been suffering
through nagging injuries himself
— injuries that have plagued him
his whole career.
“What I tell the young guys,”
Jordan said, “is that we’re in a little
hit of a rut right now, but go out
and have fun and don’t get uptight
because when that happens you
miss plays.”
But even with that positive out
look, Jordan broke down last week
after Oregon's loss to UCLA and
was visibly emotional talking to
reporters afterword.
“It was just frustration and dis
appointment,” Jordan said. "We
came into the season with such
high hopes. Not to play up to our
abilities is a little disappointing.”
Not to mention the fact that this
is Jordan’s last year. In fact, he has
already earned his degree in Eng
lish literature and is an intern at
Marist High School with aspira
tions of becoming a teacher. And a
trip to a bowl game would be the
perfect senior season for Jordan .
“These are your lasting memo
ries,” he said. “You just want to go
out on top. To lose three in a row is
devastating.”
But all is not yet lost for the
Ducks. With some injured starters
slowly making their way back into
the line-up and a couple of bye
weeks coming up, Oregon’s bowl
game picture could start to clear
up.
“Reggie has never been com
pletely healthy in his career,” Bel
lotti said. “We need to get him
healthy, obviously. We also need
to get an influx of healthy bodies
on the defense to support guys like
Reggie.”
Until then, Jordan is accepting
of his role in the defense, a role
that includes being a leader.
“The young guys look up to me
and expect me to be a leader,” he
said. “They’re taking some knocks
this year, but these kids, come
their junior or sophomore years,
whew. ... It’s real encouraging.
They make plays, but it’s just not
all the plays.”
Part of being a leader includes
keeping the team focused, and in
some cases, keeping first-year
players from being too star struck
out on the field.
In the game against Washington
State earlier this season, true fresh
man safety Ray Brust was seeing
his first significant playing time
and, Jordan said, was a little in
awe of his environment.
“I looked in the huddle,” Jordan
said, “and thought that Brust was
going to choke on his mouthpiece.
He looked like he was in a differ
ent world. I told him to relax a lit
tle bit and to calm down.”
Barnes, who is known for his
leadership qualities, recognizes
the same in Jordan.
“He is pretty good with the
guys,” Barnes said. "He helps
them understand what it takes to
play at this level, even academ
ically.”
It is this leading by example that
stands out in Bellotti’s mind.
“He had surgery on his ankle be
fore the season but has been able
to fight through it,” he said. “He is
a leader out there on the field and
is not afraid to say some things.”
And knowing the nature of Jor
dan, when he is on the field his
voice can be heard loud and clear.
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By Chris Hansen
Sports Reporter
■ Arizona State’s offense has
been perfect inside the redzone
this season. Seventeen times the
Sun Devils have been inside the
opponents 20-yard line and 17
times they have scored, includ
ing converting on all five oppor
tunities against Oregon and
Washington. Fourteen of those
scores were for touchdowns.
■ UCLA’s next three foes (Ari
zona State, 5-0, Washington, 3
1 and California, 5-0) have a
combined record of 13-1 and
all are ranked in this week’s
Top 25. The Bruins’ schedule
has been ranked as the tough
est in the Pac-10 and No. 14 in
the country by the NCAA
News. UCLA has, or will play,
six teams that participated in
1995 bowl games.
■ Other than defensive end
Kailee Wong, Stanford has one
more player with an Oregon
connection: offensive guard
Brad Badger. A graduate of Cor
vallis High School, Badger was
a consensus pre-season First
Team All-Pac-10 selection.
Oregon center Mark Gregg and
cornerback LaMont Woods
also graduated from Corvallis.
■ Saturday’s Washington-Notre
Dame matchup marks only the
fourth time these teams have
faced each other. Notre Dame
leads the series 3-0 including a
29-21 win last season at Husky
Stadium.
McTyre: Graziani has a history of
putting together big-game heroics
■ Continued from Page 1B
By the beginning of the fourth
quarter, Hicks had done his job
and the Bruins were able to coast
home from there leaving the
Ducks down and out.
“When you live by the sword,
you die by the sword,” Oregon
head coach Mike Bellotti said fol
lowing the game. “If you’re going
to commit to the passing game,
you commit to it. We need to be
better running the ball. But when
it went from 7-7 at halftime in a
heartbeat and then 31-7 before
you knew it, we needed to do
whatever we could to get down
the field and score some points.
You have to be able to run it when
everybody knows you’re going to
run it in order to be successful in
this league.”
But now, one week later, the
Ducks have something to look for
ward to. Something that might
leave the last three games in the
past, where they should be, and
possibly salvage the season. The
return of quarterback Tony
Graziani.
Graziani went down to a knee
injury in the Ducks' second game
of the season and was replaced by
Ryan Perry-Smith, who played
well during his starting stint, but
only posted a 1-3 record.
There’s no doubt that the pres
sure put upon Graziani to succeed
this weekend must be tremen
dous. But of anybody on the
Ducks’ squad, the senior is un
questionably the best fit for this
type of situation.
TVvo years ago, Graziani started
his first collegiate game against
Southern California, and came
away victorious in the Pacific-10
Conference’s biggest upset of the
1994 season. Last year, in a game
that is always up for grabs — Civil
War — Graziani again showed
poise. His passing was off that
night at Autzen Stadium, but he
let his legs do the talking as he
gained a team-leading 108 yards
in Oregon’s 12-10 win over Ore
gon State.
While he may not be able to
bring the Ducks totally out of
their downward spiral because of
the massive injured list Oregon
must endure, he does add more
ability and experience to the
quarterback position. As a starter
of games he has finished,
Graziani holds a 9-3 mark.
Added to an outstanding record,
he is the only quarterback in
school history to have accumu
lated victories over USC, UCLA,
Washington and Arizona.
Don’t expect miracles Satur
day, but expect the toughness
and competitive side of Graziani
to show through.
Mark McTyre is the sports editor
for the Emerald. His views do not
necessarily represent those of the
newspaper.