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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1996)
Emerald ONES TO WATCH This season’s offensive line is considered the best in Oregon history ESPECIALLY GOOD The special teams played great against Arizona and are ready for California SPORTS EXTRA November 15,1996 ducks vs. bears One last go-around ■ PREVIEW: Oregon and California battle for bowl possibilities in the final Oregon home game of the season By Ryan Halvorsen Sports Reporter The Ducks will appear in Autzen Stadium this week for the last time with the class of 1996. The 24 Oregon seniors hope to go out at home with a win over California this week end to keen their hones for one last winnine ■ KICKOFF: 3:39 p.m. Autzen Stadium ■ TV: Fox Syndicated Network (Live) ■ RADIO: KUGN 590 AM ■ REPLAY: Fox Sports Northwest, Nov.18,7 p.m. season alive. The Ducks will certainly miss this group —15 starters will be gone after the season-end ing game next week at Corvallis against Ore gon State. “This year’s senior class has probably done more in terms of putting Oregon football on the map than any other team, along with last year’s seniors,” Oregon head coach Mike Bel lotti said. “There’s some people that will be in the record books, and there are some that won’t get their names in the record books that de serve recognition be cause they put in a lot of great football on special teams and as back ups. It’s hard to realize that time flies so quickly. These young men that are fifth-year seniors came in as skinny young kids out of high school. When they see what they have accomplished, when they look back on it, they will be astonished.” The seniors and the rest of the Ducks (4-5 overall, 1-5 in the Pacific-10 Conference) know that there are a couple football games to be played before they have time to look back on those accomplishments. And this week’s task won’t be an easy one against the Golden Bears (6-3,3-3). California’s biggest threat to the Ducks will be quarterback Pat Barnes, who has had a career season up to this point. Barnes’ 2,877 passing yards along with 25 touch downs against six interceptions put him at the top of the conference and eighth nation ally in passing efficiency. Barnes’ core of re ceivers creates multiple big-play targets for Turn to PREVIEW, Page 8B MARK McTYRE/EmerakJ Derrick Barnes and many other seniors will play their last game at Autzen Stadium Satur day. The contest against California will mark the exit of Gang Green from Eugene as Its re maining core concludes its playing career against Oregon State at Corvallis next weekend. This weekend’s game will mark the end of Gang Green at Autzen Stadium as the remaining players will move on Three years ago, Oregon’s Gang Green was born. It started with players that no one had heard of, but grew to the point of statewide, if not national, stardom. Players such as Silila Malepeai, TVoy Bailey, Rich Ruhl, Je remy Asher, Chad Cota, Alex Molden and Jeff Sherman were part of this group of rag-tag guys that nobody had faith in prior to their success, because of a terrible pre ceding year. The only person this group could turn to at the time was defensive co ordinator Nick Aliotti. Aliotti knew how to get his players fired up. If it wasn’t through his constant barking dur ing practice drills, it was through his love of the game. He held each one of these players in high regard, always wanting to talk about them instead of himself during inter views. Aliotti on one occasion said ofMalepeai: Mart Mcfyre “He is our spiritual and our emotional leader. He is the guy that gets us going. He’s a true warrior. He comes to practice every day and gives you everything he's got. Guys respect him. He plays hard, he’s tough, he plays when he’s hurt, he’s just a winner. He’s the guy that we need in our defense.” When a coach talks about one of his players with that kind of passion you know the squad has come together as one. When that occurs, good things seem to always happen. 1 make this a point because finally, with only two games remaining in the regular season, it seems this year’s Oregon defense has found itself. The players and coaches alike have gone through many rough times facing the criticism of the media. Week in and week out, the squad has had the sto ried history of Gang Green thrown back in their faces. But still, they were able to pre vail. Last week’s performance was the be ginning of a new era. Players like Chris Vandiver, Chris Young and Aaron Cheuvront made their presence felt more than ever before. Vandiver tallied Turn to McTYRE, Page 6B Key Player Against Arizona, tailback Saladin McCullough had 223 yards and five rushing touchdowns. He went out of the game with a pulled hamstring and was listed as day-to-day for this week. If he plays, he will have to produce for the Ducks. TOTAL iFFEiSiVE OUTPUT University of California Passing University of Oregon ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 20 1. i-ioriaa (9-u) 2. Ohio State (9-0) 3. Florida State (8-0) 4. Arizona St. (10-0) 5. Nebraska (8-1) 6. Colorado (8-1) 6.UNC (8-1) 8. Alabama (8-1) 9. Kansas State (8-1) 10.BYU (10-1) n.Kenn state (»-;;) 12. Tennessee (6-2) 13. Northwestern (8-2) 14. Notre Dame (6-2) 15. Washington (7-2) 16. Michigan (7-2) 17. LSU (6-2) 18. Miami (6-2) 19. Syracuse (6-2) 20. Auburn (7-2)