H .1 Oregon Daily 1 "1
Emerald
Going
home
Saladin
McCullough
returns to
Los A ngeles
to play the _
Troians
el
' Vi
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1997
Oregon Ducks vs.
USC Trojans
at Memorial Coliseum
a
An independent newspaper
Volume 99, Issue 38
INSIDE:
Saladin McCullough Feature 2B
Opinion 2B
Pal Johnson Poster 4B
Around the Pac-10 6B
ODE Football Kcks 7B
The
Numbers*
Scoring
Offense
Oregon 4th
USC 10th
Total
Offense
Oregon 4th
USC 9th
Rushing
Defense
Oregon 10th
USC 1st
First
Downs
Oregon 1st
USC 10th
Turnover
Margin
Oregon 9th
USC 4th
■ Pac-10rank
Quotable
“R. Jay Soward
has had
problems the
last couple of
weeks with
cramping. He's
a guy with 2
percent body fat,
or something
like that, a lot
like mine.”
— John
Robinson, USC
head coach
“We need to
understand that
every game Is
important now
for us to have a
winning season,
to get back into
the bowl race
and lor our own
personal pride.”
— Mike Bellotti,
Oregon
head coach
Key
Player
UO offensive
line
Playing against
the Pac-10’s top
rushing defense,
Marco Aguirre
and the rest of the
offensive line will
have its hands
full.
CHAD PATTESON/Emerald
The Oregon offensive line unit hate to find a way to make some holes for tailback Saladin McCullough (hack
ground) if Jason Maas (foreground) and the rest of the Ducks hope to win at (JSC.
The Oregon offense needs to
establish itself against tiro of the
nation s best cornerbacks and
the conference's number one
defense against the run
By Chris Hansen
Assistant Sports Editor
Oregon has proven over the course of the
last four games that it can handily beat a
mediocre team even when not playing its
best, and it can hold its own against some
of the best teams in the country — but not
win.
This weekend the test will be to see if the
Ducks can beat a mediocre Pacific-10 Con
ference team and start to distance them
selves from the bottom half of the confer
ence and put themselves into contention for
a bowl game.
Uregon (4-3 over
all, 1-3 Pac-10) only
has four games re
maining on its sched
ule, starting with Sat
urday’s nationally
televised contest in
Los Angeles against
Southern California
(3-3, 1-2). If Oregon
wants to be playing
in December, this
game is a must win.
“Last year we qual
ified for a bowl and
didn’t make it, so I
would like to not get
to a point where we
have to rely on some
body else,” Oregon
Oregon
vs. USC
isTime:
7:15p.m.
m Where:
Los Angeles
Coliseum
m TV: FOX
Sports Net
m Radio:
590 AM
neaa coacn Mike Heiiotti said. l d like to
do it outright, in and of ourselves. But I
don't worry about that, and our kids are fo
cused on this game this week.”
With road games against Washington and
Arizona State and a home game against
Oregon State, the Ducks have a chance to
establish themselves as deserving of a bowl
bid. Assuming an Oregon loss to the
Huskies and a win over the Beavers (al
though neither are safe assumptions), the
Ducks will undoubtedly land themselves a
bowl game with wins over the Trojans and
Turn to PREVIEW, Page 7B
Win over Notre Dame gives Troians confidence
Southern California comes into
Saturday’s game with the
confidence it lacked in its 35-7
loss to Arizona State on Oct. 11
By Alex Pond
Sports Reporter
What a difference a week makes.
Seven days ago, Southern California
doubted itself as a football team, coming off a
35-7 trouncing at the hands of Arizona State.
In the second half of that game, the Tro
jans were outscored 22-0, gave up 322 yards
of offense to the Sun Devils and had an of
fense of their own that did virtually nothing,
gaining just 54 yards.
As far as a football team’s state of mind
goes, USC’s was about as bad as it can get.
Following the game, Trojans head coach
John Robinson called the loss a disgrace, say
ing it was one of the worst efforts he has been
involved in as a coach.
He even doubted his ability to coach the
team and brought up the possibility of his re
signing at the end of the season if things
don’t turn around.
To make matters worse, the Trojans were
set to travel to South Bend, Ind., to take on
Notre Dame, a place they hadn’t won at since
1981.
The Trojans responded to Robinson’s sev
eral challenges during the week by defeating
the Irish 20-17 on Adam Abrams 37-yard
field goal with just over one minute remain
ing in the game.
Granted, a win over struggling Notre
Dame (2-5) is not of the season-making qual
ity it once was, but it gave the Trojans a se
verely needed boost of confidence and, at
least for now, kept Robinson’s job secure.
“I was glad the players were able to go
back there and win,” Robinson said. “I think
they’ll remember that. We had some other
issues. This team needed a win, so that was
important.”
In a span of just one game, the Trojans
went from a team that was beaten, battered
and had zero confidence to a team that is
confident once again and has a little bit of
life as it heads into Saturday’s Pacific-10
Conference game against Oregon.
However, one win against a downtrodden
Notre Dame team does not mean all is well
for the Trojans.
They still rank near the bottom of the con
ference in every major offensive category.
They are last in scoring (19.5 points), last in
Turn to USC, Page7B
use
m Rushing
defense ranks
first in Pac-10
(98.3 yards per
game)
m Total offense
ranks last in
Pac-10 (316
yards per
game)
m Have not had
back-to-back
losing seasons
since 1961