_
Major League Baseball
San Francisco at Atlanta
4:30p.m., ESPN(34)
Sports
Emerald
1998 Oregon Football Preview
Ducks convey optimism at onset of fall camp
Oregon head jootball coach
Mike Bellotti had a decidedly
optimistic attitude for the media
before heading in to fall camp
By Rob Moseley
Associate Editor
Oregon head football coach Mike Bellotti
and a smattering of players officially met
the media for the first time this fall on Fri
day, the day before returning players joined
freshman and transfers on the practice field.
As could be expected, the usual assortment
of cliches was offered up.
"Obviously, we still are going to take it
one day at a time. That was our motto last
year and will continue to be,” said Bellotti,
who said he hopes to improve the team's
record from last season, when it finished
tied for seventh in the Pacific-10 Confer
ence with a 3-5 record but was 7-5 overall,
including a 41-13 thrashing of Air Force in
the Las Vegas Bowl. "We don’t want to
overlook anybody. We work hard daily and
try to improve, and that’s our biggest focus. ”
“I just want to participate,” said highly
touted JC transfer Reuben Droughns, one of
six Ducks competing for the starting tail
BELLOTTI
back job. It I can say I
played a series for the
Ducks, I will be happy. I
could play on the kickoff
team. I just want to be on
the field. I’ll do anything
for us to win.”
“I'm just going to play
within the system and
play within myself,” ju
nior linebacker Dietrich
Moore said, speaking of a system installed
by new defensive coordinator Bob Foster.
But besides the overflowing clicked
aphorisms, the Oregon players and coaches
also allowed a hint of optimism to gleam
through their otherwise reserved nature.
“We have a lot of potential,” Moore said.
"Everybody’s talking about the Pac-10
championship, the Rose Bowl. But we’ve
got our sights set on the national champi
onship. We have every right, as everybody
else does. Why can't we set our goals high?”
Why not indeed, Bellotti agreed.
“I think the attitude of this group is differ
ent, and I think winning the bowl game —
not just being in a bowl game but winning a
bowl game in a convincing manner — has
these kids looking beyond,” the coach said
of the Las Vegas Bowl in which the Ducks
ran up 583 yards of total offense against the
F alcons, scored on each of their first two of
fensive plays and held the vaunted Air
Force rushing attack to just 152 yards on 42
Senior unde receiver Damon
LAURA GOSS/Emerald
Griffin does leg raisers during practice on Tuesday.
carries.
That performance by the Oregon defense
was easily among the best of the season for
the Ducks, who finished last in the Pac-10
in total defense for allowing more than 440
yards per game. Oregon was also last in
rushing defense with almost 190 yards al
lowed per game on the ground and third
down conversion defense, ninth in scoring
defense and eighth in passing defense.
This year’s defense will feature eight re
turning starters, including junior middle
linebacker Peter Sirmon, who led the Pac
10 in tackles last season with 115, as well
as Foster, the Ducks' third defensive coor
dinator in Bellotti’s four-year tenure as
head coach.
“[Our defense! has to be better,” Sirmon
said. “There’s no choice. With our talent
and the abilities we have, all the equipment
we have and the personnel we have, we
have to. If we don’t improve, it’ll be more
than disappointing.”
The addition of Foster, along with new
offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford, is one of
many transitions the Ducks face in prepa
ration for the upcoming season, which be
gins Sept. 5 at Autzen Stadium against Big
10 Conference power and preseason No. 23
Michigan State.
Turn to FOOTBALL, Page 20
Griffin’s post
graduate work:
Make UO go
After redshirting last season
because of a thumb injury,
Damon Griffin looks to star as
a fifth-year senior for Oregon
By Tim Pyle
Freelance Reporter
Coming off a junior season during
which he was Oregon’s leading receiver
and a second-team All-Pacific-10 Confer
ence selection, Damon Griffin was
primed for a starring role in 1997.
Fellow senior Pat Johnson would team
with Griffin to give the Ducks a devastat
ing tandem at wide receiver. Opposing
defenses would have to devise schemes
to contend with Johnson and Griffin on
the flanks, as well as running back Sal
adin McCullough and tight end Blake
Spence, also seniors, in the middle of the
field. Inevitably, defenses would be
stretched to the limit and forced to pick
their poison.
But, as the Rolling Stones sing, “You
can’t always get what you want.”
About a week before the Ducks would
face Arizona to kick off their season, Grif
fin caught a slant from quarterback A. J.
Feeley in practice and straight-armed
cornerback Rashad Bauman with his
right hand. In the process, Griffin's right
thumb "snapped.”
“I just felt something was wrong, but 1
was never really in pain,” Griffin says. “1
went to the trainers to tell them to tape
the thumb, and they said, ‘No, we can’t
tape this. There’s something really
wrong with it.’”
Within an hour, Griffin underwent
surgery and was informed that he would
have to take a medical redshirt to save a
final season of eligibility.
“The next day I was at practice watch
ing, so it didn’t really bother me,” Griffin
says. “Something like that — that you’re
going to sit out everything you dreamed
about — does not just click in your
head.”
Griffin was left to wonder what could
have been, watching his teammates lose
numerous close games in a 7-5 season
Turn to GRIFFIN, Page 8
Volleyball spikes the past
Head coach Nelson has her oivn
recruits and sights set on an
NCAA tournament berth
By Allison Ross
Freelance Reporter
Last year serves as neither motivation
nor regret for the 1998 volleyball team. It's
a distant memory. This year is a whole
new generation for the Oregon volleyball
program.
Now, for the first time since taking over
the program four years ago, Head Coach
Cathy Nelson is leading a team of players
that she recruited.
“We’ve gone from a team that has been
primarily players I didn’t recruit to pri
marily players this year that I did recruit,”
said Nelson, who has not yet finished a
season higher than 9th in the Pacific 10.
“As a coach, there is no price tag you can
put on how valuable that is.”
Nelson isn’t the only one to notice the
importance on having players who want
VOLLEYBALL
iu piay ai witrguii utJ
cause she brought them.
Co-captain Madeline
Ernst is returning from
the brutal season in
which her team fin
ished last in the Pac-10
conference.
“Last year we had a
lot or Daggage, tne b-ioot-1 senior said.
“We had six seniors, and everybody was
experiencing that monotonous feeling.
They wanted to get out of the cellar and it
just wasn’t happening, and I think we just
Turn to VOLLEYBALL, Page 10
Expectations rise for Oregoo
The women’s soccer team wants
to carve out a spot for
itself among the top-20 teams
By Tim Pyle
Freelance Reporter
With nine of 11 starters returning, a new
home field and seven incoming recruits,
the Oregon women’s soccer team appears
ready for a breakthrough in its third sea
son as a varsity program.
After winning just three Pacific-10 Con
ference games and 10 contests overall in
their first two seasons, the Ducks (5-14-1
overall, 2-7 Pac-10 in 1997) are hoping to
improve in 1998, according to head coach
Bill Steffen.
“Rather than feel it’s nice to play these
top-20 teams,” said Steffen, noting Ore
gon’s schedule includes eight teams that
qualified for the 1997 NCAA tournament,
"I think we’ve got to get to the mindset
that we belong with these top-20 teams
and set our aspirations that high. Obvious
ly, it’s going to be a tremendous challenge,
SOCCER
dui we want to now oe
successful rather than
just be competitive.”
If the Ducks are to win
more games this season,
they will have to do
something they have
struggled to do in each of
their first two seasons — score goals con
sistently. Oregon scored 25 goals last sea
son after tallying 21 goals in its 1996 de
but.
Midfielder Sierra Marsh, who led the
team with 15 points (five goals, six as
Turn to SOCCER, Page 12