1998 Oregon Football
LAURA GOSS/Emerald
Justin Wilcox holds Spartan tailback Lloyd Clemons to a short gain in the third quarter.
New coach rebuilds defense
Bob Foster hopes to
restore the confidence of
a shaken defensive unit
By Rob Moseley
Associate Editor
A final score of 48-14. Rush
ing totals of 339 yards — 202 by
the starting tailback — for the
winning team. Just 329 total
yards for the losers.
All of the above are statistics
from Oregon’s Sept. 5 season
opener against then-No. 23
Michigan State, which last sea
son had a defense ranked in the
top 10 nationally, and this sea
son features All-America candi
date Sedrick Irvin at tailback.
The Ducks were coming off a
season in which they finished
10th in the Pacific-10 Confer
ence in rushing and total de
fense and ninth in scoring de
fense. Reuben Droughns, a
junior college transfer and one
of six tailbacks competing for
the Oregon job, got the start.
And yet it was the Ducks who
stymied the Spartans on the
ground and in the air, holding
Irvin to just 66 yards rushing be
fore he left in the third quarter
with a bruised knee.
“What can I say?” asked new
defensive coordinator Bob Fos
ter. “I sat up there at the end of
the first half pinching myself.
There’s only one thing that I did
know—I felt confident that our
players would play as hard as
they could
play. As far as
being totally
dominant, I
didn’t have a
clue.”
Foster inher
its a defense
that at times last year seemed as
though it didn’t have a clue. The
Ducks allowed 238 yards rushing
to Stanford, 265, 239 and 218
yards on the ground in consecu
tive games to UCLA, Utah and
Southern California. They then
watched as Arizona State ran wild
for 405 yards and five touch
downs.
Which makes Oregon’s defen
sive goals entering the new sea
son quite simple.
“First and foremost, we have
to stop teams from running,” ju
nior linebacker Dietrich Moore
said before the season. “We al
lowed almost 200 yards per
game rushing last year, and that
didn’t help us win. We need to
bring that average down. ”
The Ducks went a long way
toward attaining that goal
against the Spartans, as Michi
gan State tallied just 69 yards on
the ground in the first half, then
tacked on the bulk of its yardage
against Oregon’s reserves.
Taking over the coordinator
position from the departed Rich
Stubler is Foster, who has
coached defense in 24 of his 28
years in the collegiate ranks. Af
ter helping Willamette’s defense
lead the nation (NAIA) in scoring
and total defense, as well as third
against the run, Foster brings his
distinct philosophy to Eugene.
“I’m a positive reinforcement
type of guy,” Foster said. “I really
believe in the anxiety-performance
curve in athletic competition,
which means that if you have too
much stress and anxiety, it tends to
Turn to DEFENSE, Page 23E
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