\y,. - - - ^. s. .
Aaron Cheuvront (34) wraps up Arizona State’s Matt Cercone.
Nick Medky/Ememld
mm
Football
Continued from Page 9
That pass made Smith the sin
gle-season record holder for touch
down passes at Oregon with 23.
The Sun Devils answered back
in dramatic fashion on a 57-yard
touchdown run by J.R. Redmond
that recalled last season, when the
Sun Devils ran over, around and
through the Oregon defense.
“That was the first film I looked
at when I got here last spring,”
first-year Oregon defensive coor
dinator Bob Foster said. “In fact, I
looked at it a couple of times, and
coach Bellotti came into my office
to see if I was OK because of all
the noise I was making. It was
pretty ugly the way they manhan
dled us last year and ran the foot
ball."
But that would be the only
touchdown the Sun Devils would
score until the final minute of the
game, as the Ducks allowed just
59 yards on the ground after that
first drive.
“Our defensive front seven did
a great job of stepping up and
stopping the run,” Bellotti said.
“That first play was a great wake
up call for us. That made our kids
mad and got us focused on what
we need to do to be successful.”
Apparently that means keeping
the ball in Smith’s hands. In his
final appearance at Autzen Stadi
um, the senior admitted he had
tears in his eyes before the game.
It was all business after Red
mond's touchdown, however.
Smith threw six times, com
pleted four,
and ran lor 26
yards to set up
a 22-yard scor
ing pass to
Collins. After
Garrett Sabol
recovered Sun
Devil Lenzie
MOORE
JCIIjKAUII 1U111
ble on the en
suing kickoff,
Smith got the Arizona State cor
nerback to bite on a hitch-and-go
and hit Damon Griffin for a 35
yard touchdown, and the route
was on.
“It feels good to beat them real
bad, because last year they kicked
our butts,” said Griffin, who
missed all of last year with an in
jured thumb.
Arizona State got two field
goals from Stephen Baker in the
second quarter, but Oregon made
sure it had the momentum going
into halftime when Smith con
nected with Tony Hartley on a 58
yard bomb that gave the Ducks a
31-13 lead at the break.
Villegas hit two more field
goals, from 36 and 28 yards, for
the only scoring in the third quar
ter, but the Duck offense rallied
again in the fourth quarter.
Ho-Ching ran seven times on
Oregon’s first drive of the fourth
quarter, in which the Ducks were
mostly trying to run out the clock.
His seventh and final rush was a
two-yard scoring run, the first for
Oregon since Smith’s 62-yard
jaunt against Southern California
on Oct. 24.
Oregon's final touchdown came
with just more than five minutes
remaining, when linebacker Diet
rich Moore picked off an errant
Steve Campbell pass and returned
i 178 yards for the score.
Campbell connected with
Tariq McDonald for the Sun Dev
ils’ only score of the second half
with 1:05 remaining but threw in
complete on the two-point con
version.
Campbell, who completed 11
of 24 passes for 217 yards, started
in place of sophomore Ryan
Kealy, who underwent knee
surgery on Nov. 9.
Oregon’s Steve Smith
and Michael Fletcher
take down Arizona
State’s JustinTaplin.
Nick MeUiey/EmeniU
Akili Smith passes under heavy pressure in the last quarter. Smith passed for 397 yards
during Saturday's game.
Hood
Continued from Page 1
decisions and a rocket arm that
will undoubtedly make him a hot
topic at the NFI, combine work
outs later this year.
Smith went on to throw three
more touchdowns in the Ducks’
51-19 romp over the Sun Devils at
Autzen Stadium, bringing to a
close one of the great single-game
performances by any quarterback
to ever wear an Oregon uniform.
Smith —zip! —13 yards to
Donald Haynes, Smith — zip!—
27 yards to LaCorey Collins,
Smith — zip! — 35 yards to Da
mon Griffin, Smith—zip!— 55
yards to Jed Weaver, Smith—zip!
— 58 yards to Tony Hartley. Sud
denly it's very clear that you 're
watching not only the best quar
terback in the Pac-10, not only the
best quarterback to ever play for
Oregon, but just maybe the best
quarterback in the country.
After the game, Smith seemed
to be the only one not caught up
by his performance.
“No question, Akili’s the best
quarterback in the conference,"
Arizona State comerback Court
ney Jackson said. “The worst
thing that can happen to a de
(( It's very clear that
you re watching not only
the best quarterback in
the Pac-10, but just
maybe the best
quarterback in the
country.
fense is have Akili run and im
provise with the offense. We
would have been better off if he
had just dropped back to pass.”
Sun Devil head coach Bruce
Snyder said he’s never really seen
anything like it.
“I cannot say enough about Ak
ili Smith and how he played, not
only today, which was pretty
spectacular, but all year long,” he
said. “I really admire how he
played.”
With 397 yards passing, 32
yards on the ground and four
touchdown passes on Saturday,
Smith has put himself into posi
tion for the greatest single-season
output by any Duck quarterback
in history. With one regular-sea
son game remaining and a bowl
game on the horizon, Smith
stands just 347 yards from Danny
O’Neil’s Oregon passing record of
3,224 set in 1993. His 26 touch
down passes are already way
ahead of the pack. O’Neil’s record
for total offense, 3,087 yards, is
only a matteroftime.
Moreover, it was important
that Smith broke the touchdown
record at home, where Duck fans
have been both overwhelmingly
critical and supportive of him
throughout his two-year stay in
Eugene.
Before thegame, as Smith
walked down Autzen Stadium’s
tunnel to the playing field, he
stopped for a moment and wiped
tears from his eyes, suddenly re
alizing that he was making this
walk for the last time.
There’s no question that Duck
fans will surely miss Smith next
season. And after two exciting,
tumultuous years, it seems Smith
will miss Eugene as well.
Joel Hood is the sports editor for the
Emerald. He can be reached via e
mail at hood@gladstone
uorefion.edu.