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Matchup promises emotion, revenge
Last Saturday, during the
middle of the second quar
ter, Joey Harrington reached
the sidelines after engineer
ing yet another
scoring drive in
I the Oregon rout
over Idaho. He
sat down on a
bench to catch
his breath, and
glanced at the
l Aulzen Stadi
um scoreboard.
What he saw
was: UCLA- 23
- Michigan-20.
And his reac
tion to this?
Pure delight.
He clapped his hands and said,
“Yeah! I’m glad they won!”
It was odd to see Harrington, who
loves his school, cheer on the rival
Bruins with such passion, "but as
Harrington said, the more the other
Pacific-10 Conference schools win,
the better.
“Yeah, it’s weird cheering for
UCLA and Washington, but #e
want them to be as highly ranked as
possible when they come into
Jeff
Smith
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town,” Harrington said.
Well UCLA certainly did its part
and will carry that mighty No. 6
ranking into Xutzen Stadium on
Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
Any Pacific-10 Conference game
is huge. Especially when it’s your
opener. Especially when your oppo
nent is in the Top-10, Especially
when it’s ommational television.
And especially when ESPN decides
to come to town to shoot its popular
“College GameDay” show.
But when you shove all of those
above considerations aside, there is
only one major reason why this Sat
urday’s game is so huge for the
Ducks: Because it’s against UCLA.
It doesn’t matter what television
networks are in town, or whether
the teams are ranked or not, or even
whether it’s at home or away. The
fact that it’s the Ducks versus the
Bruins takes precedent over all elsg.
This group of Ducks has revenge
on their minds. No current Oregon
football player has ever beaten the
Bruins, making this Saturday’s af
fair all the more important.
“Hey, we owe them for the last
three years,” Harrington said.-1
“Number one, for that loss., at
Autzen, number two for that over
time killer in Pasadena and number
three, for last year’s loss at the one
foot line.”
Let’s go over Harrington’s three
points one by one.
His first point refers to the last
time the Ducks lost at home. Re
member that game? Probably not,
because it happened on Oct. 11,
1997. Since then, there have been
16 straight home wins for Oregon.
But let’s briefly refresh the memo
ry of Oregon’s last loss. The Ducks
jumped out to a 21-10 early first
quarter lead. Life was good, until
the Bruins bounced back and over
took the 27-24 lead and held on for
the 39-31 win, sending the Ducks to
a 1-3 Pac-10 record at that time.
Then there was the game at UCLA
on Oct. 17,1998, the game that Har
rington referred to as that “overtime
killer.” And oh man, if you had any
kind of a pulse in your body, you
had to be enthralled with this game.
It was the showdown between
the No. 2 UCLA Bruins and the No.
11 Oregon Ducks. ESPN’s “College
GameDay” preview show was in
Pasadena making its first ever West
Coast appearance, and the eyes of
the nation would be watching the
game on ABC.
For the many who watched, they
were rewarded with a back-and
forth, may-the-best-team-win affair
that left fans breathless and a certain
UCLA quarterback puking his guts
out in between plays. (A moment of
sickness for Cade McNown that was
perfectly captured by a Sports Illus
trated photographer and blown up
in a two-page spread.)
In the waning moments of that
game, Oregon quarterback Akili
Smith found wide receiver Damon
Griffen in the end zone with 22 sec
onds left to tie the game up at 38,
and presumably send it to overtime.
But a McNown-led UCLA offense
marched down the field and set up
its All-American kicker, Chris Sail
er, with a chip shot 21-yard field
goal for the win.
A chip shot that sailed right, forc
ing the drama to continue.
Unfortunately for Oregon, how
ever, the Bruin defense stuffed the
Ducks, and held on for the 41-38
overtime win. UCLA went on to the
Rose Bowl that year while Oregon
was sent to Honolulu, Hawaii, for
the Aloha Bowl.
And finally, there was last year,
and again the stage was the Rose
Bowl in Pasadena.
For last year’s seniors, this was
their final chance at payback. Some
of those seniors were fresh-faced
redshirt freshmen on Sept. 16,1995
— the last time Oregon beat UCLA.
In the game, Oregon jumped out
to a 10-3 lead, but then inexplicably
gave up 31 unanswered points that
seemed to put the game away.
Oregon entered the fourth quarter
down 34-10, looking for any sort of
spark. It found it in the form of line
backer Matt Smith’s 81-yard inter
ception return for a touchdown.
In the-ensuing 3 and a half frantic
minutes, Oregon put 13 points on
the board to cut the margin to 34-29.
The score stayed that way until Ore
gon took the ball on its own 11-yard
line with a mere 1:16 minutes left.
The Ducks needed 89 yards to
win, but as many sadly recall, they
would only get 88.. With four sec
onds left, quarterback A.J. Feeley
found Marshaun Tucker just in front
of the end zone. Tucker pulled in
the bullet, got drilled by a Bruin de
fender, and fell one agonizing foot
shoiTof the goal as time expired.
“We gave it all at the end — we
could have come back and won the
game,” said then-freshman receiver
Keenan Howry following that game.
“If we weren’t a couple inches short,
we would be celebrating right now. ”
‘ Which brings us to the present.
The point of sharing the dramatic
details of the last three meetings be
tween these teams is to bring people
up to speed with the emotion in
volved in these Bruin-Duck games.
Some of the seniors leading Ore
gon onto the field on Saturday were
freshmen the last time they lost at
Autzen, and have experienced first
hand the heartache of Bruin defeat
each year that followed.
And now, all that’s left for the sen
iors is this game.
“Obviously, we’ve got a lot of
emotion involved in this game from
what has happened in the past, and
we’re going to be mentally and
physically ready,” said Tucker, who
is a Chula Vista, Calif., native.
“We’re going to go out there and
break that trend of losing to these
guys, and play our hearts out. It’s go
ing to be a wild environment out
there at Autzen.”
Another interesting element to
the game is the motivation and in
spiration for each team. Obviously,
for the Ducks it is the opportunity to
finally beat the Bruins, beat a top-10
team in the process and keep its
home winning streak alive.
The sixth-ranked Bruins, howev
er, are feeding off the fact that the
betting line on this game has the un
ranked Ducks as the favorites to
win.
In fact, the Bruins started the
week as the one-point underdogs,
then the line moved to 2 and a half.
“I guess it doesn’t take a genius to
[set the odds],” Bruin linebacker
Robert Thomas told the L.A. Daily
News. “They beat Nevada and Ida
ho, and we’ve beaten Michigan and
Alabama. I think people will figure
it out.”
UCLA head coach Bob Toledo
was asked during his weekly con
ference call whether he will use the
“no respect” line as motivation.
Toledo sighed, let out a slight laugh
and said: “Let’s just say I’ve men
tioned it to them.”
Ha, it’s more like he’s blown up
the betting numbers in size 250 font
and taped them on his players’ lock
ers.
It’s just another interesting foot
note that makes for great college
football theater.
Two teams. One mission. What
more needs to be said?
Probably a lot more, so I’ll let
ESPN’s GameDay crew handle the
rest of the hype on their Saturday
morning show, and leave you with
four simple words from Marshaun
Tucker.
“Bring on the Bruins,” he said
with a smile.
Jeff Smith is the sports editor for the Emer
ald. He can be reached at
Smittside@aol.com