Smith
continued from page 19
when they were No. 2 in the na
tion in 1998 and last year when we
lost at the one-foot line. So it’s a re
ally great feeling.”
Senior Lee Gundy, a native of
Marysville, Calf., admitted that
when Oregon went up 22-10 in the
fourth quarter, the feeling of finally
beating the Bruins started sinking
in.
“We were up by 12 at one point,
and I look up and I was like, ‘Wow,
this is going to happen. This is re
ally going to happen,”’ Gundy
said. “But I didn’t want to really
believe it because there was still
five minutes left. Then when we
got the ball back and scored again,
man, simply an unexplainable
feeling.”
It was certainly a pride-filled
group of seniors following the win.
On one corner of the interview
room was Matt Smith talking about
the character of his team. To his left
was Nikolao, boasting about shut
ting down Bruin running back De
Shaun Foster and holding him only
to 49 rushing yards.
But if you took a look on the oth
er side of the room you’d see a
player, all by himself, leaning
against the wall with a proud
smile on his face.
Meet Jeff Austin. The 6-foot-l,
265 pound senior was also very
happy to have finally beaten
UCLA, but more importantly, he
was thrilled just to have been a
part of the win. You see, the walk
on center made his first career start
on Saturday because regular center
Ryan Schmid moved over to guard
to replace the injured Josh Jones.
Austin is a graduate of Beaver
ton High, where he earned all
Metro League honors for both de
fense and offense, and has been at
Oregon for the past five years with
out a scholarship. He saw his first
action last year against UTEP,
Nevada and Washington St., and
was really surprised to see himself
in the starting line-up on Saturday.
“I was nervous, but it just felt so
great to be in there,” Austin said.
“I’ve waited five long years for
something like this.”
Just as all of the Duck players,
coaches, fans, etc., have endured
that same long wait to celebrate a
{ { We were up by 12 at
one point, and I look up
and i was like, ‘Wow, this is
really going to happen.
But I didn't want to really
believe it because there
was still five minutes left.
Lee Gundy
Marysville, CA
victory over UCLA.
So when the clock showed 0:00,
there was indeed some celebra
tion.
But not too much. As most Ore
gon players reminded people, the
revelry of the UCLA win will last
for “about eight hours”, and then
all talk and focus will turn to next
week’s “big-time” game that will
again be nationally televised.
“All this week did was make
next week’s game against Wash
ington that much bigger,” Smith
said. “That’s what you want.”
The Ducks also wanted to get
into the national spotlight.
Well, with the win, Oregon has
clearly opened some eyes. And if
the Ducks keep performing with
such passion and emotion, those
eyes could stay glued on them all
season long.
Jeff Smith is the sports editor of the Emer
ald. He can be reached at
Smittside@aol.com
Bruins
continued from page 23
game, Toledo decided against blast
ing loud noise during practice to
simulate what it would be like to
play at Autzen because he doesn’t
like “those blaring speakers.” In
stead, he opted for “whisper drills”,
forcing his players to pay attention
to the snap counts in silence.
His drills didn’t seem to help his
players that much as the offense
was out of sync all afternoon. No
more so was that evident than in a
defining series at the 4-minute
mark of the first quarter.
It was a first-and-ten for the Bru
ins at its own 38-yard line. McCann
attempted to call out the play
amidst the charged-up crowd, but
to no avail. Result: False start.
It was then a first-and-15 from its
own 33. Again the crowd was going
berserk. Result: False start.
Now it was first-and-20 from its
own 28. The fans were loving it.
The Duck defense was getting fired
up. The Bruin offense was sputter
ing. Result: A third straight false
start.
“We’ve had adversity in the past,
and we’ve come back from it,” said
McCann, who was 13-for-33 for 152
yards. “We had that today, and we
didn’t execute when we needed
to.”
Many of the Bruins cited Autzen
Stadium’s worn down turf — in
stalled in 1991 — as one of the rea
sons for their poor play. McCann
said he felt a hamstring pull while
running on the turf.
“It was different,” McCann said.
“We’re not used to it. We could
simulate the crowd noise at home,
but not the turf, but it really should
n’t come down to that.”
Bruin wide receiver Freddie
Mitchell also had a complaint.
Mitchell, who had eight catches for
158 yards, did not come away im
pressed with Oregon cornerback
Rashad Bauman.
Mitchell, who said that the
crowd didn’t really have a big affect
on him, was not too pleased with
Bauman’s mouth.
“He’s the easiest cornerback I’ve
played against all year,” Mitchell
said. “And I felt that he was so easy
tt If you stop DeShaun
Foster then you shut down
the UCLA offense.
Rashad Bauman
Oregon cornerback
to beat, but he talks so much. It’s so
disrespectful for him to talk so
much.”
Bauman called Mitchell a “de
cent receiver”, but says that the key
to beating the Bruins isn’t by stop
ping its receivers, but rather shut
ting down the run.
UCLA running back DeShaun
Foster, who had averaged 141
yards in the previous three games,
was targeted all game long and fin
ished with only 49 yards on 19 car
ries. Due to quarterback sacks
against them, the Bruins finished
with a net rushing yardage of mi
nus-nine.
“If you stop DeShaun Foster then
you shut down the UCLA offense,”
Bauman said. “And if he isn’t run
ning the ball then their offense isn’t
running neither.”
The loss hurt the Bruins in the
polls, as UCLA dropped from No. 6
to No. 15 in The Associated Press
poll and from No. 8 to No. 17 in the
USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll.
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