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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 2000)
SEPTEMBER29,2000 VOLUME 102, ISSUE XXIII SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com Total Offense (Pac-10 rankings) OREGON 2nd WASH. 4th f Total Defense OREGON 2nd WASH. 7th Passing Offense OREGON 2nd WASH. 5th Rushing Offense OREGON 3rd WASH. 1st Passing Defense OREGON 1st WASH. 6th Rushing Defense OREGON 5th WASH. 6th Turnover Ratio OREGON +4 WASH. +2 QUOTABLE "Oregon is a de fense that's going to take advantage of the fact that it's difficult to com municate in their stadium." -UW coach Rick Neuheisel Key Player Joey Harrington The UO quarter back had four touchdown passes two weeks ago against Idaho, but none against UCLA. Dan Brunell Emerald Junior tailback Maurice Morris is the third-leading rusher in the Pacific-10 Conference, carrying 118.3 yards per game. By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald Expectations are a funny thing. When one hears of a certain junior college All-American running back, you expect a whole lot in terms of this player helping a Division I col lege football team win a number of games. And when you hear of his as tounding numbers and by whom he was recruited, you immediately ex pect something else. Cockiness. The Keyshawn Johnson “Give me-the-damn-ball-and-get-the-hell out-of-my-way” cockiness. The Deion Sanders “I’m-God and-you-should-pray-with-me-as-I side-step-my-way-into-the-end zone” cockiness. So when you finally get the chance to meet this hyped-up re cruiting gem, you’re taken aback by his “ I’m-so-humbled-to-even-be here-with-all-these-great-players and-coaches” attitude. And as it turns out, you aren’t the only person pleasantly surprised by Maurice Morris, the 6-foot, 205 pound junior college tailback that had Oregon Duck boosters already smelling roses back in August. “He’s such a nice, quiet guy,” sen ior linebacker Matt Smith said. “I mean, with all of this press and pub licity coming in, it’s nice to see someone with that much exposure come in and still be a level-headed guy who is really nice to talk to.” It seems the only problem in talk ing with Morris is that his words are sometimes spoken with the softness of a whisper that can leave people leaning forward just to catch a com plete sentence. “Everybody has welcomed me along with all of the other JC trans fers and freshmen, and that’s been very nice,” said Morris, who arrived in Eugene early in the summer after completing classes at Fresno City College in the spring. “The coaches and the teammates are a big reason why I’m here today.” But when you think about it, it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise that Morris is the subdued hard-worker who is looking to earn respect before acting like he already has it. After all, Morris comes from a family of six brothers and eight sis ters. One can only imagine the strug gle of trying to get a word in edge wise around that dinner table. With all of those siblings, the nat ural thinking may be that you would want to get out on your own and be free. But with Morris, it’s just the op posite. In California, he missed his family greatly, so when he made the decision to come to Oregon, he also made the decision to bring his fami ly with him. Turn to Morris, page 19B Huskies stand between Ducks and road to Pasadena SCOTT PESZNECKER PEZ SEZ Jrust when a Pacific-10 Confer ence football game seemed like it couldn’t get bigger, it did. 1 Duck fans in Eugene and else where held their breaths in the days leading up to last Saturday, when UCLA, then the sixth-ranked team in the nation, donned its gleaming gold helmets and walked into Autzen Stadium. It’s safe to say the Bruins weren’t the only ones unaware of the harsh beating they were about to receive. Not even the Las Vegas boys, who made the Ducks slight favorites, pre dicted a rout. Oregon was just a three-point favorite, no more advan tageous than a field goal. The Duck defense took a gamble when they hounded Bruin running back De Shaun Foster and made sophomore quarterback Ryan McCann try to beat them. If McCann had only connected on some more passes, the game could have fallen on the other side of that three-point betting line. McCann didn’t deliver, so Oregon won — by a lot. Sigh. Now, if the implications of last week’s matchup weren’t enough to make nerves stand on end, well, the necessity of beating the Huskies might do the trick. Another No. 6 team. Been there, done that. But the last sixth-ranked team Oregon faced was, in the words of more than 45,000 people who at tended the UCLA game, “overrat ed.” Make no mistake, Washington is anything but overrated. Here is a Husky team that presea son analysts picked to win the Pac 10. Not by coincidence, Washington Tu rn to Pez Sez, page 15B
