:F AT 12:35 PM, L.A. COLISEUM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14,2000
■The Ducks’ legs are fresh,
their minds are clear and now
Oregon is ready to take on USC
in its first Pac-10 road game
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon Ducks had just beat
en Idaho back on Sept. 16 by a con
vincing 29 points, but senior line
backer Matt Smith was wary of
what lay ahead.
Sure, Smith was excited about
his team’s 2-1 start, but he made
sure to lay forth the caution label
toward the next three opponents.
“First there’s UCLA, then Wash
ington and then a team ranked in
the top-10 in those USC Trojans,”
Smith said after that game. “And
we have to go down to L.A. on that
last one. Going to be a tough test for
this team.”
Fast forward to the present day,
and yes, there will be a top-10 team
on the field Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
at the Los Angeles Coliseum, but it
sure won’t be the Trojans.
After falling to Oregon State and
Arizona on consecutive weekends,
the Trojans (3-2, 0-2) dropped all
the way out of the polls after being
ranked as high as eighth.
The Ducks (4-1, 2-0), on the oth
er hand, have climbed up the na
tional respect ladder and are sitting
at No. 9 after taking care of busi
ness against then-No. 6 ranked
UCLA and Washington.
Still, Oregon has its fair share of
skeptics. The only loss for the
Ducks came on the road on Sept. 9
at Wisconsin, and some people feel
that if you take away the boisterous
45,000-plus die-hard Duck boost
Tu rn to Game preview, page 11B
Emerald
The Oregon defense, ranked No. 1 overall in the Pacific-10 Conference, will be tested on the road as it tries to stop the likes of USCs Carson Palmer and Sultan McCullough.
Oregon’s Kurtis Doerr, who entered college sports as a
baseball player in Arizona, now finds himself punting
footballs for the Ducks — and loving it.