The Box
MO rankings)
£GGN 3rd
U 6th
[mover
"We don't have a
successful team
without a success
ful offensive line,
and they're doing a
great job. I think
they deserve a lot
of credit."
-Oregon junior QB
hl3oey Harrington
, "We have no con
trol over Oregon. It
isn't a surprise thal
they are the first ir
our conference,
they are a fine
football team."
-ASU head coach
Bruce Snyder
Blyer
'secondary
gon's top
ed passing de
fense will go head
to-head with Jeff
Krohn and ASlFs
second-ranked
passing offense.
Football isn't everything in life [
SCOTT PESZNECKER
It’s easy to lose perspective on life’s
big picture when one becomes too
focused on the here and now.
And recently, the sport of football has
captivated the lives of many in the state.
The Oregon football team rose from
the depths of the unranked to No. 7 in
the Associated Press poll following a
flurry of emotional wins this season.
Only once before, in 1964, have the
Ducks ever garnered so much national
attention.
One of those emotional wins came at
the hands of arch-rival Washington. But
the first conference win against UCLA
was even better, as it drew ESPN’s Col
lege GameDay to Eugene and told a na
tional football audience exactly where
Eugene was.
(It’s that relatively small town, two
hours south of Portland. Just follow the
noise and you’ll find it.)
Win after win after win after win, the
Ducks lead the Pacific-10 Conference
midway through the season.
Face it — everywhere, Oregonians Eire
smelling roses. How can they not — the
Ducks have never been so hyped, and
their defense has probably never been
this good. And the offense, while sput
tering at times, is just as dangerous as it
ever was.
The best Oregon team ever? Maybe.
Now, the Bowl Championship Series
standings are out. Oregon’s No. 8, Wash
ington’s No. 9. And fans also learn that
if the Ducks win out but lose to Oregon
State, and Washington wins out, then
the Huskies go to the Rose Bowl. Talk
about a slap in Oregon’s face, but it
could happen.
Not to mention that the Ducks are be
ing mentioned as a candidate for the na
tional title.
Really, all this makes for an exciting
football season. A very exciting season.
A very, very, very exciting season.
The national response to Oregon’s
Cinderella story in the making has been
astounding. Everywhere you look,
they’re talking about Oregon. Fox
Sports, ESPN, Sports Illustrated. Name
it, and they’re probably talking Ducks.
From a player’s perspective — and
even from a fan’s perspective — the pre
dominate collective thought since Ore
gon’s heart-pounding win over Arizona
last Saturday has turned to Arizona
State.
Stay focused. Concentrate. Ponder
Oregon’s defense against a broken Sun
Devil offense. They can’t lose. Too
much is at stake. They mustn’t lose.
Many Duck fans know somebody
who is either a Beaver fan or a Husky
fan. It’s all about pride and bragging
rights. If you’re not winning on the
field, well, then you need to win off of it
— and when you’re team wins, you
win.
Really, that’s what it all comes down
to. All this success, all the hype and all
the attention. The crowds, the rowdi
ness — think Autzen Stadium was such
a madhouse 10 years ago?
It’s all about winning.
Imagine that you’re on a plane trip
home from a football game your team
has just won. Not just won, but emerged
victorious, 23-20, in overtime. You’re a
winner — like Oregon fans, storming
the field after another win at home —
and you feel like you can conquer the
world...
Until your fragile aircraft is hit by
lightning — twice.
That was the case for the Arizona
State football team, which was no doubt
engulfed with its win in Pullman,
Wash., just hours earlier. I’d be willing
to bet that many of them forgot about
the game once that lightning hit.
“It definitely made us feel small and
helpless,” Sun Devil tailback Tom Pace
said. “One of the first things everyone
did was pray.”
“I looked around and the whole cabin
was stunned,” head coach Bruce Sny
der said. “The power of what it did — a
lot of chatter, and then it hit again. The
plane moved, I thought maybe the mo
tor failed. You don’t know.”
“You could see the fear in the eyes of
virtually everyone on board, with many
passengers frantically engrossed in
prayer,” said Tim Healey, the “voice of
the Sun Devils.”
Imagine the vast parking lot outside
of Autzen Stadium, two .hours before
game time. From border to border, Duck
fans rally together and prepare for the
next game of their life amidst a forest of
barbecues, RVs and green flags.
Nowhere else in our society can such a
passionate turnout of followers be seen
on a consistent basis.
Imagine what would happen if an
earthquake suddenly tore that lot in
two. Chances are that in the fleeting mo
ments, most people there would forget
all about the football game, which was,
moments before, the soon-to-be high
point of their lives.
Not to say that being a fan isn’t a great
thing, because it i$. There’s nothing
wrong with being passionate about a
team or a sport.
But it’s easy to lose sight of what’s im
portant in life when it seems as if the
entire world is in your hands.
When you watch your favorite foot
ball team go at it this weekend, remem
ber that it’s just a game. Remember what
almost happened to Arizona State. Re
member all the high school injuries that
have happened in Oregon this year, one
of which left an up-and-coming quarter
back paralyzed for life. Remember that
San Jose State player who lost part of
his leg earlier this week.
Football may seem like everything.
But the moment lightning strikes, it can
turn to nothing really fast.
Scott Pesznecker is assistant sports editor for the
Emerald. He can be reached at pezsez1@hot
mail.com.
ASU
continued from page 2C
Crawford, takes over at center and snap
ping duties for junior Scott Peters.
“We're beat up a little bit,” Snyder
said. “What happens with lack of depth
is that kids have to play every snap, not
only in games but in practice, and our
offensive line is five guys plus two, and
that’s it. And that kind of problem is
creeping up on us, and we're on thin ice,
and we’re scared a bit about that.”
Arizona State’s demise this season is
reminiscent of Oregon’s fall-apart two
seasons ago. After a 5-0 start, the Ducks
lost four of their last seven games, in
part because of the loss of stars Reuben
Droughns and Peter Sirmon to injuries.
So far the Ducks have been relatively
injury-free this season. They lost defen
sive tackle Walker Templeton for the
season when he tore an Achilles tendon
against Washington.
Besides Templeton’s setback, Oregon
has only had to deal with nagging in
juries to a few players.
Despite all the turmoil that has sur
rounded the Sun Devils this season,
they are still in the hunt for a bowl
game. Arizona State needs only one
more win to become bowl-eligible. Be
yond Oregon, the Sun Devils have cel
lar-dwellers Southern California and
Stanford before a much-needed bye
week.
“What gives me hope and strength is
our team,” Snyder said. “I think we are
just going to keep pounding it and we'll
get better.”
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