Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com
Friday, November 2,2001
Best Bet
Oregon State at USC,
12:30 p.m., ABC
As* ime
the Pac-10
will have a
wild ending
With a month remaining in
the season, Stanford ap
pears to be the outright
favorite to win the Pacif
ic-10 Conference. In fact, in writing
this column, I wanted to say how we
might as well give the conference
championship trophy to the Cardinal
right now.
And why not?
Head coach Tyrone Willingham's
squad — minus its starting quarter
back — has upset
consecutive top-5
teams in Oregon
and UCLA. The
Cardinal are
ranked No. 6 in the
Bowl Champi
onship Series, and
a win over 11th
ranked Washing
ton would only
push them higher.
And they have, ac
cording to the
BCS, the toughest
schedule in the
country.
Why not just give them a bid to the
Fiesta Bowl now?
One word: parity.
Adam
Jude
Out in left field
First, Stanford must win in another
tough atmosphere against the
Huskies, a team that looks far from its
Rose Bowl form of a year ago, but is
somehow pulling out Oregon-like vic
tories all over the place (try four wins
by three points or less).
If the Cardinal get past Washington
and roll over Arizona and California
(as they should), the only other ques
tion marks lie in their two nonconfer
ence games against Notre Dame (which
is very un-Notre Dame-like this year)
and San Jose State, a team the Cardinal
have lost to the last two years.
It’s easy to assume, though, that with
an inexperienced quarterback in Chris
Lewis and a suspect defense, the Car
dinal could easily slip in one of their
five remaining games.
And besides Stanford? UCLA, Wash
ington and Washington State, ranked
ninth, 11th and 12th in the BGS, re
spectively, all have legitimate shots at
the Pac-10 crown. The Bruins and
Cougars were both undefeated until
last weekend. The two teams face each
other in Pullman this week, which will
knock one of them from the equation.
Washington can’t hang onto the edge
forever, can they? Following Stanford,
the Huskies travel to Oregon State,
host the Cougs and then head to Mia
mi, a team ranked No. 1 in both the
coaches and media polls. Thus, the
Huskies will likely fall flat.
What about Oregon, you ask? The
Ducks’ best — and easiest — hope of get
ting free Tostitos on New Year’s Day is if
Stanford loses one of its three remaining
conference games. Assuming Mike Bel
lotti’s team wins its three remaining
games, including a battle with No. 9
UCLA, the Ducks would hold the edge.
Assuming Stanford doesn’t fall,
though, Oregon will have to go head-to
head, and the Cardinal, of course, holds
Turn to Jude, page 3B
Adam Amato Emerald
With 285 yards rushing last week against Washington State, sophomore Onterrio Smith set a school record, breaking Bobby Moore’s (Ahmad
Rashad) 249 yards in 1971. in eight games this season, Smith has rushed for 781 yards and seven touchdowns.
UO alms to start new streak
■The Ducks return home
and hope to treat their fans to an
exciting offensive performance
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
On the road, Oregon has outscored
its opponents this season 173-73.
In the friendly confines of
Autzen Stadium, though, that
mark is only 121-109.
The eighth-ranked Ducks are
aware of this and want to treat
their fans to a more enjoyable con
test Saturday night when they
host the Arizona State Sun Devils
at 7:15 p.m.
It has been two weeks since a sold
out Homecoming crowd witnessed
the end of Oregon’s 23-game home
winning streak. And while Stanford
proved its worth in its 49-42 victory,
Oregon tight end Justin Peelle ad
mits that his team might have been a
tad complacent.
“We were a little bit arrogant go
ing into the Stanford game, like
we felt like we couldn’t be beat,”
Peelle said. “So we got humbled.
But now after the win at Washing
ton State, we’ve got our confi
dence back and are ready to give
our fans a show.
“We felt that we let them down
last time.”
Speaking of a letdown, Oregon
(7-1 overall, 4-1 Pacific-10 Confer
ence) can’t afford to have one
against Arizona State (4-3, 1-3 ).
With UCLA losing to Stanford and
the Cougars falling to the Ducks on
Saturday, five teams are neck-and
neck on top of the Pac-10 with one
loss each.
Oregon’s 24-17 win at Washing
ton State was impressive, but it
won’t mean anything if the home
team can’t take care of business Sat
urday night. Only three games re
main on the schedule and each one
requires the Ducks’ full attention.
“We’ve talked a lot about focus,
and our focus has to be very near
sighted, very short term,” Oregon
head coach Mike Bellotti said. “If
you look too far forward or too far
back, you get in trouble.”
With the Ducks and Sun Devils
meeting on the gridiron, though,
it’s hard not to look back at their
last two meetings. In 1999, then
sophomore quarterback Joey Har
rington led a dramatic last-minute
scoring drive that ended with a 29
yard touchdown pass to Marshaun
Tucker with nine seconds remain
ing to cap the 20.-17 win.
And then last year’s game was
pure “Tempe-rary” insanity as
Oregon and Arizona State pro
duced the game of the year in the
desert heat of Tempe, Ariz. With
big plays aplenty, the two teams
put forth an offensive perform
ance that took two overtimes to
complete.
Turn to Game preview, page 10B
Former Ducks bring Devils to Autzen
■With two former Ducks’
coaches on staff, Arizona State
hopes to upset Oregon
at Autzen Stadium
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Arizona State Sun Devils are
coming off a heartbreaking loss to
Washington in Seattle last week.
Now the Devils visit “one of the
loudest stadiums in the country,”
head coach Dirk Koetter said, as 11
point underdogs.
In the 31-33 loss to No. 13 Wash
ington, the Huskies needed a last
second kick from John Anderson for
Turn to Arizona State, page 9B
Arizona State linebacker Solomon Bates (1) is averaging 4.7 tackles per game this season.
THE BOX
Key Number:
38.7
Points per game for the
Arizona State offense.
Ranked third in the
Pac-10 in that category,
the Sun Devils have
scored 35 touchdowns
this season in seven
games. The Ducks have
scored 36.8 points
per game of their own.
Pac-10
Rankings
Total Offense
Oregon.......2
Arizona State.3
Scoring Offense
Arizona State.3
Oregon.„4
Passing Offense
Arizona State.3
Oregon.
Rushing Offense
Oregon.1
Arizona State..4
Total Defense
Arizona State.5
Oregon..,.9
Scoring Defense
Oregon.3
Arizona State.7
Passing Defense
Arizona State.6
Oregon.9
Rushing Defense
Oregon.....3
Arizona State.x4
Quotable
"For Arizona State
purposes, this is
probably the only
time all year that
we will have
weather issues.
I think right now
the forecast is for
low 40s and
40 to 50 percent
chance of rain."
Dirk Koetter
Arizona State head coach ,
when discussing the
expected weather at
Autzen Stadium
Key Player:
Rashad
Bauman,
Oregon
cornerback
After two weeks against
much bigger receivers,
Bauman wiil go up
against 5-foot-9 Shaun
McDonald, ASU’s most
talented receiver.