Punter Jose Arroyo and placekicker Jared Siegel are both experiencing their first years in high-pressured positions together as teammates, roommates and friends > . By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald thletes with tattooed biceps attached to bodies taller than six feet and heavier than 250 ipounds slam into each other play-after-play for 59 minutes. And then, with sweat dripping from their behemoth frames, they take their battered bodies to the sidelines and watch as all of their exerted energy culmi nates in the right leg of a 5 foot-10,172-pound freshman. That would be Oregon placekicker Jared Siegel, who raised his value among his team mates on Sept. 22 when he made their hard 1 work pay off. ; With his team behind by one and with only 12 seconds remaining, he strolled onto the field . and calmly booted a 32-yard field goal through the uprights to lift the Ducks to a 24-22 victory against Southern California under the bright lights of Autzen Stadium. “That’s what you work hard for and train for: that opportunity to help your team out,” Siegel said. “Confidence-wise, that kick really helped. Now I know I’ve done it before, and I’m capa ble of doing it again.” Just as important, but not as celebrated, is the life of a punter. Generally, a punter’s appear ance is greeted with a groan by fans after the of fense fails to produce a first down. / And unless the punt goes exceptionally far, a punter is rarely given an ovation. But should a E punt get shanked off the side of a foot and travel 15 yards out of bounds, or worse, get blocked, you better believe the punter is going to hear about it. So goes the thankless job of new Oregon punter Jose Arroyo. The junior Pasadena City College wasn’t surprised people were upset about his two blocked punts against Stanford on Oct. 20, but knows that some things are out of his control. “It gets you mad when they’re blocked, but those punts are forgotten about,” Arroyo said. “You can’t do anything about that now. All you can do is learn and build from that. ” Learning has been an important and Arroyo’s first year as members Both are starters in positions that were grabs through the spring season, the summer workouts and into the fall camp. “Those guys have been a pleasant surprise because the special teams was our biggest question mark coming into the season for us,” Oregon tight end Justin Peelle said. “And they’ve exceeded expectations and done a re ally good job.” Statistically, the Ducks don’t rank near the top of the conference in their kicking game. In fact, Oregon’s op ponent Saturday, Arizona State, is four spots above the Ducks in punting in Pacific-10 Conference rankings and six notches Turn to Kickers, page 11B The Associated Press Top 25 1. Miami (6*0) 2. Nebraska (8-0) 3. Oklahoma {7-1} . 4. Florida (6-1) 5. Texas (M) 6. Mlchif, (6-1) /.Tenne • (5-1) 8. Oregon (7-1) 9. UCLA {6-1) 10. Stanford (5-1) 11. Washington (6-1) 12. VirginiaTech (6-1) 13. BYU (8-0) 14. Florida State (5-2) 15. Maryland (7-1) 16. Washington State (7-1) 17. South Carolina (6-2) 18. Georgia (5-2) 19. Syracuse (7-2) 20. Purdue (5-1) 21. Illinois (6-1) 22. North Carolina (5-3) 23. Georgia Tech (5-2) 24. Texas A&M (7-1) 25. Colorado (6-2) USA Today/ESPN Coaches’Top 25 I. Miami (6*0) 2* Nebraska aK ia%i miA Get Any Two Topping Large Pizza For Only. $7.99 F/W F4K BUY “4" Large Pizzas With One Topping Each And Two 2-Liter Bottles Of Coke For Only $29.99 I STOpY special I Get Any Medium Pepperoni Pizza, Breadsticks And A Can Of Coke $7.99 AW 0*K • Breadstix - $1.99 | • Cinnastix - $2.49 • Cheezy Bread - $2.99 • Chicken Wings - $4.99 • 2-Liter Pop - $1.99 | --1