Ducks claw back into series with Bruins
UCLA leads the all-time series
between the teams, but Oregon
is making a comeback recently
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
UCLA leads the all-time series
with Oregon 37-19.
But the Ducks, like the good
comeback team they’ve become in
the past few years, are clawing their
way back into it.
Oregon has won the last two
games against UCLA. Prior to that,
the Bruins won four straight, but
since 1989 UCLA’s advantage is
only 6-4.
And just like a comeback, the
games have been close.
21-20 last year. Overtime in 1998.
Discounting Oregon’s 29-10 win in
Eugene two years ago, the last Jive
games have been determined by
eight points or less.
“It’s always a close, hard-fought
game,” Oregon head coach Mike Bel
lotti said. “I think that’s what every
one would like to see, except maybe
the coaches.”
In a struggle for Pacific-10 Confer
ence supremacy between South and
Northwest, no series has defined the
war like UCLA-Oregon.
Maybe it’s because many Oregon
players are from California and
they play with emotions high
against UCLA. Maybe it’s because
of Bruin head coach Bob Toledo,
who spent five years as offensive
coordinator at Oregon.
Whatever the reason, Bruins
Ducks is sure to provide a thrill.
Even three years ago when Ore
gon blew out UCLA, the game was
won by the team that played with
the most emotion, the then-under
dog Ducks who went on to lose only
one more game en route to a Holiday
Bowl win over Texas.
Heading into Saturday’s contest,
Oregon will once again be the under
dog to UCLA, by 2.5 points.
“That’s football,” Oregon quarter
back Jason Fife said. “Sometimes
you’re the underdog, sometimes
you’re the front-runner.”
In order to be the Pac-10 front
runner at the end of this season, the
Ducks will once again have to up
end the Bruins. Many of the Oregon
players remember last season,
when the Ducks went into the Rose
Bowl needing a win to keep BGS
Bowl hopes alive. In a thriller, Joey
Harrington led a fourth-quarter
charge with less than 10 minutes
left in the game to put Oregon
ahead 21-20. With seconds remain
ing on the clock, the Ducks stopped
a UCLA drive near midfield, and the
Bruins were forced to kick a 50
yard field goal that fell short to give
the Ducks the win.
“We hope to not have any nail
biters (like past years),” Fife said.
When Oregon and UCLA meet
this year, several factors could lead
to a close game. Both offenses are
high scoring, with the Bruins reliant
on an experienced quarterback,
Gory Paus, and the Ducks reliant on
an experienced tailback, Onterrio
tmeraia
Oregon fans celebrate the Ducks'win over UCLA in 2000, a victory that started a three-game Oregon winning streak in the series.
Smith. Both teams have talented but
inexperienced players in Fife and
Tyler Ebell, UCLA’s newfound talent
at running back.
On paper, at least, the matchup
shouldn’t break the trend of nail
biters, as much as Fife and his coach
would like to think otherwise.
Contact the sports editor
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
Onterrio raises his own standards
Five straight 100-yard games.
Six hundred twelve total yards.
Nine touchdowns.
Yawn.
You’re not sat
isfied. You want
more. You want
285 yards every
game. You want
80-yard touch
down runs. You
want defenders’
knees to break.
You want a 60
minute highlight
reel from Onter
rio Smith every
Saturday.
Adam Jude
Out in Left Field
And so does he.
Battling nagging injuries through
out the preseason, the junior tail
back is getting healthy at the right
time for the Ducks.
“My body feels real strong,” the 5
foot-10, 204-pound Sacramento na
tive said Monday. “I am 100 percent
healthy.”
Finally, you say.
For a guy who openly, if not matter
of-factly, stated in August that he
wanted to rush for 2,000 yards this
season, you would think he would
have put up jaw-dropping numbers
against the likes of Idaho and Port
land State. But during Oregon’s four
game non-conference swing, Onter
rio averaged only 117 yards per game.
More, more, more, you cry.
After a week of rest, the Sacra
mento native bolted back to Super
man status with his 145-yard, two
touchdown performance in the
Pacific-10 Conference opener in Ari
zona. And, like a true superstar, he’s
saving his best for the best.
“I’m hungry for more,” he said
Monday. “Not being healthy those first
four games, and having the chance in
the Arizona game to prove that I was
healthy was a big step for me.
“I feel like I’m back on track now
and I can start putting up the num
bers that I want to put up and every
body else wants me to put up.”
Three hundred yards, five touch
downs, you demand.
As unrealistic as your demands
may be, Onterrio is trying to live up
to them.
Still, you unenthusiastically
slumped on your couch last Satur
day as Onterrio put up his fifth
straight 100-yard game. Your eyes
got heavy at the sight of another bro
ken tackle.
Nice run, you thought. But not
enough to get you excited. Nothing
that could shake you out of your
seat, like Onterrio often does to de
fenders.
Onterrio brings your discontent
upon himself. After two years of
playing in the Autzen Stadium shad
ows — his first on the scout team
and last year as a backup to Maurice
Morris — he wants to carry this
team to national glory.
Woohoo.
He created your expectations
when he called out Barry Sanders’
NCAA single-season record of 2,628
yards. To even get to 2,000 yards by
the end of the regular season, he’d
have to average 198 yards for each of
the next seven Saturdays. Even for
one of the best ball-carriers in school
history, that’s unheard of, if not
downright absurd.
Then again, if anyone can do it, it’s
Onterrio.
That’s what I like to hear. Run,
Onterrio, run.
Because he’s stayed out of the
trouble that got him booted from
Tennessee, Onterrio has put himself
in a record-setting position and
could become Oregon’s first Heis
man Trophy winner.
“I have no concerns about Onter
rio,” head coach Mike Bellotti said.
“I don’t feel there’s a need to oversee
what he does. He’s a man and he un
derstands what’s at stake for all of us.
“Big Brother is not watching.”
And neither, at times, are you.
Onterrio’s 4.7-yard average and
league-leading nine touchdowns are
about as monotonous to you as an
other Oregon win.
You want a repeat of his record
setting performance at Washington
State last season, when he racked up
285 yards and bowled over defend
ers like they were Cheerios.
“I’m still far away from a breakout
game,” Onterrio said. “A breakout
game for me is 250 and above. You
know, three or four touchdowns.
That’s a breakout game.
“But I’m baok healthy, and my of
fensive line, and fullback and tight
ends and receivers continue to
block, and good things will come.”
They’ll come, all right. You just
keep watching.
OK.
Contact the senior sports reporter
at adamjude@dailyemerald.com.
Penalties
continued from page 2B
38.8 points per game, good for
third in the Pac-10. They are
sixth in the conference in total of
fense, with 402.4 yards per game.
Oregon is third for total penalty
yards in the Pac-10. Oregon State has
619, Arizona State has 480 and Cali
fornia has 455. Nationally, Oregon
has the most penalty yards of any
top-25 school. Only seven Division I
teams have more penalty yards.
Bellotti is not the only one un
happy with the penalty situation.
“(For me) it’s just about as frus
trating as it must be for those
guys to see me miss a ball every
now and then,” junior quarter
back Jason Fife said. “It’s fixable,
and that’s why Coach Bellotti is
stressing it big time this week.
And we’re aware of it, it’s stuff
that we can take care of it, it
won’t hurt us in the future.”
With rival Oregon State the only
team with more penalty yards this
season, some are wondering if
there’s something in the water.
“The penalties trouble me,”
Oregon State head coach Dennis
Erickson told the Corvallis
Gazette-Times.
“Some of them I just don’t un
derstand.”
Mindi Rice is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.
TIME
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