Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Friday, November 15,2002
-OregonDaily Emerald
Game Day
Best bet
Arizona State at USC
4 p.m. Saturday, TBS
The big box
of football
Tasty morsel No. 1
Oregon has won five of the
past seven meetings against
Washington, although the
Huskies own a 56-33-5 all
time record over the Ducks,
dating back to 1900, Four of
the past six meetings have
been decided by seven
points or less.
Morsel No. 2
The Ducks have not lost their
home finale since 1993. In
fact, Oregon is 10-0 at
Autzen Stadium in
November under Mike
Bellotti.
Trivia Bowl
When was the last time
Washington had a losing
season?
Rank me
Oregon and Washington
in the 2002 Pac-10 rankings
Rushing offense
Washington.9
Oregon.2
Passing offense
Washington_1
Oregon.7
Scoring offense
Washington.8
Oregon.,1
Total offense
Washington.2
Oregon.6
Rushing defense
Washington ..3
Oregon...5
Passing defense
Washington.,8
Oregon..10
Scoring defense
Washington.8
Oregon .. .6
Scoring defense
Washington.8
Oregon .6
UW quarterback Cody Pickett
needs 135 yards to become
Trivia answer
The Huskies last had a losing
season under Don James in
1976, when UW went 5-6
overall.
UW faces possible losing season
The Huskies haven’t had a .500
season in awhile, but will in
2002 unless they win Saturday
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
Washington has faced a rough sea
son, is 2-4 in the Pacific-10 Confer
ence and faces a tough stretch to
stay at .500 this year. The Huskies
sit with Oregon State in a tie for sev
enth in the conference, and they
may not see a bowl this year.
What Washington will see this
season is most of its record book
rewritten.
Junior quarterback Cody Pickett
leads that charge. Pickett has broken
almost every passing record the
Huskies have this season, and he is
working his way to the top of the
Pac-10 in the process.
In his seventh game of the sea
son, against Oregon State on Satur
day, the junior broke two records.
Pickett set a new single-season
Washington passing-yards record
with 3,502 yards and advanced to
No. 1 on Washington’s career pass
ing-yards list with 5,927. Pickett
still has at least 13 games left in his
college career.
Pickett needs just 136 yards to
break the Pac-10 record for single
season passing yards. He ranks third
behind Washington State’s Ryan
Leaf, who holds the record — 3,637
yards in 1997.
Players also could break single
season Husky records in pass at
Turn to Washington, page 10B
Emerald
Senior linebacker Anthony Kelley (47) and the Huskies are losing more games than usual, but breaking records in the process.
For Ducks, 7-3 is unchartered territory
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Senior Allan Amundson (with ball) said it seems as though "it's the end of the world"
when theDudcs losethree games m a season. *
The Ducks are in a rare
position to lose their fourth
game this season when
Washington visits Eugene
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
Oregon’s loss to now-No. 3 Wash
ington State on Saturday signaled
something many Duck players
have yet to see.
A year with three losses.
Only the 13 seniors who dotted the
Oregon roster as freshmen in 1999
have experienced a season like this,
although each played a small role —
if any — in the Ducks’ 9-3 year.
Now the group — about to play
its final game at Autzen Stadium on
Saturday against Washington —
hopes to avoid another loss.
“You really don’t want losses on
your record when you’re a senior,
but some of those things you really
can’t control,” Rasuli Webster said.
“There’s a couple of those games
where we could’ve taken control,
but we didn’t. But we took our loss
es and hopefully we’ll get better
from them.”
Since 1999, the Ducks have lost
just nine games, with six of those
losses coming in the last three cam
paigns. In 2000, Oregon finished
10-2, with its only losses coming to
Wisconsin and Oregon State. Last,
season’s only blemish was Stan
ford’s come-from-behind 49-42 vic
tory at Autzen that ended Oregon’s
23-game home winning streak.
“The program has changed a
lot,” senior Allan Amundson said.
“We’ve gone from a decent program
to an awesome team. When we
start to lose a little bit, we’re not
quite used to it.
“This program has come through
a lot, a lot of changes. So when we
start to lose, and we lose three games,
it seems like the end of the world.”
How the Ducks answer back to
last week’s 32-21 loss will be vital to
keeping loss No. 4 off the stat sheet.
“We just need to win,” Webster
said. “We need to beat the Dawgs. I
think we kind of sat back on Mon
day, just talked a little bit, to get
the team chemistry, see how every
body feels. I think we’re up to the
challenge. I think we’re just ready
to go out there and play.”
The Ducks say the season is not
lost. While Oregon is far from know
ing where it will go bowling, the
Ducks say they know they need to
step up their play to defeat the
Huskies and Oregon State on Nov. 23.
“I think it’s still a good season,”
Webster said. “We still have a lot of
football ahead of us, and hopefully we
can pull the rest of our games out.”
Oregon was in a similar situation
earlier this season after losing two
straight to Arizona State and USG.
A week after falling to the Trojans,
the Ducks came back and dominat
ed in a 41-14 victory over Stanford.
But then came the loss to the
Cougars.
“We’re 7-3, and I don’t talk about
the past,” head coach Mike Bellotti
said. “I talk about looking forward
to this week, playing the Huskies,
getting back on the winning track.
Really, if you go back and let past
things grab you, it doesn’t work.”
Turn to Oregon, page 6B