Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, May 1,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet *
NBA Playoffs:
Minnesota at Lakers, Game 6
7 p.m., TNT
Running for No. 1
Chris Vincent has come out of the shadows
to battle for the starting spot at running back
Spring football
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
Oregon football head coach Mike Bellotti and run
ning backs coach Gary Campbell have seen some
pretty good runners in their days with the Ducks.
From Ricky Whittle to Reuben Droughns, Mau
rice Morris to Onterrio Smith, the duo has been
blessed with talented running backs. But now that
Smith has graduated to the NFL — albeit one year
early — there is a void in the backfield that needs to
be filled.
Chris Vincent is looking fill that void quickly, and
without question.
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, that’s no sur
prise. The 21-year-old redshirt freshman came to
Eugene in September after a failed stint with
Louisiana State.
After three weeks of workouts with the Ducks,
Vincent is beginning to make a name for himself.
“He’s played very well,” Campbell said. “He’s go
ing to be a big, physical guy. He’s got real good quick
ness, and he’s elusive in the open field. He’s on his
way to being a well-rounded player, and he’s just got
to pick right up where he left off now in the fall and
start to really polish up those talents.”
The road to get to this point, however, has been a
strange one for the Philadelphia native. After star
ring at Neshaminy High School and graduating in
1999, Vincent needed some work on his grade point
average and SAT score. So, he enrolled at Valley
Forge Military Academy — located in Wayne, Penn.
— as a fifth-year senior.
The prep academy was, as expected, a far more
structured program than any football player could
receive on the field. Vincent had to wear uniforms,
shine his shoes and his belt on an everyday basis,
and even had to participate in marching parades.
“I didn’t want to go there, but it helped me in the
long run,” he said. “It helped me get to where I am
now. I learned a lot of things about responsibility
and time management.”
“Those things all have helped him,” Bellotti said.
After his time there, Vincent was at a crossroads.
If he chose to attend a school on the West Coast, it
would be with Oregon. But being from the East
Coast, Vincent selected LSU.
That turned into a less-than-stellar move.
When the Tigers switched Vincent to running
back after telling him during the recruiting process
he would play safety — his desired position — that
was a sign he no longer wanted to stay in the South.
So, in September 2002, Vincent came to Oregon.
The catch? He’s still playing running back.
“LSU had a different style of offense,” Vincent
said. “It was more passing. Here, they run the ball.
Obviously, you’ve seen the success of Maurice
Morris and Onterrio Smith, especially as a two
back duo.”
With three others at the position — Ryan Shaw,
Terrence Whitehead and Kenny Washington — Vin
cent is in a battle for the starting spot. It’s a spot that
has been unclaimed so far, especially in the eyes of
Bellotti and Campbell.
“I think he’s got as a good a chance to start as any
body,” Bellotti said. “He’s certainly a powerful run
ner. He reminds me of Reuben Droughns in terms of
his ability to break tackles and drag people. He’s a
very strong individual. With continued practice, he’s
in the hunt.”
Turn to Football, page 13
Fife proves spring game theory: It doesn’t mean much
Are you ready for some Fife ball?
The annual Oregon spring game
is really Jason Fife’s game. Has
been for three years. Inevitably,
Fife will throw for a billion yards
and hundreds of touchdowns Sat
urday, he’ll ex-or-ciiiiise the
demons and he’ll win the starting
job back for next fall.
So basically, wake me at next
year’s Goober.com Bowl after the
Ducks lose to Wichita State.
It’s a sad little dance really. At
last year’s spring game, he missed
only three of 15 passes, connect
ed for four touchdowns and
threw for 143 yards. In Oregon’s
first six games in the fall, which
were really just five glorified
spring games
plus UCLA,
he looked
great. Fife
mullets
popped up
around
Eugene.
But in the
second half of
the season,
Fife turned
south like a
bird in win
ter. His re
ceivers suddenly needed go-go
Gadget arms to catch his passes.
His spirals turned into wobbles.
Touchdowns turned to tips.
Peter
Hockaday
Two minutes for
crosschecking
You could almost read Keenan
Howry’s thoughts.
If this guy throws one more ball
10 yards in front of me, I’m gonna
take this football back to the hud
dle and shove it up his nostril.
Fife just gets scalded in the pres
sure-cooker. He’s a very good quar
terback and a great guy — I’d
rather spend 10 hours kickin’ it
with Fife than 10 minutes listening
to Joey Harrington play jazz piano.
But when it comes to crunch
time, Fife is more chewy and soft
than crunchy. Harrington played
better when he was challenged,
and the Ducks need a quarterback
like that for next year because
they’ll be challenged early and of
ten. Oregon opens at Mississippi
State, then has two games before
Michigan comes to town and an
other seven days to prepare for
Washington State. Eeesh. No
spring games on that schedule.
What we need to do with Jason
Fife is rebuild him, like the Six Mil
lion Dollar Man. We can do that,
right? Didn’t the Autzen expan
sion include a vault for cryogeni
cally frozen DNA? I’m pretty sure
it’s right behind the “Coach Bellot
ti’s Barbeque” stand.
Here’s what we do. Go to the
“quarterbacks” section of the
vault and start pulling traits from
former Oregon signal-callers.
Keep Fife’s smarts intact, but give
him Harrington’s mojo — is there
a better way to describe how
Golden Boy won so many games?
Harrington winning games is ex
actly like Austin Powers getting
women. It’s unexplainable; it’s
just the mojo. Baby.
Fife’s got pretty fleet feet, but
we’ll give him Akili Smith’s legs.
Give him A.J. Feeley’s cannon-arm
and Dan Fouts’ perseverance.
We can rebuild him... we have
the power.
The only positive in the Jason
Fife situation is Sarnie Parker. For
some reason, Fife was able to find
Parker’s No. 1 on the field more of
ten than any other receiver last
Turn to Hockaday, page 13
Ellis leads UO golfers to 7th
at Pac-10 Championships
Oregon nearly squanders a 13-stroke
advantage but holds on to finish seventh
Men’s golf
Scott Archer
Freelance Sports Reporter
The unexpected almost happened Wednes
day at the Pacific-10 Conference Champi
onships in Glendale, Calif. No, Oregon didn’t al
most win, nor did they even finish in the top
five for that matter. They didn’t even move up
or down on the final day after finishing seventh
overall after three rounds Tuesday.
Oregon did almost move on the leaderboard,
but it wouldn’t have been a move the team was
hoping for.
The Ducks, who entered the final round of
the Pac-10 Tournament at the par-72, 6,736
yard Oakmont Country Club in seventh place,
nearly squandered a 13-stroke lead to Califor
nia, before the Ducks edged out the Golden
Bears by one stroke.
Oregon finished the four-round tournament
64-over par with a combined score of 1504.
The Ducks were led by senior John Ellis,
whose three rounds looked like a stock market
graph, concluded the tournament 14th overall,
climbing five spots in the final round. Ellis
saved his best performance for last, shooting his
toumey-best round, a 2-under 70, to ascend the
leaderboard. Ellis opened the tournament in
12th place but had a poor third round, where
the senior fell to 19th overall before the start of
Turn to Golf, page 12
John Ellis
rebounded with his
best round of the
week on the final
dayofthePac-10
Championships.
Ellis finished 14th
overall.
Emerald