Sports Editor:
Jesse Thomas
jessethomas@dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, August 20,2003
Oregon Daily Emerald
SPORTS
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Best bet
MLB: Mariners at Blue lays
1 p.m. Wednesday, FSN
Jesse Thomas
Go the distance
Mourning
Vick's loss;
greats left
demeaned
So I leave town for a few days last week
to go camping and look what happens: 1
missed all the good stuff.
1 return to reality and see that nearly the
entire East Coast had a blackout, the Eu
gene Emeralds brawled with the
Salem/Keizer Volcanoes for almost 10
minutes, another nobody won the PGA
Championship and Superman is hurt.
Yes, 1 said Superman. The man faster
than a speeding bullet and with arms
stronger than steel seems a proper analo
gy for someone like Michael Vick.
And 1 can only imagine what Satur
day's preseason game must have felt like
for Atlanta Falcons fans. But it was a sad
day for everyone across the National
Football League.
We all should mourn the loss of Vick.
And although he isn't dead, every Fal
con fan watching Saturday's game died in
side. During what appeared to be another
playbook Vick run, the tackle heard across
the nation left Vick on his back.
Now with the NFL's most spectacular
quarterback sidelined for a minimum of
six weeks with a broken fibula, you have to
wonder where Atlanta goes from here.
The obvious turn is to a guy named
Doug Johnson. The media have lavished
the 25-year-old Johnson with more atten
tion in three days than in his entire career
up to Vick's injury.
But Atlanta seems conhaent it will survive
without the guy who broke three quarter
back rushing records last season. And al
though they are required to seem confident,
this injury will be the ultimate test of their
claim as one of the NFL's best teams.
If the Falcons can win four of their first
six games without Vick, they will likely re
main Super Bowl contenders. Because
upon Vick's return, you can bet he'll be
hungry for a chance to live up to all his
preseason hype.
But in the meantime, we must all re
spect and cherish the glory of Vick and
hope he has a fast recovery to give the Fal
cons the chance they deserve.
The only good thing about die Vick in
cident is that it finally diverts our attention
away from the Kobe Bryant case.
Because, quite frankly, I'm tired of hear
ing about it. Whether or not he did it,
Bryant is still a great basketball player and
he will win more championships with the
Los Angeles Lakers.
But here's the truly saddening develop
ment in today's sports world: Players from
every sport are being remembered for their
difficulties off the court rather than for
what they did on the court.
Two prime examples: Pete Rose and Ted
Williams. Rose is MLB's all-time hits leader
with 4,256 and Williams is simply the
greatest hitter of all time. But when it's all
said and done, how many people remem
ber that part?
Turn to Thomas, page 13A
Fine tuning
The Ducks end their first scrimmage
successfully, but still need to pare down
certain positions as players compete
for starting spots, including quarterback
By Jesse Thomas
Sports Editor
The Oregon football team donned full
pads and red caps Saturday in front of family
members at Autzen Stadium for the Ducks'
first major football scrimmage of the season.
Although both offense and defense ap
peared to execute well, there were clearly
edges to be smoothed and divots to be
filled before the Aug. 30 matchup with Mis
sissippi State.
"It was a good first step; 1 thought there was
good hitting in terms of the crispness of the
execution, and I thought the tempo on both
sides of the ball was pretty good," Oregon
head coach Mike Bellotti said. "Certainly
there were too many mistakes. We had five
major penalties against the offense and two
turnovers, and you won't survive at any level
with that type of performance."
The quarterback saga also continued at the
scrimmage with all three quarterbacks play
ing their best, vying for the starting position.
Senior Jason Fife, sophomore Kellen Clemens
and freshman Johnny DuRocher all played at
least a series on Autzen's turf.
Did it further advance the decision on
who will start?
"No," Bellotti answered.
"It's always a continual process of evalua
tion. Their statistics were fairly similar in that
regard so it didn't create a lot of separation. As
soon as there is some separation then 1 will
feel comfortable that we can name a starter
and move on from there," Bellotti added.
In Fife's performance, he led the offense
to one touchdown on his three non-situa
tional drives. When facing a fourth-and-12
situation from the opponent's 32-yard line,
the senior quarterback pulled down a high
snap on a field goal attempt and was able to
connect with sophomore tight end Nate
LiaBraaten for 28 yards for a first down in
side the 5-yard line.
After two plays edged the offense closer to
the goal line, senior fullback Matt Floberg ran
Jessica Waters Emerald
The Oregon football team toed the line of scrimmage 84 times in Saturday’s first scrimmage. With the
younger players getting a chance to play, coaches plan to tighten the depth chart this week.
in for a touchdown from 1 yard out.
During the afternoon, Clemens made
good on six of 11 passes for 57 yards. In his
four drives he capped one with a 26-yard
scoring drive that ended with a 21-yard field
goal by Jared Siegel. It was Siegel's only field
goal of the day after he missed an attempt
of 52 yards.
"I thought I played OK, there were some
plays that I missed," Clemens said. "I didn't
really do anything spectacular but 1 didn't do
anything that I was disappointed in, either."
DuRocher brought two of his four drives
into the end zone, though it came against a
defense predominantly composed of first
year players and reserves. The majority of ex
perienced players played in the beginning of
the 84-play scripted scrimmage to give the
younger players a chance.
The freshman quarterback finished his af
ternoon seven of 11 for 89 yards.
On defense, Oregon met expectations as
the team's starting line refused to give up a
touchdown while in the game.
"The defense played well, we just had to
come out and tackle a little bit more and we
were running to the ball fast and making pretty
Turn to Football, page 13A
Holliday's season continues in Paris
Jessica Waters Emerald
Oregon's Becky Holliday broke her own school record several times in the
spring and ended with an NCAA champion crown.
Oregon record holder Becky Holliday
prepares herself for the biggest track
and field meet of her life in the 2003
World Championships next week
By Jesse Thomas
Sports Editor
Breaking the NCAA meet record, be
coming an NCAA champion and besting
her own school record this past season
still weren't enough to leave Oregon's
Becky Holliday with a comfortable feel
ing heading into the biggest track and
field meet of her life.
Holliday, who finished her athletic ca
reer at Oregon with an astounding pole
vault season on the track and field team by
becoming the school's first individual
women's NCAA champion in seven years,
is heading to Paris, France, today to face off
with the best.
World record holder Stacy Dragila, 2002
U.S. Indoor Champion Mary Sauer, 2003
USA Nationals runner-up Jillian Schwartz
and Holliday will represent the United
States in the 2003 IAAF World Champi
onships in Athletics women's pole vault
competition Aug. 22 through 31.
"I'm excited about Paris because it's
Paris," I lolliday said. "I really want to do
well, it's going to be hard though. It's just
been a long season because it had this two
month extension on it."
I lolliday's season has indeed been long.
Her redshirt senior season with the Ducks
began in early March and she has contin
ued all the way through August, much
longer than any of the other traveling
vaulters whose seasons began in June.
Holliday took a break after the USA
Championships in June, where she tied for
third with Sauer, vaulting 14 feet 3 and 1 /4
inches. I lolliday suffered a back injury af
ter the USA Championships, forcing her to
pull out of the Pan American Games on
Aug. 5, however.
The Sparks, Nev., native owns a personal
best of 14-8, which she jumped last season
to break her own school record. But with
this season as long as it is, she is worried
whether or not her peak is behind her.
"It's so hard to keep that peak that you
go into as far as championship phase of
NCAAs and regionals and that stand, and
then try and keep it going two months
Turn to Paris, page 12A