Adam Amato Photo Editor
Redshirt senior Kevin Mitchell plans to try out for the NFL next year. “We’ll just play it by ear and go from there,” he said.
LEADER
continued from page 3
said. "We didn't know how it would
work out and then it just ended up that
this was the place I was going to be.
"She's a big football fan. Her
dad's a football coach at one of the
junior colleges."
While all signs point to football be
ing a part of their marriage, don't sug
gest that little ones running around
with footballs are in the future
Mitchell would much rather talk
about football.
"Don't even mention that 'kid'
word yet," he said.
The future that Mitchell is willing to
talk about involves graduation after the
fall 2004 term and football practice.
"We don't know where we're going
to go or end up yet" Mitchell said. "Ba
sically what it's going to come down to
is I'm going to work out and try out for
the scouts. If something happens, then
we'll just play it by ear and go from
KEVIN MITCHELL
Before Oregon: Mitchell starred at Mater Dei High School
in Orange, Calif., racking up 211 tackles and 18 sacks
with the program. He is considered one of the best players
to come out of Mater Dei.
Oregon: Collected 13 sacks and 255 total tackles in his
first three seasons with Oregon. Played in 12 of the Ducks’
13 games last season.
Mitchell
there depending on how I do.
"If nothing, I'll just go back home
and go back to school and get my
master's — teach and coach — or I
might go into law enforcement."
The redshirt senior is content for
now, and there are eight games and
four terms to worry about before the
future is knocking at his door.
"I don't know what the future
holds," Mitchell said. "I don't know
if I'll ever play again. The only thing I
can do is just work my hardest, give
my best effort and the rest of it's up to
the people in the front offices.
"It's out of my hands, so until then
I'm just going to cherish everything.
If my last snap comes, so be it — time
to move on."
Mitchell needs 41 more tackles to
enter Oregon's career top 10, but it's
not that important to him.
"I'd give up all the tackles just to
win football games," Mitchell said.
With the way Oregon is playing
this year, it looks like Mitchell won't
have to choose.
Contact the senior sports reporter
at mindirice@dailyemerald.coni.
HAGER
continued from page 2
OK, so Stanford has played BYU
and San Jose State. But you can't
expea them to stick around much
longer with an inexperienced quar
terback, Trent Edwards, under center.
For the Ducks, a perfea season is a
possibility that no one really wants to
mention, but hey, why not? Oregon
has cornered the market on fan noise,
so Washington State, California,
Stanford and Oregon State could
have problems this season when each
team visits Autzen Stadium.
The Ducks have to put up with
taller, stronger Cougar receivers Sat
urday. That should be the key to a
close game for either side.
The other three programs, especially
Cal and Stanford, have shown visions
of spectacular play this year, but
haven't dominated teams as in years
past. Cal has yet to show the same
depth that allowed them to come back
from the Pac-10 cellar last season, and
Stanford is young and inexperienced.
Also, aside from Steven Jackson and
James Newson, the Beavers have snug
gled offensively.
Here's where the interesting part
comes. 'Ihe Ducks have to go on the
road for several tough games. Of
course, the Ducks travel to UCLA for
the third season in a row, and play at
Washington on Nov. 1. They've also
got an Oct. 3 date with Utah and a
trip a week later to Arizona State.
That's where the ability to control
their destiny comes into play. The
Pac-10 has always maintained parity
and, as pointed out before, that char
acteristic means more now than any
% season before.
The fact that the conference has
four teams ranked this week is an
enigma. In other words, it's probably
not going to be something that hap
pens very often this year. Therefore, if
the Ducks can truck through the reg
ular season at Autzen and defeat
Utah on the road, they can set them
selves up with big games against
Washington and UCLA, and possibly
even Arizona State — if the Sun Dev
ils can bounce back from a 21-2 shel
lacking by Iowa last week.
The I luskies always get up for Ore
gon, whether either team is 1-10 or
10-1. UCLA, meanwhile, always
seems to give the Ducks fits in Los
Angeles, even though it seems the
largest contingent of Oregon fans
show up at the Rose Bowl.
Oregon has defeated the Bruins
by a combined two points the last
two games, 21-20 in 2001 and 31-30
last season.
The Ducks are expected to be on a
high after defeating Michigan last
week as most teams do after beating
a top-five squad. The win gave them
a sense of confidence lacking since
the 2001 season.
More importantly, the win gives the
Ducks an even bigger opportunity.
That is, an open template to make the
2003 season their own. It's going to be
interesting to see what they make of it.
Contact the sports editor
at hankhager@daityemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
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