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OF OREGON
ig plays and stron
defense crucial
to beating ASU
Demetrius Williams has
returned to form after
an injury-plagued 2004
BY SHAWN MILLER
SPORTS EDITOR
There aren’t many match-ups be
tween teams averaging more than
five touchdowns per game, but that is
exactly the situation for No. 25 Ore
gon (4-1 overall, 1-1 conference) and
No. 17 Arizona State (3-2,1-1) Satur
day in Tempe, Ariz.
In order to score, a team needs a
fire burner, a receiver that can stretch
the field. Arizona State has senior
Derek Hagan, while the Ducks boast
veteran Demetrius Williams, a senior
that is quickly climbing Oregon’s all
time charts.
Williams dedicated the off-season
to resting a nagging injury and fine
tuning the smaller aspects of the re
ceiving game.
“This is certainly the most consci
entiously work effort that Demetrius
has put in,” Oregon head coach Mike
Bellotti said. “And probably it was
spurred on by the frustration of last
year. He got turf toe in the second
game and was never healthy. In fact
really did play after that anywhere up
to his abilities.”
Williams suffered a turf toe injury
against Oklahoma last year. The in
jury sidelined him for much of the
season and when he was on the field
he couldn’t plant, pivot or dig with
out a grimace and a limp.
“We missed him — he was the play
maker that we didn’t have,” Bellotti
said. “We lost the ability to have the
big play.”
That translated into the most disap
pointing season the football program
has had in recent years. The losses
and a lack of playing time created the
energy for Williams to put in one
more repetition and pushed him to
commit to one more drill when work
outs had ended.
“This year, being Demetrius’ senior
year ... one, there is a certain greater
motivation to be physically fit, espe
cially when you’ve come off a year
when physical injuries hampered your
performance. I think that was part of
the motivation,” Bellotti added. “The
second was that he led the conference
in yards per catch as sophomore and as
a junior he was a non-entity. I think he
wanted to help this football team, help
this football program and help himself.
He’s more aggressive, more confident.”
The time put in is paying off as
Williams has 573 yards receiving and
five touchdowns halfway through the
season. He ranks sixth on Oregon’s
all-time receiving yards list with
2,173, fifth on receptions with 136
and owns the school record for career
100-yard receiving games with nine.
With all of the talk about offense this
week, the win comes down to which
team’s defense performs better. The
Oregon defense welcomed the return
of senior defensive end Devan Long
last week, who recorded his first sack
of the season after missing three
straight games due to a leg injury. Long
is amped for the game and the test to
see how good the Ducks really are.
“It’s a big game, a huge game,” Long
said. “We’ve got to go down there and
got to have a good game. If we don’t do
that nobody is going to respect us. No
body cares if we beat Stanford, nobody
cares if we beat Montana. They want
to see us beat someone that is an ad
mirable opponent and Arizona State is
definitely that.”
Arizona State is coming off a 38-28
Courtesy
Arizona State running back Rudy Burgess (3) is second on the team with 219 rushing
yards and tied for the team lead with five total touchdowns this season.
Marcus Larson | For the Emerald
Oregon’s
Terrence
Whitehead (24)
will return to
the starting
lineup
Saturday at
Arizona State.
Whitehead
missed last
week’s game at
Stanford
because of a
groin strain.
loss to top-ranked USC, a game
where the Sun Devils led 21-3 at the
half. Despite the frustration of nearly
ending the Ttojans’ 25-game winning
streak, Arizona State head coach Dirk
Koetter insists his team isn’t about to
suffer another letdown.
“We were all disappointed, frus
trated, sore, tired, all the things you
expect a team to be after a game like
that,” Koetter said. “Our guys know
what is at stake.”
Quarterback Sam Keller, who leads
the Pacific-10 Conference in touch
down passes with 18, threw five inter
ceptions against the Ttojans and is ea
ger to get back on the field in search of
the next completion and to level any
doubts of a possible letdown.
“We are going to come out just like
we did after people thought there
was going to be a letdown against
Northwestern,” Keller said of the
game following a 35-31 loss to LSU in
week two. “We are going to come out
and we are going to be firing on all
cylinders because that is the kind of
team we have.”
Both teams are in search of a big
win over a ranked opponent — one
is looking to solidify itself as a top
tier program while the other wants to
get rid of the sour taste left over after
giving up a potential victory against
No. 1 USC.
The answer is whoever wins Satur
day. The question remains, who will
find what they are looking for?
smiller@ daily emerald, com