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Find fun stuff in the ODE Classifieds: Comics, your daily horoscope, and. of course, the crossword.
■ In my opinion
Duck fans should be upset
with this year's BCS snub
For the past two weeks the contro
versy pasted across grocery store mag
azines and throughout conversations
in the checkout lines has been whether
Oregon will get one of the two coveted
at-large bids to the Bowl Champi
onship Series ... all right, maybe not so
much in grocery stores, but definitely
at all of the local water coolers. How
ever, the question that should really be
asked is: Does it really matter which
bowl the Ducks play in?
After all, it was just more than a
year ago that Oregon completed its
first losing season in 10 years. A hu
miliating loss to in-state rival Oregon
State settled in deeper and deeper
throughout a successful off-season
signing period, leaving the thoughts
of whether last season was a fluke or
the beginning of a tumultuous
rebuilding process.
Honestly, I don’t know who
thought Oregon would be 10-1 and
fighting for a BCS berth at the end of
the regular season. I sure didn’t. In
fact, I figured the Ducks would be
fighting for a spot in the Sun Bowl (as
disgusting as that sounds).
Shouldn’t Oregon fans be happy to
be headed to a successful bowl game,
no matter where it is? The Ducks took
care of business on the field and what
msmmatssamr ... ..
SHAWN MILLER
FULL-COURT PRESS
ever was decided inside a boardroom
is up to a bunch of stiffs in search of
selecting the best ratings, a.k.a. pen
marks in the checkbook, rather than
the next ESPN Classic. Should they be
disappointed with a trip to San Diego
instead of Tempe, Ariz.?
Without a doubt!
Oregon earned its 10 wins and
dropped its one loss. It had the poten
tial to upset top-ranked USC and for
one half, it did. Nonetheless, the TYo
jans outplayed the Ducks when it
counted the most and won the battle
on the scoreboard.
Narrow victories over three-win
Arizona and four-win Washington
State shouldn’t cloud the Ducks’
success. Against the Wildcats, Ore
gon lost its team leader, quarterback
Kellen Clemens, for the season and
the defensive unit stepped up. From
that point, two former reserve quar
terbacks guided the Oregon offense
to four straight victories. Late in the
season, it was the combined effort
of several student-athletes that
helped surge the Ducks to out duel
a Cougar team which lost six con
ference games (excluding USC) by a
combined 27 points.
Oregon should be 10-1. The Ducks
earned the record just like they
earned a spot against a top-tier oppo
nent in a premier game, but in the
end it wasn’t really up to anybody
for the two at-large bids because
they disappeared.
Following No. 4 LSU and No. 5 Vir
ginia Tech’s implosions in their re
spective conference championships,
Ohio State was able to move up to
fourth in the final BCS standings,
earning an automatic bid and so did
Notre Dame, which finished sixth.
That left fifth-ranked Oregon out be
cause each one of the eight openings
ended up being closed.
Duck fans can’t complain this sea
son about being shafted, but what
they can focus on is: Why does Notre
Dame have so many eraser shavings
surrounding the BCS rules?
smiller@ daily emerald, com
Clemens: Oregon's records secure for now
Continued from page 3C
record (7-1 Pacific-10 Conference).
During the span that Clemens has
been on the sidelines, the biggest con
troversy has been whether Oregon will
receive one of the two at-large bids to a
Bowl Championship Series game. The
Ducks were one of three teams, along
with two-loss teams Notre Dame and
Ohio State, up for major consideration.
“I think we deserve to (go),”
Clemens said Friday while wearing a
jacket with a Fiesta Bowl emblem on
it, which he won as part of the 2001-02
Oregon Fiesta Bowl champions. “The
business and the politics will keep us
out. If we get selected for the Holiday
Bowl instead we are going to go there
and be happy to hand someone else a
loss and get to 11-1.”
Clemens feels that last season,
Oregon’s first ending with a losing
record since 1993, hurt the Ducks in
people’s minds entering this season.
“We probably lost some respect in
various corners of the country,”
Clemens said of last season’s 5-6 fin
ish. “To be honest I don’t understand
how the whole thing works. I just
know that Notre Dame has lost two
games and we’ve lost one to the No.
1 team in the country. It doesn’t
make much sense to me. And we are
ranked ahead of them in the BCS.
“It’s just a matter of deserving to
be (in a BCS bowl),” added Clemens,
who grew up a Notre Dame fan.
Unfortunately for Clemens and the
Ducks, the Fighting Irish and Buckeyes
claimed automatic at-large spots in the
BCS, eliminating any chance the
Ducks had of being selected.
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Another thing out of Clemens’ con
trol is his legacy. The fall graduate
wants to be known as a “team guy.”
“If you want to sprinkle in a little
bit of a guy who played hard and left
it on the field,” he said. “That’s
enough. I mean, you look at the
records and all of the stuff that I was
close to, but close doesn’t cut it for a
legacy. If I get my name mentioned
with some of the greats that have
played here I will be content.”
Oregon offensive coordinator Gary
Crowton notes Clemens’ work ethic
and toughness as outstanding; How
ever, entering his final season
Clemens hadn’t found many victo
ries. Before the season began he had
a career record of 13-11, while this
season he was 7-1 as a starter.
“I wouldn’t have traded, I guess,
any of it, including this,” Clemens
said pointing at his protective boot.
“It’s been up and down. It’s been
good times, bad times.
“There has been a lot of growth. I
guess for me as a person it has been a
very good experience. ”
Rewriting the record books
Clemens found the victories as well
as numerous records this season. He
was also on pace to break every signif
icant quarterback record at Oregon.
“Barring injury, if I would have kept
going, or even slacked off some, I
would have probably finished at top,”
Clemens said. “They were secondary,
but I’m not going to sit here and lie to
you that I didn’t know about them or
that I wasn’t discouraged.
“I can’t get them. I was close. It’s
apparent, I think, to most people that
I was going to get them. There’s no
sense in saying ‘what if’ in this deal.
It is what it is and move on.”
Several records he would have like
ly broken include total offense,
touchdowns thrown, and passing
yardage. One record he did set was
completion percentage.
The records at Oregon are safe
from Clemens, but that doesn’t mean
they didn’t get a scare. They got same
one that anyone standing in the way
of Clemens will receive.
smiller@ dailyemerald, com