quarterback taken in the
NFL draft in 2002. He
replaced Jeff Tedford at
Oregon in 2002, but the
offense struggled mightily
last year in the second half
of the season and the second half of games.
This year the pattern repeated itself with
“sophomore” coordinator Andy Ludwig
again devising the offense. He had used
more “no huddle”, shotgun, and different
formations, but the fans were becoming
very restless. After 54 minutes against Cal
the Ducks had managed only 7 points
and another defeat was imminent.
The Duck defense had played valiantly
all night holding a very balanced Cal team
(those teams usually give Oregon fits) to
only 10 points after nearly 50 minutes.
With the score10-7 Cal had the ball first
and goal from the 3. Amazingly a few plays
later it was 3rd and 18 and it looked like
the much maligned defense with Binns
and company had dodged another bullet.
Cal would likely kick a field goal to make
it 13-7 and Oregon would still be just
one big play away from taking the lead.
Instead, Cal went for all the marbles and
scored a “dagger in your heart” touchdown
to go up 17-7 with 10 minutes to play.
The Oregon offense got the ball two more
times but that resulted in 5 plays and
out and 3 plays and out which included
a twenty minute “lights out” with half
the stadium in darkness. The sportswriters
had their headline virtually written for
them: “Lights Go Out on the Ducks” or
something similar.
Somehow, with 6:35 left to go,
Ludwig felt inspired to put Clemens back
in. Immediately it was like the lights had
come back on for the sophomores. Kellen
Analyze That!
JERRY THOMPSON
Editor
DUCKS ILLUSTRATED
Unlikely
Sophomoric Heroes
See the Light
He had not started a game in over
a year and had played only sparse minutes
at cornerback this year. Nevertheless, sopho-
more Marques Binns and all 163 pounds
of him sopping wet, had as his main assign-
ment to cover the #2 pass receiver in the
nation, Geoff McArthur. Binns had played
against McArthur in high school, but
McArthur,the prep star from Los Angeles, was
two classes ahead of Binns. Not only had the
Duck secondary struggled again this year but
Binns virtually symbolized the even worse
times the cornerbacks had last year as he
and another freshman, Aaron Gipson. were
thrown to the wolves. Going into the Cal
game it looked like the McArthur-Binns battle
was a mismatch made in “Bear heaven”.
He had been ordained as the next
tight end at “tight end U”. He had all the
necessary physical tools but after 9 games
and some nagging injuries, sophomore
Tim Day had caught only 11 passes all
season. Against Washington the previous
week he didn't even have one reception.
He had showed flashes of brilliance
with two 80-plus yard touchdowns, stepping
into the starting position at wide receiver
after Keith Allen went down for the season
in fall camp. Still, one couldn’t be sure
what to expect with sophomore Demetrius
Williams, who at times would drop the ball
either thrown to him or while running for
extra yards. Could he make the clutch catch?
He, like Williams, had got off to a great
start against Mississippi State. Despite
rotating with Jason Fife for the first 6 games,
it looked like sophomore Kellen Clemens
had been given the team going into the
7th game against Arizona State. But he threw
two interceptions in the opening minutes
of the game and his team was quickly down
14-0. He had come back against Washington
and helped the Ducks lead the Huskies 10-0
only to see the bottom fall out, punctuated
by an embarrassing and unlucky play where
the ball fell out of his hands into the waiting
arms of a Washington linebacker who ran
it in for 6. Against Cal he was pulled after
his first two series where he was 1 for 6 and
twice missed wide open receivers. Senior
Jason Fife came in and threw some picture-
perfect passes, a huge 32 yarder to Williams
on a 3rd & 17 and a 13-yard beauty to
Samie Parker to even the game at 7-7.
Fans were beginning to dream about
a future with Johnny DuRocher calling the
signals, not Kellen Clemens.
He had been the offensive coordinator
for Fresno State’s high octane offense
and coached David Carr, the number one
Mallard Musings
STEVE TANNEN
Feature Writer
DUCKS ILLUSTRATED
Salvaged Season?
I must confess to a very high level
of concern when Kellen Clemens led the
offense onto the field at Autzen with 6:29
left in the game. Not much had transpired
the first eighty-five percent of the evening
to warrant optimism. As a matter of
fact nothing had taken place during late
summer or early fall during the 4th quarter
to make me a believer. Fortunately history
tells us what has happened not what will
take place. The defense seemed to draw
a spark from the drive to make it 17-14,
stuffed the Bears and the punt return team
set up the Ducks in business at the Cal
43. With the horrifying results against the
Washington schools and at Tempe, the
reality remains Oregon could win out and
sew up 3rd place in conference. Let’s take
it a step further to a complete cry for
gridiron therapy. If USC qualifies for the
Bowl Championship Series title game that
could mean the U of O would return to
the Holiday or Sun Bowl. The “glass half
empty” in me says, this shows how
mediocre the Pac-10 is in 2003.
I know we have the photos and
credible documentation as evidence, but
did Oregon really beat Michigan? This
team is now ranked in the top 5 and
gunning for a Rose Bowl berth. The NFL
has achieved it. The NCAA is giving
serious chase. Parity. It’s like the major
sports version of communism. All are
equal. This season I’ll buy Oklahoma for
sure, and quite possibly USC but the rest
are extremely fallible. The difference
between the 50 or so teams who will win
between 6 to 8 games is a missed field
goal, or a defensive stop here or there
and not much more.
The Ducks of 2002 were tagged as
“paper tigers” with the season ending skid.
We've got to put the 03 Bruins in there.
Their best win was against Cal and one
of the touchdowns came on a missed field
goal return. They barely broke 225 total
yards. UCLA struggled to move the ball
against that inviting Arizona defense
eeking out a 24-21 win with 7 points
coming on a long INT return for a touch-
down. The scary thing is these guys led
the Pac-10 to start November. Make a note
of this team down the road as they rely on
a lot of young guys and have hung tough
through some injuries. The top Bruin cover
corner Matt Ware and defensive line terror
Rodney Leslie have missed a lot of time.
The only senior on offense who figures in
the regular rotation is flanker Ryan Smith.
The two quarterbacks, Matt Moore & Drew
Olson, are sophomores. The starting five
on the offensive line average 8 career starts.
First year coach Karl Dorrell is doing an
admirable job but lacks consistent play-
makers. He'll make sure this group doesn’t
look past the Ducks to the LA-LA land
showdown with Southern Cal.
It’s time for some questions. On
Oregon’s game winning drive, Tim Day
makes a 4-yard catch down to the
California 12 with 1:15 left in regulation.
This is lock field goal range and you have
multiple opportunities to try for the
touchdown. Why did the Ducks call
time-out? Let the clock run down to 40
or 45 seconds and leave the Golden Bears
with either no time or Hail Mary time.
They took possession with 47-seconds
left and ran 5 plays! That was not strong
time management.
Am I the only one who wonders why
tight end Tim Day is not a more focal
point of the whole offensive approach?
was sharp, connecting on 4 of 5 passes
including a lucky forward carom to
freshman Kyle Weatherspoon for 15 yards.
The last in the series was to Day who left
three Bears in his wake (see cover) on his
way to a 31 yard TD. The defense stopped
the Bears and another sophomore, Justin
Phinisee, returned a punt 13 yards and
a apparent clip was not called. The breaks
were going Oregon's way. Then came
a big 4th and 2 from the Cal 35. The Ducks
chose not to try a 52 yard field goal for the
tie. The game was on the line. Clemens
rolled out and hit Williams in the flat.
He and Demetrius had made the clutch
play! Moments later, yet another sopho-
more, Terrence Whitehead strolled into the
end zone on a very gutsy option-pitch call
by Ludgwig. The Ducks had pulled off an
almost incomprehensible comeback.
I asked Binns after the game how he
had been able to handle McArthur who
had just 5 catches for 42 yards. The ever
confident Marques had told McArthur
from the get go that he wasn’t going
to let him score. Binns said McArthur
respected that and he told Binns that
other cornerbacks would play him with
fear in their eyes. Now the Ducks at
6 and 4 need to play fearlessly and finish
with two big wins. It was hoped that the
goal line stand against Stanford would be
a defining moment for the rest of the
season, but the Washington debacle
followed. Maybe this time the comeback
will inspire the team enough that they
will take care of the Bruins and return
home for the Civil War at 7 and 4.
Amazingly Oregon has a real opportunity
to turn what looked to be a “lights out”
season into one to light the way for the
program for years to come.
This school has become an NFL breeding
ground at the position and Day certainly
seems gifted. A guy like that is a match-
up horror for a linebacker who might
not have the wheels or safety who can’t
handle a 270-pound bull in the open
field! In 10 games he has just 15 catches.
On that brilliant 31-yard TD ramble to
start the comeback Saturday night it
just made you want him to get the rock
more. Just asking!
Steve hosts SportsTalk on KPNW
Radio AM1120, Eugene, Monday-Friday,
4-6 p.m.
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DucksIllustrated
NOVEMBER 13, 2003 3