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| Friday, September 29 Autzen Stadium has Oregon feeling ducky By Dan Rosen Special to ESPN.com | |||||
The fans go crazy, the energy is outstanding and opponents hear taunt after
taunt after taunt. But, hey, that's just a typical Saturday afternoon at
Autzen Stadium.
However, as a result, the Ducks quack louder, run faster, throw deeper and hit
harder.
The University of Oregon's Autzen Stadium provides the home field advantage
every team wants and needs and the Ducks take full advantage of it. Oregon has won 17 straight games on their home turf, which is the fifth longest current streak in the nation behind Marshall (32), Florida State (31), Kansas State (25) and Texas A&M (21).
But what is it about this stadium that makes it so special for the home
team, and so horrific for the opponent?
Is it the fans? Is it the atmosphere? Is it the different playing surface
than most teams are used to -- the stadium has Omniturf, which is a sand
based turf? Or, is it simply the Oregon Ducks football team?
How about a combination of everything.
"It's loud, aggressive and it's hard to use audibles," said Washington
State coach Mike Price. "No one can hear, the fans break your focus and
concentration.
"The other thing is the Duck football team. You aren't playing St. Mary's
Sisters of the Poor. They got it going there."
Stanford coach Tyrone Willingham, along with almost every Pac-10 coach,
uttered similar sentiments.
"The fans take pride in being the 12th man," Willingham said. "It's one of
the toughest place to play in the Pac-10."
Arizona Coach Dick Tomey said that true freshman RB Clarence Farmer, who had 95 yards on 13 carries against San Diego State Sept. 16, didn't practice all last week because of swelling in his knee. As a result, the Cats will continue with a three running back rotation with Farmer, and sophomores Leo Mills and Larry Croom. "Clarence has not practice, and he won't start," Tomey said. "We will play all three again, but Clarence has certainly proven he can give us another alternative." ... Tomey said that he made sure that all his players got registered to vote in the upcoming presidential election during the bye week. "We are making sure they know it's their civic duty," he said. Oh, and by the way, they also worked on hitting and fundamentals in early preparation for Stanford. ... OL Steven Grace (shoulder) is out for this weekend's game at Stanford, and Tomey said surgery may be in the distant future. "He has been having trouble sleeping because he will roll over onto his shoulder and the pain will be so great," Tomey said. "That is still a little ways from playing football, so we are going to be looking at him having surgery." Arizona State Coach Bruce Snyder is still fielding questions surrounding his quarterback situation with redshirt freshman Jeff Krohn and senior Ryan Kealy, who was reinstated two weeks ago from a two month suspension. Snyder said that Krohn, who threw for 248 yards on 6 of 10 passing and four touchdowns, including strikes of 72, 70, 61 and 35 yards against Utah State last Saturday, is still the starter for this week's matchup against UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Kealy, however, will be called upon if needed. "The call will be made on the sideline and will strictly be based on who can help the team win," Snyder said. ... Snyder also said that junior RB Davaren Hightower, who is recovering from pneumonia, was set to have his first full pads practice Tuesday. "We want to run a limited package for him," Snyder said. "We are going to work him in gradually. He is a stabilizing focus for our team. When he is in the huddle, he brings a lot of energy to our team." True freshman Mike Williams has filled Hightower's shoes admirably, rushing for 159 yards and a touchdown on 43 carries in two games. Cal The Bears are coming off two straight losses, in which their offense has really struggled to put points on the board. "Our non-conference schedule is now over, we're 1-2, and now that's behind us," said Cal coach Tom Holmoe. "We can't fix the past, but we can definitely work on the future. Our guys are angry and we are going to use those emotions." ... The game on Saturday should prove to be very interesting because the Bears and Cougars are seemingly the exact opposite of each other this season. While Cal is having trouble moving the ball and scoring points on offense (they are averaging 14 points a game), the Cougars offense has been incredibly explosive with sophomore QB Jason Gesser at the helm. "WSU has an explosive offense," Holmoe said. "It's so dangerous to play against a guy like Jason Gesser. They have always had good receivers and a running back that can come up big. It's something we're concerned about." But, the Bears defense has been playing beyond expectations, and the Cougars are struggling mightily on the other side of the ball. ... Holmoe added that he is concerned with not only his offense failing to score touchdowns, but with the kicking game as well. The Bears are just 2-of-5 on field goals this season, having missed from 44, 27 and 42 yards. Oregon Despite being favored to beat UCLA at Autzen Stadium last weekend, many folks around the nation were still considering Oregon's win an upset. However, that doesn't matter to coach Mike Bellotti, who said he doesn't really care about that, nor would he care if they consider a victory this weekend over Washington an upset. "I don't worry about what people say," he said. "Even though the oddsmakers picked us to win, because it was UCLA it was still an upset. Rankings now are all a guesstimate. Certainly UCLA is a very good football team and people thought they should have won that game." ... Junior RB Maurice Morris and true freshman Keith Lewis were chosen as the Pac-10's players of the week on offense and special teams, respectively. Morris ran for 139 yards and two touchdowns on 37 carries and Lewis recorded four tackles on the Ducks' kickoff and punt coverage units. "He (Morris) is learning every play every day," Bellotti said. "I expect him to get bigger, stronger and faster as long as he's here. He has the willingness to learn and work. He commands the football." Morris has 91 carries for 473 yards and five touchdowns so far this season. ... The last two Top 10 teams to lose to Oregon -- Washington in 1997 and UCLA last week -- have one thing in common with this week's opponent: They were all ranked sixth in the nation heading into the matchup. Oregon State With three non-conference wins, the Beavers now feel they're prepared for their first conference test when USC travels up to Corvallis, Ore. Coach Dennis Erickson said he'll find out a lot about his team this Saturday. "We haven't really played well on defense, so I don't know where we're at," he said. "We played better against San Diego State (35-3 OSU win), but they're beat up. We won't know anything until we play USC." ... Junior RB Ken Simonton has rushed for 2,989 yards over two-plus years and in the process has become the school's top rusher and has moved into 26th place in the Pac-10 for career rushing. But, since he is playing in the Northwest, he may not be receiving the amount of recognition he deserves. "If as a team we're successful, then he'll get his recognition," Erickson said. "Publicly, he doesn't get as much because of the west coast. I think he's as good as any back around. If he keeps playing like he is, he'll get his respect." ... The Beavers are going to try to break a streak of 26 straight losses to USC, who is 53-7-4 all-time against OSU and has won 11 straight at Reser Stadium. ... On the injury front, LB James Allen (hip) is practicing this week, but his status for the USC game is still up in the air and backup QB Shane House will have surgery Thursday on his right shoulder. He is out indefinitely. ... The Beavers forced seven turnovers, four interceptions and three fumbles in their 35-3 win over San Diego State, while playing not committing a turnover. Senior DE DeLawrence Grant recorded a school record three force fumbles en route to becoming the conference's defensive player of the week. Stanford Coach Tyrone Willingham said he is worried about putting together an offensive scheme to beat the Arizona defense, which is continuing its tradition of dominance so far this season, giving up an average of just 11 points per game. "You have to manufacture some type of offense against their defense," he said. "You approach them looking at defense first, then you look at the explosive players they have on offense like (QB) Ortege Jenkins and (WR) Bobby Wade." ... Despite scoring 50 points against the Cats last season, Willingham believes that Arizona won't put too much stake into that game because he "always believes that you are playing a different team. You have to be prepared for that team, even though the program's name is the same." He added that the Cardinal were able to force a lot of turnovers in the last year's game, and when you do that it "distorts the game." ... Redshirt freshman QB Chris Lewis will get the start this week, the first of his career, with senior QB Randy Fasani sidelined with an injury. True freshman Teoy Johnson will serve as Lewis' backup. UCLA Sophomore QB Cory Paus has been cleared to play by the medical staff and if he is healthy enough and performs well in practice, coach Bob Toledo said Paus will start against Arizona State this Saturday. "If he starts, he will play until the game is decided," Toledo said. The Bruins had to cut back about two-thirds of their offense to simplify it for sophomore QB Ryan McCann, who guided them to victories over Alabama and Michigan, but couldn't perform well at all against Fresno State in week two and at Oregon last week, completing just 13 of 33 passes for 152 yards against the Ducks. "We cut the offense to make it simple, but if you make it too simple people will beat you and that is exactly what happened to us," he said. ... The Bruins didn't only struggle at the quarterback position against the Ducks, junior RB DeShaun Foster could only muster 49 yards on 19 attempts, and the entire running game was held to minus nine yards overall. But that could be due in large part to Oregon stuffing the line and daring McCann to throw the ball. USC Coach Paul Hackett said he's got a major dilemma on his hands this Saturday in the form of Ken Simonton and an explosive Beaver offense. "You can't afford to pack it up against Simonton and let the quarterback and receivers beat you," he said. "But if you don't pack it up in the middle, they will hand it off to him. But, Jonathan Smith is starting to get his groove, so you can't just load up on the running back." ... Offense was certainly not the problem in the unexpected barn-burner with San Jose State. Sophomore QB Carson Palmer was 22 of 38 for a career high 338 yards and two touchdowns, completing 10 of 12 for 148 yards in the deciding fourth quarter. Senior RB Petros Papadakis had a career high 15 carries en route to another career-best three touchdowns and sophomore RB Sulton McCullough had 21 carries for a career-high 136 yards, but did fumble the ball once. WR Kareem Kelly also had a game-high seven receptions for 107 yards and a touchdown. Washington It just doesn't get any easier for the Huskies, does it? After beating national powers Miami and Colorado, the Huskies now travel up to Autzen Stadium to take on Oregon. Coach Rick Neuheisel said the rivalry between the Ducks and Huskies is a "classic border war type of game. Two states that want bragging rights and both groups of alums get geared up. As long as its done in good taste and we remember it's a game, it's good for our sport." ... Neuheisel said he expects the Ducks to have a similar game plan against the Huskies as they had against UCLA. He expects them to put a lot of bodies up front and force UW to throw the football, something they have done on an inconsistent basis this year. ... Sophomore WR Wilbur Hooks is still doubtful for this weekend due to an irregular heartbeat. "The tests he took today were good which means that they were normal," Neuheisel said. "But there is still question and when there is question you can't take any risk, so it is unlikely that Wilbur will play this weekend." Washington State Coach Mike Price realizes that he is about to face a Cal team that is hungry, but is not exactly where they thought they would be at this point of the season. "They have the talent and have had opportunities to win games but it is just hasn't clicked." ... Injuries are concern for the Cougars as PK Nick Lambert (quad) is doubtful and senior FS Lamont Thompson (neck) may need to medically redshirt this season. The decision on that will be made later this week. ... Idaho managed 462 yards against the Cougars last week in the Vandals 38-34 last second victory. Price said he was pleased with the offense, but the defense has to show improvement. "We just played poorly on defense and their offensive line played well," he said. "It was just a multitude of errors." They gave up 216 yards on the ground and 246 through the air. However, a perfect remedy for Wazzu's ailing defense may be a reeling Cal offense, which mustered only three points against Fresno State last Saturday. | ALSO SEE Big East notebook Big Ten notebook Big 12 notebook Big West notebook Conference USA notebook MAC notebook Mountain West notebook WAC notebook | ||||
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