The Other Football

We Pilot fans rightly get excited about our soccer programs. But truth be told, in the wide world of college sports, soccer is small potatoes. The biggest show is of course football. It is hard to beat the emotion and adrenaline rush of a thrilling college football game, especially if you are there in a sold-out stadium of 50K to 100K fans.

Since U.P. is a conscientious objector in the football wars, who do you root for in college football, and why? Myself, I started following the Ducks as a grade schooler, and got to go to an occasional game (back then you could drive down, walk up and get G.A. seats on the 40 yard line 30 minutes before kick-off). That habit has stuck with me, and I still follow the Duck football program closely. It is funny when I have to explain to co-workers who are U.O. grads that it is only Duck football I like; I root for the Pilots in all other sports, especially when the Pilots and Ducks meet on the hardwood.

And Rochin54, what is up with Charlie Weiss getting booed by Cubs fans? Is he getting more scrutiny to win NOW? Does the new A.D. have a favorite coach in the background to bring in if the Irish stumble to another bad year?

It's all Charlie on campus right now. Honestly, people are pretty optomistic around here. They have had a couple of great recruiting classes in a row now. And, perhaps most importantly, the schedule this year is much much easier.

In my opinion, ND is lucky the schedule is easier, because, while I think they will be improved from last year, I don't think they would be able to make the leap to a top 35 team.

My biggest problem has been that there hasn't seemed to have been any development of talent. I think Jimmy Clausen can be a very very good college QB, but the receivers have stunk! They can't run crisp routes at all. It's bizarre. To me, that's a basic concept for wide receivers. You can't get open and get the ball if you can't run a crisp route.

I'm not real sure what would happen if ND had a bad year this year. I think that if Charlie has a winning record, he stays. He has hired a great associate head coach, John Tenuta (former GA Tech defensive Coordinator), and it seems like things are looking up. But, if they have a losing record....man, I just can;t see them canning Charlie. But who knows. I am sure the AD would have a list of possibilities, but I have no idea who they would be.

NOW, while I cheer for ND, if they were playing the duckies, I think I would have to be cherring for UO. Heck, I've even been tossing around the idea of going to the Purdue/Oregon game instead of the ND/Michigan game.

On that note, I really think that Oregon could be a really really good team - even a top 10 team. A lot hinges on how the QB situation turns out, but they're going to have a great running game (Johnson, Blount, and Crneshaw - not to mention that offensive line!!), a stacked secondary with Byrd, Turmond, and rover Patrick Chung that will allow the front 8+ to own the line of scrimmage. To me, Oregon's only question mark is how the passing game will fair, and how the new QB will be at running Chip's offense. Very exciting stuff.

I have a totally split family Ducks/Beavs but I am firmly entrenched in the ducks camp. They recruited me fairly strongly out of HS, I went to every duck game my senior year for free. They wanted me to be a priority walk-on, and I chose another route. The Beavs on the other hand never even so much as sent a recruiting letter. That being said, I think that what little I have seen of Costa running the spread offense was promising, granted he is coming off a knee injury. I just hope that we do not see another Mike Bellotti dual QB system.... Argh!

I like the Ducks and Beavers about the same amount and I always want both to have a good year.

My family is friends with some Duck fans and Beaver fans, and my two best friends from high school went to OSU just as Erickson arrived, so I got to see some games when they started getting good. I love seeing OSU surprise people year after year. I like Oregon because they really have become one of the West Coast's big time programs. When they win, they look really entertaining. And both programs seem to finish higher than where the experts place them in the preseason.

That said, game at Autzen and a game at Mac Court are on my list of places to go someday. While I don't have the connections of Stonehouse or Geezer, I was able to get in the Oregon Alumni Band, so I'll be making my first trip to Autzen on August 30 to watch the Ducks beat up on the Huskies. How cool will that be?

I was a Beaver football fan during the Dee Andros era. I loved that Bill Enyeart-centered backfield. "Three yards and a cloud of dust", I think the saying went.

They had a great defense, as I recall, as well as a savvy QB named Steve Preece, who still is doing commentary on televised games, I believe. They passed rarely, and I believe ran the old T-Formation "option" offense, (believe it or not): QB (Preece), FB (Enyeart) , halfback (Billy Main), and wingback (Donnie Summers). A large front line opened holes, and more often than not, some poor schmuck from the other team would be flat on his back with Enyeart's cleat-marks embedded on his face!

Not long into their other-worldly 28 season losing streak, I switched to the Ducks. The Ducks were pretty much always mediocre, but they still seemed to find "skill position players", such as Rashad, Fouts, and many others my memory has forgotten. They made their first bowl game I think in 1989, about a hundred years after their last. (Kidding!)

After Rich Brooks won the Rose Bowl following the '94 season, he took the first offer and got the heck out of town. (Didn't matter which school, any school except OSU would do just fine, thank you.) Then, the Bellotti era began, and the Ducks always had a high scoring offense. (Mike being the former Offensive Coodinator had something to do with that. Too bad it's taken him almost 15 years as a head coach to learn the importance of defense, and I think it's just beginning to dawn on him that Special
Teams equals field position. And consistent offensive and defensive field position are the dual backbone of winning football.)

I'm just rambling now. But today I am a Ducks football fan first, and am slowly coming around to the Beavers again. Mike Riley does understand defense and field position. Guess I'm watching them both again this year. And the Civil War is certainly meaningful again. To me, anyway.

Ahhh, the Rose Bowl season...I was watching on TV when Kenny Wheaton picked off that pass to beat Washington. They still play it on the big screen at Autzen before every home game. Still one of the coolest things I've seen.