TLOS Preview - #23 Oregon
By Jack Bonden
Love of Sports Correspondent
(Starting August 1st, The Love of Sports will be featuring one college football program each day, breaking down their offense, defense and - most importantly - their food, beverage, cheerleaders, tailgating prowess and all-around campus life! That’s because those are the things we value here the most. College football is all about the atmosphere, and that’s exactly what we’ll give you all season long!)
Today’s Preview: Oregon Ducks
TLOS Preseason Ranking: #23
TLOS Predicted Record: 10-3
2007 Record: 9-4
Returning Letterman: 62
Offense
Ducks offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is in his second year in Eugene. I could throw a pile of statistics at you here to make the point about the high quality offense he brought to Eugene, but that’s what Phil Steele is for. Instead, I’ll just say this: Chip Kelly is from New Hampshire.
Go ahead. Let that sink in.
Now, if you don’t recognize the momentousness of that statement, then it probably means you have a life outside of college football. I pity you. But I’ll explain, and since we are (virtually) on campus here, who doesn’t miss standardized testing goodness like this?
... 24) New Hampshire : creativity in offensive football ::
a) Photoshop : ridiculing your rivals
b) Fraternity pledges : ensuring maximum pregame tailgate time
c) Pete Carroll : adding love and positive karma to the world, one competition at a time, brother
d) ESPN Gameplan : swankier vacations for marriage therapists
e) All of the above
Of course, the answer is e).
I don’t understand why, but some of the finest minds in offensive football have ties to the Granite State. Kelly hails from Manchester, as does Florida’s offensive coordinator/evil scientist Dan Mullen. Gary Crowton, creator of terrifying offenses of years past at Louisiana Tech and BYU, and current bubble-screen-bludgeoner at LSU, coached at UNH as well. Maybe it’s the daily unbridled aggressiveness they’re exposed to on every car they see (Live Free or Die!), or maybe it’s the coming-of-age ritual shared by all native New Hampshireans of having little kid tea parties high atop Mount Washington, but New Hampshire is the cradle of modern offensive football.
Running Kelly’s offense this year is likely to be sophomore quarterback Nate Costa, though the coaching staff’s being coy about naming him the starter. Unlike most of Oregon’s student population, Costa didn’t play under center for the Ducks last year, but he was very good (though in a non-contact, Yi Jianlian kind of way) in the spring. While he’s not the runner Dennis Dixon was, the coaches say he’s pretty close, and he may have an even better arm than Dixon. The Ducks will use a few backs to replace current Carolina Panther running back Jonathan Stewart, but whoever is carrying the ball will benefit from running behind arguably the top offensive line in the Pac-10.
Defense
The old cliché about the lack of defense in the Pac-10 is clearly bogus - if you don’t think so, there’s a man by the name of Rey Maualuga waiting in the lobby to have a quick word with you. The fact is that you need to play at least some D to win in the Pac-10, and when the Ducks have been good over the last decade, their defense has been an important part of their success. This year’s defense returns seven starters from last year’s unit, which was certainly ranked in the top half of Pac-10 defenses. The soft spot appears to be at linebacker (the indefinite suspension of Kevin Garrett isn’t going to help), but the front looks more than sturdy, and the secondary will be a nasty, nasty thing for opposing offenses to behold. The 2008 Duck defense may not be spectacular, but they’ll certainly be more than adequate.
Season Outlook
The wisdom here is that the Ducks are hugely underrated heading into the season. Remember, this is a team that was up to #2 in the rankings last year after defeating USC and Arizona State in consecutive games. And like all the other #2s last year, tragedy befell them as soon as they attained the ranking, as Dixon furthered the knee injury he sustained against ASU the game before. Backup Brady Leaf was injured against Arizona, and former scout teamers Cody Kempt and Justin Roper helped to close the season on a high-ish note, but they couldn’t keep the Ducks from fading from the popular consciousness. While the marquee names are gone from the ‘07 squad, much of the infrastructure remains, namely the lines and the coaching staff.
The Schedule
It appears the schedule is the bib that’s stopping much of the pundits’ drooling. The road schedule is daunting; the Ducks make trips to USC, ASU, Cal and Oregon State. And the non-conference slate is nowhere near as fluffy as most major schools’: the Ducks play at Purdue and at home against Utah State and Boise State. Despite all this, this is a team that could win 9-10 games.
The coolest part of the Ducks’ schedule is that it is bookended with a heapin’ helpin’ o’ hate. The Ducks kick off at Autzen against Washington, which, as far as hate-fests go, is a thoroughly underrated one. The Huskies may be down this year, but they’ll find no quarter against the Ducks. And, of course, the season concludes in Corvallis with the Civil War. Last year, the Ducks lost by a touchdown in double OT, but it’s a testament to the healing elixir of hate that the Ducks, whose season had been toppled so cruelly by fate and flimsy connective tissue, were even in the game at all.
Stadium
Any discussion of game days at Oregon must begin with their Close Encounters-style terrordome, Autzen Stadium. A quick search of Top 10 lists of college football’s unholiest and most intimidating stadiums shows Autzen near the top, along with Death Valley in Baton Rouge, The Swamp in Gainesville and The Horseshoe in Columbus. Don’t let the size (59,000) fool you – Autzen’s as loud and intimidating as all the big boys. Even former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr, who was never known to be effusive about anything, is quoted as saying, “That’s the loudest stadium I’ve ever been in.”
School Atmosphere
Pregaming: To get to Autzen on gamedays, Oregon students walk across the Autzen Footbridge, a 1/8-mile crossing of the Willamette River. From what I’m told, it’s a great place to watch the changing color of the leaves in the fall, which would be great for the students there, if they weren’t typically color blind (on their way to being just plain blind) by the time they reach the footbridge.
Pregaming/Midgaming/Postgaming “Bar” of Choice: The Moshofsky Center, an indoor practice facility located next to Autzen, turns into a gigantic beer garden on gameday, and it ensures the locals stay … well … umm … hydrated before the game, after the game and (most impressively) during halftime. A security officer who works at Moshofsky during games referred to it as Oregon’s “largest bar,” which isn’t hyperbole, considering it reportedly serves 60,000 people.
Talk of the Town: Fans at Autzen have gotten so rowdy that last season the university set up a phone number spectators in Autzen could use to report bad behavior. What could these calls possibly sound like?
OPERATOR: “Code of ConDUCKt hotline, may I help you?”
FAN: “There’s a young man behind me who is behaving strangely. He keeps cursing. My
children are beginning to get scared. [cups hand over phone] I think he may be intoxicated.”
OPERATOR: “We’ll get a security officer right over, ma’am. Where are you sitting?”
FAN: “Section 233.”
OPERATOR: “And can you describe the young man?”
FAN: “He’s in his early twenties, he has shaggy hair, a dirty ball cap and he’s dressed as
a highlighter.”
Good luck, lady:
Famous Alumni
--Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, Co-founders of Nike
--Steve Prefontaine, Former U.S. track and field Olympian
--Dan Fouts, Hall of Fame quarterback, San Diego Chargers, ABC/ESPN announcer
--Ahmad Rashad, Former NFL All-Pro wide receiver, NBC/ESPN announcer
--Peter Jacobsen, PGA golfer
--Kurt Widmer, Founder of Widner Brewing Company
Shameless Cheerleader Pics
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