Oregon's Ascendancy: An Appraisal

From the bitterness and barrenness of Boise, from the wreckage of a full-scale meltdown in their first game of the season, the Oregon Ducks revived their flagging spirits and fought through a difficult September to give themselves another chance at gridiron glory. When afforded such a stage, a first-year head coach and a transformed team didn’t disappoint.

Plenty of pundits--even those who envisioned bigger and better things for them--flinched after the Ducks were dumped by the side of the road on Sept. 3 in Idaho. On that long-ago Labor Day weekend from hell, it was well-nigh impossible to think that Oregon, in the post-Mike Bellotti era and in the midst of a considerable crisis, could rebound to not only challenge for the Pac-10 title, but acquire the elite form needed to beat the USC Trojans.

Casual college football fans, and observers in other parts of the country, probably weren't paying much attention on the night of Sept. 12, when--just hours after USC wrapped up its three-point win at Ohio State--Oregon was busy fending off Purdue, 38-36, in Autzen Stadium. Outplayed for much of that contest by the Boilermakers, the Ducks used a big-play defense and a stop of a tying two-point try with 1:01 remaining to escape with a much-needed win. Oregon's offensive line was still a mess, and quarterback Jeremiah Masoli lacked the crispness of his November surge in 2008, but on that night against Purdue, the Ducks and their commitment-rich coach began the long road back to prominence in college football.

The Quack Attack learned well in its close-shave September scrapes and, by the end of the month, found the finely-tuned timing and peerless precision Kelly had been looking for. By the end of September, Cal had been crushed and turned into a Pop Warner outfit. An offense once again resembled the roaring Ferrari that zoomed past opponents in the back stretch of last season, culminating in a dominating Holiday Bowl win against Oklahoma State. Everything was good and right and pure again in the Willamette Valley.

But not for very long.

When Masoli was lost to an injury at UCLA, old fears resurfaced, as Duck diehards contemplated the possibility that the Pac-10 could be lost in much the same way it was conceded two years ago in Eugene.

In 2007, Oregon had beaten USC, enabling the U of O to stand atop the Pac-10 entering a late November game in Pasadena, Calif., against the Karl Dorrell-coached Bruins. Without Dennis Dixon--a Masoli-like master of the Chip Kelly spread option--Oregon crumbled against that year's UCLA club, tumbling out of the Pac-10 lead and allowing USC to win the league (as the primary champion) for the fifth year in a row.

Another date at UCLA in 2009, without their top quarterback, made the Ducks nervous as they winged it to Westwood once again. Would history so cruelly repeat itself, or would the team that was rattled and ripped apart in Boise acquire the ability to punch back at adverse circumstances in a legal and relatively wholesome manner?

The answer would come soon enough.

Coordinator Nick Aliotti's defense simply continued to produce game-changers by the bucketful, and especially against UCLA. A pick-six padded a second-half Oregon lead in a 24-10 win. Special teams units also kept Oregon afloat when Masoli was sidelined on that October Saturday (the 10th of the month, to be specific). A kickoff return at the start of the second half enabled the Ducks to breathe easy on that day, as Kelly's kids scored two of their three touchdowns without need for any offense. No Masoli, no problem, for a band of brothers that had come a long way since the Boise State fiasco in which the whole UO sideline (not just Mr. Blount) was unsettled and uneasy for most of the night. The new buzzword in a decidedly different locker room was composure. Oregon lost it in Idaho, but reclaimed it versus Purdue, and steadily accumulated more of it as a season surged forward.

Yet, for all that these youths of Eugene had accomplished, for all they had done to earn a return to the five-star spotlight, the Ducks had to prove to themselves and the college football cognoscenti that USC could be dethroned from the seat of Pac-10 power. Oregon did take down the Trojans in 2007, but that game--as impressive as it turned out to be for Dennis Dixon--was nevertheless an instance in which USC contained the spread option, limiting UO to 24 points. Had John David Booty not been injured, the outcome of that contest could have been different. Two years after stopping an inexperienced Mark Sanchez, Oregon confronted a crossroads moment when its A-game would be needed. The Ducks would need their best to complete their once-predicted, then fully unthinkable, and then newly possible palace coup.

Oh, did the Ducks ever deliver the goods on a night when they chased away ghosts instead of remaining haunted by them.

Sure, the numbers tell much of the story. Kelly created, Masoli mesmerized, and running back LaMichael James juked and jolted against USC, producing 47 points, 613 total yards, and a whopping 392 rushing yards against one of the finest defensive minds in college football's 140-year history, the man called Carroll. Yet, in the wake of their awesome Autzen onslaught, the Ducks' numbers pale in comparison to the virtues they displayed on the gridiron against the now-deposed dictator in the Pac-10 Conference.

Whenever a long and impressive reign of sports superiority comes to an end, one hopes that the new chief takes command of the kingdom with the same totality once displayed by the old regime. This 47-20 trouncing satisfied such a wish for sports purists everywhere, as Oregon took the baton from the Men of Troy by uncannily imitating the Trojans at their very best.

Typical USC conquests in the past seven years--since Pete Carroll brought the Los Angeles school back to the big time on the gridiron--have been marked by a number of characteristics, chiefly swagger, sprawling athleticism, and unflinching boldness. All those qualities were on display Saturday night, in a performance Carroll's crew had to respect... even if it didn't like the outcome.

It wasn't just that Jeremiah Masoli was better than any other player on the football field; the cool customer made deft decisions while alertly evading anyone and everyone in a white road jersey. Starting under center and then spreading throughout the UO roster, the Ducks carried themselves like the champions they soon could become (if they win at Arizona later in the year, or see the Wildcats tumble against USC or another Pac-10 opponent), walking with the dignified air of a team that knows how good it is, and no longer needs to hope that it can topple the Trojan Empire of College Football.

It would have been easy and, moreover, understandable, if the Ducks experienced a lull after their 24-point first half. If they took off one possession or lost a little sharpness in the third quarter, observers wouldn't have been very critical. But Oregon--realizing its need to come up with a kill shot--never allowed USC to find an opening in the second half. With businesslike coldness and an assassin's icy focus, the Ducks just kept pushing, slashing and dashing against an outclassed USC defense.

With his offensive line flexing its muscles, his skill people flying through gaps, and his quarterback pushing all the right buttons, Chip Kelly didn't over-complicate the plan or clutter his playbook. He trusted Masoli with the game, enabling the signal caller to make simple decisions and hot reads that led to planned hitch passes whenever USC brought a safety near the tackle box. When Oregon faced a 4th and 3 at the USC 39 early in the third quarter, Kelly was positively Carroll-like in going for the first down without a second thought. Doing exactly what USC would have done in a similar situation, Kelly showed--in that one move--just how worthy Oregon was as the successor to USC in the Pac-10.

Kelly coached like Carroll.

Masoli played the quarterback position in this game with all the artistry of an on-song Matt Leinart.

James roared around and through USC's defense with the savage singularity of a Reggie Bush-LenDale White hybrid back.

Add it all up, and Oregon ushered in an interruption of the Trojans' dominance by dishing out some excellence of its own.

Oregon--yes, the same bunch of young bodies and minds that so fully failed and faltered on Sept. 3 on the smurf turf of Boise--had clobbered Southern California by 27 points. Oregon--yes, the same team that fought itself through the first three games of the year--had become a bona fide juggernaut worthy of elite status in its sport. Oregon--yes, the team with the first-year coach who looked so out of his element against Boise State and felt the world crashing down on his untested shoulders--had cemented a changing of the guard in the Pac-10, an uprising which will ensure that the USC Trojans, in 2009, will not be the champions of the conference they've ruled for so long.

The Rose Bowl end zone could be painted with Arizona Wildcat colors on the first day of 2010, but the smart money says that after a cathartic cutdown of a long-running college football king from California, the Oregon Ducks are likely to breathe fresh air into college football and its postseason pageant.

Dominant sports eras are breathtaking to behold; what USC has done over the past six years should give pause to any fan of this sport. Yet, it's just as satisfying to see an old-money champion taken down by a nouveau-riche rebel who so fully displays the sterner stuff of a team that deserves its place--its first place, mind you--in the sunshine of supreme success.

Hail the USC Trojans for six years of overcoming obstacles; hail the Oregon Ducks even more, though, for having the capacity and the cojones to take the Pac-10 away from their rival with a fitting and forceful flourish.