Just like last year, the numbers will tell the story this season for Maurice Morris. At least, that’s the hope.
En route to being named to the all-Pacific-10 Conference second team last year, Morris rushed for 1,188 total yards, the fifth-best single season mark in school history.
But nearly 60 percent of those yards — 710 to be exact — came in the first half of the season. And even more exhausting are the school-record 286 carries the senior tailback had in 2000.
Enter Onterrio Smith, the solution to Morris’ late-season ailments. From now on, there’ll be no more running down Morris, so to speak.
Morris said that injuries and fatigue played a big factor in his second-half slowdown last season, but with another star back eager for playing time, Morris knows he’ll have a stronger ending this year.
“I’m definitely stronger (than last year),” said Morris, a 6-foot, 208-pounder from Chester, S.C. “Me and Onterrio, we go in there with fresh legs, and that’s the most important thing. The defense is going to get tired. And if we go in there and keep poppin’ six, seven, eight (yards), you’re going to break one every now and then because the defense is going to be wearing down, and the running backs have fresh legs. It’s a big help.”
With “fresh legs,” Morris and Smith have led the Ducks to 178.6 yards per game on the ground, third-best in the Pac-10.

“You can see the difference from last year to this year by having fresh legs in there at all times,” senior fullback Josh Line said. “Right about now last year is when our running game really started to taper off because Maurice was really banged up.”
On 106 carries so far this season, Morris has rushed for 528 yards. Smith, who scored 60 touchdowns in his senior year of high school in Sacramento, Calif., has 69 rushes for 434 yards this year. Oregon has never had two 1,000-yard rushers in the same season.
“The thing I respect the most is that they run hard,” Line said. “They don’t go down easy. The thing I need to remember to do is that I need to stay on my blocks a long time because you never know what can happen.”
Listed generously at 5-foot-11, 200 pounds, Smith’s elusiveness and speed have brought a dimension to the back field that Oregon has never seen before.
“It’s working great,” Smith said of the shared playing time. “You got Maurice coming in there and with his moves, you never know what he’s going to give you. And then you got a little guy like me that’ll come in and dart through there or bounce off a tackle or drop back to pass it. You really don’t know what to expect from us.
“We kind of have teams on their toes.”
Getting Stanford (3-1 overall, 2-1 Pac-10) on its toes will not be an easy task for Morris and Smith. The Cardinal are second in the conference in rush defense, allowing just 89.5 yards per game on the ground.
“They like to bring a lot of people up front,” Smith said of the Stanford defense. “They’re a good team all around. We’re just looking to find creases and run like we know how to.”
Stanford also knows a thing or two about running the football. Brian Allen (95.5 yards per game) and Kerry Carter (61.2 ypg) have led the Cardinal to 201.2 yards per game this season, second in the conference behind DeShaun Foster and the UCLA Bruins (222.8).
In fact, Oregon and Stanford are the only teams to have two running backs among the conference’s top-10 rushers.
Morris and Smith have combined to lead the Pac-10 with 4.8 yards per carry. And they are the only teammates to rush for 100 yards in the same game this season.
“When you get running backs who can run the holes, that’s one thing, but when you get running backs who can create the holes for themselves, that’s a whole other thing,” Line said. “That just adds so much to your offense and gives you so much balance.”