Hello, Mr. Heisman.
Following his best performance of the season against Arizona on Saturday, Oregon senior quarterback Joey Harrington was named the Pacific-10 Conference offensive player of the week Monday.
Harrington had a hand in six touchdowns in the Ducks’ 63-28 trouncing of the Wildcats in Arizona. The 6-foot-4, 220 pound Portland-native was 15-of-24 for 279 yards and three touchdown passes. He also ran for three scores.
Linebacker Ben Mahdavi and John Anderson, both of Washington, were named the defensive and special teams players of the week. Anderson kicked a last-second, 32-yard field goal to give the Huskies (4-0 overall, 2-0 Pac-10) a 27-24 victory over USC. Mahdavi recorded 15 tackles in that game, including one sack and one fumble recovery.
Cougs get shut out
in the polls
The Washington State-Oregon State game Saturday was essentially over before the second half even began.
The Cougars (5-0, 3-0) took a 31-0 lead in the first half en route to a 34-27 victory in the Palouse, dropping the much-hyped Beavers to 1-3 on the season (0-2 Pac-10).
Washington State head coach Mike Price woke up Sunday to a bit of a surprise, though: The Cougs were not ranked in the nation’s top 25.
“Obviously, I’m a little disappointed,” Price told the Daily Evergreen. “But that’s their problem.”
Jason Gesser, one of the conference’s top-rated quarterbacks, was unable to celebrate the Cougar’s victory after spending much of Saturday night in the hospital.
“We took him to the hospital and he had a battery of tests,” Price said. “He’s feeling better (as of Sunday).”
Gesser vomited on the field after getting hit in the stomach in the first quarter of the game. The junior returned to the game, but did not play in the second half for precautionary measures.
At 5-0, Gesser and the Cougars — picked by Pac-10 coaches to finish last in the conference this season — are off to their best start since their 1997 Rose Bowl season.
The Cougs face No. 23 Stanford (3-0 overall) this Saturday. Washington State has not won in Palo Alto in 13 years.
BCS delayed a week
Because of a lack of games, the Bowl Championship Series will not release its first poll of the season until next week.
All NCAA football games were canceled the weekend after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast.
“We feel that not enough games would have been played by Oct. 15 to allow for accurate BCS standings,” BCS coordinator John Swofford told The Dallas Morning News.
BCS spokesman Brian Morrison said the decision was not based on the concern that Miami — ranked No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Today poll — might be excluded from the top 10.
Had the poll been released this week, BCS analyst Jerry Palm said that Oklahoma (5-0, ranked No. 3 in the ESPN/USA Today and Associated Press polls, would be No. 1 because of their strength of schedule. The Sooners have defeated two top-10 team in consecutive weeks (Texas and Kansas State).
Florida (5-0) would be second, according to Palm, followed by UCLA (4-0), Nebraska (6-0) and Oregon (5-0).