Jaison Williams sees Oregon’s showdown Saturday with No. 16 California as two teams with national aspirations.
Both teams have sights set on a Pacific-10 Conference Championship, and one will be much closer after Saturday.
One thing is for certain, when the Ducks and Bears meet they often decide the games in the closing seconds. Five of the last six games have been within eight points or less, including Oregon’s 27-20 overtime victory last season.
“It was a nail biter,” Williams, Oregon’s 6-foot-5-inch, 243-pound wide receiver, said. “It’s two good teams colliding with each other.”
This Saturday, the 5 p.m. ABC telecast is a another matchup of two teams with potent offenses trying to emerge as the challenger to conference heavyweight USC.
The Ducks’ fast, no-huddle offense is churning out 497 yards of total offense per game, which ranks fourth in the nation. California is close behind with an average of 452.2 yards.
Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon and Williams have formed a potent combo for Oregon’s offense. Williams has amassed 28 catches for 462 yards and four touchdowns.
“He can turn a five-yard hitch into a 50-yard gain,” Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said of Williams. “I’m tremendously excited about him. We talked a lot about who’s going to replace Demetrius Williams and he’s certainly stepped up.”
Williams may face his toughest challenge yet in Cal cornerback Daymeion Hughes, a 6-foot-2-inch, 188-pound cornerback with five interceptions this season.
“He’ll sit on routes, and he’s fast enough to recover and physical enough to knock the receiver off the route,” Bellotti said.
Said Dixon, “It’s going to be a shoot-out all game and we just have to find a way to get J-Will the ball.”
Dixon is efficiently guiding the Oregon offense by completing 89 of 137 passes with six touchdowns to only two interceptions.
Likewise, the California offense is operated by quarterback Nate Longshore, who’s completed 88 of 131 passes for 1,221 yards and 14 touchdowns.
One of Longshore’s favorite targets, wide receiver DeSean Jackson, leads Cal with 445 receiving yards on 27 receptions.
The real intrigue may not be in the passing game but with the running game instead, which showcases two of the conference’s top tailbacks in Oregon’s Jonathan Stewart and Cal’s Marshawn Lynch.
The pair have nearly identical averages with Stewart gaining 7.9 yards per carry and Lynch at 7. Stewart’s 457 yards came in only four games to Lynch’s 555 yards in five.
Stewart had a tender ankle following his Arizona State performance, but he is expected to be ready for Cal.
Defensively, Oregon has allowed a 100-yard rusher in three of four games this season and is continuing to rely on new contributors with injuries continuing to pile up. Cole Linehan, the latest injury casualty, broke his foot in the Arizona State game and his return for the remainder of the season is uncertain.
“It’s a challenge for us,” defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said. “I don’t want to make excuses. We’re down. We’re down in numbers. We’re down in depth. We’ve lost some good talent. Hopefully guys will step up, but it makes it difficult.”
Already some have emerged, including Michael Speed and Dexter Manley II. Manley collected three sacks last Saturday against the Sun Devils, earning him the Walter Camp Football Foundation’s national defensive player-of-the-week honors.
“I’ve just been showing (coaches) I can do it,” Manley said. “I do it in practice, but it’s more them giving me reps and having more trust in me.”
Jeremy Gibbs (ankle) and Victor Filipe (dislocated elbow) have returned to practice with Gibbs more likely to play this weekend, Bellotti said.
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