By accepting the invitation to play 20th-ranked BYU (10-2 overall) in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 21, the Oregon football program (7-5 overall, 4-5 Pac-10) secured its 10th bowl game berth during coach Mike Bellotti’s 12-year tenure. Bellotti led the Ducks to seven consecutive bowl games from 1997 to 2003.
The Las Vegas Bowl appearance also marks the 20th time the Ducks have appeared in a bowl game in school history.
Oregon has lost its last three postseason battles, but has earned a bowl game every year since 1995, Bellotti’s first year as head coach, aside from postseason absences in 1996 and 2004.
The Ducks finished 6-5 overall in 1996 and 5-6 in 2004. Bellotti is the only coach in Oregon history to guide the program to four bowl game victories. Oregon beat Colorado 38-16 in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl, defeated Texas 35-30 in the 2001 Holiday Bowl, outlasted Minnesota 24-20 in the 1999 Sun Bowl and dealt Air Force a 41-13 whipping in the 1997 as the first Pac-10 ever to play in the Las Vegas Bowl.
As a first-year offensive coordinator at Oregon in 1989, Bellotti helped snap a streak of 25 straight years without a bowl game when Oregon beat Tulsa 27-24 in the Independence Bowl.
At the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl last year, fifth-ranked Oregon entered with a 10-1 overall record (7-1 Pac-10), but exited San Diego a 17-14 loser after 23rd-ranked Oklahoma picked off a Brady Leaf pass inside the red zone to end the Ducks’ comeback bid.
In 2003, Oregon suffered similar heartbreak at the Sun Bowl. The Ducks took a 30-28 advantage after Jared Siegel kicked a 47-yard field goal with 4:16 in the fourth quarter, but Minnesota (10-3 overall, 5-3 Big 10) stole the show. After driving 55 yards, Minnesota’s Rhys Lloyd booted in a 42-yarder with just 23 seconds remaining.
Former Oregon standout and current Kansas City Chiefs’ wide receiver Samie Parker was the MVP of the contest after he broke Sun Bowl records with 16 catches for 200 yards and two touchdowns.
In 2002, Oregon’s regular season played out a lot like this year. The Ducks started out 6-0 before losing five of their last six games and finishing with a 38-17 defeat in the now-defunct Seattle Bowl. Oregon lost to Wake Forest, which was led by James MacPherson’s 9-of-16 passing for a season-high 241 yards and two touchdowns. This season, Oregon won five of its first six games before losing four of its last six, including three straight.
During the Joey Harrington era, the three-year starter pushed Oregon to bowl wins against 12th-ranked Texas (2000) and third-ranked Colorado (2001). In Harrington’s senior season, Oregon was second-ranked at the Fiesta Bowl – the result of an 11-1 season capped off with the convincing victory over the Buffaloes.
The Ducks have faced Colorado three times in bowl games, the most against any other opponent in school history, with the Buffaloes holding a 2-1 advantage in the series. In Bellotti’s first year at the helm, Colorado beat the Ducks 38-6 in the Cotton Bowl and both teams lit up the scoreboard in 1998 at the Aloha Bowl when Colorado defeated Oregon 51-43.
Oregon won its first bowl game in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 1, 1917, when it defeated Pennsylvania 14-0. The Ducks only played in four postseason battles from 1920-1960 and lost all of them. After 45 seasons without a bowl win, Oregon won in the 1963 Sun Bowl, beating Southern Methodist 21-14. The Ducks were defeated in bowl games in 1990 (Freedom), 1992 (Independence) and 1994 (Rose). In 1994, Oregon earned its first Pac-10 conference championship by beating USC at the Memorial Coliseum and picking up consecutive wins over ninth-ranked Washington and eighth-ranked Arizona. At the Rose Bowl, quarterback Danny O’Neil and crew became only the second team in school history to tally more than 500 yards of total offense, despite losing to Penn State 38-20.