T.J. Ward stood on Halloween night amidst an onrush of fans and couldn’t help but smile. He had thousands of fans pounding on his shoulder pads and 10 microphones stuck in his face, but it didn’t matter.
What mattered was that the Ducks had done something to the USC Trojans that had never been done in the Pete Carroll era and now it was Oregon’s time to try its turn at the top of the heap.
Ward slowly made his way through the mob of black-clad students and walked up the tunnel. He took his turn answering questions about the historic win and what it meant to the team. He then showered and left the Casanova Center.
When the senior defensive back returned on Monday it was back to business and there wasn’t much to say about Saturday’s game. That was Saturday, and today was Monday. The only thing the Ducks were thinking about was getting through Monday’s practice.
Win the day.
This motto is what the entire team has tattooed into their brains by first-year head coach Chip Kelly. They don’t talk about the past that much. And they don’t talk about the future that much either. The players are completely focused in the now, and it sometimes makes reporters roll their eyes when they hear the cliche, “we’re just taking one day at a time,” but unlike when a lot of people say it, this team believes it with all their hearts.
I asked tight end Ed Dickson about it because I couldn’t believe they didn’t sneak a peek four weeks down the road and to what could potentially be an undefeated conference record and a Rose Bowl berth. It’s only human nature to think about the future and to get ahead of themselves.
Dickson told me that Kelly has done a good job about keeping the focus in the now by making practices harder than games and making it abundantly clear that the end result is made up of a bunch of successes from week to week. To be undefeated at the end means the team must win each day.
It’s amazing how Kelly has gotten Oregon to this point in the season. Many media types (including myself) looked at this season after Boise State as a long, arduous road that would tax the Ducks. I saw them doing well for themselves, but never quite recovering from the initial shock the Broncos gave them on that hot day at the beginning of September. But not only have the Ducks thrived since then, they’ve completely flabbergasted people.
The team didn’t do it by looking up the steep mountain they had to climb after they fell, but instead by putting their heads down and getting to work. They didn’t let Utah, California, USC or any other team get in their way. They believed.
Will Tukuafu said in the press room after the USC game that he knew the Monday after the Boise State game that this team was great. A few reporters scoffed at this notion that at their darkest moment, the Ducks knew they could play for a national championship. I too thought it odd, but on a second glance, I took it back. Fans want a team that is confident and believes in itself. You don’t want a team that constantly questions whether or not they can win on any given week.
And with that yeoman-like resolve, you have to like Oregon’s chances the rest of the way out. I wrote before the season that I liked Oregon’s shot at winning a lot of games because of the way their home schedule played out, and so far I’ve been right. They’ve won every game at home. There are still two big road tests and the Civil War at the end of the year, but Oregon will be favored in its remaining games, no question about it.
With four games remaining, the question is: Can the Ducks continue to focus on the task at hand, or will the pressure of being the top of the league be too much? I think I already know the answer if the first eight games are any indication of the focus of this team.
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