There are two key ingredients to being a successful team: great chemistry and an even better attitude.
At least those are what Oregon head coach Chip Kelly@@CE@@ considered as two of the biggest reasons why his football team has gone undefeated since the season-opening loss to LSU on Sept. 3.
In a brief interview session with reporters following Monday morning’s practice, Kelly fielded several questions about the unity of his team in a time of adversity. And the team is facing adversity now more than ever, with juniors LaMichael James@@CE@@ and Darron Thomas@@CE@@ both questionable for No. 9@@http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fbs@@ Oregon’s trip to Colorado this Saturday.
Sure, the Buffaloes are already among the Pac-12 bottom-dwellers, but that doesn’t take away from the growing pains Oregon is currently going through. Injuries were never a major issue in last year’s run to the BCS title game and that was a huge factor in why the team was so special.
But even with arguably more depth this year, the Ducks will have to rely on those intangibles — chemistry and attitude @@removed “in preparation” feel free to reinsert@@— to get them through these next few weeks.
“Part of this whole deal is the chemistry that we have player-to-coach, and coach-to-coach and player-to-player,” Kelly said. “(Which) is pretty tight on this team.”
With that in mind, Kelly was asked what he and his staff say to the team when two of their biggest playmakers and leaders are watching games from the sideline instead of scoring touchdowns.
“We tell those guys exactly that it’s part of the game — it’s life,” he said. “You’re going to get knocked down in life, but it’s not a sin to get knocked down. It’s a sin to stay down.”
They’ve been knocked down time and time again in 2011, but in late October, the Ducks are still in the national hunt as they pursue their third-straight conference championship.
James and Thomas, linebacker Michael Clay@@goducks@@, cornerback Cliff Harris@@goducks@@, wide receiver Josh Huff@@goducks@@ and tight end Colt Lyerla@@goducks@@ have all missed valuable playing time this season, and that list only continues to grow each week. But when someone has had to step down, the guy behind him hasn’t missed a beat.
At least, not yet.
Now, I believe Kelly when he says this team has undeniable chemistry, and, as he often reiterates, they love every responsibility that comes with playing football at the University. Unlike most other sports, football has a very short season in terms of games played. The midway point came and went with Arizona State last Saturday, and only six games remain on the regular season schedule. We know the clock is ticking, and so do they.
“It’s not baseball; it’s not basketball where you get a lot of opportunities,” Kelly said. “You only get 12 (games per year), and you’ve got to take advantage of all of them.”
Game seven@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&KEY=&SPID=233&SPSID=3377@@ is just three days@@Thurs., Fri., Sat.@@ away, and there’s still a lot we have to learn about these Ducks. Aside from LSU, Oregon hasn’t been tested for a full 60 minutes through six games, but that test is coming. And as fans, we hope the depth that was on display this past weekend will hold true against the likes of Washington and Stanford.
At this point, nobody is certain that Oregon’s backups can shoulder the load for another game, let alone for several more weeks. But that could easily be the situation the Ducks find themselves in against Colorado and Washington State. Those backups are capable — they’re undoubtedly talented football players — but you can’t replace the energy of a LaMichael James 65-yard touchdown run or Darron Thomas’ presence at the line of scrimmage before each snap.
And maybe they won’t have to.
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see how much longer Oregon can keep cooking with these ingredients.