Cornerback Aaron Gipson entered the media room Saturday following a 56-14 rout of Oregon State wearing a bright green shirt that may have said it best: “I hate Beavers.”
Call it revenge. Call it redemption. Call it what you will – there hasn’t been a sweeter win for an Oregon team in a long while.
Especially when you consider the feeling last season for many of these players walking off the Reser Stadium turf after a demoralizing 50-21 loss to the Beavers that kept the Ducks out of post-season play.
When the hobbling Beavers entered Eugene and Autzen Stadium on Saturday in need of a win for bowl eligibility, it was payback time, particularly for Gipson, who was torched last season by Oregon State’s Mike Hass (nine receptions, 154 yards, two touchdowns).
Gipson won the battle this time around, intercepting his sixth and seventh passes of the season and returning one 60 yards for a touchdown on the game’s opening possession.
“Last year I played him with a hurt ankle and (Hass) kind of ran by us a couple times,” said Gipson, who held Hass scoreless and under his per-game yards average. “I think I had more touchdowns than him today, so that’s a good thing.”
OSU really never had a chance in this game.
With Kellen Clemens, the Ducks’ senior leader turned assistant coach, speeding as fast as two crutches can carry him down the Autzen Stadium tunnel and an appreciative crowd on its feet during the introductions of 13 Oregon seniors, the Ducks again took care of business for their seventh straight victory.
Clemens’ injury is just one of the many moments that have epitomized Oregon’s motto this season: We’ve got your back.
The defense supports the offense and vice versa. When one is down, the other makes a play.
Now Oregon is 10-1, and, behind the tandem of sophomores Dennis Dixon and Brady Leaf, a perfect 4-0 without Clemens.
It speaks volumes about a team when it can lose a player of Clemens’ magnitude and still entertain hopes of a Bowl Championship Series’ bid, which brings me to my next point: What business does Notre Dame, at 8-2, have being ahead of Oregon in both major polls?
It figures that Ohio State, also with two losses, would be in front of the Ducks considering the Buckeyes have many recent quality wins and its losses were to No. 2 Texas and No. 4 Penn State.
However, the Irish really have no right to be in a BCS game, just as they had no right to be in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl when they received at an at-large bid and were spanked 41-9 by Oregon State. If Notre Dame can hold on in its final game at Stanford next Saturday, odds are the Irish will claim one of the available bids.
But the Ducks only did what they could on Saturday against the Beavers. They took care of business and sent a memo to the BCS voters in the process. Whether the voters will receive that memo is a different question.

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