Last week, the Oregon football team learned how to walk.
This week, it will have to avoid tripping.
The Ducks, full of questions heading into the 2002 season, answered many in a 36-13 romp of Mississippi State in Week 1. On Saturday they face a team, Fresno State, that will raise questions all over again.
Like, how did Oregon need two overtimes to beat Fresno State in two previous meetings? How did Fresno beat teams like Wisconsin, Colorado and Oregon State as recently as last year?
The answer to the second question could be as easy as David C-A-R-R. The former Bulldog quarterback was drafted by the Houston Texans with the No. 1 overall pick of the NFL draft and was a big factor in Fresno State’s giant-killing wins last season.
For the answer to the first question, just ask Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti.
“I reminded our team that, yeah, the last two games with Fresno State have gone to two overtimes, and we were fortunate to win those games,” Bellotti said. “They are willing and capable of going anywhere in the nation, playing on the road and playing well enough to beat anybody, as they did last year.”
The last time Oregon and Fresno State met was in 1997, when the Bulldogs came to Eugene and lost an overtime game 43-40. That was a year after the Ducks’ trip to Fresno, where Oregon barely pulled out a 30-27 overtime win.
“The last couple of times we’ve played them, they’ve been close,” Oregon free safety Keith Lewis said. “But I wasn’t here then, and this is a different type of team.”
The Ducks are a very different team, indeed. They’ve got different uniforms, an (almost) different stadium, a different quarterback and a different offensive coordinator, Andy Ludwig, who had a Bulldog logo on his hat last season. But despite those differences, don’t be surprised if it’s the same type of football game when Oregon and Fresno State meet up again Saturday.
“They’re a very good football program, and athletically, they have a lot of speed,” Bellotti said. “Watching on film, it’s like watching a whole different game when they got on Wisconsin’s Astroturf — whew — they look fast. Our motto is respect all and fear none, and that’s exactly what we do.”
The Ducks will aim to take flight this week with a quarterback just growing comfortable with the Oregon system. Jason Fife, who, ironically, was recruited heavily by Fresno State, will make his second career start on Saturday. In his first career start, Fife passed for 166 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed 25 yards and another score.
“I feel very comfortable in practice, a lot more than last week,” Fife said. “I think the comfort level will grow more and more every week and each passing game. I feel more relaxed, more at ease.”
As important as Fife’s emergence against Mississippi State was the emergence of several stars around him. Tight end George Wrighster caught four passes for 46 yards and two touchdowns. Cornerback Steven Moore settled into his role as the next great Oregon cornerback, and also had three punt returns for 46 yards. Lewis had six tackles and one interception.
“There’s no better way to start,” Lewis said of Oregon’s win.
Now, the Ducks will have to parlay that success against Fresno State. Since Mike Bellotti came to Oregon in 1995, the Ducks have lost only two nonconference regular season games, to Michigan State in 1999 and to Wisconsin in 2000. Neither game was at home.
Fresno State is likely to be the last game resembling a test before the Ducks play at UCLA on Oct. 12. And even when the Bulldogs are down — they have struggled early this season and been wracked by injury — they always have the glow of giant-killing wins to bask in.
“They have built confidence over the years by beating people that supposedly are better than them,” Bellotti said. “But I don’t put us in that class — I think this will be a dogfight.”
In other words, Bellotti is telling his team something.
Don’t trip.
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