The season is over, but the games continue.
With the sweet taste of victory still fresh in their mouths from the Fiesta Bowl, some members of the Oregon football team will be in San Francisco on Saturday for the East-West Shrine Game.
Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti will coach the West team, which will include the Ducks’ three billboard boys: Joey Harrington, Maurice Morris and Rashad Bauman.
The billboards of Harrington in New York, Morris in Los Angeles and Bauman in San Francisco raised the bar for these athletes, and being invited to participate in this All-Star game for college seniors helps vindicate their preseason hype.
The 77th annual East-West Shrine Game will take place at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Pacific Bell Park and will be broadcast live on ESPN2.
But there’s more than just the game itself — the players have been down there all week seeing the sights, touring children’s hospitals and working out for NFL scouts.
They arrived Saturday, toured Alcatraz prison and Pier 39 on Sunday and began practicing on Monday.
The big day for NFL personnel was Wednesday, when there were player meetings with pro teams in the morning, a player weigh-in and then a three-hour NFL workday on the Stanford campus.
Other Pacific-10 Conference notable players on the West team include Stanford’s Randy Fasani, Arizona State’s Delvon Flowers and Washington State’s Billy Newman and Nakoa McElrath.
Bellotti will bring Oregon assistant coaches Nick Aliotti and Steve Greatwood along with him, while the legendary Bill Walsh will serve as the team’s honorary coach. Bellotti’s counterpart on the East side will be Illinois head coach Ron Turner, whose Big 10 champion team would have faced Oregon in the Rose Bowl were it not for the Bowl Championship Series hosting the title game there this season.
The Shrine game isn’t the only college All-Star game of the month. Harrington and Bauman will again team up in the Jan. 26 Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. A week later, tight end Justin Peelle will have his opportunity to impress scouts when he participates in the Hula Bowl Feb. 2 in Hawaii.
Also, Bellotti will be in Houston, Texas, Jan. 17 as one of seven finalists for the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award. Others up for the award include Colorado’s Gary Barnett, Nebraska’s Frank Solich and Miami’s Larry Coker.
E-mail assistant sports editor Jeff Smith
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