TEMPE, Ariz. — A massive crowd of nearly 150,000 crammed the streets of downtown Tempe to party on New Year’s Eve.
While they did, a poem was being read by a coach to his players in the team hotel in Scottsdale, located 10 miles away from all the craziness.
The coach talked. The players listened.
The final line of the poem packed the biggest punch:
“Make your move; time is ticking away.”
With that, the members of the team retired to their rooms where they could ring in the new year before having a curfew check at 12:01 a.m.
Fifteen hours later, the players were playing in a game that left the coach saying simply, “Our kids made their move.”
Under the beautiful blue sky and setting sun above Sun Devil Stadium, the No. 2 Oregon Ducks completely stampeded over the then-No. 3 Colorado Buffaloes, 38-16, on Jan. 1 in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
The win was so convincing that it even astonished the Ducks.
“I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of the game,” head coach Mike Bellotti said. “I thought it would be closer.”
As Bellotti spoke, the Associated Press national championship trophy glistened in the next room. With the win, Oregon had hope of acquiring the trophy and sharing the national title, but it needed Nebraska to beat Miami two days later.
It didn’t happen. Miami went on to prove itself worthy of No. 1 with a dominating performance that ended all hopes of a split title for the Ducks.
“To go 12-0 in a season, that’s awesome,” senior defensive back Rashad Bauman said of Miami. “You can’t take anything from them. They beat everybody, so they deserve the national championship.”
Still, finishing No. 2 in both the media and coaches’ polls with an 11-1 record gave Oregon its highest ranking and highest number of wins in school history, plus its resounding New Year’s Day victory was the type of performance that can fast-forward a program from great to elite.
“It doesn’t change the fact that we had a wonderful season,” Harrington said moments after the Rose Bowl. “The only thing I’d be disappointed in is we didn’t get a shot. You can speculate all you want, but you’ll never know.”
The shot Oregon did have came against a hot Colorado team that was coming off consecutive wins against Nebraska and Texas. Colorado entered the game with a rushing attack that Oregon couldn’t stop gushing over in the week prior.
The Buffaloes struck first in the Fiesta Bowl behind their respected running game, taking a 7-0 lead on a Brandon Drumm one-yard scoring run at the 6:26 mark of the first quarter.
But that was all it took for the switch to flip in Oregon’s mind.
In the Ducks’ next series, Harrington zipped a 28-yard strike down the middle to Keenan Howry for a well-timed touchdown pass to even up the score. From there, the floodgates opened and the Ducks tacked on 31 more unanswered points to turn the game into a true fiesta for Oregon and its fans, which were loudly represented among the 74,118 at Sun Devil Stadium.
On defense, most of the Oregon cheers were directed toward defensive back Steve Smith, who snared three interceptions and earned the game’s defensive player of the game award. He also had three picks against USC earlier in the season.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” said Smith, a senior. “You know me, I didn’t get a touchdown, but it’s a great feeling.”
On the other side of the ball, Harrington capped his storybook college football career by completing 28-of-42 passes for 350 yards and four touchdowns. Nine of those Harrington heaves landed in the hands of sophomore receiver Samie Parker, who had a career-high 162 yards receiving. Harrington and Parker hooked up on a 79-yard touchdown pass to give the Ducks their first lead, 14-7, in the opening minutes of the second quarter.
“I knew after I got by him that he wasn’t going to catch me because I knew I was faster than him,” Parker said of his defender.
Oregon took a 21-7 lead into halftime after a Harrington six-yard shovel pass to Onterrio Smith.
With the game still within reach at the opening of the third quarter, the Buffaloes were given a punch to the gut on a play that began innocently enough with Harrington handing it off to Maurice Morris.
But that was when Morris made highlight films everywhere. After running 28 yards, he appeared to be tackled at the 21-yard line, but he rolled over the back of Colorado’s Joey Johnson to stay on his feet. Then, with most of the players thinking the play was over, he ran into the end zone to complete the 49-yard scamper and propel Oregon to a 28-7 lead.
Morris’ team-high 89 yards gave him 1,049 for his senior season, which along with Smith, gave the Ducks two 1,000-yard tailbacks for the first time.
“Maurice’s run, it changed the complexion of the game,” Bellotti said.
“I got to watch it on the replay screen and that was incredible,” offensive lineman Ryan Schmid said.
Once the lead was extended to 21 points, Colorado appeared to shut it down and concede the Fiesta Bowl and the possible split national title to the Ducks.
The rest of the Oregon scoring consisted of a Jared Siegel career-long 47-yard field goal and a final scoring pass from Harrington to his good friend Justin Peelle.
Colorado scored nine meaningless points to end the game. The most glaring statistic was Colorado’s rushing total of 49 yards against an inspired Ducks defense.
“I don’t have an explanation,” Colorado head coach Gary Barnett said. “Oregon did not get our best shot tonight.”
As the fourth quarter minutes slowly wound down, many Colorado fans began to file out, leaving the green-and-yellow contingent with plenty of opportunities to celebrate amongst themselves.
With three minutes on the clock, Bellotti was drenched by a cooler filled with ice water.
Seven seconds later, the Oregon fans began the “We’re No. 1” chant that lasted through the end of the game.
Of course, with Miami winning two days later, the Ducks settled for No. 2, which left some players wondering what would have happened if the national title pairing was done by humans rather than computers.
“We made a statement that we belonged in the championship game,” Onterrio Smith said. “It didn’t happen, but we wanted to prove to people that we’re one of the national powers.”
They made their move, and the nation noticed.