If Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti had his way, he would have a Kevin Mitchell on his squad every year.
“I wish we could just clone him and replace him,” Bellotti said.
Mitchell — the tenacious linebacker from Orange, Calif. — has eight regular season games left in his last year as a Duck.
For now, he’s just savoring
every moment.
“That win (against Michigan) felt really, really good,” Mitchell said. “But we’ve still got eight games. It’ll always be in my head, forever. I know what we did my senior year against Michigan, but at the same time, I try to tone it down and just know that Washington State and the rest of the (Pacific-10 Conference) is coming up.”
The redshirt senior is the Pac-10″s top returning tackler, averaging 8.8 tackles per game last season.
This season, Mitchell is second on the team with 21 tackles after four games. The decrease doesn”t bother him, though.
“The most tackles someone has right now is 22 — I have 21 and (Keith Lewis has) 20,” Mitchell said.”Everyone”s making plays so it”s a group effort. It’s that much better to be a part of. I’d rather go out a winner with a team.”

In the three seasons Mitchell has spent time on the field, the Ducks certainly have found their winning ways. Including their 4-0 start this season, Mitchell has seen 32 wins and only 9 losses and has made 276 stops on the field in those 41 games.
“He’s just the consummate football player,” defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said. “The guy is just very intelligent; he has great instinct. He comes to work every day with his lunchpail and he’s a great leader.”
Mitchell is also the elder statesman of sorts. Other redshirt seniors sit on the squad, including Quinn Dorsey and Junior Siavii on defense, but Mitchell has seen the most playing time, with the possible exception of Samie Parker.
“Kevin is going to run a lot of plays, which he has,” Bellotti said. “He’s a guy that I have come to rely on doing things the right way, doing it full speed and being a great leader by example to this entire football program.”
He’s on the ‘watch list’ for the 2003 Butkus Award, the second consecutive year he was named to the grouping in the preseason. It’s given to the nation’s top collegiate linebacker.
He has even drawn praise from Pac-10 coaches other than his own.
“There is no one like Kevin Mitchell playing football in college,” Arizona head coach John Mackovic told the Tucson Citizen before his squad played the Ducks on Sept. 13.
“He is one of those players who, if I was a regular fan, he would be a favorite of mine. He energizes that team the way he plays. … It is infectious because you see other people playing like that.”
The spirit of football found Mitchell when he was 9 years old. After days playing t-ball and soccer, he decided he wanted to play football like his older brother. His coaches put him at linebacker and he’s been a constant there for 14 years.
“I just started hitting people,” Mitchell said. “I really didn’t know what I was doing. They were like ‘tackle them’ so I went out and tackled people.”
Two of the people who have seen Mitchell play for 14 years will be in Autzen Stadium on Saturday to watch him play again.
“My mom and dad are staying with my wife and I,” Mitchell said.
Yes, the 23-year-old linebacker is married. Mitchell married Melanie, his high school sweetheart, during the summer.
“She applied here before I even got offered a scholarship here,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t know how it would work out and then it just ended up that this was the place I was going to be.”
“She’s a big football fan. Her dad’s a football coach at one of the junior colleges.”
While all signs point to football being a part of their marriage, don”t suggest that little ones running around with footballs are in the future.
Mitchell would much rather talk about football.
“Don”t even mention that ‘kid’ word yet,” he said.
The future that Mitchell is willing to talk about involves graduation after the fall 2004 term and football practice.
“We don’t know where we’re going to go or end up yet,” Mitchell said. “Basically what it’s going to come down to is I’m going to work out and try out for the scouts. If something happens, then we’ll just play it by ear and go from there depending on how I do.
“If nothing, I’ll just go back home and go back to school and get my master’s — teach and coach — or I might go into law enforcement.”
The redshirt senior is content for now, and there are eight games and four terms to worry about before the future is knocking at his door.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” Mitchell said. “I don”t know if I’ll ever play again. The only thing I can do is just work my hardest, give my best effort and the rest of it’s up to the people in the front offices.”
“It’s out of my hands, so until then I’m just going to cherish everything. If my last snap comes, so be it — time to move on.”
Mitchell needs 41 more tackles to enter Oregon”s career top 10, but it”s not that important to him.
“I’d give up all the tackles just to win football games,” Mitchell said.
With the way Oregon is playing this year, it looks like Mitchell won’t have to choose.