Kenny Washington
The Oregon return teams, most notably the punt
returners, have struggled this year to find consistency with their returners.
Juniors Aaron Gipson and Terrence Whitehead both fumbled punts against Indiana, leading to 14 points for the Hoosiers.
Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti is expecting more from his punt returners. Bellotti said he wants “excellent hands, good peripheral vision that allows him to focus, a hard focus on the ball, but a soft focus on the oncoming players.”
Bellotti also said, “The best punt returners we’ve had catch the ball and are already making that first move as they secure the ball to avoid the first wave of people down the field.”
He also said courage is a key ingredient because catching a football with the coverage team coming at you takes guts.
“It’s like catching a ball across the middle every time,” Bellotti said. “You know that you are possibly going to be hit.”
Once again this week Gipson and Whitehead will be getting the nod to field punts.
On kick returns, senior Kenny Washington did a solid job against Indiana averaging 20 yards per return. The first-team Pacific-10 Conference kick returner averaged 31 yards per return in 2003, including a 97-yard return for a touchdown against UCLA. Oregon hopes Washington can have a solid day returning the ball so Oregon’s offense doesn’t have to move as far against Oklahoma’s defense.
Junior Ryan Shaw will be the other kick returner for the Ducks. The senior averaged 20.8 yards per kick return last year and didn’t return a kick against Indiana.
— Clayton Jones
Lance Mitchell
A strong Oklahoma defense is led by one of the team’s strongest players.
Middle linebacker Lance Mitchell is one of the most physically imposing linebackers in the country right now, standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 244 pounds.
Mitchell will be one of the key players on Oklahoma’s defense which will try and stop Oregon’s rushing attack led by Terrence Whitehead and
Kenny Washington.
This season, Mitchell is third on the Sooner defense in total tackles with nine. In Oklahoma’s first game of the season, Mitchel led the team with four tackles unassisted in the 40-24 victory over Bowling Green.
Mitchell, a San Francisco, Calif.
native, missed the most of last season after tearing his anterior cruciate
ligament in the third game against
Fresno State. The 22-year-old was able to claim a medical redshirt, which allowed many of the younger Sooners to play and
develop quickly.
Mitchell, a senior, is a likely front runner for the Butkus Award, given to college football’s most outstanding linebacker. He is ranked No. 9 on the all-time list at Oklahoma for tackles for loss by a linebacker with 21.
In high school, Mitchell was a teammate with current Oregon offensive lineman Nick Steitz at Los Banos High School in California.
In 2002, Mitchell was a consensus Big Ten Conference Defensive Newcomer of the Year after transferring from City College of San Francisco.
At Oklahoma, Mitchell is majoring in sociology.
— Alex Tam
