TEMPE, Ariz. – Given the opportunity to prove itself on the national
stage, Oregon did just that – and more.
Given the chance to show the voters that they are worthy of sharing the
national championship, the Ducks played like a worthy No. 1 team – on both sides of the ball.
And given the game that can fast-forward a program from great to elite,
the Oregon football team put on a near flawless performance that will no doubt leave them high up in the preseason polls before next season – even without quarterback Joey Harrington.
Under the beautiful blue sky and setting sun above Sun Devil Stadium, the No. 2 Oregon Ducks completely stampeded the third-ranked Colorado Buffaloes, 38-16, Tuesday in front of 74,118 fans.
“We made a statement today,” Harrington said. “Not only was it
the biggest win, but it was on the biggest stage and we did it in one of the most emphatic manners that a Duck team has ever played. We showed that we deserve to be playing for a share of the national
championship.”
What the Ducks did was send as strong a message as they could have to the Associated Press poll voters that they should be voted No. 1 at season’s end if Nebraska beats Miami.
Of course, should the undefeated Hurricanes beat Nebraska on Thursday night in the Rose Bowl then there will be no complaints from anybody and Miami will be a true national champion.
But if Nebraska wins…?
“I’ll be watching with a Nebraska hat and a Nebraska jersey on,”
Oregon tailback Onterrio Smith said. “We think we could have beat Miami, but we won’t get that chance.”
Still, for an Oregon team to claim a share of the national championship is truly remarkable when considering how far this team has come in the last five years. In the 1997 season, the Ducks won seven games. In ’98, they won eight.
In ’99, they won nine. In 2000, they recorded a school-record 10 victories.
And in 2001, in a season that actually ended Tuesday in 2002, Oregon kept up its amazing string of wins in corresponding years with the first 11-win season in school history.
“This is a special group,” senior tight end Justin Peelle said.
“We said that when we first came in 1997 that we had a chance to be the best class in Oregon history. And I think we’ve done that.”
And done so in style. No game in the seniors’ careers was more stylish or meant more than Tuesday’s Fiesta Bowl blowout that was seen by a national audience on New Year’s Day.
“They took advantage of one of the greatest opportunities in Duck football history and made it the greatest moment in Duck football history,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said about his players.
Oregon actually trailed in this game, 7-0, after Colorado scored on a Brandon Drumm one-yard touchdown run at the 6:26 mark of the first quarter.But that was all it took for the switch to flip in the Oregon defense’s mind and for the offense to realize that it was going to have to get those points back.
And in Oregon’s next series, the offense evened up the score when Harrington zipped a 28-yard strike down the middle to Keenan Howry for a well-timed touchdown pass. From there, the floodgates opened and the Ducks tacked on 31 more unanswered points to completely turn the game into a true fiesta for the Ducks and their fans.
The green and yellow clad supporters certainly had plenty to cheer about.
Harrington capped his storybook college football career with the type of performance that must have had NFL scouts drooling. He completed 28-of-42 passes for 350 yards and four touchdowns, leaving him one scoring pass shy of a Fiesta Bowl record.
Nine of those Harrington heaves landed in the hands of receiver Samie Parker, who had a career-high 162 yards receiving. Harrington and Parker hooked up on the game’s biggest play when Parker ran a post route, broke free down the field and hauled in a 79-yard touchdown pass to give the Ducks their first lead, 14-7, in the opening minutes of the second quarter.
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. Smith also had three picks in the Ducks’ 24-22 win 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.”
Oregon took a 21-7 lead into the halftime locker room after a Harrington six-yard shovel pass to Onterrio Smith with 2:29 left in the second quarter.
With the game still relatively close, and after Colorado had a chance to regroup, the Buffaloes were given a punch to the gut on a play that began innocently enough with Harrington handing it off to Maurice Morris.Morris ran straight, then left, then up the Colorado sideline and appeared to be tackled at the 20-yard line by a threesome of defenders. But then Morris rolled over the back of linebacker Joey Johnson, stayed on his feet and, with most of the players thinking the play was over, he took off untouched into the end zone to complete the 49-yard touchdown scamper.
“I didn’t hear no whistle, so I got up and started running,” said
Morris, who entered the game 40 yards shy of 1,000 for the season and actually topped the century mark on the run.
Morris’ team-high 89 yards gave him 1,049 for his senior season, and with Onterrio Smith passing the 1,000-yard mark against Oregon State on Dec. 1, the Ducks have two tailbacks with more than 1,000 yards for the first time in school history.
“Maurice’s run, it changed the complexion of the game and the momentum and certainly gave us a significant lead in a significant change of momentum in the third quarter,” Bellotti 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. Oregon would add a Jared Siegel career-long 47-yard field goal and a four-yard touchdown pass to mark the final scoring connection between Harrington and his good friend Peelle.
Colorado scored nine meaningless points to close out the scoring and end the three-and-a-half hour affair.
The Buffaloes entered the game as media darlings after their 62-36 romp over Nebraska and Big 12 title win against Texas, but the Ducks made them look more like the team that lost to Fresno State and Texas, 41-7, in the beginning of the year.
The most glaring statistic was Colorado’s total rushing yards, as the
Buffaloes’ much-talked about run game could only muster 49 yards against an inspired Duck defense.
“I don’t have an explanation,” Colorado head coach Gary Barnett said.
“Oregon did not get our best shot tonight. (But) Oregon played very, very well, with a lot of heart, a lot of speed. If I could vote for them (to be No. 1), I would.”
The USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ Poll is obligated to anoint the winner of the Rose Bowl as the national champion. But the AP writers are on their own. So now, all the eyes of the college football world turn to Pasadena to see if the Oregon Ducks from Eugene, Ore., will be able to claim a piece of the ultimate prize.
And as Harrington accurately concluded atop a post-game podium during his ABC interview when asked to give his case for Oregon being No. 1:
“I don’t want to do it with words,” he said. “I think we did it
with our play on the field.”
Assistant sports editor Jeff Smith can be reached at
[email protected].