Let’s take a look back into the Oregon time capsule.
Rashad Bauman, Oregon cornerback, steps in front of a Jonathan Smith pass, cementing the Ducks’ victory in the Civil War in December 2001. It ends Oregon’s regular season at 10-1, giving the Ducks a shot at Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl.
Why, you ask, would that play stick out any more than a Joey Harrington touchdown pass or a Maurice Morris run that season?
The answer, of course, being Bauman himself. The 5-foot-9 cornerback, who now plays for Washington in the NFL, was everything Oregon needed and wanted in his five years in Eugene.
He left last season, and for the first time in a long time the Ducks had question marks in their defensive backfield. Those question marks swelled as the season wore on and Steven Moore, Aaron Gipson and company, couldn’t cut the mustard.
Knowing that, head coach Mike Bellotti recruited junior college and high school players — Rodney Woods and Ryan Gilliam, respectively — who bring to the table credentials and more question marks alike.
Woods, of course, came close to never stepping foot on the Oregon campus until a felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor.
Gilliam is a true freshman — question mark No. 1. Secondly, he stands only 5-foot-9, very short for a West Coast cornerback. Bauman was able to overcome that, but it has yet to be seen how Gilliam will do against the Pacific-10 Conference’s bigger receivers.
The Ducks will need one of these two — or someone else — to be the next Bauman. They need the brash, aggressive attitude that Bauman brought to the field.
Sometimes he was beaten. And sometimes he was outmuscled by players who stood inches taller than him.
But Bauman was the rock-solid force the Ducks also looked to. He was the biggest benefactor to the Oregon defense that sometimes bent but broke very few times.
He was never afraid to say what was on his mind, even baiting opponents to say something in response. And invariably, those opponents would be eating their words come Saturday.
In Bauman’s five seasons — 1999 was spent as a redshirt due to injury — the Ducks went 45-15. Skip the year he didn’t play, and Bauman’s teams went 36-12 when he was on the field.
That included wins in the Las Vegas Bowl, Sun Bowl, Holiday Bowl and Fiesta Bowl.
Those are some credentials.
It’s too much to ask Moore and Gipson to be of Bauman’s caliber. Neither will get to his stature this season, but it is imperative the Ducks develop a cornerback this season who can take the same attitude into games that No. 17 once did.
They need someone, whether that’s Woods, Gilliam, or anyone else, to step up and take the role of the aggressor. The Ducks need a player that won’t be afraid to take responsibility for the overall health of the secondary and make sure the defense plays up to its capability.
Keith Lewis has the capability of being a difference-maker, but he isn’t a primary pass defender.
Lewis will be there to help should a cornerback become too aggressive, which might not be a bad thing. After last season’s collapse, the thought that safeties should help out more instead of leaving the corners on an island became an idea that was tossed around more often.
But Lewis alone won’t be enough to help a group that has gone largely unchanged in its key players. The corners cannot rely on him to be there every time.
Bauman didn’t, and instead stepped up his play week-by-week.
Now, if the current Oregon corners can do that, the sky could be the limit.