It’s their chance to redeem
themselves.
It’s their chance to show the whole country that last weekend’s loss to traditional Big Ten Conference cellar dweller Indiana was a fluke.
It’s their chance to prove to the fans that there is hope for the season.
The Ducks, who play at No. 2 Oklahoma on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., now look to bounce back from the turnover-happy game that marked last Saturday’s loss.
However, were the expectations too high here in Eugene before
the season?
Since the Joey Harrington era, and even before that with the
1995 Rose Bowl team, Duck fans have come to expect big things
from their team every year.
Since 1995, Oregon has made a bowl game nine straight seasons. Not bad for a program that made a total of just nine bowl games in the 87 years before that. In the more recent bowl games, the Ducks have a 4-5 record, including two losses in a row the last two years.
This past weekend, Oregon fans didn’t take long to express their frustration toward their team when the booing began near the end of the second quarter in the 30-24 loss to Indiana.
As the players entered the locker rooms for halftime, an enormous shower of boos flooded Autzen Stadium for the first time in a very long while.
A home crowd — which usually reserves its booing for the visiting team, the referees or a poorly created mascot — simply kicked down its team even further as the Ducks trailed by 23 points after the first half.
The expectations just continue to rise at Oregon, year after year.
The question is, were the expectations set too high for this school’s football team this year?
Every year, fans continually set lofty goals for their Ducks. Those
include finishing at the top of the Pacific-10 Conference, going to a high-profile bowl game, winning and then doing it all again next time.
The Ducks have made their imprint on the country as a program that will make a bowl game every year. But I think it’s still safe to say that Oregon, as a football program, still has a little ways to go before it is considered among the elite programs in the country.
Is Oregon up in the same ranks as Miami, Florida State, Florida, Texas, USC or even this weekend’s opponent, Oklahoma?
No, not yet, but close.
Could it eventually be?
Yes, it’s possible.
Certainly, building a traditionally winning program helps out, which is what head coach Mike Bellotti has done in the past decade. In his nine seasons at the helm of Oregon football, Bellotti has accumulated 75 victories out of 109 games. He is just seven wins shy of tying former Oregon head coach Len Casanova as the second-winningest football coach in school history.
That winning tradition always attracts big name recruits. It also helps to have a $3.2 million state-of-the-art locker room.
The building blocks are in place here for a national championship contender every year.
But still, are they there yet?
A simple no, not yet.
Losing to an Indiana team in the home opener in front of at least 57,000 does not happen at an elite football program.
Seven turnovers, including four fumbles in the first quarter and two interceptions on the last two drives, cannot happen at all.
I believe, though, that Oregon will eventually be one of the elite football programs in the country.
We’ll just see how far the Ducks are from it after their game in Norman, Okla., this weekend.

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