After weeks of waiting, and wondering, and waiting some more, the big day finally arrived.
But because of Saturday’s defeat to Stanford, the first results of the Bowl Championship Series hardly made a splash in the land of the Oregon Ducks.
The BCS, a computer-generated ranking that decides the two opponents in the national championship game, released its first list of teams Monday with the Pacific-10 Conference having a strong showing.
UCLA (6-0), which is ranked fifth in the coaches poll and fourth in the Associated Press poll, entered the BCS poll at the No. 3 spot.
“This BCS stuff, it doesn’t really matter right now,” UCLA head coach Bob Toledo said Monday. “There is a lot of football to be played.”
The next-best Pac-10 team is Washington State (7-0), which cracks the top-10 in the BCS at No. 10. The remaining members of the league to be ranked were Washington (5-1) at No. 12, Oregon (6-1) at No. 13 and Stanford (4-1) at No. 14.
Oklahoma was awarded the top spot, meaning the Sooners control their own destiny in their quest for a spot in the Rose Bowl. Oklahoma faces its biggest test Saturday when it visits Nebraska, which was ranked second by the BCS.
Miami, which is currently occupying the top spot in both the coaches and the AP polls, was listed at No. 4 largely because its schedule strength is ranked 92nd in the country — the lowest of the 15 teams in the BCS.
But the Hurricanes don’t appear too concerned about it as they pointed to the Oregon loss, among others, as an example that other top-ranked teams could tumble in the coming weeks.
“I don’t need a computer. Teams are going to fall,” Miami head coach Larry Coker told the Associated Press. “We saw three undefeated teams fall last week. The only thing we can control is to make sure we’re not one of them.”
Rounding out the rest of the BCS top-10 was Virginia Tech, Texas, Michigan, Maryland and Tennessee.
Oregon’s Howry named
Pac-10 Player of the Week
Oregon wide receiver Keenan Howry had an impressive day receiving Saturday, catching nine passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns.
But it was what he did returning punts in the Ducks’ 49-42 loss to Stanford that caught the attention of the Pac-10. The junior from Los Alamitos, Calif., returned five punts for a league record 186 yards.
Among his returns was an 81-yard dash up the Oregon sideline that almost ended in the end zone, except he outran his last blocker and got tripped up inside the 10-yard line.
He reached paydirt in the third quarter, though, when he outran defenders down the Stanford sideline and took it 69 yards for the touchdown to put his team ahead, 35-21.
In all, Howry tied the Oregon record for single-game all-purpose yards by amassing a total of 338. The last time a Duck reached the 338-yard mark came on Sept. 18, 1971, when receiver Bobby Moore caught 152 yards worth of passing and totaled 186 yards in punt returns.
Moore then moved on to the NFL, where he changed his name to Ahmad Rashad.
Washington sophomore quarterback Cody Pickett earned the league’s Offensive Player of the Week award for his 29-for-49 passing performance for 455 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed in the three-yard score with 13 seconds left to deliver Washington the 31-28 win at home against Arizona.
As for defense, Arizona State safety Alfred Williams was awarded for the eight tackles he recorded against Oregon State in the Sun Devils’ 41-24 victory over the Beavers.