In three games this season, Jason Fife has connected on 0 for 0, passing for 0 yards and zero touchdowns.
He hasn’t been sacked and hasn’t experienced the rush of a raging defensive lineman while he attempts to look for an open receiver. Heck, he hasn’t even crouched behind center Ryan Schmid and placed his hands in between…well, you get the point.
All of that needs to change.
And this Saturday at 6:05 p.m. in the quaint town of Logan, Utah, (pop. 42,000), Fife should get the opportunity to do just that against Utah State in Romney Stadium.
After the neck-and-neck win over Wisconsin, the too close for comfort victory against Utah and the nail-biting, stomach-churning, and, these days at least, ho-hum win against USC, it’s time for the Ducks to let it loose.
It’s time for the Oregon offense to explode and take advantage of a Utah State defense that has surrendered 23 points to Utah, 31 points to LSU and 43 points to Wyoming — all losses.
It’s time for the defense to not give up the big plays; those back-breakers that bring a team right back in the game.
This week, that means guarding against the Aggies’ All-American senior tailback Emmett White, who is sixth on the all-time NCAA all-purpose yards per game list after averaging 238.9 yards in 2000. (Barry Sanders is first with the 295.5 yards he picked up while with Oklahoma State in 1988.)
And that means sticking Rashad Bauman directly on wide receiver Kevin Curtis, who is third in the country in receiving yards with 130, and first in receptions with 10.67.
Oregon needs to conduct a good ol’ fashioned blowout. It needs to let Joey Harrington build up some Heisman-like passing numbers, move the offense on a series of smooth running scoring drives and then take a seat on the sidelines. Relax.
Have him take off the helmet, rub off the eye black and turn his attention toward Fife.
Because it’s important, make that imperative, for Fife to get some actual game experience. After all, he is the back-up quarterback of the sixth-ranked team in the country and he’s yet to take one snap this season.
In the spring of 2000, his 14 of 17 passing for 186 yards in the annual Spring Game at Autzen Stadium helped win him the third-string quarterback gig behind Harrington and A.J. Feeley (now a third-stringer with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles).
And in the spring of 2001, his 16 of 27 passing for 273 yards and three touchdowns in the Spring Game at Hillsboro Stadium solidified his status as the No. 2 signal-caller and gave head coach Mike Bellotti reassuring confidence in his abilities.

But spring ball and fall ball are drastically different. Fife is well aware of this. And he’s excited to possibly find out how big a difference that is come Saturday night.
“It’d be neat to get in there and do something that the guys haven’t seen before in practice and hear them say, ‘Whoa, where’d that Fife guy come from?’” Fife said. “I’ve thought a lot about playing this week, but I don’t want to jinx myself. I’m ready though.
“Anybody who’s a gamer wants to get in there and contribute.”
Of course, it’s not just about letting the back-ups get more playing time. After each win, players and coaches will tell you, over and over again, how excited they are just to get the win. Leading by a mere six points in the fourth quarter against Utah at home doesn’t matter, they say, because the goal was to win and that’s what they did.
Which is fine, but let’s be serious in regards to this week. When you’re ranked as high as the Ducks are and you’re playing an 0-3 team from the Big West Conference, you should come away with a big win.
There will no doubt be many other Pacific-10 conference nail-biters in the weeks to come to worry about. Saturday shouldn’t be one of those games.
Harrington said it best in his weekly diary with The Oregonian on Monday when he wrote, “I need to apologize to my grandpa. I’ve put him through too many close games and for all of his support, I need to reward him with a game in which he can sit back and relax.”
Believe me, my grandpa would appreciate that, too.