Lightning usually doesn’t strike, but tell that to the Arizona State Sun Devils.
The Sun Devils were flying homeward about 60 miles north of Phoenix Saturday when two blasts of lightning rocked the charter plane carrying them. Minor damage was sustained to the fuselage, but the plane was able to land safely.
Arizona State was flying in from Pullman, Wash., where it edged Washington State in overtime, 23-20, just hours earlier.
Little did the Sun Devils know, their heroic performance in Pullman would soon be just a trivial afterthought as players, coaches, athletic director Gene Smith and members of the Arizona media prepared for the worst.
“We were praying,” offensive coordinator John Pettas said.
A interesting anecdote about the incident was that the in-flight movie the team was watching when the strikes occurred was “Gone in 60 Seconds.”
“I didn’t know if that was an omen or not,” head coach Bruce Snyder told the Associated Press. “We had people white-knuckled, believe me. Some were praying, some were teary-eyed. When we landed, there was a huge applause within the cabin.”
After landing, the pilot jumped out of the plane with a flashlight to look for damages. A hole was discovered in the plane’s tail.
Turns out that the Sun Devils’ most heartfelt touchdown celebration Saturday had nothing to do with a football game and everything to do with their plane landing.
Oregon faces Arizona State Saturday in Tempe, Ariz. Snyder said that while his team has been preoccupied with its near-death experience, it should be ready for the No. 7 Ducks.
“Oregon will take care of that for us,” he said.
USC’s Hackett in the dog house
Southern California head coach Paul Hackett fielded questions about his future with the Trojans after last Saturday’s last-second loss to Stanford.
In short, he had to defend his job.
“I need to coach better and our coaches need to coach better,” Hackett told reporters during a Tuesday press conference. “And I believe against Stanford we did that… we upped the level, but it wasn’t enough. We’re going to turn the corner at some point this year, I just don’t know when.
“This team is keeping the distractions to a minimum and that’s what you have to do as a coach. Coaching at USC is what it is and it is pressure-packed all the time — win or lose.”
While Hackett and his team may be toning down talk of firing Hackett, others are not.
Trojan fans dedicated a Web site to terminating Hackett’s job, titled www.firepaulhackett.com. The site points out useful tid-bits of information, such as Hackett’s sliding record at USC: 8-5 overall in 1998, 6-6 in 1999 and currently, BLANK in 2000.
The author of the Web site writes: “This coaching staff still can’t find a way to pull out a victory. The play calling is pathetic and gutless.”
Poor, poor Hackett.
Huskies not in Dawg house yet
The national college football scene has been buzzing with talk of the recently released Bowl Championship Series standings and who will advance to the national championship game at the Orange Bowl in Miami Jan. 3.
The Ducks have received national attention as a potential championship candidate.
Meanwhile, up north in Seattle, the local media are giving Washington some props.
“A reckless finish to a reckless season — the right teams losing at the right time — and perhaps even a national title,” Seattle-Times columnist Blaine Newnham wrote in a Tuesday article.
But Newnham’s article keeps the Huskies’ situation in perspective, focusing more on the Rose Bowl and less on a national title. And, between the lines, Newnham’s writing describes a battle of Northwest supremacy that is far from over.
Think Oregon secured bragging rights over Washington for the next two years by beating them 23-16 Sept. 30? Think again.
If the Huskies win their last four games against Stanford, Arizona, UCLA and Washington State — and they should — and the Ducks and Beavers run their tables to the Civil War, which Oregon State hypothetically wins, then Washington goes to the Rose Bowl.
Even worse, the Beavers would go to the Holiday Bowl.
The Ducks would be back in El Paso.
“The thought has insides churning in Oregon,” Newnham writes.
Polls don’t lie, right?
Watch out, Ducks.
A fan poll on the Pacific-10 Conference Web site asks “which football stadium offers the greatest home-field advantage.”
The winner: Sun Devil Stadium, with 34.7 percent of the vote. Autzen Stadium is in second place with 33.5 percent of the vote.
Um, OK.
