In football—as it is in life—there’s a lot of trust. The quarterback has to trust his linemen will hold their blocks long enough for him to get a throw off. A linebacker must trust his secondary when he goes for a tackle, they will be right behind him, just in case. The same can be said for a punt returner. He’s focused on the ball coming at him and not the 11 players sprinting down the field to inflict bone-jarring hits.
The term for this trust senior cornerback Walter Thurmond III coined after he was hurt against California on the opening kickoff on Sept. 26 was “blind faith.” On the sidelines, he walked up to Kenjon Barner—his back up on special teams returns—and told him to have blind faith and know his teammates were going to be there to back him up.
“Just knowing through it all, this team is close and they are always going to be there,” Barner said of Thurmond’s words. “There’s always going to be a group of guys there to support you.”
That’s very much the mentality the No. 7 Oregon Ducks have had this year. When everyone else doubted them after the opening game debacle at Boise State, this team stuck together and rode a 10-1 record over the next 11 games into the Rose Bowl.
“That’s that chemistry we have as a team,” senior tight end Ed Dickson said. “We trust each other when we’re at war and we know everyone has our back.”
And now that three weeks of practice have gone by and the biggest game in years is only 48 hours away, Oregon had a chance to reflect on just what exactly it means for the team to be in Los Angeles and playing in the oldest bowl game in the country.
“It’s amazing,” junior wide receiver Jeff Maehl said. “It has so much tradition and growing up watching the game and getting the chance to play in front of your family, there’s nothing better.”
The team packed into the ballroom of the downtown Los Angeles Marriott on Wednesday for the official media day of the Rose Bowl. They answered questions ranging from who has the best hair (the team favorite was quarterback Jeremiah Masoli), to what was their favorite ride at Disneyland (Barner liked California Screamin’. He said he did quite a bit of screaming).
But every player also realized what an honor it was to represent the Pacific-10 Conference against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
“It’s huge,” Masoli said. “For myself, my family has been calling me non-stop telling me they’re proud of me and I’m just really happy from that standpoint. Also for all my guys getting here and having fun…it definitely proves how far we’ve come and what we’ve been building for the last ten years.”
There is some added meaning to Friday’s game for the Californian players on Oregon’s roster. Most of them grew up watching teams like USC, UCLA and Stanford play on New Year’s Day, and wanting to do the same some day.
Junior linebacker Spencer Paysinger went to Beverly Hills High School, just blocks from UCLA and 19 miles from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. He says he remembers in 1999 and 2000 when Wisconsin made two straight trips to the game and the team practiced at his high school. He met Ron Dayne—the 1999 Heisman Trophy winner and the NCAA’s all-time leading rusher in yards.
“I had a chance to meet him and I was like, this guy is huge, I wish I can play at this level someday and I’m finally here,” Paysinger said. “And I met some kids this week from my high school, and maybe one day they’ll say I want to be like Spencer Paysinger. It’s just surreal for me to be in this position right now.”
That’s how most of the team feels. When senior defensive end Will Tukuafu first came to Oregon, the team went toe the Las Vegas Bow where they where the Ducks were blown out 38-8 by BYU. Now they are back in the BCS.
“It means that we’ve worked hard as a team and how for this program has come,” Tukuafu said. “When I first came here we were in the Vegas Bowl and we gradually worked our way up and now we are in the Rose Bowl. It shows a lot for where the program is headed and where this team is at right now.”
“It means a lot,” Barner said. “The Rose Bowl is something I grew up watching with my family. Just getting to experience it with a group of guys I’m close with is pretty special.”
For the seniors like Dickson and safety T.J. Ward, it’s an affirmation of why they came to Oregon in the first place. It’s the start of something new for the Ducks.
“It’s a storybook ending for me,” Dickson said. “Being a senior, I’ve been in a bowl game every year and to finally be in the Rose Bowl is a moment I’ll never forget.”
It’s, what Dickson calls, a “dream come true.”
“That’s what it’s been this whole year–a season of dreams,” he said. “We’ve worked hard to get where we are and we want to go out and display what we have one more time on the field.”
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