Oregon Daily Emerald: Probably your most memorable moment this year was the successful onside kick against Stanford. Tell me what you were thinking in the huddle when you heard that was going to be the call?
Rob Beard: I was waiting for it. I was expecting it. When I heard it I just told myself, “Let’s go, this is my chance to do something good for our team, maybe change the momentum, the team is asking me to do this so I’m going to do it.” That’s what ran through my head.
ODE: Talk about the execution of the play and actually coming up with the recovery.
RB: I just lined it up, made sure it looked like I was kicking a normal kickoff, like I was going to kick it deep to the right. I did my whole approach, did everything I practiced. I practiced perfection and I applied it to the game; that’s it.
ODE: How often do you practice those kicks?
RB: That week was the only time I really practiced it, and I did it probably 15-20 times.
ODE: How often did you personally recover the kicks in practice?
RB: About two or three times maybe.
ODE: So it’s pretty rare for you to recover it?
RB: Yeah, usually I would pop it up to another guy running down, and he would be able to catch up.
ODE: Okay, switching gears. What’s your major?
RB: I’m going to do journalism: advertising.
ODE: What classes are you taking now?
RB: I’m taking Gateway 205 and 206, and then I’m doing a poetry class and a sociology class.
ODE: What do you want to do with that degree?
RB: Advertising, I’m focused on that. I’m not a big fan of reporting or anything like that, but advertising, that attracts my attention. Finding advertising strategies and advertise products out on the market, I like that.
ODE: So what do you think of the job Oregon does advertising its brand?
RB: I think we do a pretty good job. When everybody sees that “O” everybody knows its Oregon and they see the wings, they know it’s the Ducks. The green and yellow is real popular here and another thing coming out big is the Win the Day (slogan), the WTD, that’s getting recognized all over now.
ODE: Did you play any other sports in high school?
RB: I played football, basketball and I ran track.
ODE: No soccer, though?
RB: No, no soccer.
ODE: When did you start placekicking? Was that always your thing?
RB: I started placekicking really my sophomore year. Our senior kicker on my high school team got hurt in the first week or two and coach just lined everybody up and said who can kick a ball, and I went up and kicked one and he said you’re our new kicker. Once the senior was healthy I ended up taking his job.
ODE: Did you play any other positions before that?
RB: Yeah, at the time I was playing wing back, running back and then also a little bit of linebacker. My junior year I switched the defensive side and I did that my senior year; I played middle linebacker there.
ODE: Do you like to think if kicking wasn’t part of the equation you’d still be good enough at those positions to play in college?
RB: Yeah, I thought so. People supported me with that. I don’t think I could have made it at big Division I schools. I was definitely looking at some smaller schools and that would have been something I would have loved to do but I love kicking here at Oregon, so…
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