Oregon’s bowl hopes got a lot more realistic after Saturday’s 21-17 win over California.
The win, combined with Arizona’s victory over Washington and UCLA’s blowout loss to Washington State, puts the Ducks in prime position for a postseason bowl. And it may not even matter if Oregon defeats either the Bruins or Oregon State in its final two games.
“I don’t even know what the bowl picture is,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “I haven’t even looked at it; I couldn’t explain it to you. I don’t know how many games there are, or where we’re at. I do know that we want to have a winning season, first of all. That hinges on what we can do this week, in my mind, because we take them one at a time.”
The Ducks are tied at fifth in the Pacific-10 Conference with Washington and California. Because the Huskies defeated Oregon earlier this season, they would head to the Las Vegas Bowl — presumably, if nothing else changes — and the Ducks would head to the Silicon Valley Football Classic in San Jose, Calif. California would likely be left out.
“You can’t (think about the bowls),” linebacker Kevin Mitchell said. “If you don’t win, you don’t go. It’s a matter of us getting this win. It’s just about going down (to Los Angeles), playing hard and hoping for the best.”
Oregon visits UCLA this week before hosting Oregon State on Nov. 22. There is a catch, however. The Beavers visit USC on Dec. 6, two full weeks after the Ducks’ last game of the season. It is conceivable that Oregon won’t know its postseason destination — if it has one — until that game.

The catch
Overshadowed in Oregon’s comeback win Saturday was the play of wide receiver Kyle Weatherspoon.
The freshman made an acrobatic catch, putting the Ducks at California’s 31-yard-line with a little more than four minutes left to play. Immediately after his catch, quarterback Kellen Clemens found a seam in the Golden Bear defense and connected with tight end Tim Day for 31-yard touchdown that pulled Oregon within three.
Weatherspoon made the catch after the ball was tipped by California linebacker Wendell Hunter, who had been defending Oregon wide receiver Demetrius Williams. Weatherspoon caught the ball with his right hand while falling to the ground.
“It went off the defender’s hands,” Weatherspoon said, “and all of a sudden it popped out of my vision. And I went to get it and I caught it. It was weird, but I caught it.”
The catch was Weatherspoon’s only of the game, but it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Ducks.

Second coming
The situation the Ducks found themselves in Saturday was strikingly similar to a game against Arizona State on Oct. 30, 1999, at Autzen Stadium.
Clemens led Oregon to 14 fourth-quarter points, which included an option sweep by running back Terrence Whitehead for a 1-yard run with 47 seconds left Saturday.
The comeback mirrored Oregon’s triumph four seasons ago. Joey Harrington, then a sophomore in 1999, found Marshaun Tucker with a 29-yard touchdown strike with nine seconds left to lead Oregon to a 20-17 win over the Sun Devils.
Bellotti hopes the comeback gives Clemens the same kind of confidence boost that Harrington’s did.
“I think that not just for Kellen, but for the entire football team (confidence will build),” Bellotti said. “I think that those things build upon each other.
“It’s interesting because he started the game so very poorly. Jason Fife came in and played extremely well early. When Jason slipped a little bit, Kellen came in and played arguably the best football of his career in a very important role.”