As if Oregon needed any more motivation than it already had for this weekend’s Civil War, it got some Sunday night in the Valley River Center Red Robin, of all places.
Oregon’s George Wrighster, a redshirt freshman tight end, was enjoying a meal with a friend when he was spotted by none other than Oregon State flanker T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
The Beavers leading receiver, who so far has been just as hard to stop as it is to spell his name, went up to Wrighster and cupped his hand above his mouth and let out a few spicy words.
“Hope you have fun at the Sun Bowl again,” Houshmandzadeh said, or something to that extent.
At least that was the story from Oregon’s Steve Smith and Rashad Bauman Tuesday.
“We’re definitely going to post that in the locker room up there,” Smith said. “I wasn’t there, but George called me Sunday night and told me what he said. I don’t know what T.J. was doing in Eugene, but it makes you look forward to the game a lot more.”
“Yeah, I heard about that and heard he was feeling pretty confident,” Bauman said. “We’ll see if he can back his talk up. I heard that T.J. was in Red Robin talking big trash and how he told us to get ready for the Sun Bowl. Hey, so be it. It’s good.
“And I’m sure after the game when we got roses in our mouths, he’ll remember the things he said.”
And so Civil War week continues — with just three days remaining.
A selected number of Oregon players meet with the media for the last time today before the team focusses its full attention toward Saturday’s game. Meanwhile, in Corvallis, Beaver players have finished their media circuit and are practicing behind closed doors with security positioned outside of Reser Stadium.
Oregon State tailback Ken Simonton — who scored the game-winning touchdown in the Beavers’ 44-41 double overtime Civil War victory in 1998 — enjoys all the attention the game is getting, but will not be one to feed the team any more material.
“I guess [Oregon would] be the people you’d love to hate, if you’re going to use hate, but I wouldn’t use those words,” Simonton said at a recent media luncheon. “It’s all fun. It’s competition at the highest. It’s a rivalry, so you take that and let [the media] build that as high as it can get and try to have fun.”
Oregon junior quarterback Joey Harrington has viewed his fair share of Civil Wars during his years while growing up in Portland, and can hardly wait to participate in one of this magnitude.
“As the week goes on, it kind of becomes a slow boil,” said Harrington, who made sure to point out that he has always been a Ducks fan through and through. “By Thursday and Friday, you’re about ready to explode.”
The 104th edition of the Civil War finally explodes at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in Corvallis’ Reser Stadium. It will be telecast on a regional basis by ABC, with Keith Jackson giving the play-by-play.