Part of my job at the Emerald is filling out our “By the Numbers” section for GameDay. I usually approach the numbers by highlighting what I feel are important statistical matchups between teams, along with strengths and weaknesses of each team that I find notable. The rest of the numbers consist of whatever I find remotely interesting. (Chip Kelly: Please, find it in your heart to get Garrett Embry a five-yard reception today. Please!)
 
The number I’m focusing on this week is the number I’m saving for this column: Ten.
Simply put, that’s the number of wins Oregon will have if it can defeat Oregon State today.
 
Remember the last time Oregon had a 10-win season? You should, because it was last year. The Ducks’ 42-31 victory in the Holiday Bowl cemented Oregon’s record at 10-3, a true high note for then-head coach Mike Bellotti to go out on.
 
Bellotti, now the school’s athletic director, knew the importance of 10-win or better seasons. In his 14-year coaching career (1995-2008), Bellotti had four of them ­— 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2008. Those four also happen to be the only four 10-win or better seasons in school history, which dates back to 1894.
 
Oregon has also had one 11-win season in 2001, while the rest were exactly 10 wins. The Ducks’ only loss that year was also their only Pacific-10 Conference loss — to Stanford, 49-42. Most longtime Oregon fans still get squeamish over that game. That season was punctuated with a national championship snub and a dramatic exclamation point, as the Ducks overwhelmed Colorado, 38-16 in the Fiesta Bowl (The Ducks would have gone to the Rose Bowl if it wasn’t the national title game). The lasting highlight from that game is Maurice Morris’ touchdown run in which he rolled over a Colorado linebacker and ran past a group of Buffaloes defenders who thought he had touched down. Just when you thought Morris’ excellent run was over, he popped back up and surprised you with even more.
 
Not unlike this year’s Oregon football team. Did anyone really — really? — think of what this year’s Civil War could mean for the program, or for the state of Oregon? On the other hand, did anyone really believe that the Ducks could win 10 games before postseason play even factored in?
 
Before the 12-game schedule was fully established, the 10-win season was considered a rarity in college football, a mark of an elite team. After all, teams have recently made Bowl Championship Series bowl games through conference championship games, even if the conference record is less than stellar. Further diluting the power of 10 wins is the exclusion of undefeated teams from the national championship picture, which figures to happen again this year.
 
Even where the Ducks stand now is fairly hallowed ground. Before Bellotti took over for Rich Brooks in 1995, the program had accomplished only four nine-win seasons (one of them took place in, yes, 1994, Brooks’ only nine-win season). Only twice have the Ducks ever gone undefeated — 1916 when they went 7-0-1, including a 14-0 win over Penn to seal up the program’s last Rose Bowl victory, and 1895 when they went 4-0, including two wins over Willamette. Duck fans were surely proud of head coach Percy Benson’s boys and their 48-2 win over Oregon Agricultural College that year. Any guesses as to what OAC calls itself now?
 
Oregon has won 28 games in its last three seasons. It took legendary former head coach, athletic director, and founding father of Duck athletics Len Casanova six and a half seasons to amass that win total. Put in the right perspective, this program’s success has been downright unfathomable, even when you consider the resources Oregon has enjoyed in recent years.
 
Jamie Slade, Brian McAndrew and Michael Bishop, of Supwitchugirl, recently verbalized what so many Duck fans wanted themselves: They smell roses, and they want to enjoy them. Personally, I’d be content with the sweetly simple smell of the Ducks’ 10th win, filtered through a rarefied air.
 
And besides, it would mean a victory over the Beavers. How could I go wrong with that?
 
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