The Oregon Ducks have finalized their case for a Bowl Championship Series bid.
In Saturday’s regular season finale, the Ducks (10-1 overall, 7-1 Pacific-10 Conference) battled through a thick fog to become the second team in school history to complete a 10-win regular season with a 56-14 rout of in-state rival Oregon State. Oregon won in front of 58,525 – the third-largest crowd ever recorded at Autzen Stadium and the largest ever to witness a Civil War.
The waiting game for bowl arrangements now begins for Oregon, whose lone loss came on Sept. 24 to top-ranked USC.
Entering Saturday’s game against the Beavers, Oregon was ranked 10th in the BCS poll. Six conference champions receive automatic bids to BCS games, forcing Oregon to claim one of two at-large bids in order to reach a BCS bowl game – most likely the Fiesta Bowl.
So do the Ducks deserve a BCS bid?
“I think we deserve to go,” injured senior quarterback Kellen Clemens said. “It would be unjust and unfair if we got left out.”
Ohio State (9-2) and Notre Dame (8-2) are the current front-runners, ahead of Oregon, for the two at-large bids.
“It’s the East Coast bias,” defensive end Devan Long said. “Hopefully somebody gives us a chance and lets us prove to the rest of the nation that the west coast does have some good football.”
The most likely scenario has Oregon playing at the Holiday Bowl in San Diego, which typically takes the Pac-10 Conference’s second-place team.
“In my heart I feel like we deserve a BCS game,” said cornerback Aaron Gipson, who recorded his sixth and seventh interceptions on Saturday. “We took care of business.”
Regardless of where Oregon ends the season, 2005 has marked a turnaround. Last season, the Ducks left Corvallis with a 50-21 loss to the Beavers. With only five wins, Oregon was denied a bowl game for the first time in seven seasons.
The tables turned on Saturday in the 109th Civil War.
Gipson intercepted a pass by Beavers quarterback Ryan Gunderson and returned it 60 yards for a touchdown on Oregon State’s first possession of the game.
From there, the rout was on inside a foggy Autzen Stadium.
The Ducks posted 14 points in each quarter against the depleted Beavers, which will end the season losers in four of its last five games. At 5-6, Oregon State will miss the post-season for the first time in four years.
Leading 14-7 in the second quarter, Oregon scored 21 unanswered points – one touchdown by Terrence Whitehead and two, including a 97-yard kickoff return, by freshman Jonathan Stewart – before Gunderson found wideout Josh Hawkins for a two-yard touchdown, cutting Oregon’s lead to 35-14. But the Ducks again scored 21 unanswered points to finish the scoring 56-14.
Oregon’s 56 points is the highest point total for either team in the series, and it is the largest margin of victory since a 44-0 Oregon win in 1987.
Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon turned in his most complete game by connecting on 12 of 17 passes for 204 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Dixon, who has split time at quarterback with Brady Leaf since Clemens’ injury, received the majority of the time under center on Saturday. Leaf was 5 of 11 passing for 54 yards against the Beavers.
Oregon improved to 4-0 since Clemens’ injury.
“People gave us not much of a chance after Kellen went down,” said wideout Demetrius Williams, one of 13 Oregon seniors who played their final game in Eugene Saturday. “I tip my hat to (Dennis) and Brady. They did a great job and stepped it up all year.”
Williams and Whitehead, both seniors, helped spark an offense that produced 402 total yards compared with Oregon State’s 297. Whitehead rushed for 81 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown and caught another, and Williams caught five passes for 82 yards and one touchdown.
Gunderson, making his first career start for Oregon State after last week’s injury to Matt Moore, was 22 of 43 for 175 yards and one touchdown. He was intercepted four times.
Mike Hass was the recipient of 107 of Gunderson’s yards. Hass’ 10 receptions Saturday gave the former walk-on 220 for his career, an Oregon State record.
Last season against the Ducks, Hass had 154 yards receiving and two touchdowns. He did not score on Saturday.
“One of the things we wanted to do was contain Mike Hass,” Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said. “We knew he was going to get his catches, but we didn’t want to allow the big play or allow him to get in the end zone.”
Yvenson Bernard gained 128 rushing yards to pace a largely ineffective Oregon State offense. Despite having 19 more offensive plays than the Ducks, the Beavers had 105 fewer yards.
Oregon’s win marks the ninth straight time the home team has won in the Civil War series. As the final minutes ticked down, fans chanted, “B-C-S, B-C-S” inside Autzen Stadium.
“I’m very proud of this group of kids; they are an amazing group, the seniors especially in terms of their character, their pride, and their poise,” Bellotti said. “They’ve done what they needed to do to be in the best bowl game possible.”

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