Duck Sports Authority - The Monday Inside Scoop

January 7, 2008

Don Lambert
Duck Sports Authority Senior Writer

YOU WILL NOT FIND BETTER DUCK RECRUITING COVERAGE AND FOOTBALL INSIGHT ANYWHERE. WE ARE A EUGENE-BASED OPERATION AND ENCOURAGE YOU TO TRY THE 7-DAY FREE TRIAL.

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FOOTBALL: DSA GRIDZONE (Premium) - All about intelligent conversation.

RECRUITING: THE CASANOVA CENTER (Premium) - Recruiting news break here.

BASKETBALL: McARTHUR COURT (Open) - Talk about the rim.

OTHER TOPICS: THE BLEACHERS (Open) - Debate with fans from other programs.

All Oregon

Big, bad Bay Area teams headed for Mac Court
Register-Guard
If Oregon needed a reminder that the challenges in the Pac-10 only seem to grow ever larger, all it took for the Ducks was one look at the California and Stanford lineups.

The Bears, Oregon's opponent on Thursday at McArthur Court, feature 6-foot-10 Ryan Anderson and this season have another likely NBA draft pick alongside him in 6-11 Devon Hardin, out most of last season with an injury.

Then the Ducks will be up against Stanford on Sunday, which means the 7-foot Lopez twins, Robin and Brook, along with 6-8 Lawrence Hill in the starting lineup and 6-8 Taj Finger off the bench.

Oregon riding the wave of dual-threat QBs into the future
The Emerald
If there's one thing we learned from the Ducks' football season it's that it never hurts to have a stockpile of quarterbacks ready to play at a moment's notice.

Although senior Brady Leaf stepped in after Dennis Dixon went down, injuries derailed his chance to keep the offense moving and, because third-stringer Nate Costa was out for the season with a knee injury suffered during practice, the quarterback job fell to two redshirt freshmen who were overwhelmed upon seeing action against UCLA.

But with Justin Roper's performance in the Sun Bowl (17-of-30 for 180 yards and four touchdowns), the coaching staff proved that it's capable of making any quarterback with the right set of skills look good in the spread offense, if given enough time to prepare them for action.

Although I'd bet Roper won't be the starting quarterback next year, he'll still be given a chance to prove otherwise and will make the competition in the spring more interesting.

Roper will have to battle with Costa, who at this point will be limited to no-contact drills while recovering from ACL surgery, BYU transfers Sam Doman and Cade Cooper, and potential recruits Darron Thomas and Kelly Page, who have verbally committed to Oregon.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hansen/219320
Star
At high noon Saturday, Arizona had two sure advantages over the Oregon Ducks: crowd support, obviously, and the coaching matchup, with pugnacious Kevin O'Neill over the pretentious Ernie Kent.
Although to Kent's credit, he was surely the better dressed coach.
For the first time since 1983, I thought Oregon had better players in uniform than Arizona. And, worse, more of them. Alas, after a quarter-century; the Ducks were due.

Subpar defense costs Cats in loss to Ducks
PI
Everything Arizona didn't want to do, it did. And everything it wanted to do, it couldn't.
It was a recipe for disaster against unranked Oregon on Saturday afternoon at McKale Center.
The Ducks beat No. 21 Arizona 84-74, dropping the Wildcats to 10-4 overall and 1-1 in the Pacific-10 Conference.

UO swishes deal on key arena property
Register-Guard
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PORTLAND — The University of Oregon has reached a deal to buy a key piece of property needed for its proposed $200 million basketball arena off Franklin Boulevard in Eugene and won't have to condemn the parcel, officials said Friday.

UO President Dave Frohnmayer told the state Board of Higher Education on Friday that dentist Karl Wagenknecht has agreed to sell the Villard Street building that houses his endodontic practice. The university will pay $2.05 million for the property.

Neuheisel lifts coaches' feuds to a new level
Oregonian
R ick Neuheisel brought a needle with him to UCLA and wasted no time trying to get under the skin of USC coach Pete Carroll.

In his introductory news conference last week, Neuheisel noted he has a career 1-1 record against Carroll, who has led the Trojans to six consecutive Pacific-10 Conference championships and six wins in seven attempts against UCLA.

"Time to get even with the guys across the street," Neuheisel told the crowded room.

Cougars Notebook: Top receiver Gibson mulls jump to NFL; Tardy cleared
PI
PULLMAN -- Paul Wulff won't make his coaching debut at Washington State for eight months, but his hopes for success next fall may be largely determined in the next 24 hours.

On the same night that Wulff announced that leading rusher Dwight Tardy has been cleared to remain academically eligible, Wulff said Sunday that leading receiver Brandon Gibson told him he will decide Monday or Tuesday whether to turn pro or return for his senior year.

Wulff said he's "50-50" on his confidence in Gibson's return. Gibson, who led the Pac-10 with a school-record 1,180 receiving yards this season, said Sunday he's "not sure" what he'll decide.

ASU football aide going to Cal
The Arizona Republic
Al Simmons is leaving Arizona State after two seasons as cornerbacks coach to become defensive backs coach at California.

Simmons is a native of the Bay area and previously coached at Cal from 1998-2000. He also was ASU's special teams coach.

Hired by Dirk Koetter, Simmons remained at ASU when Dennis Erickson became coach. He previously was on Erickson's staff with Oregon State and the San Francisco 49ers.

Simmons is the second departure on the football staff. Strength coach Joe Kenn left for the same job at Louisville.

Free-throw futility cost UW in close loss to Cougars
PI
They played defense as well as any Washington basketball team in recent seasons, bellying up to Aron Baynes inside and hounding the passing lanes.

Jon Brockman snatched 17 rebounds and owned the boards.

Tim Morris provided an offensive alternative with 16 points when teammate Ryan Appleby was blanketed.

Yet for all the good things the Huskies did Saturday in a 56-52 loss to fourth-ranked and unbeaten Washington State, they gave it all back at the foul line.

Who's No. 1? USC now. Oregon then
AZ Star
Unlike the NCAA basketball tournament, which identifies a champion by process of elimination, the BCS takes a guess.

LSU?

Why, the Tigers lost at Kentucky, a five-loss team, and to Arkansas, a club so messed up that it forced its coach to flee to the great state of Mississippi.

Ohio State?

The Buckeyes lost at home to Illinois; anyone who watched Illinois come off as a high school team in the USC-dominated Rose Bowl likely discounted Ohio State as a contender.

Unfortunately, four months of football will have settled nothing. Ohio State and LSU compete for what is loosely termed "a championship game'' tonight.

What it really is, I'm afraid, is TV programming.

It is one more night of Monday Night football before winter really grabs hold and offers only Clemson vs. Florida State hoops on those lonely Mondays after dark.

The BCS championship game has created no chatter, no buzz, outside of Ohio and Louisiana. If the BCS high command could reshuffle the deck today, a true consensus would probably match USC and Georgia.

Tedford shuffles coaching staff
Register-Guard
BERKELEY, Calif. — Jeff Tedford wants to concentrate on being a head coach next season, so he's changing the structure of California's coaching staff to give him more time to be in charge.

Tedford shuffled his assistants Sunday, most notably hiring Frank Cignetti as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He also hired Al Simmons as defensive backs coach, reassigned three assistants and announced the departure of three others, including respected defensive line coach Ken Delgado.

Admin Bull

Sources say Jones picks SMU despite Hawaii blitz
ESPN
June Jones will be introduced at a news conference today as the head coach at SMU, according to three sources familiar with the decision.

Final Four format for football would need to be seeded, commissioners say
ESPN
ACC Commisioner John Swofford and SEC Commisioner Mike Slive said Monday morning at an annual meeting of the Football Writers Association of America that they believe a "plus-one" format would have to be seeded.

The other possibility of the "plus-one" was considered to be playing an extra game after the BCS title game.

Each commissioner also stated that the SEC, ACC, Big East and Big 12 are open to discussing the "plus-one" format. The Big Ten and Pac-10 have been opposed to it. On Sunday, a source told ESPN that SMU was close to finalizing the details of a contract for Jones. The source said that Jones' contract is expected to be for five years at close to $2 million per year. The deal is expected to be booster-funded. SMU athletic director Steve Orsini reportedly has sold as many as 20 boosters on the concept of donating as much as $100,000 per year for five years.

The Big Game

NEW ORLEANS - Louisiana State has been waiting since Dec. 1 to play in tonight's Bowl Championship Series title game against Ohio State, but Jacob Hester wouldn't mind waiting one more day.

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"Then I could celebrate both," he says.

Tomorrow is Elvis's birthday.

Jacob Hester, age 22, is a certified Elvis Presley freak.

There was music in his house back in Shreveport, La. The music very often was Elvis, and it took.

Hester has been to Graceland eight times and gave serious thought to making it nine over the Christmas break.

His favorite thing?

"I guess I'd have to say the cars," reports the senior fullback. "I love 'em all, from the pink Cadillac to the golf cart."

Hester says his wife has indulged him to the point of allowing an entire Elvis room in his house. Hester has all sorts of memorabilia, his favorite a 2-foot bust of The King.

Close-knit Buckeyes tighter than star-filled 2006 team
ESPN
NEW ORLEANS -- Ohio State stepped onto the game's biggest stage last January, took a bow, and fell into the orchestra pit. Afterward, the school announced it would disband football.

OK, that might be a slight exaggeration. But offensive coordinator Jim Bollman can't get over the surprise among the fans and the media that the Buckeyes are playing in the BCS National Championship Game for the second year in a row.

"What are you supposed to do after you get beat?" Bollman asked. "… Do you hide your head in the sand? Or do you try and get better? A bunch of guys got back to work and played football."

Team Cliffhanger survives maximum-drama season
ESPN
NEW ORLEANS -- Oh, to have been a pharmaceutical rep in Louisiana in the fall of 2007. You could have made a killing administering to overwrought LSU football fans.

"If you take heart medicine, you probably had to up the dosage," said lifelong Tigers fan Kevin Fayard. "And if you don't take heart medicine, you probably ought to."

Or something else.