Top Ten Events of the Decade

Autzen Stadium
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

On the eve of the Rose Bowl and on the last day of the decade I thought I would put out one of those cliché top ten lists. So here I present my opinion of the top 10 moments in Oregon football in the 2000’s:

1. The Fiesta Bowl win over Colorado. The Ducks destroyed the over-confident and over-hyped Buffs in a performance which was highlighted by Oregon domination of the line of scrimmage. For a few days the Ducks held out hope for a shared national championship and ended the year #2 in the country.

2. Expansion of Autzen stadium. Autzen made the transformation from tiny but loud college stadium to a mid-size college stadium with modern amenities that still managed to maintain its charm. The Ducks hosted and defeated Mississippi State in 2002 to open the new era of Autzen.

3. The hiring of Chip Kelly. Oregon had success with the “Mike Bellotti” offense from 1989 to 2004 then Bellotti saw the writing on the wall and went with the spread in 2005 with Gary Crowton. With the departure of Crowton for LSU Bellotti made the best hire of his life and arguably on the best hiring of an assistant coach nationally in the decade by taking a chance of Chip Kelly.

4. 2009 Civil War. The biggest Civil War in history more than lived up to the hype with the Ducks coming back to win in the 4th quarter through team effort and ballsy coaching decisions by Chip Kelly to play to win rather than playing not to lose which was sometimes the MO of Mike Bellotti. The Ducks were rewarded with their first Rose Bowl appearance since the 1994 season.

5. 2009 USC game. The massacre on Halloween served notice to USC that they are no longer the sheriff in the Pac 10. I think the Pac 10 will enter a new era where the race is up for grabs every year and you can’t just automatically write down USC to the Rose Bowl every year anymore.

6. 2003 and 2007 Michigan games. In a nutshell the Ducks getting wins here gave the Ducks some very solid wins over a traditional power but perhaps more significantly they were a metaphor for the arrival of a new era in college football. The Ducks represent new money, marketing, flashiness and the future while Michigan represented an earlier era of football where tradition ruled and only a few select schools would have a chance to make a splash on that national level.

7. 2000 and 2008 Holiday Bowl wins. The Ducks beat highly rated Big 12 teams in different styles in 2000 and 2008 but both games set the table for special seasons the next year. The 2000 game saw Oregon use craft play calling and a bend but don’t break defense to defeat a Texas team that was loaded with NFL talent. The 2008 Ducks kept their composure after a rough first half and hit Oklahoma State in the face with a power running attack and a hard hitting defense that displayed more physicality than the “bigger more physical (media’s opinion not mine)” Cowboys.

8. 2001 Heisman Presentation. Joey Harrington ended up finishing 4th in the Heisman voting but made the trip to New York City for the presentation. After the bowl games were played many people felt that had the votes been submitted again that Harrington would have won. Joey displayed his usual class and represented the program well on the highest of national stages.

9. 2006 Oklahoma game. Definitely the most controversial win in my memory and the team’s reaction to the media scrutiny kind of killed the season. For those that were in the stadium when the Ducks came back to win in miraculous fashion against Adrian Peterson and company the feeling of beating Oklahoma after losing to them twice before was pure ecstasy. No matter what calls the refs “may or may not have missed” the Duck players deserve all the credit in the world for never giving up.

10. Andy Ludwig leaves for Utah. The Ducks of 2002 to 2004 were clearly a bit off offensively and this made for some very frustrating times for Oregon fans. Not only was the offense less effective in terms of scoring and yardage the offense was for the first time since the Brooks era boring and predictable. Games typically showed Oregon being very successful with their first 15-20 scripted plays then the offense would stutter due to Ludwig’s lack of ability to make calls on the fly. The transformation from Ludwig to Crowton to Kelly was quite a sea-change for the Bellotti but ultimately was the greatest call of Bellotti’s time at Oregon since he recognized that the spread option would give Oregon the best chance at leveling the playing field with the athletes that USC can recruit.