We’re live from Eugene, Oregon, enjoying some beautiful views and soon to be frosty weather. Hopefully we’ll also see a good game, as UCLA tries to upset Oregon. Here are some more pre-game thoughts.
– Two surprising statistics; Oregon has an all-time record of 3-12 against UCLA here at Autzen Stadium and UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel has beat Oregon coach Mike Bellotti four of the five teams the two have faced each other.
– Rough times all-around for the Pac-10. All 10 teams have a loss, and no team has won more than two consecutive games. First-place Arizona fell 24-23 to Stanford today, Arizona State was shut-out at USC (and Rudy Carpenter took a beating from the Trojan defense), and Washington State surrendered 60 points for the third time this season. Cal and Washington are off this week, but it’s starting to look like time’s up for Huskie coach Tyrone Willingham. Willingham’s teams have won just two games in their last 25 Pac-10 games.
– Watch for the matchup between Oregon senior defensive end Nick Reed and UCLA freshman tackle Jeff Baca. Baca is a confident kid, but he’s only 18, and in Reed he will face a 21-year-old senior All-American who has recorded at least one sack in the past five games. Both Baca and Reed graduated from Mission Veijo High School.
– UCLA has won just three road games in its last 14 tries.
– UCLA wide receiver Marcus Everett did not travel with the team here. I spoke with Everett Wednesday and he sounded fairly uncertain about playing tonight. His toe injury is not healing progressively and he said he hopes to play next week against Stanford, which is UCLA’s homecoming game. In other injury news, UCLA defensive end Tom Blake is listed as questionable for tonight’s game.
– Oregon has not announced a starting quarterback. It will either be Justin Roper, a 6-foot-6-inch redshirt freshman, or his back-up, Jeremiah Masoli. Masoli is a junior college transfer, just like UCLA’s Kevin Craft. UPDATE: Masoli was announced as the starter during the pregame introductions.
– Oregon players will wear a helmet decal to honor their fallen teammate, Todd Doxey. Doxey drowned earlier this year in a swimming accident. UPDATE: Wide receiver Jeff Maehl will wear No. 29- Doxey’s old number.
– This is the first week of the season when Oregon has not been ranked in either poll. The Ducks rose to No. 12 the in the USA Today poll before losses to Boise State and USC.
– We heard all week about Oregon fans’ disdain for Neuheisel, and it’s more than apparent here in Eugene. We spotted several fans wearing "Neuheisel sucks, go ducks" t-shirts, and drove past a boating center that had rearranged its sign to read "Neuheisel’s got nothing Bruin for UCLA." For the record, we saw coach Neuheisel in the parking lot of our hotel earlier today, and he looked to be in a good mood. He even nodded to say hello.
– We’re still an hour from kick-off and we have already heard a cheer from the Oregon student body that cannot be printed on our fine newspaper’s website.
– For those interested in these sorts of things; Oregon players will wear green helmets, black jerseys and black pants. The Ducks constantly tweak their uniforms, in part because of their close ties with Nike.
– Enjoy those temperatures in Southern California while we freeze up here. Temperatures are expected to fall to the 30’s and the Oregon press box has opened it’s windows (so we can better experience the raucous atmosphere, we’re told).
– We’ll update you on any more injury news before the game starts, and check back after each quarter for a new post.