All that stands in the way of a third-straight conference title and another trip to the Rose Bowl is UCLA at Autzen on Friday. Here's your Tuesday quack:
- Rob Moseley writes today about the Ducks preparing for UCLA and looking for their third straight conference title. With the game scheduled for Friday evening, the Ducks and Bruins are both working on a short week of preparation, the UCLA also has to deal with the firing of Rick Neuheisel, which was announced yesterday.
- With the Neuheisel firing, this may be our last opportunity to enjoy a Weasel Stomping Day. George Schroeder writes that the UCLA mess is probably not what Larry Scott envisioned in the inaugural Pac-12 championship game. Finalyl, Neuheisel wasn't the only conference casualty: Dennis Erickson was also given his walking papers and a final decision on Wazzu's Paul Wulff is expected today.
- The all-conference teams were announced yesterday and the Ducks had a total of 12 players named. Of note, LaMichael James, De'Anthony Thomas, Eddie Pleasant, Dion Jordan and Josh Kaddu made the first-team, with Thomas also sharing offensive freshman of the year honors with USC's Marquise Lee. The biggest Oregon oversights were probably the complete absences of Darron Thomas and Michael Clay.
- In basketball news, the Ducks take on UTEP tonight, who are led by former USC coach Tim Floyd. It also appears there is no news on Jabari Brown, which Altman expressing doubts about the possibility of a reconciliation as more time passes.
- Bob Clark has switched focus with his weekly look around the conference from football to basketball. His topic this week is the poor performance of the conference as a whole in the early part of the season.
- Benzduck runs down six of the best games that have pitted Oregon and UCLA against each other. He even sneaks in a few UCLA wins.
- Finally, here's the latest fish report following the Oregon State game. In the latest installment, Charles takes a look at the sweep-read play that the Ducks have begun incorporating in their game plan.
Go Ducks!