It sucks we, as Duck fans, have to muddle through this Chris Harper saga every few months.

But, here is another story out of Kansas and the Witchita Eagle. Harper's brother is still giving the impression that Chris is not fully committed to staying at Oregon.

If you recall, it was Harper himself you eluded to the idea of exploring options. It also sounds as though he really wants to play QB.

Really hope this kid sticks it out.

Rob Moseley is reporting that Justin Thompson has been denied admission to UO for the second straight quarter and will NOT be a Ducks. Sounds as thought the University has given up on the kid in terms of getting him academically eligible.

Not really sure where the problem was - with Thompson or the University.

On the flip side, Moseley also stated in the same blog post that, "Junior college defensive linemen Zac Clark and Terrance Montgomery have enrolled for winter quarter, according to Andy Mac."

I threw this up on my site, since I couldn't find it on the Sporting News Web site. I thought it was great to see these guys show Riley some well-deserved love.

I thought this was well worth pointing out - In the Dec. 22nd issue of Sporting News, page eight starts the 2008 SN college football awards. It’s the bottom-right corner of page nine that I want to bring to your attention.

Sporting News asked 16 coaching legends from the Legends Poll to vote for their Coach of the Year. Of the 16 votes, 11 went to Oregon State coach Mike Riley, three went to Alabama coach Nick Saban, one vote went to Mississippi coach Houston Nutt, and one vote went to Penn State coach Joe Paterno.

It’s nice to see some of the game’s greatest coaches recognize someone west of the Mississippi - especially a coach like Mike Riley.

See who the legends are and how the legends voted!

Mathew Knight Arena

It looks as though the new arena will be names Mathew Knight Arena.

In a rare public appearance, Phil Knight announced at a news conference at the Rose Garden Arena today that the University of Oregon's new basketball pavilion will be called Matthew Knight Arena. It will honor a son of Phil and Penny Knight who died in 2004.

The entire story from the Oregonian can be found here.

The video of the announcement can be found here on the O-Zone.

The Ducks have made a scholarship offer to RB Ethan Grant - recruiting class of 2010. The H.S. junior is from Coconut Creek, FL. and attends North Broward Prep. He is currently on the Rivals250 watch list of the 2010 class.

It's nice to see Oregon continue to reach players across the U.S. and they're obviously not afraid to get in on the offers early.

It can only help that Oregon stepped up and made an offer. Looking back, hopefully Grant will remember who was the first to make an offer.

So, I've been debating with the fellas over at Building the Dam as to which running back may be better.

Funny, it actually started out as me saying they (Beaver fans) should not take away from what Best was able to accomplish. Then it turned into a "let's defend Rodgers" session. lol

Anyhow, I think this is one of the better debates of the 2008 football season.

I wrote an article on my own site, Pac10Rivalry.com (you'll see it if you visit) and want to get a perspective of some Cal guys/gals. 

The BtD post can be found here just for reference (not to jump in and bash).

I think Quizz is very deserving of the Offensive Player of the Year award, however, I believe Best was the better overall back and was every bit as deserved.

What is your take on Best vs. Rodgers?

via media.kickstatic.com

There’s no place like home for the Beavers—when playing Southern California.

For all of USC’s Pac-10 dominance since 2002 Corvallis, OR has not been kind to the Trojans.

Last night the unranked and 24-point underdog Beavers beat No. 1 ranked USC 27-21 in what many thought would be a walk in the park for the Trojans. I’m sure most college football fans sat in front of their televisions with their jaws gaped open watching the final seconds tick down on national t.v. They must have been wondering how an unranked team like Oregon State could have beaten the top ranked powerhouse that is USC.

It was just two Saturdays ago when the top ranked Trojans played the No. 5 ranked Ohio St. Buckeyes and beat them handily 35-3. Most everyone had anointed USC this season’s team-to-beat and probable national champion.

The USC Trojans came to Reser Stadium and (recent) history was not on their side. Since the 2000 season USC is 1-3 while visiting the Beavers in Corvallis—the lone win being a narrow eight points in 2004.

In 2006, then ranked No. 3, USC marched into the sea of Orange and Black and crawled out being black-and-blue as the Beavers whooped them 33-31 and also snapped their 27 game Pac-10 win streak.

So while many are surprised the Beavers could knock off USC and shake up the BCS, the Beavs knew they had history to look forward to.

The week the Pac-10 definitely took a blow when it comes to the argument of which is the best conference.

While USC appears to be head-and-shoulders above every other team in the Pac-10 country, the remaining teams in the conference are not boding well. This can even be said for Oregon (3-0), Cal (2-1), and Arizona St. (2-1).

One might say, "Wait a minute! How can these teams not be doing all they can do make the conference look good? Just look at their record."

Well, in my opinion, of the three, No. 16 Oregon has really made a good case by going 3-0 thus far. However, for two-and-a-half quarters they struggled against a Purdue team whom many thought the Ducks would beat by at least 2 touchdowns.

No. 15 Arizona St. was stunned by UNLV. Next up for the Sun Devils? No. 2 Georgia! Enough said.

No. 23 Cal lost to Maryland—a team that beat Delaware by only one touchdown and lost to Middle Tennessee.

Then there are teams like UCLA. You know, beating Tennessee—making everyone start to believe there just might be two football teams in Southern California this season—then getting blown out by No. 18 BYU 59-0.

Zero? Yes, zero!

Washington... well, they're still Washington.

Stanford was thought to be a team on the rise (or at least the Beavers would have you believe that), but I'll reserve judgment on that until after they play San Jose St. next week.

Arizona sure came out of the gate charging hard. Coach Mike Stoops was probably thinking he was starting to turn things around and his job was going to be safe. That was until the daunted New Mexico Lobos pulled out the V card. Lobo is the Spanish word for "wolf". They have teeth just like a wild cat. I guess lobos are just tougher.

Washington St. is currently 0-3. No real surprise there. I look for them to be 0-4 after they play Portland St. next week.

Oregon St. came out and lost to Stanford and then got a whoopin' by Penn St. They managed to get a win against Hawaii, but the joy won't last long as they host USC next week.

So, now that I've offered my brief rundown of each Pac-10 team, why is it that I compare the conference to the MWC in the title?

Through the first three weeks the Pac-10 has played the MWC on five different occasions. My initial thought is that perhaps the Pac-10 has won a respectable three of the five games.

Uh, check that. The Pac-10 is 0-5 against the MWC thus far this season.

Let me repeat that.

The Pac-10 is 0-5 against the Mountain West Conference. Not a single win. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

So, I'm sorry to say, but at this point the Pac-10 is lower on the totem pole than the MWC.

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Oregon's Jairus Byrd's punt return for 87 yards for a TD. Set the tone for the comeback win against Purdue.

There is a "Click to Vote!" link near the top.

You can also check out the videos of the four nominees for week 3.

The four are:

1. Georgia
2. Buffalo
3. USC
4. Oregon

http://search.espn.go.com/pontiac/

P.S.
Yes, it's a Pontiac advertisement, but only takes a couple of minutes to get through it.

There were several questions coming into this afternoon's game with the Utah State Aggies: How is QB Justin Roper doing and will he play today? Will TE Ed Dickson get some balls thrown his way today? After serving his one game suspension, will offensive tackle Fenuki Tupou be effective? Can Oregon finally get a win while wearing the flame-embossed yellow helmets?

Oregon won easily, 66-24, as they tuned up before facing Purdue next week.

Justin Roper did play. I was actually a bit surprised to see him play as much as he did. I thought he would see a series or two, but it was much more than that. I'm guessing the coaching staff wanted to see how he would handle the offense while not concussed. Roper did quite well completing 13 of 19 passes for 173 yards. He also had one touchdown and one interception thrown.

Both Jeremiah Masoli and Chris Harper saw some of the snaps. They combined for 11 of 17 completions for 107 passing yards. Harper had 1 touchdown passing and neither threw an interception. Chris Harper also rushed 4 times for 25 yards and a rushing touchdown.

Everyone in the stadium held his or her collective breath as Jeremiah Johnson went down on the second play of the game with a shoulder injury. According to running backs coach Gary Campbell Johnson should be ready to play next week at Purdue.

With Johnson leaving the game early RB LeGarrette Blount got most of the carries and he looked good. In a post-game interview he said he certainly didn't expect to play as much as he did, but he absolutely made the best of it. He rushed 18 times for 132 yards and two touchdowns—all of which garnered him player of the game honors.

The number two receiver from last season’s team didn't touch the ball at all last week. But today Ed Dickson was involved with 6 catches for 70 yards. WR Jeff Maehl caught 4 passes for 72 yards.

Fenuki Tupou played well with nothing negative to report. Let's hope all of the "agent issues" are behind him and it doesn’t become at distraction.

Yes! Oregon finally won a game wearing the flame-embossed yellow helmets. Phew! We can all get a good night sleep now.

A couple other quick notes: The Ducks finished the day with a school record 688 total yards. The Autzen Stadium sellout streak continued and now stands at 57 games.

One last thing—Is there anyone on the Ducks roster who didn't score a touchdown today? Here's the rundown of those who did:

LeGarrett Blount - 2 (rushing)
Terence Scott - 2 (rushing, receiving)
Andre Crenshaw - 1 (rushing)
Remene Alston - 1 (rushing)
Juston Roper - 1 (rushing)
Chris Harper - 1 (rushing)
Rory Cavaille - 1 (receiving)

I thought this was interesting. Obviously nothing to get hyped about since it was only the first game and against the lowly Huskies.

Mark from Mesa, Ariz., writes: Once again, there is no early season Heisman candidate west of Texas. Do you see anyone from the Pac-10 making to NYC in December? And yes, I do think it's entirely too early to talk Heisman after one week, but what the heck!

Ted Miller: To be honest, who would you suggest for a preseason list? There just wasn't a lot of returning star-power in the Pac-10. But don't worry: If USC QB Mark Sanchez plays well in a win over Ohio State, he likely jumps into the top five. As would Arizona State QB Rudy Carpenter if he, say, threw four TD passes vs. Georgia. And if Oregon's Jeremiah Johnson keeps playing like he did vs. Washington or California's Jahvid Best becomes another multi-purpose threat, they'll make the list. It's early on this one and I don't get a sense of East Coast bias.

I just posed the question on my site, but want to get some opinions here as well!

Knowing that both Sean Canfield and Nate Costa are out due to injuries, the time for Lyle Moevao and Justin Roper has definitely arrived.

I find it odd that both Canfield and Costa re-injured the same part of their body they hurt last year (should and knee respectively).

Also, both of their "back-ups"—or at least the player they were dueling with for the starting position—were right on their heels during the battle for that starting spot.

Anyhow, I'd like to know which QB you think will have the bigger impact—positive or negative—for their team in week 1.

I'm going to throw this up on BtD as well to get their opinions.

According to Mosley's blog (via Curtis Anderson) the update on Nate Costa will not come until Monday.

It still begs the question, "Just how serious is the injury?"

Not too mention whether the Ducks staff knows more than what they're letting out to the public at this point.

I've read at least three reports that "players" have said Costa is done for the year. Of course, as we all know, we can only take these reports with a grain of salt.

Until Monday...

Junior tight end Ed Dickson has been named to the John Mackey Award watch list.

The Mackey Award goes to "the most outstanding Tight End in Division I-A college football. In addition to demonstrating outstanding athletic prowess on the field, the award also stands for positive sportsmanship-like behavior, good academic standing & exceptional leadership abilities."

Dickson was the Ducks second leading receiver last year with 43 catches for 453 yards and three touchdowns.

Two other Pac-10 players have made the watch list—UCLA's Logan Paulsen and Arizona's Rob Gronkowski.

www.JohnMackeyAward.org

If you haven't read the ESPN article on Mitch Canham, it's well worth checking out.

After Canham was drafted I was able to watch him a few times while with the Eugene Em's. He was a pleasure to watch with the Beavs, with the Em's, and I cannot wait to see this kid playing in the Show!!

I've made a link to it here.

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The "Teams" list doesn't seem to offer NCAA Men's Baseball, so I used the D1 Football drop-down to add the Beavs under "Teams".