Ducks had Rosey look from season’s start
(This article was originally written in mid-September, 2011, and after Oregon and Wisconsin won their way to the Rose Bowl, it appeared appropriate to reprint it here, in early December of 2011.)
By John Gilbert
Two weeks into the football season, and I may have just finished watching the Rose Bowl champion. You can bet on Wisconsin, if you’re a Big Ten loyalist, or you can bet on Nebraska, if you realize what the Big Ten has recently done. Or you could bet on Arizona State or someone exotic.
Me? I’m taking the Oregon Ducks.
A group of us, who write about automobiles, were gathered together in Portland, Oregon, where we had a good time driving the new Hyundai Veloster all day, and attending a venue or two of the Northwest Music Festival at night. Then came Saturday, and we drove Velosters — neat little sporty coupes that are quick, fun to drive, and should get over 40 miles per gallon, all for a price of under $15,000 — down to Eugene to watch Oregon play its home opener against Nevada.
Now that game might not have held such interest for me if we had a major college football attraction right here in Minnesota. But the University of Minnesota proved that its tradition is stronger than new coach Jerry Kill could have foreseen. The plan is to celebrate for a week losing close to a strong team, such as Southern California, and then fall flat on its face against a really poor team, such as New Mexico State. Losing that game, in the Gophers home opener, caused Kill to suffer a seizure on the sideline. Word is, he’ll get out of the hospital and be back on the bench for this Saturday’s game. Which makes you wonder if he’s a reasonable fellow, after all.
The Vikings, of course, went out to San Diego with their new quarterback, Donovan McNabb. I think McNabb might have a big year, but I worry that he might be over that proverbial hill. He completed five passes, for 39 yards, the worst statistics in his long, long, looooonnng, career. And the Vikings lost to the Chargers in their season-opener.
Fortunately for those of us in Duluth, we have Minnesota-Duluth, the defending Division II champion, and the No. 1 ranked D-II team in the land again. I missed the home opener, against Upper Iowa, which gave the Bulldogs a good battle. This weekend, it’s off to Bemidji State, and the fact is already established that even this early in the season, the best team, and the best-coached team, in Minnesota is the UMD Bulldogs.
Back to the Big Ten, which has been over-rated for about five or six years now. Sure, there’s Michigan, and Wisconsin, and occasionally Iowa or Penn State, but in general, the Big Ten is not in the class of the Southeast Conference, or the Pac-10, or whatever they’re calling the one that used to be the Big Eight, and the Southwest, before they tried to combine them, or break them up, or whatever.
Personally, Boise State is my new favorite D-1 team, simply because the NCAA’s Bowl championship playoff system is weird, and I always pull for Boise State to win enough games to foul it up. Last year, Boise State lost one game, and it was at Nevada, when Boise’s usually can’t-miss placekicker missed what would have been the game-winning field goal at the end of regulation, and incomprehensibly missed again to cost Boise the chance to win in overtime and go undefeated.
This season, Oregon started ranked No. 2 in the country, and played No 4 LSU down in New Orleans to open. LSU beat the Ducks, but not until Oregon had decisively outgained LSU but blew the game with fumbles and interceptions. That set the stage for last Saturday’s Oregon home opener, where the Ducks had won 16 straight games, and the opponent was Nevada, which promised to be a formidible foe, after a 13-victory season in 2010 and bringing a seven-game winning streak into this season.
Promises, however, aren’t always easy to keep. It was a hot day, in the 90s, very little breeze, during a record September hot spell that has turned some of the more fertile fields to dust. We trooped into Autzen Stadium and sat low in one corner. What unfolded below us was a pretty incredible performance.
An unusual pattern developed. Nevada had some extremely fast defensive secondary players, but their defensive scheme must have anticipated Oregon would only throw short passes. On several occasions, a Duck would race down the sideline, into the clear, and catch a pass from Darron Thomas with no defender within 20 yards of him. Yet in a couple of seconds, the speedy defensive secondary guy would overtake the Oregon receiver and nail him to prevent a touchdown. It made you wonder why, if they were fast enough to overtake the Oregon receivers, they didn’t simply back off on the tight coverage and prevent the easy receptions in the first place.
Oregon jumped ahead 13-0 in the first quarter, and in the second quarter one of the more misleading statistics in football history showed Nevada with the ball for 11:02, and Oregon with the ball for 3:58, but Oregon outscored Nevada 28-7 in the quarter. Oregon had the ball seven times in the first half, scored six touchdowns, and punted once, then the Ducks scored two more touchdowns on their first two possessions of the second half. When it was over, the Oregon Ducks had beaten the Nevada Wolfpack 69-20.
The most common view of Oregon's LaMichael James, whose Rose Bowl will have to be his Heisman Trophy.
Darron Thomas threw six touchdown passes, while going 13-19 for 295 yards. LaMichael James, who was among front-runners for the Heisman Trophy last year, scored on a 67-yard touchdown run, caught a pass from Thomas for another TD, and ran a punt back for his third touchdown of the day. De’Anthony Thomas caught two passes for the day, both for touchdowns.
Oregon completed 15 passes to Nevada’s 23, but Oregon averaged 22.1 yards per reception to Nevada’s 10.1 yards. And, Oregon intercepted three Nevada passes.
The capacity crowd was dressed in predominate yellow, and kept up a low yell of “OOOOOOOO-ooo-oooo-oh.†Apparently in Oregon, Ducks yell something that sounds like “Oh.†It was a fun crowd, jovial, and only occasionally abusive to the Nevada visitors. Battalions of Oregon cheerleaders pretty much encircled the playing field, but the Nevada cheerleaders did fine, too. On one occasion, the Nevada cheerleaders raced into the end zone, doing a series of flips and complete somersaults in the air, prompting the comment that the Nevada cheerleaders were more talented than the Nevada secondary.
There’s a long way to go in this season, of course, but when all the firing is done, and they’re picking the teams to play in the Rose Bowl, you can pick whichever team you like. I’m picking Oregon.
Go Ducks.
DJOKOVIC — REMEMBER THE NAME
During the French Open, I wrote here that some talk-show guys were making fun of the fact that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were meeting in the final, saying of course they were because they are the only two recognizable names in men’s tennis. I pointed out that when you don’t know something, you don’t need to go on radio to prove your shortcomings, because when Federer beat Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, it was the first time Djokovic (pronounced, “Joe-ka-vichâ€) had lost a match since November, and that he was easily as good, if not better, than Nadal or Federer right then.
Sure enough, when they played at Wimbledon, Federer won the first two sets, then Djokovic put on one of the great clinics in pro tennis history to win three straight to gain the final, where Djokovic, from Serbia, beat Nadal, from Spain.
In case you missed it, the U.S. Open finished the 2011 season of majors last Monday, and once again Djokovic, now ranked No. 1 in the world, had to face Federer in the semifinals. Again Federer won the first two sets. And again, incredibly, Djokovic won the third, fourth and fifth sets to claim the match. That made it only two times in his career that Federer had won the first two sets and lost the match, and they were in the last two majors, against Djokovic.
That sent Djokovic, No. 1, against No. 2 Nadal in the final, and it was a repeat of Wimbledon. Djokovic won the first two sets, lost the third, then won the fourth to claim his third of four majors this year. Once again, Nadal played well enough to beat Federer or anybody else on the tennis tour, but it wasn’t good enough to beat Djokovic. Djokovic’s record for the year is 34-2, which analyst John McEnroe said was probably the most incredible season any tennis player has ever had.
ROY WAS NEVER A STAR
The last time I saw Roy Niemi was in the Super One store on 60th Avenue East and Superior Street. Just a chance meeting, but, as usual, we stood and talked for long minutes, and then we went outside and talked for more minutes, in the parking lot. Roy had moved from Lakewood down into a house in Lester Park, and he suggested we should get together some time, just to sit around drinking coffee and talking about UMD sports. Or whatever.
I had known Roy since I was 5 years old, when my family moved to Lakewood. He was a few years older, and he was always a big, tough character, but always possessing a ready laugh, as well.
Before that, I saw him at Amsoil Arena, where he was down on the floor of the arena for UMD’s big celebration after returning home with its first-ever NCAA Division I men’s hockey championship. Roy was sitting there with Mayor Don Ness, discussing what a great season it had been.
As an athlete, Roy Niemi was never a big star, but he was tough and willing, which made him an important football player, at Duluth Central and at UMD. He may not have been a star, but he was something of a legend to the younger kids, myself included.
There was the time he was goofing off in the ditch alongside the Lakewood Road, back when it was gravel all the way up. They used to make sure the road was as smooth as it could be by occasionally grading it, with, of course, a road grader. It used to be high adventure, as a young kid, to run out by the road and watch this massive grader, looking like an immensely oversized but earthbound dragonfly rolling along on those giant, heavy-lugged tires. The inevitable happened, and the grader ran over Roy Niemi. He not only lived through it, he seemed to recover fully and gain in stature for having taken on and whipped a giant piece of machinery.
He also was one of the many who went swimming in Lester River, down by the railroad bridge. He made a dive, where it was too shallow, and he struck his head on a huge boulder just below the surface. The impact broke his neck, but he recovered. He had to spend most of a year wearing a giant protective headgear while his neck healed, but again, he overcame it and again proved his invincibility to us all.
Since he retired, I’d see him at various UMD sports events. He was always an avid booster, and every time we’d have an enjoyable time dissecting the game.
So it was with considerable shock, and pain, that I returned from Oregon and learned that health problems had proven relentless, and Roy Niemi died, late last week, in a Duluth hospital.
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About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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