It was a nightmare for Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, and one that may linger for the rest of the season.
The Ducks found themselves battling to avoid an upset last Saturday at Arizona, and in the process saw star quarterback Kellen Clemens go down with a fractured ankle and his backup, Dennis Dixon, leave with a concussion. Oregon was able to escape with a 28-21 win behind third-string quarterback Brady Leaf, but the victory was a costly one.
Clemens, a senior who ranked fifth in the nation and first in the Pacific-10 in total offense (329.3 yards) is done for the year. Luckily, Dixon is fine and will get a week (Oregon has a bye this weekend) to prepare to take over as the starter, but the loss of Clemens is a huge one.
“He will continue to be a part of our program,” Bellotti said. “He’ll help coach our young quarterbacks. … It’s disheartening to lose Kellen Clemens at this point but it’s exciting to see what our young guys can do. We’ll get a jump-start on next year right now.”
Clemens was completing 64 percent of his passes for 300.8 yards a game with 19 touchdowns and just four interceptions for the 7-1 Ducks, ranked 14th in the nation and, at 4-1, in third place in the Pac-10. He also topped all conference quarterbacks with 228 rushing yards.
Bellotti said Clemens’ surgery on Monday went well, and the quarterback will have about four months of rehabilitation.
Now the reigns of Oregon’s explosive offense (464.8 yards, 35.4 points a game) go to Dixon, a sophomore who is 15-for-20 for 130 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and 66 rushing yards this season. Bellotti said Dixon will go from getting about 30 percent of the snaps in practice to about 60-to-70 percent, with most of the rest going to Leaf.
“Dennis is an exceptional athlete,” Bellotti said. “He brings an electricity to the atmosphere because he can take the ball and do a lot with it. He’s an excellent passer. … We expect him to step right in. The learning curve will be great but I think he’s ready. He’s excited and the team is excited for him.”
Still, Bellotti admits that depth is a concern now at the position. One answer could have been Johnny DuRocher, but DuRocher transferred from Oregon to Washington at the beginning of last season, and is now the Huskies’ backup to Isaiah Stanback.
“Obviously there’s a quarterback that defected from us who would have been involved, but now he’s not, and that’s his choice,” Bellotti said.
Stanford roll continues: The surprise team of the Pac-10 is clearly Stanford, picked by most to finish near the bottom of the conference in the preseason. The Cardinal did little to make anyone believe they were any better than that early on, losing to NCAA Division I-AA UC Davis 20-17 at home. But now, Stanford has won three in a row, including last week’s 45-35 victory over Arizona State, to improve to 4-2, and at 3-1 is in fourth place in the league.
“It takes good football players,” coach Walt Harris said of the turnaround. “We had a wake-up call. We vastly underachieved. I don’t think they were respecting their opponents. We got embarrassed. But the bottom is a great thing to push off of. We were at the bottom and we were pushing hard to get off the bottom.”
As for the UC Davis loss, Harris said he was getting tired of it, but he isn’t so tired of it anymore.
“I get less tired about it the more we win,” Harris said.
Frosh steps up for Arizona: After struggling with the decision for awhile, Arizona coach Mike Stoops decided to pull the redshirt off of freshman quarterback Willie Tuitama and go with him against Oregon. Tuitama showed that Stoops made the right choice, going 18-for-34 for 182 yards and two touchdowns in place of Richard Kovalcheck.
“It was a hard week knowing that you’re putting a guy in there who has very limited experience,” Stoops said. “You don’t want to put a guy out there and have him fail. That was the biggest concern. I knew Willie had tremendous instincts but I didn’t know they were that good until I saw him out there.”
On Saturday, Tuitama goes against an Oregon State defense that ranks last in the Pac-10 in total defense (451.4 yards a game), pass defense (321.1) and scoring defense (35.7). Beavers coach Mike Riley said he knows Tuitama has talent.
“I watched him practice in high school, I was right down there on the sideline with him,” Riley said. “I knew Arizona was getting a good one. I didn’t expect to see him this soon.”
Mike Allende, Herald Writer
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