DUCKS' QUACK ATTACK VAULTS OREGON INTO TITLE TALK

Oregon's thrashing of USC 47-20 Saturday night proved that the Ducks are playing as good a brand of football as anyone in the country, thus further stoking the fire leading up to the Bowl Championship Series. The "Quack Attack" is much improved on defense and their offense made the Trojan defense look like a rag-tag group of non-scholarship players rather than the traditionally dominant defense on the west coast.

This leads to a very natural question--if Oregon runs the table and finishes 11-1, and Boise State, the yearly non-BCS Cinderella story, who topped the Ducks 19-8 in the season opener, finishes undefeated, will the Broncos be able to hold off Oregon in the BCS rankings and bowl game selections? Oregon is the highest ranked one-loss team in the Top Ten and they are climbing faster than a popular smash hit on Casey Kasem's 1970's top 40 countdown

This week's rankings have Boise State just .021 ahead of Oregon (.786 to .765). The Top 10 is: 1. Florida 2. Texas 3. Alabama 4. Iowa 5. Cincinnati 6. TCU 7. Boise St. 8. Oregon 9. LSU 10. Ga Tech.

There are four games remaining in the regular season for most teams. Some of the super conferences have a championship game, such as the Big 12, SEC, and ACC. But, neither Oregon nor Boise St. have to worry about that. The Ducks travel to Stanford, host Arizona St., go to Arizona and are home to Oregon St. The Broncos go to La Tech, play host to Idaho, head to Utah State and finish at home with Nevada.

With all of the wild ranking calculations and formulas in action, there is no doubt that strength of schedule helps Oregon. There is no clear-thinking, non-partisan college football person who can say that Boise State's schedule is anything close to Oregon. Oh, but wait...what about head to head? Boise proved they are the better team in the season opening game, 19-8, right? That's where I believe Oregon can be given "a mulligan", a do-over if you will, will you?

Oregon at Boise State the first weekend of September was, in essence, the Broncos bowl game. Yet, for Oregon it was just an opening game on the road with a brand new coaching staff. Because Boise just doesn't get BCS conference schools to take a road trip to Idaho, it was THE biggest game on the Bronco's schedule. It consumed everyone even remotely tied to the football program, the city of Boise, or anyone who had even passed through the state of Idaho.

Give them their due, Boise State played well enough to win that night. The Ducks' head coach, Chip Kelly, was taking the reins from long-time successful coach Mike Belotti, for the very first time. He had his new, hand-picked staff which was operating under game conditions together for the first time. Sure, the opening game was a big deal for them, too. After all every game is a big deal. But, for Kelly's program it was first time doing things his way. Everything from how they traveled, to what they ate on the plane, to what hotel they stayed in, what routine they had with meetings, meals and walk-throughs at the team's hotel leading up until kickoff. It may seem trite, but when a bunch of new coaches, and players who are getting used to new coaches, get together for a season opener on the road, there is more to winning than just playing the game. It's about knowing what to expect. Football coaches and players are creatures of habit. It's a game built on repetition after repetition. This trip was not routine; it was all new.

Unfortunately, there is no pre-season or exhibition game in college football. When you tee it up for the first game, it counts. This is especially tough for programs who have new staffs. The old adage that football teams make the most improvement between game one and game two is especially true for teams with new staffs. Oregon, rolling off seven straight wins in rebounding from that flat opening night, has done nothing but get better and better and better.

Just ask Pete Carroll and USC. They were never in the game. Oregon put the biggest whooping on the Trojans in the Carroll era. A defensive guru, Carroll's troops were completely overwhelmed as they yielded...get ready for this...613 yards!

Who knows where this all will lead; only the computer rankings know. One thing is for certain, all of this makes for great conversation as we head into the final one- third of the season.