It was the game the rivalry deserved. And now that it’s over, just a few simple words say it all. The Ducks are going to the Rose Bowl.

Wow.

The game wasn’t always always clean, but it was one for the ages.

Ducks and Beavers traded blows for 60 minutes and as has been the case all season, Oregon wore its opponent down in the second half and asserted itself when the game entered the decisive stages.

Until then, it looked like the Beavers might take control and use a script laid out by the Ducks in 2008 to ruin the home team’s Rose Bowl dreams. But would you believe that when things were at their worst, Chip Kelly would turn to LeGarrette Blount for the first time since the season opener?

Putting Blount in the game while facing a nine point deficit seemed crazy. Turns out, it was brilliant as the big back came up with a huge touchdown to draw Oregon within two at 30-28.

From there, LaMichael James became dominant, turning in a 52 yard lead-taking touchdown run on the next offensive series. The defense began to shine after giving up scores on five consecutive drives between the second and third quarters.

When the game was on the line in the final six minutes, it was fitting to see Jeramiah Masoli, James and Blount all turning in huge plays to ultimately ensure the Beavers would never get another chance.

Oregon State played a great game. Sean Canfield looks like a bonafide pro. The Rodgers brothers are ridiculously talented. And they all deserve a much better bowl than what might be available after Saturday’s games. The Holiday had better think long and hard about the Beavers who would travel well and be an ideal representative for the Pac-10 in the league’s second best bowl.

But I’m sure opponent respect isn’t what the Beavers were after. Clearly, they wanted the spoils of the victor, but Thursday, those were reserved for Oregon.

As the final seconds ticked down and melted into a post game celebration where fans could not and would not leave, the scene at Autzen Stadium seemed surreal even through ESPN’s cameras a state away.

I sat and watched. And smiled. And kept smiling. And then I saw that first red rose, and Oh My God! The Ducks are in the Rose Bowl! That really just happened. How sweet it is.

It’s Thursday, December 3, 2009 and you know what that means.

This is no time to be timid. Oregon State is thine enemy and no mercy can be shown. Roses are on the line, winner take all and while flowers might seem like a silly thing to play for, to a collegiate man, there’s nothing more valuable.

But don’t mistake the Rose Bowl as the only thing on the line tonight. It’s not all these guys are playing for. Mike Bellotti would tell you it’s for the right to live in the state (well, if you actually live there). Co-workers, family and friends are just a tad more bearable when you have the W on your side.

I come into this game more nervous than a year ago. Perhaps it’s because Oregon’s stakes are higher, but I think it has more to do with knowing the Ducks aren’t dropping 65 on the Beavers two years in a row. By default, this game has to be more competitive.

FOTB Pick

But also, the Beavers have their full arsenal on offense with Jacquizz Rodgers healthy this year. Say what you will about the debate between him and LaMichael James running the football, but Rodgers is also the Pac-10’s second leading receiver. He’s dynamic and it’s something OSU didn’t have a year ago.

Still, Autzen Stadium is the security blanket. The defense is far better in front of the home fans and the offense’s worst output in Pac-10 play was 42 points against Cal. The Ducks have been more dominant at home this season than any in recent memory.

At some point, with the raucous energy of the crowd behind them, Oregon is going to have that opportunity to deliver a couple of haymakers. Chip Kelly will put the pedal to the metal and the Beavers won’t know what hit them. I can see this game turning over a 5-10 minute span of defensive and offensive playmaking that demoralizes the orange and black.

But enough already. It’s all words and there’s really nothing left to discuss. It’s been two weeks of rehashed stereotypes and storylines.

The only thing left unsaid is 60 minutes of football. We’re just hours away. Your travel agent is standing by.

I’m “Off the Pond” in a lot of ways. One of those happens to be that I went Duck in a family full of Beavers. For me, the rivalry is a lot tamer than most. I admit to wanting to see the Beavers succeed for the family’s sake. No, I’m not going soft on you and I’m not going to wear orange anytime soon like this Duck alum, but I just can’t hate them, either.

I took some time to converse with the fam this week and we talked about the rivalry. This would have worked better as a podcast so you could sense the light-hearted nature of it all, but this is what I have so it’ll have to do.

On the beginnings and realizing I was all Duck, never to be a Beaver…

OTP: When did you first realize you had a Duck instead of a Beaver?

Mom: Well, when you decided to be a bandwagon fan. I think it was probably you and Scott (my cousin) were little buddies and your relatives were Duck fans and the fact that the Ducks turned the program around a little earlier than the Beavers did and so you did your bandwagon thing.

OTP: And by bandwagon, you mean I wanted to root for a 2 win team instead of a 1 win team?

Mom: Probably. I dressed you in little orange and black sweats when you were learning to walk. I have a picture of you with a Beaver baseball cap with your little orange and black sweats but one day we woke up and you were with the Ducks.

OTP: So you were trying to push me the other way.

The photo's 10 years old, but can you spot the Duck fan?

Mom: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

OTP: I have to figure this out, too. One of my greatest fears is not being able to sway any future kid I have in the right direction.

Mom: One of your greatest fears? Yeah, I honest to God hope it happens to you, too.

Dad: Yeah, they’re gonna’ grow up to be Idaho fans.

Mom: They’re gonna’ go to Cornell and not even give a rip about football or sports at all. They’re not gonna’ relate to you.

Dad: You can pretty much guarantee it if they grow up in San Diego because there’s no (college) football down there.

OTP: Let it be noted that at the first 2 or 3 minute mark of the interview, you’ve already made your first plea for me to move home.

Mom: Well, good. And then we’ll be closer to sway our grandchildren into the right place.

Dad: Realistically, though, I think when you turned Duck for good was when you were sitting in the stands of that Oregon State game and you were listening to them (Oregon) on the headphones. I still think (you were listening to) “Kenny Wheaton’s gonna’ score!” when everyone else (in Parker Stadium) is in that blowout loss for us and you’re all of a sudden jumping up and down happy and everyone’s looking at you wondering what the hell is he doing. That would be my first instance of seeing you turn to the dark side but I wasn’t convinced until we enrolled you in school down there. That’s when I knew we were in trouble.

Mom: I blame your eighth grade teacher who recognized your talent for writing and she encouraged you to do journalism when you got into high school and you decided that was going to be your career choice and it all fit tidy since Oregon State’s journalism program no longer existed. Now if you really wanted to be an engineer, you’d be a Beaver today.

Dad: And you’d be rich.

Mom: Yeah, you’d have a lot more money.

Dad: You’d be donating to the BASF right now and getting your Rose Bowl package through Oregon State University.

On the sense of betrayal and family division my choice has caused…

OTP: Let’s talk about parental feelings. Was there a sense of betrayal? Was there a sense of “what the hell is wrong with this kid?” When you dropped me off in Eugene for the first time, did that make it official? How’d you feel?

Dad: Well, when we dropped you off or when we registered you, we cleansed ourselves. We stopped in Corvallis on the way back and bought our season tickets for the first time. Well, it wasn’t the first time you went to school, but it was a trip to Eugene involving the UO and as we were coming back we said “ok its time to go to Corvallis and fix this” and we made a donation, bought season tickets and we felt better again. We felt cleansed.

OTP: So, no betrayal then? It was more of a sense that you need to pick it up on your end?

Mom: Well, that wasn’t how I felt at all. That’s not how I feel to this day. But you don’t want to know how I feel.

Dad: I would, Go Barb, go.

Mom: It saddens me because we do these really fun tailgaters with Kevin and you’re missing. And that’s the honest to God truth. It can’t be changed but I honestly and sincerely hope your children don’t do that to you.

Lots of laughter

Dad: You’re going to need therapy after this.

Mom: You asked the question, you got the answer.

Mom: I didn’t realize it at the time, I was happy for you and excited for you. It’s only something I’ve realized in later years that when we do do things together at Civil War it’s always fun until the game’s played and someone’s always disappointed afterward.  I don’t want to see you be the one disappointed, but I don’t want to be the one disappointed so might as well be you.

On whether or not they would still be hospitable had any of the four games I went to in Corvallis from 2000 to 2006 gone the Ducks way…

OTP: I went to 4 Civil Wars in Reser Stadium. We hung out, I thought it was fun even though the Ducks lost every time. Let’s say I came back to the tailgater a winner. Would you not let me have a chili dog, would you leave me out in the rain?

Mom: Oh my Gosh , we’d embrace you. Are you kidding? It’d be the same. What we wouldn’t do is give you the $20.

Dad: I think I did the $20 handshake.

Mom: Well, you did, but I always gave him an extra 20 because I felt bad for him.

Dad: I’ll give you an extra $20 if you lose this one for me. I’d give you more than that.

Mom: I’d give you $200.

Dad: Shut the hell up, Barbara. He gets $200 for his team losing? I got my limits. (seriously, that looks different in print but I swear it was sarcastic and funny)

On our family practice of occasionally skipping the second half of Beaver games and heading to the coast…

OTP: Better family activity: the second half of an Oregon State game in the early 1990s or a trip to the beach?

Dad: You can’t print that. We’ll look like bad fans. How can you word that so we don’t look like bad fans? We were supportive. We wanted to have a family outing but you kids couldn’t sit still so we had to go. How’s that? Put it back on the kids.

Mom: Yeah, Nick was annoying all the fans around him so we had to go.

On Civil War family pranks…

OTP: Mom, you once decorated my room in complete Beaver paraphernalia when I came home for Thanksgiving. How dare you.

Mom: That was really fun and your dad did help me decorate it once I got going. You were going back and forth with your dad in the week leading up to the game and you went too far and I said “that’s it, I have to do something.”

When you got home, I heard you walk in the door, walk down the hall and say, “I’m home, which room am I in?” and you walked into the bigger room and said “Whoa, not this one” and then you walked into the other room that had just a twin bed and you realized you only had one choice.

OTP: Dad, I don’t remember the exact year, probably 1998, but you sat me down for a nice meal, made me eat it and then told me I had just consumed duck with orange sauce. How dare you!

Dad: I had to really prepare for that. I had not cooked that before. I do remember that now. It was (with a french accent), Duck ala Orange. I lied to you, too. I told you it was chicken I think.

OTP: I thought it was weird I’m eating this by myself and why am I not eating this with the family.

Dad: I kind of remember that you didn’t finish it after I told you what it was.

Never really enjoyed Civil Wars in Reser Stadium. Then again, I wasn't there in 2008.

OTP: I definitely did not.

Dad: That was the ‘98 civil war. That had to be a hard Duck to swallow.  All I know is I worked hard at that meal. I wanted that to be special for you.

Mom: And I worked hard on sewing that Beaver blanket to the existing comforter so you couldn’t take it off when you slept.

OTP: Really, that’s a lot of abuse.

Mom: Well we’ve certainly come home to a stuffed Beaver hanging from the light fixture. And one Christmas, we couldn’t figure out why you gave us a bunch of Duck stuff as a present to open up.

OTP: Yeah, that was my biggest “dick” moment. On Christmas, no less.

Dad: Biggest what?

Mom: Dick moment.

Dad: Dick moment? Jeez, I hope it wasn’t. Did that get you real excited? So that’s why you’re a Duck, huh? You got a thing for that Duck mascot too? I’m surprised you can stand up when Kenny Wheaton’s gonna score.  Wow. Well, you remembered to take your middle school binder with you didn’t you?

OTP: He’ll be here all week folks.

On signing tuition checks…

OTP: Truth or Fiction, tuition check sent to the University of Oregon, signed with a Go Beavers.

Mom: Truth.

OTP: Really? I thought that was a myth.

Mom: No, well, we didn’t write checks to U of O for tuition. It was just room and board for your freshman year. The one I remember doing it for was the summer after you graduated for some kind of health services bill that hadn’t been paid. It was a $12 bill we did it on.

On a hypothetical to see if there is a circumstance in which they could root for Oregon in the Civil War…

OTP: Here’s a hypothetical. Your oldest and dearest son is dying and has one final wish to see his Ducks win the Civil War. Who do you root for?

Dad: Well, if it’s the year 2058, or something like that, um, hmm. Well, so, give me the circumstances. Are we both in it for the Rose Bowl?

OTP: No, my last wish on this planet is just to see the Ducks win the game.

Dad: Well I’d lie to you. I’ll just tell you the Ducks won. If you’re that out of it, you’d probably never know. We could put on an old taped game and you’d not know the difference.

OTP: So you could just root for the Beavers and lie to me?

Pause and hesitation (I’m making this uncomfortable)…

Dad: Tough question. Really tough question.

Mom: I don’t like that question at all. I don’t want to have that vision, so just scratch it off the list. I would do whatever you want for your happiness.

OTP: Ok, dad’s thinking about it, mom’s being a mom, that’s about where I expected that question to go.

OTP: Wait, hold on, if it’s 2058 and I’ve lived a good life, it’s ok then?

Mom: And we’re long gone, right? Or we’re 104.

Dad: Well, it’d make us equal. We’d be going out about the same time. Given the same circumstance, if we’re both going out the same day, I’m saying F@$k the Ducks.

Lots of laughter…

Dad: That being said, though, the way I always look at it, is these games are really, really important until they’re not a couple of weeks later.

On favorite recent Civil War…

OTP: Alright, you’ve been good sports, give us your favorite Civil War in recent memory.

Dad: My favorite Civil War was the ‘98 game. That was a favorite season really. You just knew there was hope then.

Mom: Mine had to be 2000. I was more aware of that one. That was the year we got to go to the Fiesta Bowl. There were a lot of firsts that year.

OTP: Do you support Beaver fans “silly stringing” your son after the game in 2000?

Dad: Well, it’s not water bottles.

Mom: What happened to you?

OTP: Some dad told his kids to attack the Duck fan with silly string as I walked out of Reser Stadium.

Dad: Was it orange?

OTP: No.

Dad: Well, that’s poor planning. I can’t support that.  He should have used orange.

We are at the one week countdown to the most important football game ever played in the history of this planet. And because it’s Thanksgiving, we have one last chance to express our gratitude within this rivalry before things really get nasty.

With that said, on this day of turkeys, yams and potatoes, I give my thanks (with a huge brainstorming assist from FOTB).

I am thankful… …that my school – for all the colors, patterns, feathers and helmets it has ever worn – has never, ever worn a manzier.
I am thankful… …that my school’s alums attended class long enough to know their number isn’t a last name.
I am thankful… …that the numbers 65 and 38 pair together like a fine wine and a juicy steak.   * UO, did you notice the extra care I took to blur out the Duck on a t-shirt I own? Why, you can’t even tell that it’s Donald! I think Disney would be pleased, don’t you?
I am thankful… …that even in Eugene, my players still realize common cab currency is cash, not marijuana.
I am thankful… …that the players I root for don’t pursue relationships with gay sheep (apologies to Seinfeld as in this case, there’s a lot wrong with that).
I am thankful… …that my stadium’s field isn’t plastered with potato salad logos.
I am thankful… …that there’s at least a small chance the Beaver believers I call family won’t disown me over the next 7 days.

The Civil War count stands at 112. It’s about to move to 113. Through all those games, there have been just a handful that have truly mattered at a national level. In recent memory, a Pac-10 title has been at stake four times (that’s since football began in 1994). Before that, I’d guess the total was probably about four all time.

But really, the argument for “Biggest Civil War Ever” really comes down to one of two years: 2000 or 2009?

You can make an argument for either year. I had been thinking 2009 without question. Now that I look back at it, it’s a lot closer than I thought but two things ultimately make this the bigger game: (1) The winner goes to the Rose Bowl and (2) Media attention is infinitely more intense now.

In arguing for the the 2000 game, you could say both teams were more nationally prominent. The records were much better and Oregon was aiming at becoming one of a select few teams to ever go undefeated in Pac-10 play.

Either way, you can’t go wrong.

	Tale of The Civil War Tape
Category	2000		2009
UO/OSU Ranking *	5 & 8		8 & 16
Winner Eligible For Rose Bowl ¥	Both		Both
Combined Record Prior to Game	18-2		17-5
Combined Win Percentage	90%		77.2%
Worst Case Scenario for Losing Team	Holiday Bowl		Las Vegas Bowl
TV Broadcast	ABC Regional ??		ESPN HD National
Venue	Original Reser		Remodeled Autzen
Coaches ±	Erickson/Bellotti		Riley/Kelly
Star Players †	Chad Johnson/Joey Harrington		Jacquizz Rodgers/Jeremiah Masoli
Roses Being Waved From Our Car in Corvallis En Route To Game	A Bushel		None
Soul Crushing Defeats	1		No Freaking Way

* Using AP Rankings.
¥ Oregon State would have gone to the Rose Bowl had Washington lost later that day so technically, the Beavers had a shot going into the game.
± None of the four coaches had/has the cache that Dennis Erickson carried with him off of his Miami Hurricane fame and NFL experience.
† I think the 2009 game has more star power, if only because the media is more intense now. Chad Johnson wasn’t even close to a household name yet and Joey Harrington was a year away from a Times Square billboard.

The 113th edition of the Civil War is going to be built up as some sort of rags to riches success story. You’ll hear about two teams with little history of achievement.  The common refrain will be how this is the first time the game has been played in which the winner is guaranteed the Rose Bowl. No doubt, you’ll be reminded that Oregon State hasn’t been to Pasadena since 1965 while Oregon’s drought extends to 1995. A Rose Bowl winner can’t be found from Oregon since the 1940s. Need I go on?

They’re all cute stories and admittedly significant in a historical sense.

However,  there’s another narrative to follow, one where Oregon and Oregon State are shown to be among the conference’s elite since the turn of the century.

Since 2000, only USC has won more games than either program.

But with the Trojans finally out of the picture, it’s time the Ducks and Beavers got their due not as two teams coming up from history’s scrap pile, but as the premier programs they are in this conference.

This showdown isn’t a revelation of two teams with checkered pasts. It’s merely a culmination of a decade’s work  in which the state of Oregon has outperformed all but one team within the conference.

And the stakes are becoming common.

This will be the fourth time in 10 years that Oregon or Oregon State enters the Civil War with a chance to clinch the conference’s premier bowl bid.

In previous games where a conference title was on the line, each team has denied the other a spot in the Rose Bowl with the Beavers turning back Oregon in 2000 while the Ducks famously laid 65 points on a dream just one year ago.

This year, one has a guaranteed ticket to Pasadena and perhaps that means the stakes have never been higher. But it doesn’t mean these two teams haven’t been here before. Lately, it’s become something of an expectation.

It’ll be a Civil War for the roses. This you know and when all that really matters is getting to Pasadena, would you want it any other way?

Forget national titles. That’s nothing more than a made-up fantasy to line the pockets of the NCAA. In any given Pac-10 season, you line up for 12 games to have that one shot to be the last team standing.

You grind week in and week out in a true round-robin battle for conference supremacy. Every team has a chance to top the others and an undeniable, merit-based champion emerges by season’s end.

This year, that champion will call the state of Oregon home. It’s a Civil War with stakes higher than ever seen in series history. The game will define both the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory.

The build-up has 11 days to go and the blog ain’t going quiet into that night. There will be rivalry, a family at war (mine), game and team analysis, a day of  thanks, maybe one or two mentions of 65-38 and plenty more. Folks, the “War” is on.

Note: What you won’t see is any 1,000 word blog recommendations for who to root for. If you haven’t figured that out by now, well, I can’t help you anyway.

Thanks to a suggestion from NautiDuck in a comment yesterday, I’m starting an occasional feature to keep track of who to root for every week. Currently, there are two things in play for Oregon: the Rose Bowl and the National Title game. Both take place in Pasadena.

With regards to the Rose Bowl race, we can safely ignore mathematically eliminated UCLA and Washington State. Both teams are currently at 0-5 in conference play and just waiting to play each other to figure out once and for all who is worse.

Let’s also remove Washington and Arizona State, two teams that could technically finish ahead of Oregon but only if the Ducks’ quarterback somehow became injured for the season leading to a slew of losses. It’s just such an unlikely scenario. Oh wait….

That leaves us with the teams below. There is actually a significant amount of work left for Oregon given that it hasn’t played three of these teams.

At 5-0 and as the only undefeated team, Oregon is the ruler of its destiny. As such, the take on who to root for this week is all about the national title picture. Sure, we could all pull for teams like USC and UA to lose, but it puts a ceiling on Oregon’s season that we don’t yet need. Perhaps after this weekend, I’ll get more into tie-breaker scenarios. It’s just too convoluted for that right now.

In chasing faint hopes of a national title game appearance, there’s very little guesswork in what to cheer for. There are only two games here that are open to interpretation.

Washington vs. Oregon enters into a new era this year with two new head coaches. Mike Bellotti won’t be coaching in the game for the first time since 1988. It’s the first time since 2003 that Washington has had a pulse. It seems to me that we need a rivalry refresher. As such, I sat the new guys down for a little Q&A session.

OTP: Coaches, thanks for being here. Fire away.

Steve Sarkisian: Thanks, Nick. First thing I have to say  is, from looking at results recently, you guys have owned us.
OTP: Is that a question?
Sarkisian: Not really. I mean, it’s pretty much a fact and I just thought I’d mention it.
OTP: Well, yes it is and thanks for the note, but I’m here to help you understand this rivalry, not repeat the fact that Oregon has owned Washington with five straight wins and an average margin of victory of just under 23 points, ok?

Sarkisian: Got it. Here’s a question, then. Who is this Rick Neuheisel I keep hearing about? Only thing I know about him is he told us at USC that our dynasty was over. Seemed absurd.
OTP: Now you’re talking. Nueheisel was essentially Washington’s answer to Oregon’s mid-90s dominance when they took 3 of 4 from the Huskies. Scared as hell that lowly Oregon was surpassing their program, they found a coach that could actually beat the Ducks. See, Neuheisel had defeated Oregon twice in bowl games while at Colorado. This included the 1996 Cotton Bowl where he pissed off Oregon with a fake punt in a game the Ducks were getting blown out. He was a natural fit for Washington.

Sarkisian: So how’d it go?
OTP: Haha, famously. Well, until it became a disaster. He went 2-1 against the Ducks and was pretty much hated south of the border. In other words, just what Washington wanted. There was no love between him and Mike Bellotti. He has a shady recruiter that was really good at bending the rules without actually breaking them. But then he did break them. And got fired. It was messy, but along the way he got Washington back to the Rose Bowl and to this date, is still the last Husky coach with a winning season.

Chip Kelly: Didn’t Oregon do something with Rick and a video board?
OTP: Someone’s been studying. In 2001, at the Civil War with Washington recruits in attendance, Oregon repeatedly played a clip of a woman vomiting juxtaposed against an image of Neuheisel. Frankly, I thought it was in good taste, but Oregon later apologized.

Sarkisian: That seems mean. Was it nasty when Neuheisel was around?
OTP: You could say that. There were absurd accusations that Bellotti was using the Huskies list to recruit players. Oregon safety Keith Lewis sparked some spirited trash talk in the media for a couple years. Washington even concluded a dominant win in Autzen Stadium by dancing at midfield on Oregon’s logo in 2002. By the time Neuheisel was fired in the offseason before the 2003 campaign, the rivalry may have been at its peak.

Kelly: I keep watching this highlight video before home games and they always end with the same play. They’re wearing this uniform I’ve never seen with a Duck that looks like Donald. What the heck happened?
OTP: Well, Chip, I’m glad you brought that up. In 1994…
Kelly: 1994! That’s when football started right?
OTP: Yes Chip. Now don’t interrupt me again. In 1994, Oregon came into the game against Washington with only three wins in the series dating back to 1974. The Huskies had gone to six Rose Bowls in that span and Oregon had only recently competed in a bowl game five years earlier for the first time since 1963. In other words, Oregon had been really bad, Washington really good. The Huskies came into Autzen Stadium highly ranked and again gunning for a Rose Bowl appearance. Late in the game, a guy named Damon Huard drove the Huskies on a late drive that was aiming to break the hearts of all Duck fans. Then, this happened.
Sarkisian: What’s “this?”
OTP: You just need to click the link when I post this, ok, Steve? To answer your question, Chip, that “replay” you see every Saturday is your program’s defining moment. It touched off a Rose Bowl run for the first time since 1957 and more importantly, it changed the course of Oregon football. For 15 years since, the Ducks have been a different program. They’ve won 10 of 14 in the series. It was, as you stated a moment ago, the birth of modern Oregon football.

Sarkisian: Did you guys really throw feces and urine at us?
OTP: Ah, Steve refers to the legend that Oregon fans hurled dog feces and urine at Washington players. I’ll tell you what. I’m just going to say it’s true, because I want you to feel frightened next year when you visit Autzen. But if you really believe that, don’t blame me for calling you dumb.

Sarkisian: Ok, I guess it didn’t happen. But I was wondering if you ever heard of this half national title Washington won in the 1991 season?
OTP: Whoever heard of half a title? What does that mean? Does it really even count? I mean, Washington cheated so much back then, it made Tonya Harding blush. Actually, that brings up another point. Washington’s dominant run was killed when it was discovered the Huskies had been rampantly cheating. They were put on probation and the program has never since sustained success like it did for those 20 or so years. This is something Oregon fans revel in.

Kelly: Cheaters, huh?
OTP: Yep, cheaters.

Kelly: Is this really a rivalry anymore? I’ve been here two years and it seems pretty boring.
OTP: Funny you should say that. Used to be, Husky fans wouldn’t acknowledge the rivalry. But for the recent lull, blame Tyrone Willingham. He was big on running a classy operation, but didn’t seem to care much about winning.

Sarkisian: I think I got a solution for that. Have you seen Nick Holt?
OTP: Very promising, coach. I like what you did, there. Frankly, and no offense to you, I thought the Huskies hired the wrong USC offensive coordinator. Lane Kiffin would have been way more fun. But you seem to possess a quality I could get annoyed with and Holt certainly will be easy to hate. Let’s just say I’m intrigued and hopeful.

Kelly: Hey, did you see what I did in the spring? I’m trying to kickstart this thing into gear.
OTP: Yeah, good work, Chip. We need more. Digs at Washington when there’s really no reason for it is completely acceptable in my book and, frankly, I want more if it.

Kelly: I’ll do my best. I’ll start it off with a win this weekend, ok?
Sarkisian: Hey, look out, we’re back!
OTP: No you’re not. Not yet, anyway.

That headline made my head spin, but I’m keeping it.

I made my contributing debut today on another site for an online magazine called Norman Einsteins (a nod to the famous Joe Theismann quote). It’s published monthly and I contributed a piece for the Civil War (let’s just say, my obsession with Markus Wheaton continues). There’s some great contributions from a variety of fan blog authors in the college football preview including a fun hypothetical featuring the Oregon and Boise State game. My Civil War effort is at the bottom of the page. Enjoy.