Oregon ranks with most prolific football offenses ever
(10-31) 18:46
PST --
Oregon's contemporaries no longer provide an accurate gauge for the Ducks' offensive dominance.
Perhaps Chip Kelly's scheme should be compared with
John Jenkins' wild
Houston offense of
1989.
Maybe Darron Thomas' skills should be measured against
Nebraska's
Tommie Frazier in
1995. Perhaps
LaMichael James should be compared with
Army's
Glenn Davis of
1944.
How explosive are the Ducks? They scored 52 points against
USC, and their scoring average went down.
Time of
Possession?
Woody Hayes would be dumbfounded. Oregon had the ball for just 8:49 in the first half on Saturday and scored 29 points.
The Ducks rank 115th of
120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in time of possession.
The Ducks average 54.9 points a game, which would be the second-highest single-season average in
Division I history. Oregon probably will become only the seventh team to average better than 50 points.
Here are the other 50-points-per-game teams:
1. Army, 1944 (56.0) -
Future Heisman winners Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis led the attack.
2. Houston, 1989 (53.5) - John Jenkins, then the Cougars' offensive coordinator, made
Andre Ware a
Heisman Trophy winner that season.
3. Nebraska, 1995 (52.4) - Tommie Frazier may be the best option quarterback ever.
4. Nebraska,
1983 (52.0) -
Mike Rozier rushed for 2,148 yards and won the
Heisman.
5.
Oklahoma, 2008 (51.1) -
Sam Bradford's Heisman season.
6.
Texas,
2005 (50.2) -
Vince Young was the Heisman runner-up.
Oregon's
James leads the nation in rushing, averaging 172.9 yards a game and
7.1 a carry.
With five games left (including a bowl),
Thomas has 21 touchdown passes, more than either
Jeremiah Masoli or
Dennis Dixon had in any full season. And Thomas, a sophomore, is still improving.
And, oh yeah, Oregon added to its vast array of uniforms by wearing silver shoes for the first time Saturday.
--
Guess who has the most rushing yards among
Pac-10 quarterbacks this season. Maybe
Washington's Jake Locker? Perhaps Thomas?
Nope, it's
Stanford's
Andrew Luck, a classic drop-back passer who nonetheless has rushed for 345 yards and 8.6 yards per carry.
--
Provincial reminder:
Roy Helu Jr. - a senior who rushed for a Nebraska-record 307 yards in Saturday's 31-17 win over then
No. 7 Missouri - was not ranked among
Rivals.com's top 250 recruits in the class of
2007.
Coming out of
San Ramon Valley High in
Danville, he was rated only the No. 88 recruit in
California. He chose Nebraska over Oregon and Cal.
--
TCU is unbeaten and ranked
No. 4, but the Horned
Frogs' next game is at
No. 6 Utah, which has won 21 consecutive home games. No top 10 gets less attention that Utah, which becomes a national title contender if it beats TCU.
-- This week's
BCS standings suggest once-beaten
Alabama will jump over an unbeaten
Boise State, TCU or Utah team in the final BCS standings if the
Tide wins the rest of their games (including
Auburn,
LSU and
Mississippi State).
--
No. 10 Stanford hosts No. 13
Arizona on Saturday, and the winner has a shot at a
BCS game, perhaps the
Rose Bowl. The year before
Mike Stoops became Arizona's coach in 2004, the
Wildcats finished last in the conference. The year before
Jim Harbaugh became Stanford's coach in 2007, the
Cardinal finished last in the conference. Arizona quarterback
Nick Foles probably will return to the starting lineup this week after missing two games with a dislocated kneecap.
-- What does Cal have in common with perennial powerhouses Texas,
Notre Dame,
Georgia,
Clemson,
BYU and
Tennessee?
None has a winning record.
-- In
North Texas' first game since firing
Todd Dodge as its coach,
Dodge's son
Riley made his first start at quarterback since Oct. 2 and helped the
Mean Green to their second win of the season Saturday, a 33-6 victory over
Western Kentucky.
The Hilltoppers had ended a 26-game losing streak the previous week.
AP Top 25
Rk.
Team (1st) W-L Pts Pv
1. Oregon (49) 8-0 1,487
1
2.
Boise St. (7) 7-0 1,403 2
3. Auburn (2) 9-0 1,396
3
4. TCU (2) 9-0 1,350
4
5. Alabama 7-1 1,228
6
6. Utah 8-0 1,
147 8
7.
Wisconsin 7-1 1,113 9
8.
Ohio St. 8-1 1,
010 10
9. Nebraska 7-1 974 14
10. Stanford 7-1 950 13
11. Oklahoma 7-1 928 11
12. LSU 7-1 872 12
13. Arizona 7-1 779 15
14. Missouri 7-1 739 7
15.
Iowa 6-2 700 18
16.
Michigan St. 8-1 644 5
17.
Arkansas 6-2
500 19
18.
S. Carolina 6-2 497 17
19. Oklahoma St. 7-1 457
20
20.
Virginia Tech 6-2 332 21
21.
Mississippi St. 7-2 302 23
22. Baylor 7-2 247 25
23.
N.C. State 6-2 113 _
24.
Florida St. 6-2 97 16
25.
Nevada 7-1 91 _
Others receiving votes:
Hawaii 50,
Syracuse 22, Oregon St. 16,
Maryland 11, USC 10,
San Diego St. 9,
Illinois 8,
Central Florida 5,
Pittsburgh 4,
Miami 3, Northwestern 3, Florida 2,
Northern Illinois 1.
- published: 01 Nov 2010
- views: 12094