The initial tee shirt campaign was a disaster, frat-boy arrogance that imploded into embarrassment. “We want Bama” went viral on the web and inspired ridicule, especially after the Ducks stumbled at Stanford and then at 7-5 Arizona.
Part of the fan base forgot the basic rule, “Act like you’ve been there before.” Humility and grace have tremendous power and value in building a program the right way, and the whole “we want Bama” mindset contributed to an atmosphere where the Ducks and their fans took their eye off both the prize and the process.
Besides that, it made us all look like fools.
“Win the Day” was more than a mantra. When it worked, it was a way of life, a devotion that Chip Kelly constantly refreshed with new lessons, concepts and insights. Kelly is an innovator, a motivator, and a lover of ideas that work, and when he ran the Ducks, the players were on message, and fans embraced it also. The 2013 Ducks got distracted. There were players and fans that lost discipline about their expectations and outlook, and the result was costly and predictable. The team lost focus, suffered from poor discipline, and looked poorly prepared in the two losses, woefully inconsistent in two November wins.
Next year, if they want to win a conference championship and do everything possible to compete for the 4-team NCAA playoff, the Ducks have to find a way to re-energize those fundamental values of preparing every day like it’s the only day that matters. Lip service doesn’t accomplish anything. Being disciplined in practice, working with consistent effort, and having team leaders lead in their speech, attitude and goals, representing the team in the media in a way that’s consistent with those goals, is essential.
Excellence isn’t an accident. If the Ducks want to remain and assert themselves as an elite team in college football, it comes with a price, and that price is preparation and adherence to a standard of thinking, acting and envisioning. Urban Meyer constantly chooses expediency over decency and principle and is thus deplorable, but he is right about one thing: “There is no Hall of Average.”
If the Ducks want to be lazy and cocky and pampered, bed sorority girls and go 8-3, that is all they’ll be. If they want to be better in 2014, it starts with a great month of bowl preparation, commitment to excellence in training and off-season workouts, and developing a meaningful, committed vision to the kind of team they want to be in a fiercely competitive conference. You can’t eat your enemies unless you eat, train and think better than they do. Which is why the program desperately misses Chip Kelly, Jerry Azzinaro and James Harris. They were the three on the staff that demanded the most, and results and mindsets have slipped without them.
Which is why the Ducks and their fans should want Bama, now, very much.
Please don’t misunderstand. Oregon fans should express tremendous respect for the accomplishments of Alabama football. The Tide has won three national championships in the last five seasons, and they are not completely out of the running for this one. They have 39 players currently in the NFL. They’ve had the top recruiting class in the country for four straight years.
Facing the Tide would be a tremendously difficult matchup for the Ducks. They could get killed. It’s especially bad because Bama has powerful offensive and defensive lines, intimidating linebackers, and a ferocious downhill running game. They can do everything Stanford did to Oregon, even better. Oregon could lose by 40, and reinforce all the memes and assumptions about them nationally, that they’re a soft team that can’t compete with elite physical opponents, that they don’t belong in a conversation of top programs in the country, a pretender that builds up gaudy stats against weak competition.
If we can barely handle Oregon State and Utah, the thinking goes, T.J. Yeldon and Amari Cooper would demolish us. With a month to prepare, Nick Saban would destroy the Ducks with a withering game plan and relentless execution.
That could happen. But even if it did, it would be good for the Oregon program, long-term. The Ducks could get exposed. But if that happens, it needs to.
The single most significant thing to catapult Oregon forward as a national program was a 1996 loss to Colorado in the Cotton Bowl.
Phil Knight assembled Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, the athletic director and key boosters, and asked, “what does Oregon have to do to compete in the top levels of football?”
That night, they raised the money to build the indoor practice facility.
Taking the challenge to face Alabama will show the Oregon staff, players, fans and boosters exactly where they are and where they need to go to leave the Hall of Slightly Above Average.
The decision is made by selection committees thousands of miles away. Whether they get Alabama or not, the Ducks have a month to find their best game and prepare to meet a quality opponent in a big, nationally-televised bowl. A lot of dominoes still have to fall for the Ducks to make the BCS for the fifth year in a row, starting with a Northern Illinois loss to Bowling Green in the MAC Championship, Michigan State falling out of BCS contention by losing to Ohio State, and Baylor falling to Texas.
Even then, the Ducks could get passed over. Their November resume isn’t strong. The fan base doesn’t travel the way schools in football-crazed regions do. They haven’t earned their way in.
But learning in a concrete way where they are, how great they can be and what greatness would demand of them is a challenge they should embrace, no matter how imposing it is.
It’s an important mental exercise to contemplate the possible bowl matchup. It clarifies expectations. How good are the Ducks? Is the Mark Helfrich-led staff strong enough for a challenge like this? If not, what needs to change?
A true competitor wants the biggest matchup against the best team with the most attention, every time it’s available. Mike Bellotti used to say, respect all, but fear none.
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