Commentary

By Kevin Hampton
Gazette-Times reporter

Sometimes the grass is greener.

As tough as it might be for the people at Oregon State, they should take a long look at what is happening in Eugene.

A few more wins and the University of Oregon football team will take the Pacific-10 Conference title.

If that happens, and it probably will, the Ducks will at the very least be playing in the Rose Bowl. We could be watching them play for the national title in New Orleans.

For OSU fans, it’s been easy to gloss over Oregon’s success this year. After all, the Beavers were still in the running for a pretty decent bowl and, if you did a little math, the Pac-10 title. Then they went to Los Angeles over the weekend.

Now it’s obvious the most probable trip the Beavers can hope for is a visit to Las Vegas.

As that reality sets in, there will be an impulse to discount the Ducks’ accomplishments. Their season has to be an aberration. A fluke.

It’s not. It reflects the efforts of a program that strives to be among the best in the country. The athletic department used the Rose Bowl appearance in 1995 as a catalyst rather than sitting on one great season.

Oregon pours money into top-flight facilities and marketing. The Ducks know what they want and go after it.

Some ideas worked. Others fell flat. But the Ducks have shown no fear of failure.

A deal with the YES Network was made so fans in New York could watch the games. A billboard of receiver Keenan Howry towered over Broadway.

Autzen Stadium was expanded and renovated. New wardrobes were created for the players.

Recruits were given personalized comic books. Players could relax in front of big-screen plasma TVs in the locker room. Sometimes the cutting edge approach was taken to the point where the NCAA stepped in.

“Style over substance,” the Beavers say.

At Oregon State, pride is taken in the way the Beavers have improved facilities and built a competitive football program.

They want everyone to know they did it the old-fashioned way. True enough, a lot of hard work went into raising the money for upgrades.

They even want to recruit players who epitomize this way of thinking. The teams should be tough and resilient, not soft and coddled. Seems noble, but it doesn’t necessarily win football games.

In some ways, this mindset holds back the program.

The Beavers have more to overcome. They don’t have the money Oregon can play with. It takes time to raise funds, so renovation projects and construction of new facilities often stretches on.

Part of the problem has been self-inflicted. The Beavers are a late arrival to the party.

The administration was slow to understand the value of strong athletic programs. Football was mired in a losing streak that stretched over three decades. It took that Rose Bowl year of Oregon’s to shake OSU out of its stupor.

Even then, the Beavers were slow to respond.

Those days weren’t much kinder to the Ducks, who had 13 losing seasons between 1970 and 1987, including six two-win seasons.

Change came quickly after the Rose Bowl. There was a trip to the Cotton Bowl in 1996, then the Las Vegas Bowl and Aloha Bowl.

The coaching staff didn’t hesitate to go after players who were being recruited by the top programs, and they started landing some.

A 24-20 win over Minnesota in the 1999 Sun Bowl was followed by a win over Texas in the Holiday Bowl and a blowout of Colorado in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl. There was another Sun Bowl trip in 2003 and a Holiday Bowl loss to Oklahoma in 2005.

Now the Ducks are on the brink of landing their biggest bowl berth.

Taken at face value, there is little more to attract a football recruit to Eugene over Corvallis. Yes, Corvallis is smaller, but Eugene is a small town compared to most of the cities where the two teams find players. The weather is the same. There are no palm trees and the ocean water is cold.

Oregon has created a program that can attract top recruits. The Ducks have better facilities. They have built a larger fan base.

They have stuck with Mike Bellotti for 12 years, but aren’t afraid to make changes to the staff.

The Beavers can learn from the Ducks. The mindset will have to change.

Style over substance?

A national championship would be pretty substantial.

Kevin Hampton covers sports for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at kevin.hampton@lee.net.