Oregon notebook

Corvallis Gazette-Times

The Oregon football team has its hands full on offense today, facing one of the top defenses in the NCAA with inexperienced quarterbacks.

Life might not be much better for Oregon State. The Beavers are starting their second string quarterback, Lyle Moevao, and running back Yvenson Bernard has been nursing bumps and bruises.

The Ducks don’t have the overall speed of OSU on defense, but they can be pretty stingy when it comes to giving up touchdowns.

Oregon ranks first in the Pac-10 in red zone defense, allowing opponents to score 68.6 percent of the time from inside the 20-yard line.

The Ducks’ defense held tough against UCLA and kept UO in the game despite the struggles on offense.

The Bruins could not get on track in the first half of the 16-0 win. The Bruins were unable to complete a pass in the first half and finished with 220 total yards for the game.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen our defense play better,” Oregon coach Mike Bellotti told the Eugene Register-Guard, “and I’ve been here for 19 years. They played inspired football. They gave us a chance to win.”

NFL dads

Five current Oregon players have fathers who played in the National Football League. You might remember Clay Matthews, who played linebacker for the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons. His son, Casey, is a freshman linebacker at UO. Casey was injured in the loss at UCLA.

Then there’s sophomore cornerback Jairus Byrd’s dad, Gill, who was a defensive back for the San Diego Chargers. Senior safety Matthew Harper’s father, Willie, played 10 years at linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers.

Tonio Celotto’s dad. Mario, played for Buffalo, Oakland and the Los Angeles Rams.

Junior linebacker Erik Elshire not only followed his father, Neil, to Oregon, but could follow on to Minnesota, where Neil played from 1981-86.

Maehl delivers

With all the injuries, the Ducks have had to shuffle the roster, bringing in some players who were settled down several spaces on the depth chart.

Sometimes a pretty good player is discovered.

Freshman free safety Jeffrey Maehl had gotten some special teams play in throughout the season, but may have found a new niche.

Maehl stepped in at slot receiver for Aaron Pflugrad at UCLA and finished the game with two catches for 30 yards and had two runs for 14 yards.

Wardrobe changes

The Ducks have worn different uniform combinations for each game this season.

Houston: Jersey (green), pants (green), helmet (green)

At Michigan: Jersey (white), pants (white), helmet (green)

Fresno State: Jersey (black), pants (black), helmet (green)

At Stanford: Jersey (white), pants (green), helmet (green)

California: Jersey (green), pants (black), helmet (green)

Washington State: Jersey (yellow), pants (yellow), helmet (green)

At Washington: Jersey (white), pants (white), helmet (white)

USC: Jersey (black), pants (green), helmet (green)

Arizona State: Jersey (black), pants (yellow), helmet (green)

At Arizona: Jersey (white), pants (black), helmet (green)

At UCLA: Jersey (white), pants (green), helmet (white)