Nation take notice. Oregon is back.

It wasn't just that Oregon beat Stanford, it was how they beat them. The Ducks never trailed, dominated start to finish. Playing at Stanford wasn't a factor. The long wet grass wasn't a factor. Andrew Luck wasn't enough of a factor. As exciting as it was, it was almost anticlimatic. Their best performance of the season by far, Oregon made all of the build up and hype seem a little silly. They never let Stanford make a competitive game of it.

Photos from Oregonian

Bad Luck fumble.

The Stanford Daily, your smarter than average college newspaper, wrote a nice wrap up of the game complete with honest assessments by Stanford players including Luck about Oregon.

Below is an article from Ted Miller of ESPN.

Oregon just won't go away

By Ted Miller, ESPN

When Oregon trudged off the Cowboys Stadium field after a 40-27 loss to LSU on Sept. 3, just about everyone counted them out. That was made real when they were poleaxed by pollsters, dropping from No. 3 to No. 13 and No. 14 in the AP and coaches' polls, respectively.

That will teach Oregon -- and anyone else -- to agree to a marquee nonconference matchup against an elite team that everyone wants to see!

Most turned away from the team with loud uniforms. Andrew Luck and Stanford were now the interesting team in the Pac-12, and Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, Oklahoma State, Boise State, Florida State, Texas A&M and those LSU Tigers were the real contenders.
But teams, as they are wont to do in college football, started falling by the wayside, and the Ducks kept coming. It was quiet at first. Nevada bludgeoned a week after LSU; a pounding of Arizona on the road; California and Arizona State dispatched with prejudice.

DAT: Can't catch him.

And when Oregon gamboled off the field after a 53-30 victory over Stanford, just about everyone started counting them back in.

It made me recall that cool sequence at the beginning of Rocky III when Clubber Lang is, one by one, clubbering a sequence of foes on a bigger and bigger stage, and his dominance is attracting the worried attention of Rocky's manager Mickey.

And just as Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" ends, Clubber barks at Mickey, "I want Balboa! I want Balboa! You hear that, Old Man?"

Said Ducks running back De'Anthony Thomas after the game, "I feel like if we get another shot at [LSU] again, I feel like it will be a better game."

Not exactly the same sort of bravado, but LSU is more Ivan Drago than Rocky.

[Loved that movie. "He's gonna KILL ya, Rock. He's gonna MURDER ya."]

Oregon would like to play LSU again with an offensive line and defensive front seven that have jelled. It would like to play LSU again with a healthy LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner. It would like to play LSU without four turnovers, including two fumbles from Thomas.

It is a longshot to happen. And to be absolutely fair to how things went down in game one -- it sure as heck was as much about LSU's size and speed as turnovers -- and how good LSU has looked since then, my guess is few, including our friends who look at things without emotion in Las Vegas, would pick the Ducks to win a rematch.

It would, however, be interesting. Let's recall that the last offensive-minded evil genius to get a rematch in a national championship game against a defensive power -- Florida and Steve Spurrier in 1996 with Florida State -- won and won big.

Huff: Can't catch him.

If Oregon wins out impressively, and some dominoes fall here and there, maybe it will happen. It just won't happen today, this week or next. So let's bracket off the national title stuff.

And, as we look big picture, let's bracket off the potential endgame with L'Affair de Willie Lyles. I've talked to smart people who think Oregon may get hammered, and I've talked to smart people that think they won't. You never know with the NCAA, an institution where logic and fairness aren't always part of the process.

[A lot of time has past. Much has happened lately. Unless Oregon paid Lyles to shower with Lache Seastrunk, the NCAA needs to move on and get its priorities straight.]

The big picture is this: Oregon is on the cusp of a third consecutive conference title. It's won 19 consecutive conference game, all but three by double-digits. If I were projecting coach Chip Kelly's record after his third season ends this January, I'd guess 34-5 (.875). Yes, I'm projecting a BCS bowl victory.

And Oregon will be a preseason top-five team in 2012 and will be the overwhelming favorites to win a fourth consecutive conference title, even if running back LaMichael James doesn't come back.

2013 looks like it will set up nicely, too.

Get the point? Oregon, barring a bomb from the NCAA, is set up for the long haul. It's on the cusp of becoming one of "those" programs. You know, where nine wins is viewed as a rebuilding year.

Look at the size of that hole for LaMJ!
BTW, in case anyone is still keeping score of that other
best running back in the league, Washington's Chris Polk
finished the day against USC with 36 yards.
LaMJ: 146 yards.

Of course, all the Ducks haters are barking about the lack of a Rose Bowl victory much less a national title. [Underline the word barking. Until the Ducks win the big games, they'll just have to keep beating those barkers down -- for another eight years if necessary.] True. Snarky, but fair. That's why some of this hangs on the Ducks taking care of business in whatever January bowl they end up playing in.

Said Thomas, "I wouldn't want to play us."

Oh, there are lots of fans of lots of teams across the country that would have smart alec replies to that. That's the trash talking, message board, comments section face of college football.

But also know that plenty of measured, football-smart fans -- even LSU and Alabama fans -- watched the tour de force display against Stanford and thought to themselves, "I don't want to play them."

Would it be a better game? Ya, probably. Can Oregon beat LSU in the Natty? I just can't help but think that the laws of physics would come into play again. Oregon is fast. But LSU is BIG and fast. Kelly would have to come up with the game plan of his life to pull that off.

Kenjon Barner showed no mercy any time
LaMJ stood on the sidelines.

Speaking of Kelly, they call him WHAT?!?!?!
Bruce Jenkins of the SF Chronicle wrote a nice story about Chip Kelly following Oregon's defeat of Stanford. He tells of Kelly's style, particularly his gutsy calls on fourth down or for a two-point conversion. But something stopped me cold like a phonograph needle scraping across a record album. Jenkins seems to know of a nickname that "they" around campus have given Kelly. Here's the excerpt:

Leading 15-9 with three minutes left in the second quarter, Oregon faced a 4th-and-7 at the Stanford 41. I'm not sure another coach in the country would have taken that gamble, especially with an offense that gained a total of minus-1 yard in the first quarter. Come up short, and you've given Andrew Luck some pretty nice field position to orchestrate his hurry-up offense and take the lead at halftime.

Then again, this is a coach they call "Big Balls Kelly" around the Oregon campus, and he didn't have a first down in mind. A wide-open De'Anthony Thomas turned a screen pass into a 41-yard touchdown, a 22-9 lead, and a sense among the sellout crowd - everyone aside from that lively pocket of Oregon partisanship in the northeast corner - that things might not end well.

Really now?!?! That's what people call him? Is it only players or staff, or do all the students call him this too?

"Hey look who just walked in, it's Big Balls Kelly. 'HEY, GREAT GAME LAST NIGHT, BIG BALLS!' "

"Welcome to Track Town Pizza, Mr. Big Balls. Can I interest you in a Large Meat Combo? It's sure to fill your testiculars."

I have never heard of this. Can somebody out there confirm it? Can somebody say to me, "Yes, we call Coach Kelly 'Big Balls' ."? 

Is there a certain Oregonian reporter out there who can go up to Coach Kelly and ask him to confirm or deny Jenkins' claim? Better yet, just ask him, "So do you have an injury report for us this week, Big Balls?"

It just stuns me. For one thing, someone would have to have some pretty big balls to call Coach Kelly "Big Balls".  Furthermore, there are lots of other things you can call him. Better names.

Iron Guts Kelly, Cold Kelly, Crazy Kelly, Fearless Kelly, Genghis Kelly, Kelly the Merciless, Rock Chip . . . . . . .

But Big Balls? When I read that, all I could think of was the movie "The Jerk" when Steve Martin broke his foot kicking Iron Balls McGinty in the groin.

But then if you earn yourself a nickname, I suppose Big Balls Kelly is better than Keep Quiet Paterno, Gropefather's Cain, Overstay Our Welcome Occupiers, or "I'd make a great president as long as I don't talk" Perry.

--KB