A True Reward

Team WTD

Oregon beat OSU as scheduled. The Beavers played really hard, but Oregon just had the better blah blah blah . . . OK whatever.
Here's a video and some pictures if you want to see it again. But then we gotta move on . . . .

Photos from Oregonian.

DAT's a TD.

Tight end of the future, Colt Lyerla makes the snag.

Beavers could not stop Barner around the edges.

"Oh ya? Well you lost to Louisiana State. So there!"

. . . . So much has happened since then. You probably heard -- Rick Neuheisel got fired!  And as punishment for his coaching crappiness, UCLA is sending him to Eugene and forcing him to watch the Ducks further humiliate him and his team. Here are some juicy quotes from Neuheisel before his firing as he defended his job in The Orange County Register's story, "Neheisel Says He Deserves to Return".

"We've won five conference games as opposed to three last year," Neuheisel said. [Ya. That's better than Arizona,  ASU or WSU; and you don't see they're coaches getting -- Wait . . . what's that? . . . . Oh, never mind.]  "We have won the right to represent the South in the conference championship. ["Won the right"? At 6-6 and with USC on probation, there's a HUGE asterisk next to that statement.]
"I was told that we needed to move the needle," Neuheisel, 50, said during a news conference. "And if the needle moved then we would be fine and I'd get to continue along my five years of my five-year contract. [Through that 50-0 drubbing by USC, you can say he moved the needle as he prompted UCLA fans to stab it into their eyes, blinding them from the horror. ]

For the second time in two weeks, he gets to watch his team get stomped. And it won't be by just anybody, but by the one team who hates him most (not counting the schools where he has coached). The Ducks get to say goodbye to their old nemesis in the most excellent way.

If fact this is shaping up to be a really good year. Oregon gave OSU an ol' fashioned thrashing just like the old days.

The Ducks beat Washington for the eighth consecutive time -- a reality so painful for the Dawgs that they tore down their stadium in despair.

Oregon was also successful in playing a part with the conference-wide intervention to FINALLY convince Arizona that their coach was an embarrassment.

And although they don't get to go back to the Natty, they are given a wonderful, WONDERFUL consolation prize complete with a challenge: 
Beat the crap out of the one coach you despise most in the world, and we'll send you to the Rose Bowl!

It's like giving the whole Jedi Council 10 minutes in a locked room with Darth Vader tied to a post.

People are calling this matchup a disappointment. Sure, USC or Stanford would have been a far more interesting game. But Oregon fans will clearly see the upside to this.  I just hope for two things:
1) Will someone please make a fitting sign that says it all:
"SCOREBOARD BABY.  Bu'bye Rick."
and 2) I want Neuhoser to personally hand the Pac-12 trophy to the Ducks with a sincere smile on his face. 

George Schroeder of the R-G talked more of the absurdity of this matchup in his story, "UCLA makes Pac-12 title a Friday night blight"

I was just getting a little sentimental over the exit of our departing friend.
So I picked up and started flipping through the old photo album when I pulled out this gem.
"Neuhoser kicking a baby sea lion. Reason #105 of why he's a terrible person."
Gonna miss you, Rick. We never loathed anyone quite like you.

More later,
KB