DUCKS FOLLOWERS SEEM FORGIVING WOODS `DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE'.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

EUGENE, Ore. - Bill Tufts is an attorney who earned his undergraduate and law degrees at Oregon. On Friday afternoon, he was happy to learn that Rodney Woods will be admitted to his alma mater.

``A year in jail is no picnic,'' said Tufts, a public defender who was enjoying a late afternoon beer at Rennie's Landing. ``If he's lived his life in accordance with the way his supervisors wanted, he deserves a second chance. If he can use his talent, desire and focus to better himself through the UO sports program, good for him.''

Ducks followers, which includes just about everyone in this football-mad town, are likely to render a similar verdict as did Lancaster Superior Court judge Thomas A. White, who reduced Woods' conviction of felony assault to a misdemeanor, clearing the way for him to play football for the Pacific-10 Conference school.

``I'm not against punishment, but I'm for rehab,'' Tufts said. ``This is how retribution possesses people. Many times people whose families have been victimized in a horrible crime seek closure by retribution. It's a natural reaction, but that desire is never satisfied - even with an execution.''

Given the Ducks' popularity and that Woods' case has regularly been on the front page of the local paper, the Register-Guard, many people around campus were familiar with it.

The prevailing sentiment was that if Woods has served his jail time, received a positive probation report and keeps on the straight and narrow, then why shouldn't he get a second chance?

``I was kind of rooting for him,'' said Tim Shipley, a bartender at Taylor's Bar and Grill, a long-standing watering hole across the street from campus. ``There will be a lot of people raising a stink, and if he screws up it will be a big deal, but I think most people are going to be supportive - especially if he plays well. This community is all about the football team lately.''

It's clear, though, that Woods will be watched very closely.

His bid for admittance comes at a time when questions are being raised about the Oregon program.

An HBO feature on colleges that use sex to lure recruits prominently featured Oregon's recruiting hostesses. Then the father of recruit Lynell Hamilton told the Stockton Record that his son's recruiting visit including visiting a party where alcohol and pot were being consumed, walking home from a club to avoid having to ride with a football player who had been drinking, and a woman offering to have sex with him.

``He's going to have some problems,'' said Michelle McLaughlin, a 31-year-old lifelong resident. ``You already have the whole image of Los Angeles. ... If somebody's associated with a (killing), he's from L.A. and he's black, he's going to have a hard time here.''

Promising to be among the voices of dissent has been Michael O'Leary, the father of Christopher O'Leary - who was beaten to death by two friends of Woods in a separate fight at the same party.

Michael O'Leary, who stormed out of court Friday, earlier vowed to ``picket, protest and pull out all the stops,'' against the university.

Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, in Florida for a speaking engagement, traded phone messages with Woods and said he was pleased for him.

Of any protests that greet Woods, Bellotti said: ``Anything like that would be unfortunate, it only prolongs the pain. You can always look at somebody's past and find something that he's not proud of. That was one night, three years ago. Do we learn, do we move on and what do we do with that opportunity? I'd much rather judge Rodney Woods after the next few years at Oregon, and I don't mean just on the football field.''

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MIKE BELLOTTI

Oregon coach said any public protests against Rodney Woods ``would be unfortunate.''