Oregon's opening statements fall flat.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

C o l l e g e f o o t b a l l

Oregon has reason to fear its first offensive play of the game Saturday against UCLA.

The sum of opening plays by the 18th-ranked Ducks through five games is a lost fumble, an interception, two incomplete passes - though one should have been intercepted and another was originally ruled a lost fumble - and, here's the positive, a two-yard gain on a running play.

`Our first plays have not been outstanding successes,' UO coach Mike Bellotti acknowledged.

In the opener against Stanford, it took an official challenge by Bellotti to overturn the ruling on the field of a lost fumble by the Ducks, making it an incomplete pass. At Fresno State, the Ducks did lose a fumble on their initial play.

The first offensive snap against Oklahoma was an incomplete pass, though only because an Oklahoma linebacker dropped the football. After a bye, there was a two-yard gain on a run by Jonathan Stewart at Arizona State.

Then came Oregon's opening play at California, an intercepted pass thrown by Dennis Dixon that set the Bears up seven yards from the end zone.

`You know, Dad,' 12-year-old Sean Bellotti suggested to the coach on the flight home from Berkeley, `we should take a knee on the first play of the game. We'd be better off.'

Well, the 18th-ranked Ducks might consider it. Bellotti and offensive coordinator Gary Crowton have discussed the way the Oregon offense has been opening games.

`You don't mind if they're not successes, but they can't be failures,' Bellotti said, recognizing that two of Oregon's 11 turnovers this season have coming on opening snaps.

So what's up?

`It might be the excitement, it might be that it's a special play,' Bellotti mused. `I don't think so.'

What he is thinking about is how to open Saturday's game against the Bruins.

`This might be a very vanilla-type play,' Bellotti said.

The turnover game

Giving up the football is an obvious concern for the Ducks. Bellotti calls turnover margin the most important statistic in college football, which doesn't speak well for Oregon.

After three interceptions and a lost fumble at Cal, Oregon has lost the football 11 times this season. With seven takeaways from the opponents, that leaves the Ducks at minus-four overall in turnover margin, and only Stanford, at minus-five, has done worse among Pac-10 teams.

`In our offense, is there a higher possibility of turnovers?' Bellotti asked rhetorically. `No, not really.'

The Ducks do have more pitches on options and reverses, there is the occasional handoff to a receiver at high speed, and there is the added element of the shovel pass into a congested area, but Bellotti said `we're willing to take that risk for the rewards.'

The concern on turnovers is perhaps greater this week because UCLA leads the Pac-10 in turnover ratio at plus-five, with 14 total takeaways, evenly divided between seven fumble recoveries and seven interceptions, two of the latter returned for touchdowns.

Lured to Mac?

Oregon basketball practice begins this week, and how could Jordan Kent not realize it?

`You think about it a little bit, and I'll definitely get by there if I can to check on things,' he said.

Kent, who lettered the previous three seasons playing basketball, said he hasn't entirely ruled basketball out, though football remains his priority. In addition to football for the first time in 2005, he played last season, between the end of the regular football season and the Holiday Bowl, and then during the Pac-10 basketball season.

The basketball roster will include Kent, because he could return for his final season of eligibility.

The difference this year is that he's made strides as a football player, to the point where professional scouts are checking him out.

And that might mean he needs to spend the winter in football workouts and timing sessions, if he's serious about an NFL career.

`If football doesn't work out, I'll make myself available for (basketball) and the same goes for track,' Kent said. `I know what my role is on (the basketball) team if I were to come back. It wouldn't take a whole lot of adjusting, so I'm pretty confident that I could make the transition.

`Come November, I'll have a better idea if that's something I need to start thinking toward.'

After the best game of his two football seasons, with six catches for 113 yards against California, Kent is third among the Ducks - and second for a wide receiver - in receptions with 15 for 193 yards and one touchdown. Kent has started four of the five games.

`He's getting better as a football player,' Bellotti said. `He's like a sponge, he wants to learn, he wants to get better ...

`The more he does, the bigger role he'll play.'

Filipe close to playing

Bellotti said `there's a better chance' that defensive end Victor Filipe could make his season debut Saturday.

A senior, Filipe hasn't played due to a dislocated elbow suffered in August, when he was listed on the depth chart with the No. 1 defense. If he didn't play at all, he would have the option of a medical redshirt because he played as a true freshman.

Bellotti said redshirting Filipe was unlikely `because of our situation in the defensive line.'

The Ducks have lost two other defensive linemen for the season, and a couple others are slowed by injuries, though they have returned to play.

Bellotti said that even if Filipe isn't cleared to play Saturday, the redshirt season will remain unlikely.

`We're still not even at the midway point of the season and with a bowl game, we have a lot of games left to play,' Bellotti said.

`The first concern is his safety, and his ability to do the things he needs to do to protect himself and play football.

`Given the status of our defensive line, a healthy Victor Filipe would make a significant difference.'

OREGON VS. UCLA

12:30 p.m. Saturday at Autzen Stadium. TV: ABC. Radio: KUGN-AM (590). Web updates: www.registerguard.com.