SOUND OFF.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Give Bellotti a break

Oregon gave Rich Brooks 17 years to accumulate a 91-109-4 record. Oregon fans could always take heart in the fact that they had a clean program with lots of good local kids. The Ducks were a team you could believe in, even when they were gut-wrenching.

If Oregon loses Mike Bellotti, they lose the few qualities that still separate Oregon's big-time program from places like Miami - loyalty and integrity.

I believe loyalty and integrity are what got Rich Brooks and the Ducks to the Rose Bowl: Loyalty of the university to the coach, loyalty of the coach to the team, loyalty of the community to the program, loyalty of lots of local kids who weren't recruited by anybody else.

You could fault their play sometimes, but you could never fault their heart.

I don't remember fans booing or leaving early in droves when they were bad. I remember fans who suffered with their team because they cared about it. And I remember fans choking up when the Ducks beat the Beavers and knew they were going to the Rose Bowl. The underdogs finally finished first.

Two head coaches in 27 years is a blessing. Mike Bellotti has had numerous fantastic opportunities to leave before, and he chose to stay.

If a .700 winning percentage and loyalty and integrity don't earn him a few down seasons, the coaching turnstile will only spin faster from here on out. It will only be a matter of time before Oregon really is the University of Nike at Eugene - unrecognizable to true Oregon fans and not worth believing in.

Bellotti has endured adversity with dignity and resilience. He is exactly the kind of leader our culture is so devoid of right now. Yes, it's just football, and no, he's not perfect. But he's better than most and it will be a shame if he gets away.

D.J. PHILLIPS

Portland

UO fans come through

I was getting worried about Oregon football. I wasn't worried about the coaching. I wasn't worried about the players. I was worried about the fans, particularly after the Washington loss. Especially after listening to the sports talk-show hosts on KUGN absolutely trash the Oregon players and coaches after the game. All the call-ins but one joined in the devastating criticism. I hate fair-weather fans. I thought Oregon fans were better than that.

Well, it turns out they are.

After the lopsided loss to Washington, and with the game on TV, I wondered how many fans would show up to watch the Ducks play on a cold, rainy night.

Turns out over 57,000 did. They cheered. They screamed. They supported their Ducks. They stuck it out to the cold, wet end - even when it was looking like another disheartening loss, they were rewarded with a thrilling victory, and stormed the field. Makes me proud to be a Duck.

As to the know-it-all critics, they're not really Duck fans. They're know-it-all critics!

JACK VAN DUSEN

Eugene

Lack of substance

In discussing the over-hyped - but ultimately ho-hum - first NBA meeting of "LeBron and Melo," a sportswriter argued that hype has become the be-all of athletics, to the extent that increasingly the product is just great gusts of hot air with no underlying substance. I can't help but wonder if that doesn't describe Oregon football's current state.

Not long ago, Oregon's facilities were bad; attendance was bad; players were mostly bad. Then, with modest on-field improvement, came a decision to buy the program's way into its first bowl in eons.

Several more mediocre seasons and bowls followed, before that magical Rose Bowl year - after which a new mindset was adopted. Fund-raising and new facilities burgeoned, coupled with blitzkrieg marketing that isn't aimed at generating good press, but rather is deemed successful even when it spurs condemnation. "So long as they're talking about us, it's good," goes the mantra.

Now? Best facilities anywhere, one-of-a-kind uniforms - yet, still, seemingly scarce capability within those controversial uniforms.

And could it be that the Ducks have inadvertently reaped what they've sown? After last year's Seattle Bowl, coach Bellotti angrily noted some players seemed to think putting on the uniform was enough. But perhaps that's something this brave new age of Oregon football has unwittingly instilled. After all, people are still talking about the Ducks - albeit in mocking terms. And so long as they're talking about Oregon, it's good, right?

No substance needed for that: overblown hype alone seems to suffice just fine.

LARRY EYRE

Springfield

Fife should be the man

In Ron Bellamy's Nov. 9 article, he claims that Kellen Clemens deserves the quarterback job outright. Clemens was impressive while coming back into the game cold, and he did partake in an impressive comeback, reminiscent of the days of Joey Harrington, when no fourth-quarter deficit was insurmountable.

But let's remember that Clemens dug Oregon in another hole (much like the Arizona State game) by starting the game with only one completion in six attempts. Jason Fife came in and kept the Oregon offense in the game with his ability to make plays. He had several sharp passes, and the touchdown pass to Samie Parker was superb.

Clemens is not the savior of this team, and he's proven he's not yet adept at being Oregon's sole QB. In the Arizona game, the Washington State game, the ASU game and the Cal game, Clemens came out jittery and ineffective. In the ASU game, his mistakes were costly.

While he is a more accurate passer than Fife, he sticks in the pocket too long and focuses in on one receiver too often. Fife is stronger, more experienced, faster, more athletic and he has a stronger arm. He has proven to be a better decision-maker this season, and gives Oregon a better chance to win as a capable double threat - passing and running.

Fife moves the chains on a more consistent basis, and if Oregon wants to win out this season, Mike Bellotti will need to give Fife his due.

The disillusioned media seem to be too quick to jump on the Clemens bandwagon, and Oregon fans are eager for the next Joey Harrington to emerge.

I have no doubt that Clemens will soon be a great quarterback. He has the intangibles to succeed. But if Oregon wants the best chance to win today, it should give Fife an ample chance.

MICHAEL OLSON

Pleasant Hill

Ducks show true grit

I've been watching Duck football since 1946. True grit has been exhibited by a number of Duck teams over the intervening years, but probably no better example of true grit has been exhibited than that shown during the Cal game last Saturday. Great win!

Sure was wonderful to see you have returned from wherever you were during the Washington State, Arizona State and Washington games.

Let true grit be your watchwords for the rest of the season. You will beat UCLA because you are a better team, better coached and you now understand what true grit entails.

WILL LARSEN

Salem

Portlanders get raw deal

I feel for the Portland Duck fans. It is a hearty lot that drives 100 miles down Interstate 5 and 100 miles back in one day to yell for the Oregon Ducks. That's a long, tiring day even when the weather is good and we have a 12:30 p.m. kickoff.

We are dumping on these folks for TV money, and there are a lot of Portland Duck fans.

I think a UO representative should stay in Portland on a Friday night in November and drive down to Autzen for a 7 p.m. game. Let's see, you leave at 3 p.m., get to your parking spot at approximately 5:30, head to the Mo Center, then into the stadium.

We have a TV game, so it ends at approximately 10:30 p.m. If you are lucky, you get to I-5 at 11:30 and back to Portland at 1:30 a.m. Sounds like a blast to me.

Perhaps that UO representative should be named Bill. I think night games in November would not happen again.

TODD BRADSHAW

Eugene

Night game no fun

Scheduling a night football game for TV revenue and national exposure may cause an exodus of the silent minority of season-ticket holders. I, for one, am in that category.

What is wrong with night games in November, other than the miserable weather, is giving the drinking fools more time to get juiced up to become obnoxious, belligerent and disgusting to be around.

I thought that it would be fun to have my daughter, who was visiting from Illinois, join me at the Duck-Cal football game. She was raised in Eugene and is a UO alumnus, so the weather was not going to be a deterrent.

What I didn't count on was exposing her to the ignorance of some of the attendees who think that the price of admission gives them the right to act like complete jerks with improper heckling and gutter language.

Another reason my daughter was in town was the give my grandson, who is a junior in high school, an organized tour of campus with roughly 50 other prospective students.

He was impressed with the university, but I doubt whether he'll get much encouragement from his parents to become a Duck because Oregon has become so much of a major sports emphasis school at whatever cost - plus, of course, the exorbitant out-of-state tuition burden.

AL MONCE

Springfield

Fans fail in Cal game

An open letter to those of you quasi-Duck football fans who quit on your team and left the Cal game with nine minutes to go:

You ought to relinquish your season tickets and give them to real fans who want to watch the Ducks play football. You're probably the game fair-weather Duck fashion-elites who left the USC game early a couple years ago.

Have you no recollection of the Ducks' history of come-from-behind victories and fantastic finishes? Have you forgotten the successive comebacks against SC? How about the Arizona State miracle? Wazzou up in the Palouse? The UCLA game that ended up 1 yard shy of victory? Do you even care or are you just at the game to be seen? How can you call yourself Duck fans when you abandon your team when they need you most?

You're not Duck fans, because you quit on your team, and you're not Duck fans because you don't believe a team can make up a 10-point deficit in nine minutes. I'd like to call on the real fans who sit near those nonfans, who disgrace both the team and the university, to give them hell when you see them at the Civil War.

If I had my way, you'd never be let back into Autzen Stadium. I'd strip you of your tickets and give them free of charge to fans who will revel with their team when they win and go down fighting with them when they don't.

DAVID PEFFLEY

Eugene