Pac-10: Oregon loses another QB, game

The Oregon Ducks are looking on eBay, fumbling through drawers, opening old trunks and checking student MySpace.com profiles.

They’ll do anything to find a healthy quarterback.

On Saturday in Eugene, Ore., the most rudderless college football team in America lost another starting signal-caller – its fifth in eight games over two seasons – and paid for this perpetual position plague with its first setback in four outings this fall, a 37-32 stumble to the unbeaten Boise State Broncos.

No one across the country could be more flustered than Oregon (3-1, 1-0 Pac-10), which over the weekend was forced to entrust its high-powered spread offense to a fifth-string quarterback, Darron Thomas, a true freshman from Houston who entered the week as a redshirt player.

In just over a quarter of action, Thomas fared exceptionally well in his collegiate debut, completing 13 of 24 passes for 210 yards and three touchdowns, but he ran out of time attempting to bring the Ducks back from a 24-point deficit.

“We were hoping to save Thomas, but obviously we were hoping to keep our other quarterbacks healthy,” Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said. “We just didn’t get him in the game soon enough.”

For sure, this Pac-10 contender has lost touch with any long-term quarterback continuity. Consider that Thomas replaced true freshman Chris Harper, who was ineffective for nearly three full quarters against Boise State.

Harper was as an emergency fill-in for Jeremiah Masoli, a sophomore and first-time starter who suffered a concussion on a helmet-to-helmet hit on the game’s first play, tried to continue, couldn’t focus and needed to be relieved.

Masoli, a junior-college transfer, was a replacement for former sophomore starter Justin Roper, who injured a knee the week before at Purdue and was on the sidelines in street clothes for the Boise State game.

Roper was given the job in fall camp when sophomore Nate Costa, the designated starter for the opener, was lost with a season-ending knee injury.

The season before, Roper had been a bowl-game replacement for injured senior Brady Leaf, who a few games earlier had taken over for the injured Dennis Dixon, someone who had the Ducks pointed toward national championship contention and a BCS bowl before shredding his knee.

Whew.

“I think the other teams know if they can get the starter out of the game, they can win,” Thomas the Ducks’ freshman quarterback and now veteran player said. “It worked.”

If there’s any consolation to this ongoing quarterback musical chairs, Oregon is not alone. The Ducks now must travel to Washington State, which lost its top two quarterbacks to injury Saturday during a 48-9 victory over Portland State, leaving redshirt freshman and previously unused Marshall Lobbestael running the Cougars (1-3, 0-1 Pac-10) for almost the entire second half.

It might be Thomas against Lobbestael, true freshman against redshirt freshman in Pullman.

Scoreboard:

Arizona 31, UCLA 10
Boise State 37, Oregon 32
Georgia 27, Arizona State 10
Stanford 23, San Jose State 10
Washington State 48, Portland State 9

Team of the Week: Arizona

The Wildcats (3-1, 1-0 Pac-10) bounced back from their upset loss at New Mexico the week before with a full-bore throttling of Rick Neuheisel’s short-handed UCLA team (1-2, 0-1 Pac-10) at the Rose Bowl. Senior quarterback Willie Tuitama shared in his third victory over the Bruins in four career outings, throwing a pair of touchdown passes to tight end Rob Gronkowski. Receiver-returnman Mike Thomas had 257 all-purpose yards, averaging 19.8 each touch. Linebacker Ronnie Palmer had a pair of sacks. The Wildcats looked solid throughout their lineup.

“This is the best team we’ve had,” said Arizona coach Mike Stoops, attempting to take the Wildcats to their first bowl game since 1998.

Disappointment of the Week: Arizona State

The Sun Devils (2-2, 1-0 Pac-10) were totally outclassed by SEC elite, unable to muscle or run with a bigger and faster Georgia. They had home-field advantage, a crowd of 72,955, national TV cameras and near 100-degree temperatures for the early evening kickoff, but wilted in the face of a superlative Bulldogs team. Arizona State rushed for a miserable four yards on 19 carries – its lowest total in six seasons, a situation causing great consternation in the desert.

“Offensively, we’ve got to find a little more of an identity,” Sun Devils coach Dennis Erickson lamented. “I’m not sure we have an identity other than throwing the football too much.”

Player of the Week: Rob Gronkowski, Arizona, TE

This huge sophomore tight end made his season debut, caught three passes and turned two of them into touchdowns. He sat out the Wildcats’ first three games supposedly with an illness that was loosely described as strep throat. The team finally fessed up this weekend: It was mononucleosis. Gronkowski looks healthy enough now.

“It’s good to have Robbie back because he makes a big difference in our red-zone offense,” Stoops said. “It really hurt us not having him in there.”

Freshman of the Week: Darron Thomas, Oregon, QB

This kid from Houston was going to be brought along slowly by the Ducks, redshirted this season while he learned the intricacies of Oregon’s potent spread offense. When his team fell behind by 24 points and fellow freshman Chris Harper couldn’t throw the ball, Thomas was inserted and instantly looked as if he belonged, hitting 13 of 24 tosses for three fourth-quarter scores.

“I didn’t come here to sit out,” Thomas said boldly. “I came here to play and compete, and now I’m in.”

Laborious league letdown

Hopefully idle USC had a good week of practice. Otherwise, Pac-10 football continued its disturbing swoon as the league’s best teams not named the Trojans – namely Oregon and Arizona State – were beaten handily Saturday, both at home.

USC, using a bye week to prepare for a trip to Oregon State, is the only Pac-10 team that has won more than one game in a row. Five conference teams currently hold losing streaks. The other four entries are victorious only in their most recent outings. Collectively, the league has a miserable 12-12 non-conference slate so far.

Rogers, over and out

Washington State had a scary moment against Portland State, watching fifth-year senior quarterback Gary Rogers spend 15 minutes on the ground after a helmet-to-helmet hit, get loaded into an ambulance on the field and taken to a hospital. The bad news is his career ended on that play, with Rogers suffering “a stable cervical spine fracture.” The good news is he will be fine in three or four months, not even requiring surgery to regain his health.

Rogers started the first two games of the season and then served as the backup to junior and one-time Kansas State transfer Kevin Lopina, who left Saturday’s game with a bruised shoulder. With Rogers and Lopina unable to play, the Cougars inserted redshirt freshman Marshall Lobbestael, who responded with a 9-for-12, 149-yard, two-touchdown passing effort in his college debut, sealing coach Paul Wulff’s first victory at Washington State. Again, Lobbestael may have to start the next game against quarterback-fragile Oregon.

Stanford’s sack attack

Cardinal coach Jim Harbaugh unleashed the dogs on San Jose State’s spread offense, sending nonstop blitzes in the direction of the Spartans’ normally elusive quarterback Kyle Reed. They dropped him eight times.

The Cardinal, struggling to stop anyone defensively in recent outings, entered the game with four sacks. Starting senior defensive end Tom McAndrew and reserve sophomore defensive end Tom Keiser each came up with a pair of sacks after approaching the contest without one in their college careers.

Stanford repeatedly mixed up coverage and pressure packages, leading Harbaugh to remark with baseball parlance, “It was just kind of fastball (and) curveball with those two things.”

Short yardage

Oregon’s secondary was without one of its staunch defenders, junior cornerback Walter Thurmond, held out against Boise State with a groin injury. Thurmond had made 21 consecutive starts. … Arizona lost starting center Blake Kerley to what could be a season-ending knee injury against UCLA. … UCLA was forced to play the second half without offensive tackle Micah Kia, who left with a back injury. … Arizona State tailback Keegan Herring and UCLA tailback Kahlil Bell, two of the league’s better runners, sat out game day with hamstring and ankle injuries, respectively. Both could be back for their team’s next games. … UCLA has gone two games without scoring an offensive touchdown, finding the end zone for six points in that time only on linebacker Kyle Bosworth’s fumble recovery against Arizona. … Washington State rolled up 36 first downs against Portland State to tie a school record. … Stanford junior tailback Toby Gerhart came up with a career-best 148 yards rushing against San Jose State, a year after running for 140 against the same team. … Cardinal quarterback Tavita Pritchard, in danger of losing his job to freshman Andrew Luck during the week, completed 13 of 28 passes for 148 yards, with his longest completion going 25 yards – to himself. He caught a deflected pass and turned it into the big gain. “I planned it that way,” he said. Pritchard also ran for his first career touchdown.

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