Little Cheerleader – Go Ducks by Kerry

Here we go again.  It’s Wednesday – well I started this on Wednesday it’s Thursday now, and all the embers of the bonfire we hosted with that “damn tree” have completely fizzled out.  The high-fives have been replaced by nail-biting and the extraodinary jubilation of victory has turned in to that horrible gut wrenching realization of: we are playing that “damn trojan” on Saturday.

You’d think I’d have more confidence; more swagger going into this game. I mean the game is at Autzen; weather looks like it will be cold and wet (we all know it NEVER rains in Autzen stadium); we aren’t going up against Heisman trophy (previously) front-runner Andrew Luck.  And according to Kirk Herbstreit, “Oregon made #4 Stanford look like a JV team, and people don’t seem to want to recognize that.”  I’m just quoting a professional here, not bragging. You’d think all of that should give me an extra ounce of hope.

But I have no more swagger, I have no more confidence than last week, and I don’t have an extra ounce of hope.  I would like to personally apologize to DT though for saying he wasn’t in synch with the offense before last week’s game – my bad. And when Ted Miller says DT’s better than you think – we know it’s true.   What I do have are predictions of a 16 pt spread in the game, Matt Barkley running off at the mouth, and me thinking – are we ready?

This is another sign of a Duck fan – omnipresent doubt when we are winning and omnipresent hope when we are losing. We’re up by 20 with: 30 on the clock that game isn’t in the bag – I know that.  We’re down by 14 with 3:00 left; I know that game isn’t over either. If Joey Harrington and/or Kenny Wheaton taught me one thing, it’s that until the scoreboard reads 0:00 it is simply not over.

I’m desperately trying to not look ahead; I’m trying to keep focusing straight ahead at USC, just as Chip Kelly would insist the players do. But it is hard to not let thoughts creep in.  Such as, would it be nice to have Okie State or “Those that shall not be named” drop a game – certainly would, but these are things I can’t control.  (This is where that false sense of my hootin’, hollerin’ and high fivin’ actually have an influence on the game). And since when can a Duck fan complain about (maybe) a Rose Bowl game? I mean it would be nice to actually WIN one of those! Woops there I go again… back to USC.

I would like to send a personal note to Lane Kiffin:

Dear Mr. Kiffin,

I am just some gal from NYC who only watches a “little bit” of football and some could even say I know nothing about the game.  But they would be wrong, because I do know ONE thing; there isn’t a chance in Hell that Robert Woods doesn’t play on Saturday.

Sincerely,

Flip Flops Gal

Matt Barkley can continue to say we aren’t as good as the 2010 team; it might be true, I don’t really know for sure.  But my note to Matt Barkley would read: If we are a full 20 points “less good” than our 2010 team and we’ll still beat you guys.

But that is why we play, to see if we are 20 points “less good.”  I obviously am hoping the exact opposite.  Because it would be great to roll over USC … again!  And if the Ducks beat the Trojans this Saturday we will clinch the Pac-12 North Division title and guarantee at least one extra game – the Pac-12 Championship.

If nothing else, that extends the wonderful college football season just one more week for us Ducks.  It gives us one more week in the magical cycle to read all the blogs, watch all the TV shows, argue with friends over BCS bias, comb through message boards, and mock pundits who rip on our team.

It’s the wild and wonderful world of college football, and isn’t it exciting!

GO DUCKS!