Brooks turns it around in Ugly Duckling fashion

Sporting News, The, Dec 19, 1994 by Terry Frei

Oregon Coach Rich Brooks says he has looked at the videotape twice. On it, Keith Towne of Scottsdale, Ariz., a transplanted Oregonian and University of Oregon alum, is about to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner. Towne tells Brooks that before he gets to the turkey, he has to eat crow, that he was wrong and he is sorry. Towne puts cheese spread on a copy of a newspaper, stuffs it in his mouth and chews.

Towne, you see, is one of the many Oregon fans who sent copies of scorching letters to virtually every Oregon newspaper in the past few years, arguing that Brooks should resign or be fired. In November 1993, Towne's published open letter, to Brooks asked that the Oregon coach step aside and let someone else help the team turn the corner." And on September 13 Towne's published letter argued that the Ducks, loss to Hawaii in Week 2 of the regular season should be a "final warning to the few remaining Oregon fans.... Without a change of coaches, Oregon will continue to struggle both on the field and in the recruiting wars."

Lest you think we're picking on Towne, who should be congratulated for his sense of humor, we'll throw this in. We've all written opinions that have looked silly in retrospect. The Sporting News picked Oregon to finish ninth in the Pacific lO Conference, and one of our stories in the College Football Year-book labeled Brooks a coach on the hot seat

Oregon's sudden, within-a-season reversal after a 5-6 1993 season and a 1-2 start in '94 has been stunning. There are a lot of us who could make a run to 7-Eleven for some cheese spread as we discuss the 12th-rated Ducks, Pac-10 championship and Rose Bowl berth opposite Penn State. But before we do that we'll put this on record. Brooks, the 53-year-old coaching survivor who has one of the longest tenures at a single school in the college game. is Coach of the Year. (For more on Brooks and the Ducks, improbable season, see page S-8.)

At the Ducks, postseason banquet senior offensive tackle Steve Hardin told the crowd that Brooks "worked us so hard in fall camp this year that I told him (then) he was either the anti-Christ or the coach of the year. I guess we've figured which one it was.,,

Indeed. Following that desultory start, which included a "gimme" victory over Division II Portland State and then decisive losses to Western Athletic Conference teams Hawaii (which would go winless in its league) and Utah, the Ducks went 7-1 in the Pacific 10. The league opener was a harbinger: With starting quarterback Danny O'Neil out with a staph infection, and missing standout cornerback Herman O'Berry and tailback Ricky Whittle, Oregon beat USC, 22-7 in the Los Angeles Coliseum. After that game, USC Coach John Robinson - a former Oregon player and assistant - interrupted Brooks' news conference and said, gesturing to the media: "Don't listen to them. You were great, man. That was one of the greatest coaching jobs I've ever seen.,

While the Pac-10 arguably that in a little more than two months, Brooks went from beleaguered to highly decorated. The Ducks' improvement from week to week was palpable and remarkable, and they won their final six games.

"Its kind of interesting how Rich is being hung in effigy one week and running for mayor of Eugene the next," says a bemused Washington State Coach Mike Price. The Cougars were the only Pac-10 team to beat the Ducks, winning, 21-7, October 8 at Pullman.

After the September loss to Utah at home, Brooks gave an emotional Monday speech. Says O'Neil: "One thing he made clear to the team is: Do not let the fans and the media get in your heads.' He reassured us that we were a good football team, that he wasn't just saying that that he believed in us, and that he believed we could win every game we played the rest of the season. He said it with such firmess, we believed it."

Brooks says the Ducks were angry and frustrated. "The positive thing is that, rather than come apart and point fingers, which some teams I've had m the past have done, this team was more introspective," he says. "They looked to themselves and said, 'OK, I need to do better., We worked closer together rather than splintering apart."

Also early in the season, some Ducks fans were wearing "Ditch Rich" T-shirts at Autzen Stadium. There are no reports yet on whether even cheese spread can make 100 percent cotton edible.

Terry Frei is a contributing writer for The Sporting News.