COLLEGE FOOTBALL / BOWL REPORT : INDEPENDENCE : It’s an Uncommon Matchup

Wake Forest (7-4) and Oregon (6-5) have never played before, they had no common opponents this season, and neither has ever played a current member of the others’ conference. Game tapes helped the teams size each other up, but there’s still much they don’t know going into today’s Poulan Weed Eater Independence Bowl (9:30 a.m., ESPN).

“Usually you’ll have played somebody that played them,” Oregon Coach Rich Brooks said. “But we’re at such extreme ends of the country.”

“East Coast football is different than West Coast football,” Wake Forest defensive tackle Ben Coleman said. “But everyone seems to believe that on the West Coast all they do is pass, pass, pass and the East all they do is run, run, run.

“And really, for this game it’s vice versa, if anything. They have a tremendous running game. Our running game is not as strong as theirs, we try to balance it off with some passing.”