A Reunion for Muir Teammates

UCLA defensive back Andy Colbert had a reunion of sorts this weekend with an old high school teammate, Saladin McCullough.

The two played high school ball together at Pasadena Muir, and Colbert moved on to the Bruins, McCullough to USC. His stay with the Trojans was short-lived because of a question of his Scholastic Assessment Test scores, and McCullough moved on to Pasadena City College and El Camino College before surfacing in Eugene just before the season.

He quickly became the Ducks’ starting tailback and leading ground gainer, with a 4.6 yards-per-carry average and five touchdowns, and also leads them in kickoff returns with six for 146 yards. But those figures are for three games, because McCullough suffered a knee ligament strain that has left him on the sideline through Oregon’s last three games, against Washington State, Arizona State and UCLA.

“He told me he was really disappointed he didn’t get to play against us,” said Colbert. “He really wanted to be in there.”

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Battered after its loss at Arizona State a week ago, Oregon listed four starters as definitely out and two others as questionable for the UCLA game. The injury list was two deep at tailback, with Jerry Brown (broken hand) joining McCullough. Also listed as out were starting safety Brandon McLemore (shoulder) and starting defensive end Mark Schmidt (thigh), plus backups Josh Beckett (tackle, knee), Michael Fletcher (safety, ankle), Matt Lofrano (linebacker, ankle) and Leie Saulua (defensive end, knee).

With all of that, the Ducks started four freshmen, three of whom had redshirted last season. Ray Brust, only four months from his high school prom, started at free safety and was the first Duck true freshman to start in two seasons.

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The UCLA-Oregon connection just keeps on coming.

Yes, UCLA Coach Bob Toledo was Oregon’s offensive coordinator from 1983-88, and yes, Al Borges was the Ducks’ offensive coordinator last season, before taking the same job title with UCLA.

And Oregon tried to hire UCLA defensive coordinator Rocky Long, then with Oregon State, after the 1994 and ’95 seasons, mostly because his defense held the high-scoring Ducks to 12 and 17 points in those two seasons, both Beaver losses. Long turned down Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti, preferring to stay in Corvallis until Toledo came along and signed him at UCLA.

And Oregon recruited UCLA quarterback Cade McNown, from West Linn, a Portland suburb, but he chose UCLA after the Ducks signed Justin Wilcox, who has been switched to defense and is the second-string free safety.

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Oregon’s Autzen Stadium was sold out Saturday night, with standing room tickets sold, which is nothing new. The Ducks have played to 91.1% of Autzen’s 41,698 capacity since 1987, and averaged 109% of capacity last season. They have had six consecutive crowds of 41,000 or more.

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Interesting Oregon phenomenon: tent parties instead of tailgate parties.

Why?

“It’s been known to rain here,” said one party-goer, uh, dryly.