Cool, Calm and Collecting Ws

The huddle has a funny way of falling quiet as the clock winds down. Joey Harrington sees by the scoreboard that his team is losing, but when he looks at the players around him, he senses calm.

“I see 10 guys whose eyes are on me,” he says. “They trust me.”

Since Harrington became the starting quarterback for Oregon a season and a half ago, the Ducks have amassed a 16-2 record, which in itself might explain why he’s in the running for the Heisman Trophy. But the senior is probably better defined by another statistic: An uncanny seven of those victories have been decided in the fourth quarter.

Last-minute drives, last-second touchdowns.

“Just a typical Oregon game,” he says. “What we’ve come to expect.”

USC knows it too well. Last season, after the Trojans rallied to within four points early in the fourth quarter, Harrington lofted an 18-yard touchdown pass to his tight end, a perfect strike to seal the victory. Three of the last four times these teams have met--with or without Harrington at quarterback--the winning margin has been four points or fewer. .

Now, with a game in Eugene on Saturday night, USC must wonder how this guy pulls it off. Even Harrington is stuck for an answer. “I think I do a good job of ... ,” he says, the thought trailing off.

Maybe destiny plays a role. His father, John, was a Duck quarterback in the late 1960s, back when the team struggled to scrape together four or five wins a season. As folklore has it, the Oregon athletic department sent a mock scholarship offer on the day Joey was born.

The younger Harrington grew to be 6 feet 4 and possessing of quarterback persona, the short black hair and gravelly voice, the confident smile. Still, there was no guarantee he would make good on his pedigree. As recently as 1999, he served as a backup, relegated to token appearances and holding on field-goal attempts. Midway through that season, with the Ducks losing to Arizona, the coaches told him to get ready. Arizona scored moments later on a long run.

“I didn’t have time to be nervous,” Harrington recalls. “I was in the game.”

His statistics were modest that day--144 yards passing, one touchdown--but Oregon came back to win. A pattern was set.

The next week, against Arizona State, Harrington threw a game-winning pass with nine seconds on the clock. The Ducks were on their way to six consecutive victories and an invitation to the Sun Bowl, where they defeated Minnesota on Harrington’s 10-yard touchdown pass with 1:32 left.

A change came over him. As a sophomore he would bounce off the walls, always energetic, but each close call made him a little calmer. “I need to be the one in control,” he says.

The comebacks continued. Last season, in what Harrington calls a favorite football memory, Oregon overcame a 14-point deficit in the final five minutes and defeated Arizona State, 56-55, in double overtime. Against Texas in the Holiday Bowl, he directed a 68-yard touchdown drive to win the game with less than six minutes remaining.

Certainly physical talent is part of the equation. He stands tall enough to see over the line, his arm strong enough for deep throws. But when it comes to foot speed--the elusiveness that coaches seek these days--he says, “I seem to lack in that category.”

USC Coach Pete Carroll thinks Harrington compensates with intelligence, the way he reads defenses and makes the right choices. This is, after all, a young man who maintains a 3.2 grade-point average and plays jazz piano in his spare time. “He can manage all the offense they put out there,” Carroll says.

Of course, Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti would prefer a few more big leads, a few more easy victories. But early on, he saw something that gave him confidence in Harrington.

“It was the look in his eye or the way he looked you in the eye when you talked to him,” Bellotti says. “Joey is the guy that wants the ball when the game is on the line.”

So maybe the secret to Harrington’s success is inexplicable, the synaptic spark of a quick decision, a gleam in the eye. Given a moment to ponder, Harrington offers another possible explanation.

“So much of playing quarterback is gaining the trust of your teammates,” he says. “My dad is a man of character.... He taught me to be a leader.”

John Harrington also taught his son to work hard. This summer, Oregon was picked to contend for a national championship and a fair amount of Heisman hype swirled around Joey, the school draping a 100-foot poster of him from the side of an office building in Manhattan. Still, he devoted his vacation to the often frustrating process of tinkering with mechanics.

There was a small flaw in his motion: He would let the ball drop a few inches before raising it up to throw. Ninety-eight percent of the time, his decision-making and release were quick enough to make up the difference. “But there was that other 1% or 2%,” he says.

After much practice, the hitch is gone and Harrington is back to his high-wire act. In case anyone had forgotten over the summer, he reminded them in the season opener against Wisconsin, moving the Ducks the length of the field and diving over the goal line for the winning score with 4:03 remaining.

“I need to keep the fans in their seats,” he says.

In truth, Harrington doesn’t seem all that concerned about how he manages so many comebacks. He just wants to keep doing it.

“If you’ve done something over and over again, you build confidence,” he says. “Everyone on the team believes that if we’re in a close game, we’re going to pull it out.”

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SATURDAY

USC (1-1) AT OREGON (2-0)

At Eugene, Ore., 7:15 p.m., FSN