Ducks Hope to Avoid a Trap Door

Texas and California know about the Holiday Bowl and its dangers.

So does Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti, who has spent the last several months with a psychological strategy for his team, almost from the moment it appeared likely the Ducks would be heading to San Diego and Qualcomm Stadium and the 28th annual playing of the Death Trap Bowl.

A third consecutive upset may actually make that label accurate.

Oregon’s game against Oklahoma tonight has a feel similar to the 2003 matchup between Texas and Washington State and the 2004 matchup between Cal and Texas Tech.

In ‘03, Texas was the last team out in the bowl championship series picks for the big-money games. The jilted Longhorns came here to the Holiday Bowl and were stunned by the Cougars.

In ‘04, Cal was left standing when the BCS musical chairs game stopped. The jilted Bears came to the Holiday Bowl and were stunned by the Red Raiders.

This year, guess which was the last team left uninvited to the BCS party. And guess which team is taking a 10-1 record and a No. 6 Associated Press ranking into the Holiday Bowl, making it a solid favorite against a 7-4 Oklahoma team.

These similarities are not lost on Bellotti, the most tenured current Pacific 10 Conference coach, who has taken the Ducks to bowl appearances in nine of his 11 seasons, topped by a No. 2 national ranking and a victory in the Fiesta Bowl in 2002.

“My best strategy to my team was honesty,” Bellotti said.

“We talked the same way all season, about doing all we can do and let what is going to happen after that just happen. And we knew, and talked about, the likelihood that after our USC loss, a national championship was pretty much out of the question.”

Bellotti also said that he and his staff, aware of what a fickle suitor the BCS can be, spent little time on long-term planning and speculation over where and whom they might play and more time on just taking care of what they could take care of themselves.

“We just felt that if we won, that things would take care of themselves,” he said. “As long as we won, and kept winning, we would be in the running at the end.”

Being in the running for a spot in the Holiday Bowl, with a payout roughly $12 million less than one of the BCS games, was not exactly what Bellotti or the Ducks were envisioning. But like Texas in ’03 and Cal in ‘04, several events left the Ducks locked out of the big party.

First, both No. 4 Louisiana State and No. 5 Virginia Tech lost on the last weekend of the regular season. That pushed Notre Dame up to No. 6 and Ohio State up to No. 4 in the BCS rankings. Both were 9-2, and although Oregon was No. 5, the complicated rules of the BCS made both the Irish and the Buckeyes automatic BCS teams.

So, the Fiesta Bowl, which probably wanted the Notre Dame-Ohio State matchup anyway, had no decision left. It couldn’t have taken Oregon if it wanted to, because BCS rules shut the Ducks out. The other three BCS games were filled either with higher-ranked teams or much lower-ranked teams that got in because they were conference champions.

Another factor that kept voters and computers from pushing the Ducks a notch above the Buckeyes and getting the Fiesta Bowl spot was a schedule that began with Houston, Montana and Fresno State. That backfired when their Fresno State win, their highest quality win of the season until they beat Cal in early November, became a liability when Fresno State, after giving top-ranked USC all it could handle before losing, 50-42, went dead in its last two games against Nevada and Louisiana Tech.

“We knew that hurt us,” Bellotti said. “Fresno State is a very good program, but when they finished like they did, it went directly against us.”

There was even a point at which Bellotti had to prepare himself and his team for the possibility that they would not even play in the Holiday Bowl, but would be going to El Paso to the Sun Bowl. Had UCLA beaten USC, that would have happened.

Bellotti said that many people think Oregon is still harboring a grudge and feeling anger about the BCS.

“We are not,” he said.

And he said that he had all the motivation he needed to make sure 2005 is not a repeat of the Texas and Cal horrors of the previous two years.

“First, we have a chance to match the best single-season record ever at Oregon with a win,” he said. “Plus, we played Oklahoma last year and they beat us [Oklahoma has a 5-0 record against Oregon and has outscored the Ducks in that run, 184-17], and they have a healthy Heisman Trophy candidate running back [Adrian Peterson].

“There will be no problem firing this team up.”

Times staff writer Chris Dufresne contributed to this report.