Ducks, Dixon could be BCS poster children

Let a season play out long enough and you can end up typing incredible sentences.

* Oregon can win the national title this year, maybe by defeating Kansas, which just defeated Nebraska by 37 points on the same day Navy beat Notre Dame.

* The Heisman Trophy appears now to be Dennis Dixon’s to lose. In 1968, a presidential candidate rode the slogan “Nixon’s the One” to a close victory.

In Eugene this year, maybe “Dixon’s the One.”

* Better get your tickets now for Missouri-Kansas on Nov. 24 in Kansas City.

* Michigan is one victory from playing for a Rose Bowl bid after a season-opening loss to Appalachian State, which then lost to Wofford, which lost Saturday to Georgia Southern.

* Who does Connecticut play next?

After two relatively tranquil weeks, college football is back to being based at Houston’s Nutt house.

Weekend losses by top-five Bowl Championship Series schools Boston College and Arizona State provided the latest cover version of shake, rattle and roll.

It could have been worse/better if BCS No. 1 Ohio State hadn’t rallied to beat Wisconsin and new BCS No. 2 Louisiana State hadn’t been able to score two late touchdowns to win at Alabama.

Ohio State and LSU were 1-2 in Sunday’s latest BCS offering, setting up another possible scenario in which the undefeated Buckeyes get stomped in the title game by a once-defeated champion from the Southeastern Conference.

Last year it was Florida over Ohio State to the backdrop of television sets flipping off and a gigantic stadium emptying out.

Anyone ready for that again?

A bobble by the Buckeyes, though, and a hiccup down at LSU could produce an Oregon-Kansas showdown at the Louisiana Superdome on Jan. 7.

Oregon, with a 35-23 home win over Arizona State, jumped two spots to No. 3 in the BCS while Kansas made the most hay, jumping four spots to No. 4.

Oregon versus Kansas . . . it could happen.

And here’s the thing: Neither team was ranked in anybody’s preseason top 25. To be fair, Oregon was among “others receiving votes” in both the Associated Press media and ESPN/USA Today coaches’ polls, but Kansas got zilch. And it doesn’t count that the coaches gave Kansas State votes.

But isn’t that what makes it fun?

Ohio State and LSU have won national titles as recently as 2002 and 2003. Oregon and Kansas have won it all as recently as never.

Oregon is three closing wins against Arizona, UCLA and Oregon State from playing in no worse than its first Rose Bowl since the 1994 season.

And it only gets easier from here, right?

“It doesn’t get easier from here,” Ducks tailback Jonathan Stewart countered after Saturday’s win. “It’s going to be hard.”

Kansas was lucky enough to avoid Texas and Oklahoma on this year’s Big 12 schedule, but it does have a 19-14 win in Boulder against a Colorado team that beat Oklahoma.

Kansas is one of three unbeaten teams left standing, along with Ohio State and Hawaii.

Dennis Dixon?

Phil Steele, who produces maybe the best college football preseason magazine out there, listed 46 other possible Heisman Trophy winners before mentioning Dixon among his “dark horses.”

Dixon was wedged between Jamario Thomas of North Texas and Kennan Burton of Kentucky.

Dixon, though, probably became the Heisman front-runner late Saturday night when Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan, the previous front-runner, tossed a clinching interception in a loss to Florida State.

Oregon has had an interesting history with Heisman campaigns. In 2001, it paid $250,000 to plaster a huge billboard photo of quarterback Joey Harrington on a Manhattan building in the hopes of churning up some East Coast-bias publicity.

Harrington finished fourth in Heisman balloting that year, yet Oregon was criticized by some for its over-the-top approach and egregious display of opulence.

David Williford, Oregon’s assistant athletic director, has for six years heard the common complaint issued about the Harrington campaign.

“We were trying to buy it,” Williford said Sunday. “I know that.”

That won’t be an issue this year because Dixon became a front-runner only a couple of hours ago.

No sense alerting Times Square to a quarterback who lost his starting spot late last year and finished with more interceptions than touchdown passes.

Dixon’s campaign has risen from almost nowhere after several other top candidates faltered because of personal or team performance.

This campaign will be different. “There will be no billboards,” Williford said.

The Ducks will, instead, gently nudge Dixon along. Oregon paid $25,000 for an ad that ran on ESPN and plans to run one ad per week for the rest of the season.

Williford said the pitch this year is more, “Why Not Dennis Dixon?”

The fact is, if the team wins its next three games, Oregon won’t have to do much to help Dixon become the school’s first Heisman winner.

Dixon has been characterized as a poor man’s Vince Young, the Texas quarterback who is still bitter about finishing second to Reggie Bush for the 2005 Heisman.

Yet, Dixon’s run-pass skills are certainly legit. His four touchdown passes against Arizona State gave him 20 for the season, with only three interceptions. He also has rushed for 549 yards and eight touchdowns.

“What else does a Heisman candidate have to do?” Stewart wondered.

Dixon isn’t going to promote himself.

“He is not a politician,” Williford said.

After Saturday’s win, Dixon all but tried to dodge the Heisman question.

“I know it’s an individual award, and I can’t credit myself,” Dixon said. “I’ll let that play itself out.”

What more does a candidate have to do?

This year, in Dixon’s case, it might be as simple as this: Beat three teams you’re supposed to beat.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

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Play it forward

Five things to watch this week in college football:

1) What was supposed to be a matchup of undefeated top-10 teams, with the winner taking a major step toward the national title, is now USC (7-2) at California (6-3). If you can’t access the game on your local cable station, it’s likely to be on radio somewhere.

2) Quarterback Dennis Dixon suffered a mild left knee strain in Oregon’s 35-23 win over Arizona State on Saturday, but he should be recovered in time for the Ducks’ Nov. 15 game at Arizona. Think it’s a “no problem” trip? Last year, Arizona beat Oregon, 37-10, in Eugene.

3) Three early-season Arkansas losses jolted Darren McFadden’s chances for winning this year’s Heisman Trophy, but a 321-yard rushing performance against South Carolina puts him right back in the race. McFadden has marquee games left at Tennessee on Saturday and at LSU on Nov. 23.

4) Florida at South Carolina could have meant so much more this week had the teams not totaled six losses already this season. But it’s still Florida’s great coach of the present, Urban Meyer, going against Steve Spurrier, its great coach of the past.

5) UCLA’s still being in control of its Rose Bowl destiny has to be some sort of joke, but even if it’s true there is no way in Westwood the battered-and-bruised Bruins can possibly win their last three games against schools ranked in the BCS top 17: Arizona State, Oregon and USC.

-- Chris Dufresne