Baffled by bad blood

EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon, who has never played at Husky Stadium or been to Seattle, shakes his head when asked about the Oregon-Washington rivalry.

“I don’t get all this rivalry stuff,” Dixon said. “Every game is a rivalry in itself.”

When Oregon and Washington meet Saturday for the 100th time, the seventh-ranked Ducks will be making their first trip to Seattle since 2003. Current Oregon players haven’t experienced the inhospitable reception that goes along with such a rivalry.

With many players such as Dixon (California) having come from other states, there is hardly a sense of bad blood.

“I was just told we were supposed to beat them,” said receiver Drew Davis, a freshman from Denver.

Oregon has its Civil War with Oregon State, Washington its Apple Cup rivalry with Washington State. Those intrastate matchups obviously are big. They tend to alternate sites each year. Fans create an unmistakable hoopla, players hear stories of slights and nasty behavior, and coaches recognize the recruiting ramifications.

As for the Ducks and Huskies, the rivalry lives in the domain of the fans – until players experience the fanaticism for themselves.

“It was something I learned when I got here, I had no prior knowledge of it,” said Washington quarterback Jake Locker, who is from Ferndale, Wash., near the Canadian border.

Locker was at Autzen Stadium here last year when the Huskies lost 34-14 – the closest game the teams have played since the 2000 season.

“I think they knew a lot of us,” Locker said of the personal attention from Oregon fans. “They were calling a lot of us by name. It seems like they had read our bios in the program and knew a lot of stuff about us. It was a pretty hostile environment, to say the least.”

It was all – or mostly all – in good humor, but Locker did describe it as a “different feeling,” and he acknowledged that, to the Huskies, the Oregon rivalry is close in intensity to Washington State.

After all, 11 – or half – of the Huskies’ offensive and defensive starters are from Washington. The Ducks have two – defensive tackles David Faaeteete and Cole Linehan – from Oregon. So it stands to reason that the rivalry may be felt more by the Huskies in this one.

That’s OK with Ducks coach Mike Bellotti, who isn’t going to reach into his motivational bag of tricks to play the rivalry card this week.

“That adds a little spice to it, no question,” Bellotti said. “I think you always want your team focused and energized, and you have to make a determination as to the emotional arousal, how much is enough, how much is too much.”

There has been intrigue (did Oregon coaches turn in Rick Neuheisel for recruiting violations when he coached the Huskies?), zaniness (fans tackling a Ducks receiver in the field of play in 1962) and various other unsportsmanlike fan behavior.

If the current Ducks players haven’t heard all the stories or watched the replays, perhaps they will get a taste of the rivalry Saturday if fans at Husky Stadium are as inhospitable as Ducks fans were to Locker last year.