Arizona goes duck hunting in Eugene

Katherine K. Gardiner Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona quarterback sophomore Keith Smith warms up at practice last week. Smith completed a school-record 60.6 percent of his passes for 1,996 yards and 11 touchdowns last season.

"After that game we all immediately started to talk about beating Oregon," sophomore quarterback Keith Smith said. "This is definitely a big game for us. Not just because it is a conference game, but because we have been waiting for this day for so long."

It has been 285 long days since that nightmare filled fall evening in Arizona Stadium and opening day could not have come soon enough.

The Wildcats kick the season off tonight at 7:30 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. The game is televised on the Fox Sports Network.

"Our guys are really anxious to play," said UA head coach Dick Tomey as the Wildcats enter their 20th season in the Pacific 10 Conference. "Most of the players spent time watching other games on TV last weekend and we are all just ready to get out there and see what we can do."

Returning the favor to ASU is later this year, now it's time to avenge the loss suffered at Oregon last year.

In that game Arizona took a 14-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game only to end up being blown out the rest of the contest, eventually losing 49-31.

Oregon senior tailback Saladin McCullough surprised Arizona's defense amassing 223 yards in 23 carries and five touchdowns, something Tomey has prepared the team for this year.

"We can't let him do that to us again," he said. "He is very deceptive and makes you miss a lot of tackles, but last year we did not tackle well at all. We have hit a lot in practice so we will be ready for him."

Oregon comes into the 1997 season with a big question mark at quarterback, where juniors Jason Maas and Akili Smith have been battling for the starting job.

Head coach Mike Bellotti said he won't announce who is starting until the first snap.

"We really won't know who will start until after warmups," said Bellotti via phone conference Tuesday. "Jason has spent three years in the program so he knows the system, but Akili has made great progress learning the offense. Both will play early in the game."

With both teams loaded with inexperience, the opening game of the season will be a learning experience.

"I think we will be surprised with some of the things we will learn from this game," Tomey said. "There is always pressure on the first game, especially on a league game."

Bellotti echoed the sentiments of his counterpart.

"Starting the year with a Pac-10 game is scary," Bellotti said. "You usually get a game or two to work out some of the kinks but with this game we have limited choices of things to do."

Arizona has previously opened the season with a Pac-10 opponent five times but this is the first time since 1989, when they defeated Stanford 19-3.

Ironically, the Wildcats have gone on to finish with winning conference and overall records in all five of those seasons.

Arizona's young quarterback knows the importance of starting off with a win.

"This is a real tough game but we need to get off to a good start," Smith said. "There is absolutely no time for us to mess around."