Rich Brooks and Mike Bellotti got the ball rolling, but it was Chip Kelly who took it and ran with it, turning Oregon into a perennial major bowl participant.
Brooks took the Ducks to the 1994 Rose Bowl, Oregon’s first appearance in the Granddaddy of them all in 37 years.
Bellotti took over the following season and, in his 14 seasons, led the Ducks to 12 bowl game appearances, including the 2001 Fiesta Bowl.
By the time Bellotti replaced Chip Kelly as head coach beginning in the 2009 season, he had reached bowl games in four consecutive seasons, the last of which was the 2008 Holiday Bowl< /a>, a game the Ducks won 42-31 over Oklahoma State, when Kelly was the offensive coordinator.
Kelly took over the following season and took the Oregon Bowl to a whole new level of success.
Here are four bowl games in Kelly’s four seasons as Oregon’s head coach, as the Ducks face Kansas State on Jan. 3. They prepare the Fiesta Bowl;
2009 season: Rose Bowl
The Ducks reached the Rose Bowl for the first time since that 1994 season, but fell to Terrelle Pryor and Ohio State, 26-17. after 26 minutes in the final game he missed the score. Jeremiah Masoli’s 1-yard TD run at the 11:03 mark of the third quarter was Oregon’s final touchdown and put the Ducks up 17-16. But Ohio State‘s third-and-fourth-and-a-quarter touchdown — Pryor to DeVier Posey. — to win the game.
2010 season: BCS Championship
Oregon lost a heartbreaker, 22-19, to Auburn in its first appearance in the national title game on Jan. 10. He played 2011 in Glendale, Ariz. The Ducks trailed 19-11 in the fourth quarter with a Darron Thomas touchdown pass. to LaMichael James and then finding Jeff Maehl for a 2-point conversion, which tied it at 19. But Wes Byrum’s field goal for the season ended gave the Tigers the title.
2011 season: Rose Ball
Oregon broke through for its first Rose victory since 1916, a 95-year span, with a 45-38 win over Wisconsin. De’Anthony Thomas came up huge in the game, scoring two long touchdown runs and 315 all-purpose yards on just 12 total touches.
2012 season: Fiesta Bowl
Oregon at Kansas State on Jan. 3 takes in games between teams, who were, at one point, first and foremost preferred. second in the BCS standings and headed for a clash in the BCS National Championship. But they lost both games on the same day games — Oregon falling to Stanford and K-Statt falling to Baylor. 17 Nov — and the Ducks are now fourth and the Wildcats are fifth in the BCS.
Sources:
Oregon football is the gateway to the arc
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Adam Sparks has followed Oregon football since 1990, and has been a team librarian since 2009. He wrote.
