ShareThisOregon's college football contemporaries no longer provide an accurate gauge for the Ducks' offensive dominance.
Perhaps Chip Kelly's scheme should be compared to John Jenkins' wild Houston offense of 1989. Maybe Darron Thomas' skills should be measured against Nebraska's Tommie Frazier in 1995. Perhaps LaMichael James should be compared to Army's Glenn Davis of 1944.
How explosive are the Ducks? They scored 52 points against USC, and their scoring average went down.
Time of possession? Woody Hayes would be dumbfounded. Oregon had the ball for only 8:49 in the first half Saturday and scored 29 points. The Ducks rank 115th of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in time of possession.
The Ducks average 54.9 points a game, which would be the second highest single-season average in Division I history. Oregon probably will become only the seventh team to average better than 50 points.
Here are the other 50-points-per-game teams:
1. Army, 1944 (56.0) -- Future Heisman winners Doc Blanchard and Davis led the attack.
2. Houston, 1989 (53.5) -- Jenkins, then the Cougars' offensive coordinator, made Andre Ware a Heisman Trophy winner that season.
3. Nebraska, 1995 (52.4) -- Frazier might be the best option quarterback ever.
4. Nebraska, 1983 (52.0) -- Mike Rozier rushed for 2,148 yards and won the Heisman.
5. Oklahoma, 2008 (51.1) -- Sam Bradford's Heisman season.
6. Texas, 2005 (50.2) -- Vince Young was the Heisman runner-up.
Oregon's James leads the nation in rushing, averaging 172.9 yards a game and 7.1 a carry.
With five games left (including a bowl), Thomas has 21 touchdown passes, more than either Jeremiah Masoli or Dennis Dixon -- his Ducks predecessors at QB -- had in any full season. And Thomas, a sophomore, is still improving.
And, oh yeah, Oregon added to its vast array of uniforms by wearing silver shoes for the first time Saturday.
LUCK HAS IT: Guess who has the most rushing yards among Pac-10 quarterbacks this season. Maybe Washington's Jake Locker? Perhaps Thomas? Nope, it's Stanford's Andrew Luck, a classic drop-back passer who nonetheless has rushed for 345 yards and 8.6 yards per carry.
PROVINCIAL REMINDER: Roy Helu Jr. -- a senior who rushed for a Nebraska-record 307 yards in Saturday's 31-17 win over then-No. 7 Missouri -- was not ranked among Rivals.com's top 250 recruits in the class of 2007. Coming out of San Ramon Valley High in Danville, Calif., he was rated only the No. 88 recruit in California. He chose Nebraska over Oregon and Cal.
-- TCU is unbeaten and ranked No. 4, but the Horned Frogs' next game is at No. 6 Utah, which has won 21 consecutive home games. No top-10 team gets less attention than Utah, which becomes a national-title contender if it beats TCU.
-- This week's BCS standings suggest once-beaten Alabama will jump over an unbeaten Boise State, TCU or Utah team in the final BCS standings if the Tide win the rest of their games (including Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State and the SEC championship game).
-- No. 10 Stanford hosts No. 13 Arizona on Saturday, and the winner has a shot at a BCS game, perhaps the Rose Bowl. The year before Mike Stoops became Arizona's coach in 2004, the Wildcats finished last in the conference. The year before Jim Harbaugh became Stanford's coach in 2007, the Cardinal finished last in the conference. Arizona quarterback Nick Foles probably will return to the starting lineup this week after missing two games with a dislocated kneecap.
-- What does Cal have in common with perennial powerhouses Texas, Notre Dame, Georgia, Clemson, BYU and Tennessee? None has a winning record.
-- In North Texas' first game since firing Todd Dodge as its coach, Dodge's son Riley Dodge made his first start at quarterback since Oct. 2 and helped the Mean Green to their second win of the season Saturday, a 33-6 victory over Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers had ended a 26-game losing streak the previous week.
(Contact Jake Curtis through his website is JakesTakeOnSport.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit the San Francisco Chronicle
