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Ducks are deserving of some accolades, too Commentary By RANDY HAMMERICKSEN Just up Highway 99 in Corvallis, the Oregon State Beavers are grabbing big headlines and exciting their fans with the special season they have going. The Beavers (7-3) are on the verge of perhaps completing an eight-win season, if they can secure a win over Oregon Saturday at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. Game time is 3:38 p.m. The Ducks, who are getting tired of hearing about the success of the Beavers, will have something to say about it. Oregon (7-3) is also bidding for its eighth win, which would put the Ducks in position to either go to the Rose Bowl, with help from Washington State and California Saturday, or to one of several other bowls, depending outcome of other games. Coach Mike Bellotti's Ducks have quietly and successfully taken care of their business in 1999. Oregon has already secured its sixth straight winning season and is headed for its third straight bowl appearance and eighth in the last 11 seasons. Bellotti has a 37-20-0 record as Oregon's head coach over his five-year tenure. The Ducks have more overall wins (46) than any another other Pac-10 team since 1994. Arizona is second with 44. While OSU and coach Dennis Erickson deserve the accolades they are getting for their season, Oregon deserves the same -- because the Ducks have been doing this (winning and going to bowl games) for more than a decade. After a 44-41 loss to the Beavers in double-overtime last season, the Ducks feel they have something to prove to the Beavers. Problem is, the Beavers are significantly better than they were last season under Erickson and on a roll with four straight Pac-10 wins. The Ducks also have four straight wins, which makes this perhaps the most intriguing Civil War game in decades. "What we have done this year has been overshadowed by Oregon State's winning season," admits Bellotti. "It's a little frustrating because I don't think what they (the Beavers) have done should take away from what this team has accomplished." Still playing for a Rose Bowl berth going into their final game of the regular season, the Ducks will be at full attention against the Beavers. "I think our players feel they have something to prove," says Bellotti. OSU's edge in this game comes on defense. The Beavers have excellent team speed and they chase the football and tackle as well as any team in the Pac-10. They are clearly better -- and more physical -- than the Ducks defensively. Oregon's edge may come with its explosiveness on offense at friendly Autzen Stadium, where the Ducks have won 13 straight games. The game figures to be so close, it will probably come down to a special teams play, a turnover or some other break. Bellotti has not announced which quarterback -- junior A.J. Feeley or sophomore Joey Harrington -- will start. Bellotti could alternate them early -- perhaps confusing the Beavers temporarily -- then go to the quarterback with the hot hand. "Nobody may know until one of them runs out on the field to start the game," says the coach. That's typical Civil War banter. Nobody's giving an inch in this one. (Randy Hammericksen is the Mail Tribune's sports columnist. He can be reached at 776-4499.) Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.