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SPORTS / MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Plucky Duck QB trying to put the past behind him
Nate Costa hopes to start for Pac-10 favorite Oregon
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
EUGENE, Ore. — Turn the page. Chip Kelly preached to his team as it began fall camp. Get on with the business of establishing a new identity for Oregon football. Don't transfer the baggage of the troubling offseason headlines into 2010.
All of that should be fine with Nate Costa, battling to be the quarterback for the Pac-10-favorite — and defending champion — Ducks when they begin the season Sept. 4 against New Mexico.
He ought to be pleased to leave behind the past, which has visited all sorts of miseries upon him.
"It's obviously taken some things away from me," says Costa, "but in the end, football is such an amazing game."
Costa is a guy worth rooting for, a fifth-year senior who has hung around through three serious injuries to the same knee, just so he can live the dream.
He hasn't yet been named the starter — he's battling a sophomore with more raw ability, Darron Thomas — but if Kelly has a heart underneath that fast-talking Eastern demeanor, it has to be Costa. It should be his job to lose.
He came to Oregon out of California's Central Valley in 2006, having had a knee surgery in high school. In the quarterback-strapped season of 2007 — when the Ducks might have won a national title but for a knee injury to Dennis Dixon — Costa would have been the replacement for Dixon, but he sustained a
midseason knee injury in practice.
In 2008, the year Oregon began with Washington, Costa was named the starting quarterback in camp, and less than two weeks before the opener, it happened a third time.
Ever so briefly, Costa considered giving up a game that had mostly betrayed him. He couldn't do it.
"Football is the greatest game in the world," he said. "I love playing it. I'm thinking when I'm 40, I probably going to have some major arthritis in my knee, but the camaraderie wasn't something I was ready to let go of."
"I have tons of respect for him, on and off the field," says offensive tackle Mark Asper. "He's a great leader."
Kelly had plenty of knotty decisions off the field in
his expulsion and transfer to Mississippi. James is suspended for the New Mexico game after a guilty plea of harassment following an altercation with a former girlfriend.
"Football is the greatest game in the world."
As always, the broad brush tainted others, or so they sensed.
the past year, and he could have another one on his hands, choosing between Costa and Thomas. The "chalk" is Costa, who has earned everybody's respect. But it's also possible Kelly looks at Thomas as giving the Ducks a higher upside, in addition to being the future at the position.
"It felt very irritating," said Asper. "But at the same time, we had to sit there; there wasn't anything we could do. We couldn't have a press conference, there was no camp or anything, to say, 'Hey, we're not all like this.'"
Nobody in college football — well, maybe Lane Kiffin — has had a more eventful 12 months than Oregon. It went through the LeGarrette Blount fiasco, a trip to the Rose Bowl, and then an ignominious offseason punctuated by a campus brawl involving players and major issues surrounding quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and running back LaMichael James.
Masoli's involvement in a fraternity burglary and a marijana-possession rap. ended with
Adds Costa, "You talk to a lot of our players, and you'll realize we're not bad guys. We're intelligent, and we do great things"
NATE COSTA
Oregon senior quarterback
the community. The perception across the nation of the Oregon Ducks isn't the best right now, but we're working to improve it."
Publicity - the good
kind — could be plentiful here. Oregon has 17 starters back from the team that lost to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Only here and there — tight end, one cornerback — are there serious questions.
"I like the defense," says coordinator Nick Aliotti. "I like their speed, their athleticism and their character."
Costa is the biggest imponderable. Can he stay healthy? Can he provide what the dynamic Masoli did? And: Can he start?
"We might throw the ball a tad bit more," said Costa, "just because I have a quick trigger."
If Costa can come through, Oregon's story might be the kind Kelly would want, a real page-turner.
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Eyes on the prize
Jessica Janasz/KANSAN
brrittanie Williams, a junior from Lawrence, shoots for her team during the championship game of billiards in the Scholarship Hall Olympics. All twelve scholarship halls participated in the Olympics that included competitions in games such as sand volleyball, basketball and ultimate frisbee.
MLB
Kendall walk-off hit gives Royals 3-2 win
Gregor Blanco walked with two outs and stole second and third before Kendall delivered the hit
to left-center off Scott Linebrink (1-1).
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jason Kendall hit a game-ending single with two outs in the 10th inning to give the Kansas City Royals a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday, the teams' third extra-inning game in less than 24 hours.
The Royals and White Sox played three games totaling 9 hours, 32 minutes and 31 innings. They split a doubleheader Saturday night, the first game going 11 innings and the second 10, that did not end until 1:11 a.m. Sunday morning.
The last time the Royals played three consecutive extra-innings game was June 9-11,2000, against the Pittsburgh Pirates.The Royals won the first two games and lost the third in that series.
The White Sox last played three straight extra-inning games Aug. 3-5,1988.
The Royals are 9-5 in extra-innings this season, while the White Sox are 4-9.
Sean O'Sullivan (2-4) worked a scoreless 10th to pick up his first victory since the Royals acquired him in a July 22 trade with the Los Angeles Angels.
Royals starter Zack Greinke, the 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner, went eight innings, walking one and striking out nine.
Associated Press