Duck Stuff: Morning Mud

• No surprise this week as Ted Miller has Oregon first in his Pac-10 Power Rankings.

The Ducks left no doubt against USC. None. Zero. Now, can they maintain the focus that got them here -- the Pac-10 title within sight -- or will they start to do most-muscular poses in their bathroom mirror? Because if they start to get impressed with themselves, a physical Stanford squad will give them a whipping Saturday.

• Miller also reports that LaMichael James was named the Pac-10 offensive player of the week.

James, a freshman from Texarkana, Texas, rushed 24 times for 183 yards (7.6-yard average) and a touchdown in the Ducks 47-20 win over USC. The 183 yards rushing is a school freshman record.

• Nick Daschel at Buster Sports says that Oregon deserves BCS Title shot. Here are a few of my favorite lines:

It’s too bad college football is decided by polls and geeky computer programmers. Because if the two best teams are truly supposed to play for the national title on Jan. 7, Oregon should be there.

Seriously. Florida/Alabama vs. Texas is on everyone’s short list for BCS title game. But wouldn’t you rather see a team try to shut down Oregon’s offense for all the marbles?

If the Ducks keep this up, they deserve only one destination, and that’s Pasadena on Jan. 7 for the BCS title.

How much fun would it be to watch Oregon run its spread offense against one of those high-falutin’ SEC defenses? Or the Ducks get in a shootout with Mack Brown and Texas with first prize on the line?

One thing you wouldn’t hear: that’s bad for college football. Because it would be great theater for college football.

Probably won't happen but it is a good read.

• Have you noticed how opposing teams seem to wear down in the second half? Rob Moseley noticed too and has a feature story about the conditioning of the Ducks.

“Conditioning is something we really rely on,” UO coach Chip Kelly said Sunday.

“We feel we’re the best-conditioned team every time we go out there. … How we practice and the pace of our practice allows us to really play at a high tempo on Saturdays.”

“We had to keep working at them,” defensive tackle Brandon Bair said. “There’s nothing like hard work; that will expose anybody. I’m not saying they weren’t working hard, but we outworked them. You could definitely see it. They hung their heads in the third quarter, second half, and we were able to come out and do what we were doing.”

• GoDucks.com has all the facts and figures for the upcoming Stanford game. Mike Tokito at the Oregonian takes a look at our opponent also.

• Rob Moseley reports on the scheduled start time for the Arizona St. game on Nov. 14th.

Oregon announced tonight that the Ducks and Sun Devils will play at either 4 p.m. on Versus or 7:20 p.m. on ESPN, with ESPN having first choice. Cal-Arizona will be slotted into the other window.

The Pac-10 will make their decision by Sunday.

With that announcement, the only game left with no firm TV commitment is the away game at Arizona on Nov. 21st.

GO DUCKS!