Rob Moseley: A Q&A With Oregon Football Writer

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Today's Q&A is with Rob Moseley, who covers the No. 4 Oregon Ducks for the Eugene Register-Guard. You can follow him on Twitter at @DuckFootball.

One Great Season: The season's first month is in the books. Surprises? Disappointments?
Rob Moseley: You've got to be impressed with what Boise State's doing. They've beaten a couple of teams that by the end of the year should look pretty solid. I was interested in seeing them play two quality opponents within a couple of weeks of each other and they did pretty well.

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As far as who's been disappointing, I thought Washington — along with Stanford and Arizona, and maybe UCLA — could potentially be a team that could rise up and challenge Oregon, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. That's been a little surprising.

OGS: Seems like everyone out in Eugene loves Tuesday's Chip Kelly extension. What are your thoughts?
RM: There's not really any other way you can go. He's proven himself on the field, winning the PAC-10 and going to the Rose Bowl in his first year, and he had nothing but success as the offensive coordinator previously. They looked like a sinking ship early last year, but then he got them right back on track. Then he cut Masoli loose and again got them right back where they needed to be. And I guess from an administrative standpoint, I can see why they love him. He wins games.

OGS: A lot of eyeballs are on the Florida-Alabama slugfest this weekend, but many think the Stanford-Oregon tilt out your way has even more at stake. Andy Staples called it an elimination game of sorts. What do you think?
RM: I would tend to agree with that more in Stanford's case. Coming off the seasons that each team had last year, I think Oregon could lose a game and still right the ship. Stanford is looking to win a big game like this to establish itself. But if they lose, they'll face a lot more questions than Oregon would if they lost. But in terms of the PAC-10 race, it's absolutely gigantic for sure. They look like the league's top two teams.

OGS: Some experts I've talked to this season think this is the year the SEC loses its monopoly on the national championship. Let's say the conference doesn't even get a team to Glendale. Is it Ohio State and Oregon and would the Ducks welcome such a rematch?
RM: I think they would definitely welcome a rematch, but then of course the question would be would they have any more success dealing with Terrelle Pryor. They didn't have any last year. The assumption is that if Oregon can go undefeated they'll leap Boise in the polls, but you know, it's still pretty early. Everybody has a lot of questions to answer except for Boise. They've already answered a few. That Nevada game will be a good test for them later in the season. If Boise runs the table, how do you argue that they don't deserve at least a shot?

OGS: Of the three superstar freshmen running backs last year, it looks like LaMichael James is the only one who will enjoy similar success in 2010. Do you think he'll earn an invitation to New York in December?
RM: I think it's possible, yeah. He, more than some others probably, will be tied to how well his team does. The players are obviously encouraged not to talk about themselves as individuals. I asked Chip Kelly if he'd be OK with a university campaign to support LaMichael's candidacy, and he said he didn't care. If they lost a couple of games and the school didn't do much to promote him, LaMichael totally would drop way down. He's not a great receiver, he doesn't return kicks, he's not asked to block very much. He's just not very well-rounded yet.

OGS: There's another Heisman candidate in the PAC-10 who will be in Eugene this weekend. What can Oregon do to keep Andrew Luck in check?
RM: Chip was asked that (Tuesday) and he said "25 interceptions," and I'm not one to argue with the coach. But Luck is very accurate. A guy does not need to be wide open for him to throw a pass his way. He threw only four interceptions last year, and two this year, both on tipped balls, so he's very accurate. The guy puts the ball in the right place. But, conversely, if you're the defense, maybe take some risks and see if you can't get one or two. Oregon is a great second-half team, so maybe take a couple of chances in the first half and see what happens.

OGS: For folks who haven't seen a game at Autzen Stadium, what are they missing?
RM: Eugene is one of those college towns where when Oregon's playing, life in most of the rest of the city stops. It's the only show in town, at least if you're a sports fan. People are fired up come game day. They get pretty into it, and as a result, the noise level becomes a definite factor. If the other team has the ball, and let's say there's a false start, the fans smell blood in the water and they really bring it.

OGS: Why or how has college football become such a polarizing sport? Fans are ridiculously biased toward their own teams and at times ruthless in their criticism about others. What makes the sport unlike any other?
RM: Allegiance to a school that you attended or lived near your whole life runs deeper than, say, for a pro team. And you can't ignore the fact that people are more inclined to drink all day and get wasted all day before a college football game rather than a college basketball game, and that adds, quote-unquote, "passion."

OGS: How has social media changed the way you do your job?
RM: There are pluses and minuses. I love all the interactivity. Readers tell me what they want to know about and I try to go out and get it for them. I think anyone of us at newspapers in the last decade or so have become more cognizant that we're in a business and we have customers. You can maintain your journalistic standards but still meet the needs of your customers on Twitter and all these other new platforms. It's harder to break stories as a beat guy, so that should make you more motivated to stay on Twitter all day and publish a couple of blog posts. But you still have to do the old-school things like file a story for the newspaper at the end of every day, so it really can be a 24-hour job during the season.