Oregon, for once, does something right

Nov 12, 2009, 12:00 AM

As much as we all love a good LeGarrette Blount joke, let's be perfectly honest about the now-reinstated Oregon running back: he served his time. So let him play. Or, rather, let him stand in front of the hot-air fans on the Autzen Stadium sidelines. Blount, suspended after punching Boise State's Byron Hout in the jaw following Oregon's season-opening loss- - anyone want to set an over/under for how many times that sentence has been written this season? -- was reinstated by the Ducks earlier this week, a move that everyone saw coming and nobody really cares about anymore. Not that they should, really, because the general consensus the whole time was that this was going to be the case. A lot of people - myself included, but I'm not going to act like I was some sort of soothsaying genius for predicting the same thing as half the country- - knew the day Blount was suspended that he would be back by the end of the season. Oregon just had to wait for things to blow over, wait for the national media to focus on something else, and voila, Blount is back in uniform and ready to, uh, contribute, I guess. That's kind of why this is a non-story: LaMichael James, Blount's replacement at tailback, has been tearing it up for the Ducks and is a big reason why they have arguably the most unstoppable offense in the country. And head coach Chip Kelly has made it clear that there's no tailback competition between LeGarrette and LaMichael, meaning that the Ducks LaRunning game should be just LaFine. James is still the guy. Blount is somewhere around fifth string at this point, and the odds of him seeing the field the rest of the way remain to be seen. The problem now is not letting Blount become a distraction, and really, it sounds as if the guy has been through about as much volunteer service and therapy and life-lesson learning and soul searching and flower planting and advice gathering as someone working their way through a DUI workshop, or something. He's probably so scared to push the envelope at this point that he's actually taking his own midterms. And remember, all he did was punch a guy in the face a couple minutes after he and dozens of others spent 60 minutes beating on each other. Suspensions this long usually follow altercations that put people in the hospital. All Blount did was put Hout in his place. Oregon gets a thumbs up for this one. PRAISING ARIZONA It's likely that most UW fans are now also big fans of Arizona, given that the Wildcats have the best chance of making sure Oregon doesn't win the Pac-10 title and go to the Rose Bowl. With three games left on the Pac-10 schedule, the Wildcats and Ducks are tied for first place, and they play each other in Tucson in two weeks. But for that game to truly determine the Pac-10 title, Arizona is also going to have to weather a pretty tough schedule down the stretch. The 'Cats have to beat California this week, then, after the big showdown against Oregon, they travel to Arizona State and No. 9 USC. Oregon plays Arizona State this week, then Arizona, then home against No. 23 Oregon State. And don't forget about Stanford, which has only two losses and games against California and USC, and owns the tiebreaker over Oregon should the teams end up in a tie. And USC also has two losses, and could conceivably win out, hope for Arizona and Oregon State to both beat Oregon, and still claim its eighth consecutive Pac-10 title. One thing is certain: Washington State is terrible. Reach Sports Editor Christian Caple at sports@dailyuw.com.

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