… before he names his starting quarterback.

Yeah, sure. Hard for me to believe that. I mean, I would think that by now Kelly knows exactly what he’s going to do. It’s just easier to tell the media that he hasn’t made up his mind yet. Even if he hasn’t made up his mind, it’s hard to believe the whole thing hinges on video of that one final scrimmage. Really?

But, whatever… On the day before it becomes public, go ahead and tell me who you think will be the starter and why.

For me, I’m still saying Nate Costa. There’s so much admiration from his teammates for what he’s overcome to get in this position. That counts for something — something that you don’t see in the video of that scrimmage. The players, not the coaches, decide who the leaders are — and at quarterback, you need a leader.

Can’t remember this much anticipation for a starting quarterback announcement.

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Things I saw while holding a microphone for Comcast Sportsnet:

• Chip Kelly has lost weight. “Pac-10 football coaches diet,” he told me off camera. Kelly looked very relaxed and comfortable. And I have to say he was very impressive in his interviews. He actually looked to be enjoying himself — which is the only way to attack that part of the job.
• I think people are getting stuck with the stereotypes in the whole Derron Thomas-Nate Costa battle for the quarterback job. Thomas, who is black, is being thought of as the runner and Costa, a white guy, is considered the passer. That’s an old stereotype — the black guy is always the runner, right? In this case, I’m not so sure. I think Thomas considers himself a passer first and may throw better than Costa — who made his early reputation with the Ducks as a whisper-quick runner. I asked Costa how much speed he’d lost since his freshman season, what with all the injuries, and his answer surprised me. “By now, none,” he said. “My times now are right back where they were when I got here.” If that’s the case, I think you’re going to be surprised at how well he motors in space. I asked each player who was the fastest and neither would answer — leading me to believe that it’s at least close.
• Nick Aliotti is a classic. In his 35th season of college football, Aliotti had lost his voice already — on the first day of practice. He’s a survivor who has taken his share of heat over the years and he isn’t getting full credit for his defensive squad at Oregon right now because the offense gets all the attention. But the Ducks led the conference in defense last year and may just do it again. Nobody cares more about his players than Aliotti — I love the guy.
• LaMichael James says his work with the track team last spring had a big impact for him — “I’m faster now,” he said with great confidence. “No doubt about it. I learned so much about running fundamentals. You’re going to see a difference.”

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Kelly has been giving interviews everywhere over the last couple of weeks. Our mission today on the Morning Sports Page is to ask him some questions you haven’t ever heard him answer.

And hopefully, we’ll learn something new about the Oregon football coach. That’s at 8:20 a.m. today — at 95.5 FM and also 955thegame.com. And oh, by the way, comedian Gilbert Gottfried is expected to join the program at some point this morning, too. Last time we had him on he was hilarious — as you might expect.

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Oregon apparently didn’t recruit this guy. He sought them out. But this is his story:

Marcus Davis was an US Army All-American high school player in his first year at Texas but was suspended indefinitely by Longhorns Head Coach Mack Brown following an incident in the early morning hours on November 29, 2009.

According to the web site, sportsnewsandscores.com, Davis was stopped around 6:45 a.m. because of driving on a flat tire. He was then arrested for driving while intoxicated and for possession of a controlled substance. The charges against Davis were later drastically reduced.

Brown suspended Davis immediately from the Longhorns final games of the season and the Rose Bowl game for the BCS Championship. On January 1, 2010, the blog site BurntOrangeNation.com posted a report indicating Davis was transferring and sources tell eDuck.com that soon afterward, Davis contacted Oregon’s Chip Kelly about transferring to Eugene, ironically prior to a number of legal incidents involving Oregon players.

Apparently the Ducks will announce his signing later today.

So… is this what’s going to happen in the future — kind of like the way a certain type of player always kind of gravitated toward Jerry Tarkanian? Is Oregon going to become some sort of home for wayward boys? Is Chip Kelly the new Father Flanagan for college football?

I guess only time will tell.

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When you look at the James court memorandum and how it was written, it becomes a case that could be interpreted in so many different ways. I mean, it almost seems as if it was meant to be written that way, too. If anything, I think it took great pains to be soft on James.

“The defendant admits he grabbed the victim by her collar and pushed her against his car,” it says. Well, that could be a pretty violent act, I would think. But on the surface, the way it’s written, it seems to me that the writer didn’t intend to portray it that way.

Much the same thing could be said about, “Defendant caught the victim, grabbed her waist and they fell to the ground in the bark mulch.” I mean, it didn’t read, “The very strong and quick college football player chased the helpless young woman down, tackled her and threw her to the ground.”

One thing the document seemed to make clear was that there was a serious previous relationship between the victim and James. I’ve heard it portrayed as a stalker thing, where she’d been hounding him but the document seems to make it clear this was a couple who had been having a long-term, “intimate” relationship. And that she found someone else staying in his apartment. And that she was angry. That’s pretty easy to understand.

I don’t know how to figure out actually what happened. Not sure we’ll ever know. But you can rest assured that James ought to consider himself a lucky man. And with that, be very careful about his actions in the future.

In the case of Jeremiah Masoli, it’s pretty obvious by now that he’s missing all of next season not because of his illegal activity — the burglary — but the way he treated his coach. It’s pretty apparent that when the accusations came out, he lied to the cops and to his coach. I don’t find this all that surprising, actually — it’s what people often do when accused of a crime. The prisons, they say, are full of innocent men.

And while I understand Kelly feeling very betrayed by that, I’m not sure if his reaction to it doesn’t turn this thing into something very personal. And should it be that personal? I guess. Perhaps. Again, I’m happy I don’t have to make these sorts of decisions.

But Kelly has to make them — just as he is supposed to face the media when he makes them. The fact that he didn’t yesterday, that he made a statement and then turned the questions over to his athletic director, is pretty amazing.

Maybe the media should take that personally. Don’t think that some of them haven’t.

I’ve said this previously on radio and television and I’m not trying to be a wise guy. He needs a media coach — immediately. Often I find myself agreeing with what he’s saying, but I have a hard time getting past the delivery. He comes off defensive, combative, arrogant, cocky, brash — take your pick — at various times and it’s not serving him well. This can be fixed — at least to a point.

There are people out there who could help him. He makes more money than the president of that school, he’s the CEO of a major state-backed corporation, in a way, and he’s got to start sounding like one. Nobody does this better, by the way, than his athletic director, Mike Bellotti. Yeah, it’s why they had Mike carrying his water Friday.

But that isn’t sufficient. It won’t work in the long run.

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Be interesting to see what happens when the justice system finally weighs in on LaMichael James and Jeremiah Masoli. And I think it’s prudent in these cases that people wait for all the facts to come out.

In the James case, when men are accused of assaulting women, it’s one of those crimes where they’re sometimes treated as if they’re guilty before anything is proved. And in some domestic violence cases, that’s needed in order to protect potential victims from their alleged abusers. It’s a sticky situation and I’ve worried all along that James could have been a target there instead of an abuser. But again, we really don’t know and I don’t think it’s fair to talk punishment until we really know what has happened.

That’s not to say I wouldn’t, as a coach, have suspended him when he was accused of the crime. I think the serious nature of the charge, and the fact that James put himself in that position to be charged in the first place, means you suspend him pending a resolution. Then reinstate him immediately if you find out he is innocent of wrongdoing.

When it comes to Masoli, I’d lean toward saying the same thing. I don’t think I’d kick him off the team unless I knew for sure that he actually is guilty of felony burglary — which he is charged with. Given that Masoli has a history of such crimes going back to high school, when he was involved in strong-arm robberies, I’d suspend him, too, pending the outcome of his trial.

And in Masoli’s case, if he’s guilty I cut him no slack due to the nature of his previous indiscretions. If his record was clean, I’d be tempted to go with a suspension of a few games — maybe take the position that this was some sort of fraternity prank gone bad, a momentary mistake that shouldn’t cause the complete loss of a kid’s future. But I’m not sure he’s now entitled to another chance.

I know this for sure — it’s not good to have your football team spread across the front page of The Oregonian in the off-season. That almost certainly always means bad news. And in this case, damage has been done by the behavior of a few players. The fact that these players are among the team’s best ones hurts even more.

And it’s all falling on Chip Kelly’s shoulders right now, fair or not. This is the part about being a head coach that being an offensive coordinator just doesn’t prepare you for.

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At this point, this is all the Oregon football coach needed to do — come forward and assure people that he will not put up with misconduct. When the justice system finally renders a verdict, he can make a decision:

“There can’t be a rush to judgement,” Kelly said at a noon press conference. “When a decision is made, and if he’s convicted, we’ll make a decision.”

Kelly also said that he is frustrated that there have been three incidents involving player arrests since Jan. 24. “We don’t accept this and won’t accept this,” he said.

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Guys, you have to answer questions.

Tiger Woods is getting ready for his “press conference” Friday morning but says he’s only going to read a prepared statement — even though he’s inviting selected journalists to the event.

Man, that won’t work. First off, if I were a “journalist” invited to this dog and pony show and told I wouldn’t be able to ask him a question, as a matter of principle, I would not be a part of it. No way. If you’re there in that capacity, you’re a prop — a piece of furniture designed to give Woods more credibility that he has.

Tiger is missing the point. If he’d just answer questions in a public one time, he could move on. Just an apology isn’t going to be good enough. But if he answers some difficult questions and shows remorse, it puts journalists on the defensive in the future, because they don’t want to be accused of piling on. Usually, they won’t tread that path again or they’ll look insensitive.

Fo there, Tiger — it would be tough but it’s a one-and-done move.

I think Chip Kelly is making a big mistake in not answering questions about LaMichael James, too. I understand nobody at this point knows if there is any merit in the charges against James. Kelly cannot, and should not, comment on James specifically.

But what he needs to address is the state of his program. Are the recent events involving misconduct by some of his players an indication that there is a discipline problem? What is he doing to ensure that there is consistent discipline within the program?

He needs to get out front. It’s what a head coach does. That’s why the BIG JOB is different than being a coordinator. You are running a major corporation, in a sense, and you have to take responsibility for everything that goes on. It’s his job to comment on this in a direct manner, I believe.

In this case, Kelly needs to stand up and speak up. And so does Tiger Woods.

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After all the television and radio shows I’ve done talking about this matchup, I’m going to do my best to try to sum up my thoughts on this game, without being too repetitive and without leaving something important out. We’ll be doing a giant, two-hour pre-game show live from Pasadena on Comcast Sportsnet Friday morning, beginning at 10:30.

OK, here we go:

– I’ve picked the Ducks to win this game since the night they qualified to play in it, and I’m not going to switch my selection. But I do believe it’s going to be a much closer and tougher game than I originally thought it would be.

– From being down here in Los Angeles on media day I can definitely confirm for you that the Buckeyes are bigger than Oregon. And not only that, they appear to be in excellent physical shape — even their linemen. They are an impressive group of athletes — not only physically but in the way they handled the media day stuff.

– We sort of knew that already, didn’t we? Oregon’s strength in this game has always been about speed and guile. The Ducks need to fool the Buckeyes a bit — with play calling and the option. I still think that’s possible but I don’t think Oregon is just going to line up and have its way with Ohio State.

– Ohio State figures to be the most disciplined and physical team Oregon has played all season. Don’t forget, their annual recruiting classes are the cream of the crop and I expect them to use their discipline to make it tough going, at times, for that Oregon option. And they’re a physical enough bunch I believe Jeremiah Masoli is going to get hit harder by these guys than anyone else all season.

– You think Boise State was disciplined against the Duck offense? Just wait.

– I cannot see Terrelle Pryor being good enough to beat the Ducks with his arm. I just don’t see it — and it’s why OSU would be well-served to get a lead heading into the final quarter. If they’re forced into a passing situation, he’s not the guy who is going to be able to pull that off.

– The Buckeyes must run. The Ducks will sell out to stop the run, daring Pryor to beat them deep. I don’t think he can do that with any consistency. That’s why I believe it’s imperative Ohio State be able to run no matter what Oregon does.

– I’m not sure how well Oregon will run, either — at least not without setting it up first with the pass. These guys have one of the best run defenses in the country and you can figure they’ll play the gaps with discipline and intelligence.

– But the Ducks’ real strength all season has been their balance. Oregon, I think, has a better chance of putting together a passing attack than the Buckeyes. It’s possible the team with the most passing yards will win.

– First team to 30 will definitely win. Maybe the first team to 20. It’s going to be a low-scoring game and I know a lot of Oregon fans won’t agree with that. But this isn’t going to be easy.

– Yes, I’m bothered by the weak showing by some of those other Pac-10 “powers.” I thought Arizona was better than that. I thought Oregon State would lose but didn’t expect a blowout. The Arizona thing was a complete joke, by the way. How do you give up all those points to Nebraska?

– Chip Kelly. I’m just not sure what to make of the guy. He certainly goes his own way and seems to feel he can do whatever he wants at times. But he better keep winning. And winning big. Trust me, if he doesn’t he’s going to be on a lot of hit lists. He really upset a couple of major television networks Thursday, walking away from interviews with them that were a contractual obligation for him. Seriously, ESPN was reportedly very upset with him. He just walked right past a dismayed reporter and refused to do it. That’s not smart, Chipster — these guys pay a lot of dough for the rights to these games and it’s money all those Pac-10 schools bankroll their programs with. But hell, if you can win 11 or 12 games a year, you can do whatever you want.

– There are a lot of Oregon fans ready to  anoint Kelly a real savior. Well, perhaps. But I remember the first season of Charlie Weis at Notre Dame when everyone was so excited about him winning with another coach’s players they gave him a huge contract extension — which they recently bought out. Not saying Kelly is another Weis, but I’m just pointing out the dangers of judging a coach off one season — no matter how great it is.

– It should be a wonderful game, perhaps the best matchup of the bowl season. A study in contrasts. Let’s make it Oregon 24, Ohio State 21.

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What a great game. As a guy once said around here, “Both teams played hard.”

By playing so well, the Beavers gave the Ducks even more credibility as a powerful team. Sean Canfield was terrific, but I felt the Beavers wore down on both sides of the ball as the game went on. Oregon seemed to be the better conditioned team and you must credit Chip Kelly’s practice regimen for that.

Jeremiah Masoli’s skill at the helm of the option is a beautiful thing to see and really, LaMichael James was the best running back on the field.

I have to say one other thing — it took a ton of guts to run LeGarrette Blount onto the field in the second half of that game. I know I wasn’t the only person whose first thought was, “Man, he hasn’t had game contact in months, it’s cold out and the chances of him fumbling …”

Well, all I can say is that it was a very gutsy move to use him.

Now, sit back and glory in your Pac-10 title, Ducks. And make your arrangements for Pasadena early. After all those years loyally showing the colors at those lousy secondary bowls Oregon has attended, you deserve this trip.

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