By Rob Moseley
It's one thing for a receiver to fake one route and run another. Happens all the time at Oregon, where the wideouts need to get to a certain spot on the field but have some freedom to deviate from their initial path in doing so. It's quite another thing, though, for a defensive back to try such trickery. He's got to be confident enough in his reads that he's sure of the receiver's route. He's got to be strong enough that, if the ball is thrown his way, he can quickly break toward it. And he's got to be fast enough to close the gap between himself and the receiver in order to break up the pass. He's got to be, in short, somebody like California all-American Daymeion Hughes. "He challenges quarterbacks," UO coach Mike Bellotti said. "He baits you into throwing it, and he usually wins that matchup. Watching him, his confidence and his body control have improved dramatically since last season. He is as good as I've seen this year." During Oregon's 4-0 start to this season, quarterback Dennis Dixon and Jaison Williams have developed into one of the top tandems in the country. But when the Ducks visit California in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday at 5 p.m., Hughes will be there to try to disrupt that connection.
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