By Rob Moseley
Fresh off of, or perhaps a little haggard from, his appearance on ESPN's College GameDay early Saturday morning, Kirk Herbstreit was in Seattle providing commentary for the USC-UW game later that evening. During that telecast, Herbstreit said he ranked Oregon as the fifth-best team in the nation. That came on the heels of the Ducks' 31-24 loss to California, and was significant in that Herbstreit is one of 65 voters for the Associated Press top 25 poll of media. Herbstreit ended up as one of two voters with the Ducks ranked fifth, and GameDay host Chris Fowler was one of four who had them sixth, helping Oregon (4-1) land just three spots lower than the week prior at No. 14 in the poll released Sunday. The Ducks moved down one spot to No. 13 in the USA Today poll of coaches, and are also No. 13 in the Harris Interactive poll.
California moved up three spots to No. 3, right behind the Trojans, who surrendered the AP's top spot to LSU after their narrow win in Seattle. Five top-10 teams lost last week, leading to speculation that the Ducks might actually move up despite the loss, which did not come to fruition. (One voter, a TV reporter in Nashville, Tenn., even left Oregon off his ballot entirely.) Coaches being typically unmoved by polls this early in the season, UO's Mike Bellotti said Sunday that Cal's ascension to No. 3 and Oregon's position in the middle of the poll did little to soothe the sting of defeat. Even considering that the Golden Bears' victory wasn't secured until UO receiver Cameron Colvin fumbled at the goal line in the final 20 seconds, the ball bouncing out of the end zone for a Cal touchback.
"It's pretty much all the same," Bellotti said. "If they're the sixth team in the country or third team in the country, then we're seventh or fourth, because we were half an inch from tying them. "But the reality is, we lost. And the unfortunate thing is, we contributed to our own demise in a sense, and we have to live with that for a couple weeks." Four fourth-quarter turnovers, including the first two interceptions of the season for quarterback Dennis Dixon, will have two weeks to be digested by the Ducks. They have a bye this week, and next take the field on Oct. 13 against Washington State in Autzen Stadium. There were no team functions Sunday, other than players receiving treatment from the training staff. Bellotti said no new injuries were reported. Beyond maybe some bruised psyches.
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