oregon

Father who killed Oregon school shooter describes anguish over children he couldn’t save

A father who shot dead a gunman at his two daughters’ school in the US state of Oregon has described “hearing children pleading for their lives” and his anguish over those he could not save.

Three students and a teacher were killed by a 16-year-old former student at Silver Rail Elementary School earlier this month. The attacker was then killed by parent Kaylub Giamanco.

“I want to apologise for not saving their babies,” Giamanco, who has been hailed as a hero, said of his thoughts for the parents of the children killed in an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) that aired on Friday.

“The gratitude for saving people’s children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn’t save.”

Giamanco, 36, said he wanted to meet the victims’ families and “cry with them and hold them”.

He credited a teacher who fought the attacker with giving him the chance to intervene without losing his own life.

“I would love to give her a hug because that’s a real true hero,” he said.

The students who were killed were all boys, aged five, eight and 11. They were among six people in total who were shot in a classroom at the school, police said. Alongside the teacher who was also killed, another child and a teacher were wounded.

Giamanco told OPB the day of the attack began with breakfast and packed lunches. He and his wife spent extra time getting their daughters ready because it was school picture day.

The carpenter had taken lunch to work but decided to go home to eat with his wife instead. That decision brought him past the school as the attack began.

He initially wondered whether someone carrying a long gun was playing a prank. Then he saw him fire at a pickup truck and head towards the school.

Giamanco retrieved a handgun from his vehicle and called emergency services.

“I said, ‘I’m sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die,'” he told the broadcaster.

He followed the attacker, who shot through the school’s locked glass doors. Hearing children pleading for their lives and more gunfire, Giamanco crawled towards the building.

“I told myself this is probably the last thing that I’m ever going to do,” he said.

Source link

Oregon’s governor struggles for reelection despite blue tide

With just over two weeks left until election day, Democrats can barely contain their glee.

Control of the House seems about to fall into their eager laps. Senate races in states that are normally cardinal red — Alaska, Iowa, Kansas and Texas among them — have grown fiercely competitive.

And, for the first time since 2010, a Democrat may soon be sitting in the governor’s office in more than half the 50 states. As recently as 2017, just 16 of them had Democratic governors — the lowest number in nearly a century.

The party owes a big thank you to President Trump, whose political standing seems to be sinking, like a depth charge, lower by the day. The only question is how much damage he inflicts on fellow Republicans.

There are, however, exceptions to every political trend, outliers in every election, a contest that zigs when races just about everywhere else are zagging.

Oregon, that crunchy and damp citadel of Left Coast liberalism, hasn’t elected a Republican governor since President Reagan was midway through his first term. In 2024, Kamala Harris walloped Donald Trump by more than 14 percentage points, extending a decades-long Democratic presidential winning streak.

And yet the state’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek, is on the defensive as she fights for a second term in November, burdened by a dismal approval rating and a sense that things have been pretty lousy in Oregon under her leadership.

The state “hasn’t thrived in the last decade, and certainly hasn’t thrived since COVID, the way other states have,” said John Horvick, one of Oregon’s leading independent pollsters.

Kotek, a former speaker of the state House — and a highly effective lawmaker in that role — made some very concrete promises.

“She was going to build 36,000 new homes. She was going to improve our educational outcomes and make improvements to behavioral health in the state,” Horvick said. “Voters give her poor marks on all those.”

Most notably, perhaps, the epidemic of homelessness — which has curdled Portland’s hipster image and agitated Oregonians more than just about any issue in recent years — hasn’t abated under Kotek, despite a promise to make the problem her top priority.

Governor Tina Kotek speaks to protesters at a rally

Gov. Tina Kotek speaks to opponents of data center development during a demonstration at the state Capitol in Salem, Ore., on Sept. 8, 2026.

(Alex Milan Tracy / Sipa USA / Associated Press)

The Democrat still remains the favorite to win reelection. Oregon’s gubernatorial races tend to be closer than presidential contests and voters have been shown a reluctance to heave their governor from office, even when they tell pollsters they’re not happy with the incumbent or the state of their state.

“We watch this movie every four years in Oregon, where it looks really, really close and then, in the end, the Democrat wins,” said Kari Chisholm, a political strategist in Portland.

That may happen again. But Kotek’s travails show the perils of incumbency this angry election season, even for a Democratic swimming with a blue tide.

Thirty-six states are electing governors in November. Most of the contests lean toward one party or the other, like in California, where Democrat Xavier Becerra appears a shoo-in to replace Gavin Newsom.

But a dozen races are at least somewhat competitive, including toss-ups in Georgia, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin. All of the hardest-fought contests are in states that Trump carried in 2024 — several by double-digits — with Oregon being the lone exception.

Kotek, who’s been rated one of the least popular governors in America, is facing a rematch against Christine Drazan, a former GOP state House leader who now serves in the state Senate. In 2022, she lost narrowly lost to Kotek, 47% to 44%, in a three-way contest.

Unlike four years ago, Kotek has a gubernatorial record to defend and the case Drazan makes against her is succinct.

“Tina Kotek told Oregonians that she would solve the problems and challenges facing our state,” Drazan said in the candidates’ first debate this month. “She hasn’t.”

In a recent Fox News interview, Drazan elaborated.

“We have record high businesses that have gone out of business, bankruptcies, businesses that are leaving, family bankruptcies are at an all-time high,” Drazan said, exaggerating some. “Oregon is uniquely bad right now. It’s not a national issue, it’s here at home.”

Suggesting the state’s problems are indigenous is an obvious effort to lay responsibility on Kotek and absolve Trump, whose policies — ruinous tariffs, a reckless war, budget cuts — have slashed healthcare benefits, stoked inflation and driven fuel prices to all-time highs.

Further distancing herself from the Republican brand, Drazan has undergone a distinct makeover since winning the GOP primary in May. “Tough. Tested. Conservative,” is no longer the descriptive shorthand she uses on her campaign website. Now it’s “Mom. Public Servant. Champion for All.”

Drazan’s revised campaign biography also omits her opposition to various Democratic-backed policies, such as gun control, and her culture-warrior vow to “protect girls’ sports and keep men out of their locker rooms.” Instead, the Oregonian newspaper noted, her emphasis is now affordability and relatability.

Despite that, Kotek has continued wielding her sharpest-pronged political weapon, tying Drazan — an “out-of-touch MAGA extremist,” in her campaign’s parlance — to the unpopular president.

“I think we all know that there have been a lot of challenges facing our state and they’re still coming at us because of the confusion and disruption coming from Washington, D.C.,” Kotek said during the candidates’ third and final debate last week. “It’s just a fact. It’s upending who we are as a state and it is … making it harder for us to solve the problems that we have ahead of us.”

Passing the buck and pointing her finger is not exactly a message of triumph, uplift and achievement, but it may be enough to win Kotek a second term.

Grudgingly.

Source link

Oregon school shooter was former special needs student, police say | Gun Violence News

A teacher fought the teenage shooter and a parent shot him dead, police say on Friday, a day after four people were killed.

The 16-year-old who killed three children and a teacher at an elementary school in the US state of Oregon was a former special-needs student at the school, police and school officials have said.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz identified the attacker on Friday, a day after the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School, as Griffin J. John II.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

He said the teenager attacked a classroom of special-needs students, where all the victims were shot.

Steven Cook, superintendent of Bend-La Pine Schools, said John was not enrolled in the local public school system at the time.

“That classroom was a special needs classroom, and the suspect was a special needs student in that school,” Cook told a news conference.

Krantz said John shot his way through locked doors with a 12-gauge shotgun, firing as many as 15 shots, and had about 44 rounds left when he was killed. Police are still trying to determine how he obtained the gun.

Under Oregon law, a minor may possess a shotgun if provided by a parent or with a parent’s consent.

The shooter’s mother, Shauntai Nickerson, separately told reporters outside her apartment: “I’m so sorry, I wish I could have done something.”

A teacher threw her phone at the gunman, then tackled and fought him, likely saving lives, Krantz said, calling her actions “heroic”. She was not injured.

A 36-year-old father, Kaylub Giamanco, who has two children at the school, then followed the gunman inside and shot him dead minutes after the first 911 call.

US President Donald Trump called Giamanco a “great hero”. “It’s a terrible thing, but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it,” Trump said.

People mourn next to a cordoned-off area at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on October 16, 2026, the day after a shooting
People mourn next to a cordoned-off area at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on October 16, 2026, the day after a shooting [David Ryder/Reuters]

The children killed were aged five, eight and 11, and the teacher was Meghan Lambert, 25, police said.

A seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to hospital in critical condition.

The shooting is the 28th mass killing in the US this year, according to a database by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

The Gun Violence Archive in the US has documented 369 mass shootings in 2026, defined as incidents in which four or more people are shot.

The Everytown for Gun Safety group has counted at least 100 incidents of gunfire on school grounds this year, with 34 deaths.

Source link

Three children and a teacher killed by 16-year-old at Oregon primary school

“We are stunned and heartbroken by this senseless tragedy,” Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said in a statement.

“No words can adequately express the grief our community is experiencing.”

Local law enforcement responded to reports of an active shooter at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, at 12:59 local time, Bend Police Department spokeswoman Sheila Miller told reporters.

The first call indicated that an unknown suspect had shot into a car, she said. Photos released from the scene show a red truck with bullet holes.

Minutes later, the local county dispatch received a flood of 911 calls and law enforcement were sent to the scene.

The suspected shooter was shot dead at around 13:02pm, Miller said.

While police said the shooter was a local 16-year-old boy, they declined to add further details pending the ongoing investigation.

Source link

What we learned from UCLA’s breakthrough win at Oregon

Saturday was a day of breakthroughs.

It marked the first time UCLA defeated Oregon since 2017. The win was the Bruins’ first at Autzen Stadium since 2004. And Bob Chesney became the first UCLA head coach to start his tenure 5-0.

Sunday came with one more breakthrough: The Bruins cracked the top 15 in the Associated Press’ Top 25 for the first time since 2022.

UCLA’s 17-15 victory over Oregon proved that the Bruins deserved a spot in the upper echelons of the Big Ten. Not only did UCLA leave Oregon with an undefeated record — one win away from being bowl eligible — but the Bruins also will returned to Los Angeles with three consecutive home games on the schedule, a stretch that could push them farther up the totem pole.

“It doesn’t matter. Now we have to get better,” Chesney told reporters after the win. “How do we get better? We go back and look at the things we need to fix. We evaluate our personnel and see where we stand once we figure out whether some of these guys are coming back next week. There’s a lot of football left to be played, so it doesn’t matter. Getting better is always the message when we turn the corner.”

Newsletter subscription change

Starting Sept. 21, this newsletter will be available to Los Angeles Times subscribers only. A free press isn’t free, and we depend on reader support to report on the stories that make a difference. If you’re already a subscriber, nothing will change. If you’re not, there’s never been a better time to sign up. Get started here.

Here are three takeaways from UCLA’s fifth win, which kept the Bruins among nine remaining undefeated Football Bowl Subdivision schools and avenged one of Chesney’s two losses last season when his magical run at James Madison ended against Oregon.

Colin Hitschler can bounce back with the best

The week leading up to defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler’s rematch against Oregon featured reminders about how the Ducks steamrolled his Dukes’ defense last season in the College Football Playoff, finishing with 51 points and 514 yards.

And Hitschler acknowledged that Ducks coach Dan Lanning’s offense got the best of him, leaving him with a chip on his shoulder.

His “Bruin Bullies” made their presence felt from the first whistle to the last, forcing seven turnovers — five fumble recoveries and two interceptions, categories in which UCLA now ranks first and second, respectively, in the nation.

And while Oregon quarterback Dante Moore remained sidelined because of a head injury, backup Dylan Raiola — who spent the previous two seasons as Nebraska’s starter — was a highly regarded talent and expected to challenge the UCLA defense, particularly after throwing for 289 yards and two scores against USC last month.

UCLA defensive lineman Darold DeNgohe tackles Oregon quarterback Brock Thomas  Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

UCLA defensive lineman Darold DeNgohe tackles Oregon quarterback Brock Thomas on Saturday in Eugene.

(Lydia Ely / Associated Press)

The Bruins gave Raiola more headaches than anything else as he finished with 43 passing yards and three turnovers before he was benched for third-stringer Brock Thomas in the fourth quarter.

And even when Thomas entered for Raiola, the Ducks’ offensive weapons largely flatlined despite their perceived superior status.

Running back duo Dierre Hill Jr. and Jordon Davison — who combined for 238 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns against the Trojans — and tight end Jamari Johnson, who torched the USC defense for seven catches and 119 yards, were limited to a combined 111 all-purpose yards and just one score.

The Bruins’ defense was everywhere in Eugene, limiting the run game to 2.7 yards per carry, largely blanketing pass catchers in coverage downfield and forcing turnovers at every level.

“We don’t focus on outside chatter,” senior linebacker Sammy Omosigho said after the win. “That has no meaning to us, no focus to us, no value to us. We focus on ourselves.”

Bruins’ QB concerns aren’t going anywhere

Many observers who watched Saturday’s showdown will tell you the Bruins should have won more handily.

The Bruins almost doubled the Ducks in time of possession, yet there was a chance for Oregon to win on the last drive of the game.

UCLA had to overcome its own problems, with quarterback Nico Iamaleava battling Raiola for most turnovers and questionable decisions under pressure.

UCLA coach Bob Chesney calls to his players during a win over Oregon Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

UCLA coach Bob Chesney calls to his players.

(Lydia Ely / Associated Press)

Iamaleava got off to a slow start this season as UCLA relied on its potent rushing attack. He rebounded against Purdue and Maryland, combining for 485 yards and four touchdowns with zero turnovers.

While Iamaleava went 10 for 17 for 162 yards in the first half, his mistakes came at especially costly times for the Bruins.

During UCLA’s second drive, the Bruins were pinned on their 10-yard line. With Oregon outside linebacker Nasir Wyatt blitzing, Iamaleava attempted to throw the ball away to the flat and instead fumbled, giving the Ducks the ball on the Bruins’ one-yard-line. Oregon scored one of its two touchdowns immediately after the turnover.

Later in the half, Iamaleava threw two interceptions, the first at midfield and the second coming at Oregon’s 22-yard line, wiping out a field-goal opportunity.

Iamaleava struggled with accuracy and timing, underthrowing a deep ball to wide receiver Aidan Mizell on the first play of the game — a pass that arguably could have been a touchdown if Mizell was hit in stride — and mistiming a pass to running back Jaivian Thomas, who was wide open in the end zone, on third and goal during the same drive.

Iamaleava was facing a formidable Ducks defense, the best unit the Bruins have played to date, and was injured during the second interception. He did not return to the field after sustaining a leg injury near the end of the first half, and it is unclear how long he will be sidelined.

Backup Ty Dieffenbach steered UCLA to a win, but the Bruins need better quarterback depth.

UCLA is a playoff contender

The UCLA Bruins celebrate their win over the Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium on Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

The Bruins celebrate their win over the Oregon Ducks.

(Tom Hauck / Getty Images)

Saturday was more than just a win. It was a bold announcement to the rest of the Big Ten and the nation that UCLA is a playoff contender.

Chesney told fans during a UCLA men’s basketball game shortly after he was hired that the football team is playing for banners. And Saturday’s win proved that his plan to pursue championships — something that seemed absurd amid a lost 2025 season — has a real possibility of paying off with one.

The Bruins have one of the easier schedules in the Big Ten with seven games remaining. UCLA will play five home games, including with 2-4 Michigan State, 2-3 Nevada of the Mountain West and 3-3 Illinois.

While UCLA still has road games at Michigan and Minnesota and competitive home games against Wisconsin and USC, the Bruins proved Saturday that they can hang in any environment, frustrating the Ducks at hostile Autzen Stadium.

Sign up for UCLA Unlocked

A weekly newsletter offering big game takeaways, recruiting buzz and everything you need to know about UCLA sports — exclusive to L.A. Times subscribers. Free Members receive a partial preview of each edition.

Big Ten confirms a big mistake

The Big Ten released a statement Sunday announcing its officials placed the ball at the wrong spot during Oregon’s final failed two-point conversion attempt after a UCLA penalty. The ball should have been placed at the half-yard line instead of the 1½-yard line. The lead officially announced the correct placement, but the crew never moved the ball.

UCLA’s defense stuffed the two-point conversion attempt, and the Bruins went on to secure a 17-15 win.

The mistake has drawn limited outrage, with fans more concerned about the number of errors by Big Ten officials this season than about them potentially thwarting Oregon’s chance to tie the score. That probably has a lot to do with the number of mistakes the Ducks made and the perception the Bruins outplayed them.

Dieffenbach has long embraced change

Before Ty Dieffenbach was asked to lead UCLA’s offense in the second half at Oregon, he began his high school career in Southern California as a wide receiver.

The Times’ Eric Sondheimer spoke with Dieffenbach ahead of his senior season about his switch to playing quarterback for Agoura, a team that needed a signal-caller and quickly developed a prolific one.

Agoura coach Dustin Croick told Sondheimer he wouldn’t have asked Dieffenbach to play the position just because of the 6-foot-5 athlete’s arm strength. Croick detected something else.

“We can teach kids how to throw, how to read defenses, but the leadership has to be a natural thing,” Croick said.

The two have stayed in touch as Dieffenbach spent two seasons at Pittsburgh without playing before transferring to Cal Poly and starting for one season. Dieffenbach then joined UCLA during the offseason and prepared as though he could be asked to play at any time.

Dieffenbach celebrated with the high school coach who first believed in his quarterback skills via Facetime after UCLA’s win.

Nakase leads Valkyries to WNBA Finals

Former UCLA point guard Natalie Nakase led the Golden State Valkyries to an 87-77 overtime win over the Aces in Las Vegas on Friday, sweeping the series and advancing to the WNBA Finals.

The Valkyries became the first WNBA expansion team to reach the playoffs in its first season and the Finals in its second.

“I told them that I was proud of our whole team, the whole 14, because I saw another level of fight tonight,” Nakase said after the clinching win. “And that’s what I was really proud of. We talked about leveling up one more as a team and I think that overtime proved strength in numbers. We really left it all out there on the floor. We really emptied the tank.”

Golden State hosts the Atlanta Dream at 12:30 p.m. Saturday to open the Finals. The Dream notably are led by UCLA alum Jordin Canada, the the starting point guard and ignition to their offense.

Bruins on deck

Wednesday, Oct. 14
Women’s basketball at California (exhibition)

Thursday, Oct. 15
Women’s tennis at ITA Regional Championships, all day
Men’s tennis at ITA Regional Championships, all day

Friday, Oct. 16
Women’s tennis at ITA Regional Championships, all day
Men’s tennis at ITA Regional Championships, all day
Women’s golf at Stanford Intercollegiate, all day
Men’s golf at Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational, all day
Men’s soccer at Wisconsin, 5 p.m.
Women’s volleyball vs. Penn State, 7 p.m.
Women’s soccer vs. Washington, 8 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 17
Women’s tennis at ITA Regional Championships, all day
Men’s tennis at ITA Regional Championships, all day
Cross country at UC Riverside, 8 a.m.
Men’s water polo at USC, 1 p.m.
Football vs. Wisconsin, 4:30 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 18
Women’s tennis at ITA Regional Championships, all day
Men’s tennis at ITA Regional Championships, all day
Women’s volleyball vs. Ohio State, 3 p.m.

In case you missed it

UCLA proves it’s a playoff contender in thrilling win over Oregon to remain unbeaten

No. 21 UCLA defense helps power Bruins to an upset of No. 13 Oregon

UCLA urges defense to stay calm during high-stakes showdown with potent Oregon

Meet UCLA receiver Semaj Morgan, who started a foundation at age 17 to help others

USC, UCLA push to extend West Coast dominance of Big Ten women’s basketball

Bob Chesney urges surging UCLA to ignore hype as Bruins prep for potent Oregon

How UCLA built one of the most dominant rushing attacks in the country

UCLA Unlocked: Bruin alum Natalie Nakase is shaking up the WNBA

Have something Bruin?

Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email newsletters editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Sports editor Iliana Limón Romero contributed to this report.



Source link

UCLA leaps to No. 12 in AP poll, USC holds steady at No. 19

Eric OlsonAP College Football Writer 

UCLA jumped to No. 12 in the latest Associated Press top 25 poll following its upset of Oregon and USC retained its No. 19 ranking following its win at hostile Penn State.

The poll saw many changes following a Saturday filled with upsets.

Georgia moved up to No. 1 after its win at Alabama, Texas dropped six spots to No. 7 after its loss to rival Oklahoma and Oregon was unranked for the first time in four years after losing for the second time in the past month.

The Bulldogs, who had been No. 2 for five straight polls while rolling off five straight lopsided wins, went on the road and beat Alabama 20-17 with the help of what appeared to be a missed pass interference call in the end zone late in the game.

Georgia received 66 first-place votes from the panel of 70 media members after its first victory in Tuscaloosa since 2014 and ascended to the top of the poll for the first time since Sept. 8, 2024.

Notre Dame, which tuned up for this week’s top-10 matchup at BYU with a 58-7 rout of Stanford, moved up one spot to No. 2. The Fighting Irish got one first-place vote and have their highest ranking since they were No. 2 in the final poll of the 2024 season.

No. 3 Miami, which received two first-place votes, is followed by Ohio State and Indiana. The Hoosiers, who received the remaining first-place vote, got a two-spot promotion after their narrow win at Nebraska.

Alabama remained No. 6, and Texas, BYU, Mississippi and Texas Tech completed the top 10.

Oregon came into the season with its highest preseason ranking ever at No. 2. The Ducks’ turnover-fueled 17-15 home loss to UCLA dropped them to 3-2 and knocked them out of the poll for the first time since they went from No. 11 to unranked following a 49-3 loss to Georgia in the 2022 opener.

No. 12 UCLA and No. 15 Kentucky got the biggest promotions. The Bruins moved up nine spots with their win over Oregon, and the Wildcats went from unranked to No. 15 with their 35-34 overtime win over LSU, which dropped from No. 10 to No. 22.

In and out

In: Kentucky, which dropped out last week after beating South Carolina, is back in the poll with its highest ranking since early October 2022.

In: No. 21 Wake Forest is 5-1 and ranked for the first time since late October 2022.

In: No. 25 Northwestern, at 4-1, earned its first ranking under fourth-year coach David Braun.

Out: Oregon hasn’t lost two of its first five games since the 2016 team opened 2-5 and finished 4-8.

Out: Florida has gone from No. 8 to No. 16 to out of the rankings in two weeks following its 38-19 home loss to South Carolina.

Out: Pittsburgh managed just one touchdown on eight second-half possessions in a 21-17 home loss to North Carolina.

Poll points

— This is the second time in three years there have been three or more No. 1 teams in the first six polls. Georgia, Texas and Alabama took turns holding the top spot in the first six polls in 2024. The only other time in the Top 25 era that three teams had been No. 1 at this point of a season was 1990.

— Notre Dame and Miami, dubbed “Catholic vs. Convicts” rivals since their classic game in 1988, haven’t been together in the top three since Nov. 9, 1993.

— Texas’ six-spot fall from No. 1 to No. 7 matched its drop following a season-opening loss to Ohio State last year.

Conference call

SEC (9 ranked teams): No. 1 Georgia, No. 6 Alabama, No. 7 Texas, No. 9 Mississippi, No. 13 Missouri, No. 14 Tennessee, No. 15 Kentucky, No. 16 Mississippi State, No. 22 LSU.

Big Ten (6): No. 4 Ohio State, No. 5 Indiana, No. 12 UCLA, No. 17 Iowa, No. 19 USC, No. 25 Northwestern.

Big 12 (5): No. 8 BYU, No. 10 Texas Tech, No. 11 Utah, No. 18 Oklahoma State, No. 20 Houston.

ACC (3): No. 3 Miami, No. 21 Wake Forest, No. 24 SMU.

Pac-12 (1): No. 23 Boise State.

Independent (1): No. 3 Notre Dame.

Olson writes for the Associated Press.

Source link

UCLA urges defense to staying calm during showdown with Oregon

When No. 21 UCLA football faces off against No. 13 Oregon on Saturday afternoon at Autzen Stadium, defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler wants the Bruins to toe the line between playing with emotion and playing emotional.

“Big-time environments tend to bring a little extra out of your guys, and when you do a little bit extra, you tend to do too much,” Hitschler said. “Football is a hard game, but you can’t make it harder than it already is. Sometimes when you press, you tend to give up big mistakes. In the Purdue game, looking back, we definitely pressed a little bit too hard and got a little emotional. … Got to play with emotions, but we can’t play emotional. We’re in a good spot of growing and understanding that. But this is a new atmosphere, a new environment.”

Aside from the national rankings, the long history between these former Pac-12 rivals and both teams’ chances to contend for the College Football Playoff, the memory of Oregon knocking James Madison out of the Dukes’ first playoff appearance last December remains fresh for many of their players and assistants who followed coach Bob Chesney to the Bruins.

And the 51 points and 514 total yards the Ducks garnered against Hitschler’s defense left a chip on his shoulder.

UCLA safety Malik Hartford trips Purdue receiver Asaad Waseem at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 19.

UCLA safety Malik Hartford trips Purdue receiver Asaad Waseem at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 19.

(Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times)

“We’re going to continue to be aggressive and continue to find a way to create opportunities for our offense to get the ball in a positive field position,” Hitschler said. “But we got to be on top of our game because they will make you pay no matter who it is at quarterback. They are going to make you pay for your mistakes, and they’re going to find a way to create the explosives they always have, and we got to limit them.”

Although Oregon quarterback Dante Moore — who tallied 313 passing yards and five total touchdowns against Hitschler‘s defense in the playoff — was ruled out for Saturday because of a head injury suffered against USC on Sep. 26, the Ducks’ Dylan Raiola is not a typical backup.

He threw for 4,819 yards and 31 touchdowns in two years as Nebraska’s starter, then went 11 for 11 with three touchdown passes in his Ducks debut before stepping up with 289 yards and two touchdown passes after replacing Moore in a 41-27 win over USC at the Coliseum.

“When you watch him come in and complete that game and do what he did, there’s not a giant drop-off between the two of those guys. They’re both really, really good,” Chesney said. “Dylan obviously had a chance at the end of that USC game to really put himself in position to gain confidence in his teammates and teammates to gain confidence in him, and I thought he was on time. I thought he was accurate. He let those guys compete for footballs, and I’m sure there’s a lot of buy-in in that program right now in him.”

While Raiola is a proven passer, his impact is amplified by the weapons around him. In the backfield, Hitschler touted Dierre Hill Jr. and Jordon Davidson as the best running back duo in the country. While the Bruins have gone toe-to-toe with formidable tailbacks thus far, they have yet to face a one-two punch like Hill and Davidson, which could pose problems for an otherwise staunch run defense.

Raiola’s arsenal includes potent pass catchers, particularly the Ducks’ top two wideouts, Dakorien Moore and Evan Stewart, who have combined for 512 yards and seven touchdowns.

Chesney tabbed Stewart as a matchup “nightmare,” adding that Oregon is going to get him the ball in a multitude of ways by utilizing him in the slot and creating mismatches for Hitschler’s defense. Chesney also said that Dakorien Moore’s extreme speed allows him to take the top off the defense, and that the Ducks will not be afraid to take shots downfield, testing the Bruins’ secondary.

And if the Bruins let emotions get the best of them, like they did against Purdue — when quarterback Ryan Browne threw for 378 yards and two touchdowns — then it may be a long day for Hitschler’s secondary.

The Bruins’ biggest headache could be 6-foot-5 tight end Jamari Johnson, who caught seven passes for 159 yards against USC, particularly with all three of UCLA’s starting cornerbacks shorter than 6 feet.

“The tight end we faced last year, and he’s special. They do a really good job of getting into different personnel packages, and then if you go to a bigger group, they’re going to spread you out. They’re going to try to find a matchup with that tight end,” Chesney said. “He can catch everything in his general vicinity; he’s absolutely phenomenal.”

With an explosive Ducks offense set to perform in the friendly confines of Autzen Stadium, the Bruins trusting the playbook may be most important.

“Football is football no matter where we are,” fifth-year offensive lineman Hall Schmidt said. “We don’t have a magic potion for Oregon, but we definitely have ourselves, and we have the tools that we’re going to use.”

Source link