A Jinx Has No Impact at Ludicrous Speed; It Disintegrates When You Reenter the Earth's Atmosphere

I hate this time of year when it's dark in the morning when you go to work, and dark in the evening when you drive home. It makes you feel like a coal miner or a mole. The week becomes a thankless trudge from one Saturday to the next, and bye weeks are intolerable. The Ducks versus Cal can't get here soon enough. God help us if they lose. The combination of dark and the death of a dream might ruin us all. Few people are resilient as Nate Costa.

He has plans of his own, which might involve running the field goal team for the next President of the United States, but the Ducks ought to consider hiring Costa as the head coach of media relations. On the worst day of his athletic life he patiently answered questions from the media, giving a thoughtful, considered, courageous answer to every one of them without a single stare of impatience. He and Kelly could split the job. Kelly could scheme and feed the mayonnaise, and Costa could explain, restate and reiterate, provide the endless reevaluations and entertain the ceaseless speculations the working press are prone to, because they have to bring light to the daunting chasm of Sunday through Friday, beating back the dark for news-thirsty Duck fans, trapped in the football-less depths like 59,000 Chilean miners for six days at a time.

Some of the best and most illuminating writing on the Ducks comes from an overlooked source. The student writers at the Eugene Daily Emerald are often as skilled as their counterparts on the football team, and their peer connection to the student-athletes leads quite naturally to some insightful reporting. This week Patrick Malee of the Emerald talks to redshirt running backs Dontae Williams and Lache Seastrunk about homesickness, adjusting to college and learning to accept their unaccustomed roles as stars in waiting rather than stars in ascension. Just a few months ago they were two of the most sought-after and acclaimed young athletes in Texas, and now they are thousands of miles from home and toiling in obscurity. Malee elicits some telling reflections on their journey as young Ducks. Both have a great future, and Oregon fans have to hope they stick it out through the most difficult period of an athlete's life, biding his time and accepting the process of improving without glory.

How many yards would LaMichael James rack up if he played a slate that included the following football tomato cans: Wyoming, New Mexico State, Toledo, San Jose State, Louisiana Tech, Hawaii, Idaho, Utah State? Maybe not all that many, because James saves his best games for the best competition. He ran for 257 yards against Stanford and 239 against USC. But Boise State's Kellen Moore plays this bum-of-the-week schedule. He and the Broncos have made a career of it , and that's where his numbers are based. Let him lead the balloting for the Harlon Hill award or the Walter Payton trophy, but he should get eight asterisks for his vote total in the Heisman trophy balloting. His numbers aren't markedly better than the other leading quarterbacks, but he's played few games against real opponents. Yet Moore might win the Heisman trophy. The USA Today has him second in the race, behind Cam Newton and ahead of James, and that is a travesty. He's a mechanic tuning the carburetor on a Ferrari racing against a field of '66 Ford pickups. James and Newton are electric, magical, once-in-a-lifetime stars, talents worthy of being mentioned in the same breath with Bo Jackson and Herschel Walker. Moore is Danny Wuerffel on a blue field.

Newton (no relation, unfortunately; I could use an extra $200,000) has problems of his own. Matt Hinton, rivals.com's Dr. Saturday, reports that in addition to pay-for-recruitment, possession of stolen laptop, and academic cheating allegations, Newton is being investigated by the FBI. Yeah, the same FBI Nate Costa might end up working for.

Cam Newton is one of the most amazing on-field football success stories and singular talents of the last half century. In three quarters of one season he's put together an eye-popping highlight reel, and single-handedly elevated a 5-4/6-3 team to 9-0 and number two in the country. He's charismatic, photogenic, and unstoppable. It's sad to think he might wind up being a tall version of Jeremiah Masoli, amazing and unique on the field, a train wreck and an alibi machine off it.

Elsewhere: Chip Kelly doesn't believe in jinxes. Ted Miller has a sobering look at the dangerous Cal Bears. And Rob Moseley delivers Duck news with ludicrous speed.