Schneider took three steps back, two steps left and readied for his first ever Point After Touchdown (PAT) try.

They faked it. Schneider, unready, was pitched the football “when [he] wasn’t open at all.”

It was his junior year at Grant High School in Portland, Oregon, and the next day he woke up to play his favorite sport, soccer. That was Schneider’s routine his final two years of high school — the soccer player’s first step towards the Oregon football team.

Schneider, who walked on last season, is Oregon’s starting place-kicker and the most clinical kicker the Ducks have had in three decades. This year, the Grant product has scored 49 points through five games — more than any other player.

                                                                                                                              ***

Schneider was asleep when Max Glicker, captain of Grant’s football team, texted him saying, “We need a new kicker for the team. Give me a call in the morning?”

The prior kicker left the team in the middle of football season. Five days later, Schneider was pitched a football on a fake PAT attempt.

Twice a week during his junior year, Schneider spent 15 minutes practicing football after soccer training. Schneider had never kicked with a snap and hold before practice that week.

“I was not ready,” Schneider said.

In his first attempt, he hurried the hold and the football hit the cross bar.

Schneider’s mom, Laurie Causgrove, thought he was on track to play soccer in college. If not for the text message, Schneider thinks the same.

“I’d probably be playing soccer at the University of Puget Sound, going somewhere like that for academics,” he said.

Schneider doesn’t remember when he first started playing soccer, all he knows is it was a long time ago. Though he does know why: to follow in his older brother’s footsteps.

“The thing I remember the most is Aidan as a little kid, on the sideline kicking the ball around [at his brother’s game],” Causgrove said. “He wasn’t old enough to play.”

Max Schneider is four and a half years older than Aidan. When Max, a goalie, needed to practice, Aidan would take shots for him on a turf field at a nearby middle school. It was only a bike ride away from their house.

After his first football season at Grant, Aidan traveled south on Interstate 5 to the University of Oregon, looking to get more training for senior year.

He attended a camp put on by Chris Sailer, a former consensus All-American as a place-kicker and punter at UCLA who also signed to play soccer with the Bruins. Sailer signed with the San Francisco 49ers in 1999, then played in the Arena Football League for five years.

“After that camp, he really started thinking seriously about football,” Causgrove said.

She remembers Schneider spending Saturdays driving around to different fields trying to find an open place to kick while Grant’s football field was closed for a $2 million renovation project. Schneider went to fields at Portland State and local high schools to improve his football kicking.

“A lot of the sports writers think he came out of nowhere,” Causgrove said. “He didn’t come out of nowhere, he spent a lot of time getting the training he wanted.”

His family wasn’t familiar with football, so the transfer of sports was a task Schneider took on his own. He wasn’t much of a fan of professional football either, and still says the main reason he watches the NFL is to watch the place-kickers go to work.

“There are definitely a lot of similarities with that type of movement in your leg,” he said. “With a soccer ball there is no set way to kick it, there is no form. It’s basically if you can get it there. That doesn’t really hold up with football.”

By his senior year, he was committed to place kicking. He realized that instead of running and competing for 90 minutes, he had just seconds to do his job.

“Kicking is not a position where you can make up for mistakes with effort, which is something I was used to doing,” Schneider said. “It was really new to me that you go out there and you mishit the ball and that’s it. Nothing you can do.”

Mishitting the ball is something Schneider didn’t have to worry much about. He finished his senior year with 13 field goals in 16 attempts, with a long of 40 yards. He then told his family he wanted to walk-on to the Ducks football team. His mom’s response: “Well, good luck.”

“I had no idea he’d make that happen,” Causgrove said.

He entered his freshman season behind Matt Wogan on the depth chart, a high school USA Today first-team All-American rated as the nation’s No. 2 prep kicker and punter by Chris Sailer’s academy. The Indian Trail, North Carolina native nailed 42-of-44 PATs and 7-of-9 field goals the season before.

But late in that season, during the Pac-12 Championship, the Rose Bowl and the College Football National Championship, Schneider took three steps back, lined up, took two steps left and nailed 6-of-7 field goals, his only miss coming against Arizona.

“The thing with Aidan that is so good is nothing phases him,” special teams coordinator Tom Osborne said. “He doesn’t give a hoot. We could get guys rushing if the edge that we didn’t block — it doesn’t phase him, he doesn’t flinch.”

He finished 11-for-12 on field goals in 2014 — the only Oregon kicker since 1985 who has missed just one attempt in a season (minimum five attempts). He’s currently 8-for-8 through five games.

“Sometimes I think he doesn’t really know what he’s doing,” Osborne said. “He just goes out there and goes … He’s a different cat.”

When Oregon doesn’t go for it on fourth down, Schneider takes the field with a silent mind. Then it’s three steps back, aim, two steps left and let his right foot loose — kicking with a soccer cleat, as always.

Follow Andrew on Twitter @AndrewBantly

At any time, Oregon’s quarterback situation was a mystery in its 41-24 win over Colorado Saturday night.

Vernon Adams didn’t partake in the game of musical chairs because, as Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich put it after the game: “it was a different situation this week than last, let’s say.”

It was a two-man contest, one that began with veteran Jeff Lockie, and succeeded with Eugene-native Taylor Alie.

Neither walked off Folsom Field sitting in the final chair.

“They have differences, there are some strengths and weaknesses to different areas of their game, and we’ll think about that going forward,” Helfrich said.

Lockie manned the Ducks’ first three offensive drives, accumulating two completions for 11 yards and an interception in the end zone. Then Helfrich gave the sophomore Alie the nod.

“We felt, looking at the game plan, we could parcel out aspects for each,” Helfrich said after the game. “We had it divvied up pretty well in our minds, unless something freaky happened.”

Nothing freaky happened. In fact, nothing at all happened from the Oregon quarterbacks early on in this game.

Alie’s first drive ended without a first down. His second started with a nice five-yard run up the middle, but a false start penalty killed the momentum and forced the Ducks to again punt without attaining a new set of downs.

The two quarterbacks combined tallied three completions and 14 yards in the opening quarter. Oregon failed in all four third down tries, and the score was tied, 7-7.

In the second, Lockie and Alie played in two drives each. Lockie finished the first half as the Ducks quarterback, tossing five completions in six attempts for 36 yards. Alie went 2-for-4 for 37 yards.

“We had it in mind that that might be the way (coaches decided),” Alie said. “It was just up to the coaches, whatever they felt is what we needed at the time was up to them.”

Neither separated himself from the other. The score at halftime echoed the same tune, with the game tied 17-17.

Wide receiver Bralon Addison was the only Duck with a touchdown pass at the half.

In the second half, things changed. Oregon’s patience for the passing game to emerge ran thin. After throwing 16 total passes in the first half, the two quarterbacks threw four passes total in the second. Just two were completed.

But the Ducks converted 16 more first downs, five of which came on third down, and scored 24 points.

It was obvious what they did: they ran. Even the quarterbacks ran, causing Oregon to run away with the victory.

“I feel like we can (carry the offense),” running back Taj Griffin said after the game. “We definitely have to get some things to work in the passing game but, you know, we’re just going to keep getting better and go from here.”

The defense responded, too, shutting out the Buffaloes in the third quarter — the achilles heel of Oregon’s season so far. Whether the defense’s success is related to the offense change can’t be said for certain.

Nevertheless, the result remains an Oregon win in Boulder, Colorado.

The secret, however, is out: Oregon’s quarterback problem is, indeed, a problem. A problem that currently has just one solution — don’t throw the ball.

Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @AndrewBantly

On Sept. 13, senior associate athletic director Lisa Peterson visited the Oregon softball team with an update of their stadium, currently under construction. She said to them, “You will play in this stadium this season. I have no doubt.”

It’s something she’s been waiting to say since she began working for the Oregon athletic department on October 24, 2011, when she was handed a folder of past efforts to be able to make such a statement.

The long-awaited project, Peterson says, “has been planned for years. It was just finally getting somebody who would help us afford it.”

That somebody became Robert Sanders, who’s second donation of $10 million was announced at the Women in Flight launch in June 2014. His total contribution amounts to $16 million.

However, it could be said the process truly began in the 1940s, when Sanders, an Oregon fullback, met his soon-to-be wife, Jane — a cheerleader. After graduation, the couple enjoyed great success in the lumber industry, holding businesses in Oregon, California and Washington.

Jane, who passed away in late 2013, will soon be honored at Jane Sanders Stadium.

“Mr. Sanders has given a lot of money in the past, previously anonymous,” Peterson said. “This was the very first one that he did with his name attached to it.”

Jane Sanders Stadium, or JSS “as we affectionately short-cut it,” Peterson said, is a project she hopes represents the university’s athletic image, like Autzen Stadium, PK Park and every other athletic facility.

“When you see the roof of it, you’ll see that that was brought into it,” Peterson said without going into much detail. “It represents how good they have been and the history of that.”

The players were “intimately involved,” Peterson said, submitting specific requests for the design of JSS. One asked for a disco ball in the locker room, so the team can continue its dancing persona. Another even asked for the stadium to be a dome. With no word on the disco ball, other — more realistic — requests were granted.

The locker room will be circular so the team can see each other. There will be a mud room, so that dirty cleats and bags will be segregated from the lounge and locker room.

Perhaps the most influential addition is the Player Development Area down the third baseline. Inside, the team can continue to practice during bad weather, which only the baseball team had prior.

“It’s going to be a difference maker for us,” head coach Mike White said. “When we started practice (in the past) during the day and it rained, we’d have to pack up move 30 minutes across the river and miss valuable practice time.”

Softball is limited to 20 practice hours per week.

JSS will feature two levels, with a maximum occupancy of 2,500.

The upper, concourse level will have concessions, a multi-purpose room, satellite offices for coaches, a video room and restrooms.

The lower level will combine the officials’ locker room, training room, equipment room, players’ lounge and locker room. The field, concessions, entry way, stands and “everything that is fan related” will be the first to be finished for the home opener in March, Peterson said.

Details inside the building, which the common person won’t be able to see, could be finished in May.

While representing the Oregon image is a focus of the project, an equally important objective of JSS is to honor the Sanders family — specifically, Jane.

Like opening day, Peterson guarantees it.

Head coach George Horton and the Oregon baseball team has an elite incoming recruiting class for the 2016 season. It’s a class that Collegiate Baseball deemed the eighth-best in the nation.

Of the 17 ballplayers awaiting their PK Park debut this spring, the class is highlighted by infielders Travis Moniot and Matt Kroon, a 34-round and 38-round pick in the 2015 MLB Draft respectively. Both hit over .400 in their senior seasons.

Tualatin High School alumnus Jacob Bennett is another stand-out. The 6-foot-6, right-handed pitcher earned the 2015 Gatorade Oregon Baseball Player of the Year award, striking out 85 batters in 60.2 innings.

UCLA (6) is the only other Pac-12 program ranked higher than the Ducks, according to the Arizona-based newspaper. Oregon State ranked No. 12 and Stanford is at No. 17.

See the whole ranking below:

Collegiate Baseball’s 2015 NCAA Division I Recruiting Rankings:

1. Florida
2. South Carolina
3. Mississippi State
4. Georgia Tech
5. Vanderbilt
6. UCLA
7. LSU
8. Oregon
9. South Florida
10. Auburn
11. Virginia
12. Oregon State
13. Louisiana-Lafayette
14. Texas
15. Rice
16. North Carolina
17. Stanford
18. TCU
19. Arizona
20. Oklahoma
21. Louisville
22. Arizona State
23. Mississippi
24. Cal State Fullerton
25. Oklahoma State
26. Iowa
27. Maryland
28. Florida State
29. Miami (Fla.)
30. Texas A&M
31. Clemson
32. Dallas Baptist
33. Indiana
34. USC
35. Missouri State
36. UC Santa Barbara
37. New Mexico State
38. Alabama
39. Illinois
40. Kentucky

Contact Andrew on Twitter @AndrewBantly

**Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the Emerald’s “Back to the Books” edition, which is currently available in locations throughout Eugene.**

Since March 2014, the club sports office at the University of Oregon has resided in the frigid hallways of McArthur Court. While the printer spits papers onto the cold floor, occupancy members sit in the chill and wait for the new “Clubhouse” part of the Erb Memorial Union remodel.

What won’t wait is success for Oregon’s club programs.

This past year, club baseball won the National Club Baseball Association World Series in Kentucky. Women’s Ultimate, known as “Fugue,” won its second USA Ultimate College Championship since 2008. That’s just two of Oregon’s 39 club programs that take place in between the waves of the Oregon coast and the summits of Mt. Bachelor.

For any Oregon student hoping to participate this year, the process to play club sports begins as soon as Sept. 21 for certain sports. The information fair, scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 30 from 4-6 p.m., is a can’t-miss event. Each team will be represented by current captains, coaches and team members ready to recruit the next wave of talent.

Other than water polo, hockey and women’s soccer, all sports will hold tryouts and meetings the week following the fair – including winter and spring sports.

“The majority of club teams get their rosters together in the fall,” Club Sports Assistant Director Shawn Rubino said.

Water polo, hockey and women’s soccer will still be adding to their rosters this year. However, their calendars causes the teams to begin the season earlier than others. Women’s soccer is the only team of the three holding official tryouts, beginning Monday, Sept. 21.

For specifics, the University of Oregon Club Sports Facebook page has contact information for every team in its photos, as well as the start dates for every team.

Until June 2016, Rubino says the club sports office will remain inside McArthur Court on the southeast side (across the hall from Entry 1). The office is “typically” open 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. during the week and regular operations will resume Monday, Sept. 21.

Badminton: Contact individually.

Baseball: Contact individually (tryouts on Monday, Oct. 5, on Turf Field #2 at 8 p.m.).

Men’s Basketball: Gerlinger B-54 on Monday, Oct. 12, at 4 p.m.

Bass Fishing: Contact individually.

Climbing: 251 Straub Hall on Monday, Oct. 5, at 4:30 p.m.

Cricket: Contact individually.

Cycling: 110 Willamette on Monday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m.

Dance: Contact individually.

Disc Golf: Fenton Hall 119 on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 6 p.m.

Equestrian: Chapman Hall 204 on Friday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m.

Fencing: Start date on Monday, Oct. 5, at SRC Studio 71.

Golf: Contact individually.

Ice Hockey: 107 Esslinger on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 4:00 p.m.

Jiu Jitsu: TBA Monday Oct. 5.

Kendo: Contact individually.

Men’s Lacrosse: 105 Esslinger on Friday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m.

Women’s Lacrosse: SRC Wet Classroom 87 on Monday, Oct. 5, at 4:30 p.m.

Nordic Ski: Lillis 262 on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m.

Racquetball: Contact individually.

Ranger Challenge: Contact individually.

Rowing: Mac Court on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m.

Men’s Rugby: Lillis 175 on Monday, Oct. 5, at 6 p.m.

Women’s Rugby: Lillis 111 on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m.

Running: Start date on Monday, Sept. 28, on Turf Field 1 at 3 p.m.

Sailing: Start Date on Tuesday, Oct. 5, at 3 p.m.

Alpine Skiing: TBA winter term.

Men’s Soccer: Contact individually.

Women’s Soccer: Contact individually.

Softball: Willamette 112 on Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m.

Squash: Esslinger 107 on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m.

Surfing: Contact individually.

Swimming: Contact individually.

Table Tennis: Gerlinger 220 on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m.

Tennis: Esslinger 105 on Sunday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m.

Triathlon: Esslinger 105 on Monday, Oct. 5, at 5 p.m.

Men’s Ultimate: Contact individually

Women’s Ultimate: 301 Ford Alumni Center on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 5 p.m.

UO Snow: Esslinger 116, on Monday, Oct. 12, at 8 p.m.

Men’s Volleyball: Try outs on Mac Court on Monday, Oct. 12, at 4 p.m.

Women’s Volleyball: 110 Willamette Hall Tuesday, Oct. 1, 6 p.m.

Men’s Water Polo: Contact individually

Women’s Water Polo: Lillis 185 on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 6 p.m.

Wrestling: TBA Monday, Oct. 5.

Wushu: Gerlinger 220 on Monday, Sept. 28, at 7 p.m.

Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter: @AndrewBantly

What a week for the Pac-12.

Stanford shocked then no. 6 USC in the Coliseum. Arizona ran for 499 yards and seven touchdowns. Cal and UCLA won by a single point in the final moments of their games.

Here’s a recap of each Pac-12 game from week three (Pac-12 team in CAPS.)

Friday

New Mexico 10 — ARIZONA STATE 34: Senior quarterback Mike Bercovici tossed three touchdowns  and ran for a score against the Lobos. His leading receiver of the night, running back Demario Richard, tallied 2 touchdowns and 151 yards, while also rushing for 104 more yards. ASU accumulated 449 yards of offense compared to UNM’s 295-yard performance. The Sun Devils defense also improved, keeping UNM out of the end zone the entire first half.

Saturday

Utah State 17 — WASHINGTON 31: Washington relied on true freshman quarterback Jake Browning, who threw for 368 yards and a touchdown in the win. UW’s leading rusher, Myles Gaskin, ran for just 42 yards. Additionally UW struggled to protect the ball, turning it over three times. Defensive backs Kevin King and Brandon Beaver led the defense, each making an interception, while Utah State was kept to 254 yards of offense.

COLORADO 27 — Colorado State 24: Colorado State jumped out to a 14-0 lead after the first quarter. But, Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau led a comeback. Liufau threw two touchdowns without an interception, a key factor in this game. The Rams beat up on the Buffaloes defense, running for 218 total yards in a game where CSU’s offense totaled 500 yard — 155 more than CU. However, an overtime field goal by Diego Gonzalez foiled any upset to be.

CALIFORNIA 45 — Texas 44: Both teams entered halftime with 24 points, and the high-scoring theme didn’t change in the second half. Yet, the third quarter was dominated by Cal, and seemingly ending the game in blowout fashion. But as the fourth quarter began 45-24 with the Bears leading, Texas got rolling with freshman quarterback Jerrod Heard. Heard’s 527-total-yard effort deserved to force Cal into overtime, as the Bears defense was gasping for air with time dwindling. All the Longhorns needed to do was convert an extra point to tie the game, but Cal’s Darius White rushed the kick form the outside and, according to White, got a piece of the ball (the box score didn’t credit him with a block).

STANFORD 41 — No. 6 USC 31: Stanford played its first two games of the season looking like a much weaker Cardinal team than expected, failing to depend on the touted, heavy running game. In the same time span, USC seemed unbeatable. Week three didn’t abide to the same tone. In the final 3:53 of the first half, Stanford scored twice to take a 24-21 halftime lead. Then with 2:27 left, Stanford’s Conrad Ukropina hit a 46-yard field goal to make it a 41-28, and essentially seal the game. Cardinal quarterback Kevin Hogan beat USC for the first time in his career after a solid performance — 18/23, 276 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT. Senior running back Remound Wright added three more touchdowns, and feature-back Christian McCaffrey ran for 115 yards on 26 carries. Neither team turned the ball over.

San Jose State 21 — OREGON STATE 35: Oregon State freshman quarterback Seth Collins had himself a decent passing game, but excelled when he ran with the ball, picking up 114 yards and two touchdowns. The Beavers’ Storm Woods led the team with 151 yards rushing and a touchdown on 17 carries. OSU ran for over 300 yards in the game — a heavy punch SJSU couldn’t take. SJSU used three different quarterbacks, none of who threw for more than 75 yards, and its running game wasn’t much better. Two punt returns kept SJSU in the game.

Wyoming 14 — WASHINGTON STATE 31: Something not heard often: WSU’s defense stepped up. But they did just that against Wyoming, forcing two turnovers and keeping the Cowboys off the scoreboard in the final three quarters. Quarterback Luke Falk led the Cougars, tossing two touchdowns in a 303-yard performance. Both touchdown passes were thrown to Dom Williams.

No. 19 BYU 23 – No. 10 UCLA 24: Where BYU entered the final quarter with 7-point lead, and able to add 6 more in the fourth, UCLA’s running game stunned the Cougars in the final minutes. The Bruins feature back Paul Perkins made up for freshman quarterback Josh Rosen’s three interceptions, running for 219 yards and a touchdown. When Perkins tired, Nate Starks picked up right were Perkins left off. Stark ran for 81 yards on seven carries and the game-winning, 3-yard touchdown run.

No. 21 UTAH 45 — Fresno State 24: Utah’s pass defense was outmatched by Fresno State quarterback Zack Greenlee, who tossed for three touchdowns. But Utes running back Devontae Booker was ever-more influential in the game, running for 156 yards and two touchdowns on 31 carries. Cory Butler-Byrd and Britain Covey helped Utah further, both scoring on special teams with a kick return and punt return, respectively.

Northern Arizona 13 — No. 20 ARIZONA 77: It’s hard to ignore the one-sided score, but to make it more impressive from a Wildcat perspective, at halftime it was 42-13. Meaning, in the second half, Arizona scored 35 unanswered points. Arizona’s rushing attack, itself, ran for 499 yards and seven touchdowns. Yes that really happened. Backup quarterback Jerrard Randall ran for a team-leading 149 yards on three carries, and two touchdowns. Running back Nick Wilson added another 143 yards on the game, also with two touchdowns. Quarterback Anu Solmon threw four Arizona touchdown passes, collected 285 yards from the air. The Wildcats also picked off three passes in the game never in question.

Contact Andrew on Twitter @AndrewBantly

Oregon women’s soccer broke through against Portland State in the 81st minute to score the game’s only goal in the teams’ final non-conference match of the season Friday at Papé Field.

It also was a nice birthday celebration for Oregon head coach Kat Mertz.

“I’ll take a win for a birthday every single year, so it’s awesome,” Mertz said.

True freshman forward Krya Fawcett scored the goal — the first of her Oregon career. The Bountiful, Utah native created space inside the 18-yard box on the right side, setting up her left foot to send the ball to the top corner of the far post.

Her feeling after the goal: “relief.”

“Once it hit the net, I turned and screamed,” she said of the goal assisted by Caitlyn Wong.

“I’ve seen that since I’ve recruited (Fawcett) two years ago, she has the ability to come inside and she has a great left foot,” Mertz said. “We’ve been working with her all week about starting strong.”

In the 68th minute Fawcett sent a shot off the post, just 48 official seconds after she debuted in the game.

“On the sideline I knew that, if I did get time in, I had nothing to lose, so I just went at it and tried to find the ball and it ended up in the net,” Fawcett said.

Fawcett’s goal was one of the Ducks’ 16 shots on the day, something Mertz spoke of after the game:

“I think some of (the shots) in the first half we were shooting from distance, they weren’t as dangerous as I would of liked,” Mertz said. “But we’re still putting the shots there and now we got to be smart with our selection — make sure they’re dangerous and make the goalkeeper make a save.”

The Vikings finished with 5 shots on goal, just one in the second half.

Yet the visitors nearly broke through in the first half if not for the diving effort from Oregon goal keeper Halla Hinriksdóttir. Responding to a free kick 19 yards out, her nick affected the ball’s trajectory to bounce off the cross bar.

“That was a game changer,” Mertz said of Hinriksdóttir’s save. “It’s huge to look back and know that your goal keeper kept one out.”

The 1-0 result improves Oregon to 3-5-0 on the young season.

“I’m really proud of the girls for not giving up, not quitting,” Mertz said.

Oregon is now 10-4-1 all-time against Portland State, and will open Pac-12 play against UCLA on September 25 in Los Angeles, a match Mertz thinks will be a “great opening test” for the team. Fawcett, too, is looking forward to playing the defending conference champions:

“I think that we’re going to go kick some Bruins butt,” the forward said.

Contact Andrew Bantly on Twitter @AndrewBantly

–Sports Illustrated featured 2014 Heisman winner Marcus Mariota for the sixth time on its cover, the latest issue featuring “Marcus Mariota and his historic opening statement.” Mariota’s NFL debut earned him AFC Offensive Player of the Week. The former Duck completed 13-of-16 passes with four touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating.

–Twelve recruits joined the Oregon track and field 2015 class, on Thursday, featuring a pair of international athletes and three former All-Americans.

“Our coaching staff believes that we have found a group of newcomers who will make an immediate impact for our team at the NCAA level,” Robert Johnson said in a press release.

—Read the story of how a high school football coach’s confusion led cornerback Ugo Amadi to Eugene, and a tight friendship with a counterpart.

–Oregon cross country, both men and women’s, ranked No. 7 in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll. Then men summed 293 total points, and 297 for the women — both ranked one better in the preseason poll.

–Senior sports writer Hayden Kim discussed Oregon football’s current chances to return to the College Football Playoffs this season.

“While it’s nearly impossible to compare last year’s historical run to this year’s 1-1 start – Oregon is now ranked No. 12 in the AP Poll following its 31-28 loss at Michigan State – the Ducks are still very much in the hunt to make a second-straight appearance in the College Football Playoff,” Kim wrote.

Contact Andrew on Twitter @AndrewBantly

-The Sagamore Club in Noblesville, Indiana will host the men’s NCAA Golf Regionals on May 14-16, and the Ducks will be there. Oregon is seeded No. 2 of the field of 14, only behind Big Ten champion Illinois.

– Pac-12 basketball player of the year Joseph Young has been invited to the 2015 NBA Draft combine and will take part in it, according to Duck Territory. The combine will run from May 12 to May 17.

-Oregon baseball lost 10-2 in a non-conference affair with Oregon State on Wednesday. OSU scored five runs in the third inning off Oregon starter Josh Graham. With one game remaining, the season series is tied 2-2.

-Oregon softball’s Hailey Decker and Lauren Lindvall were honored by the Pac-12 on Monday. Decker earned the Pac-12 Player of the Week honors and Lindvall was selected conference Freshman of the Week.

-Freshman Steven Kyker has dealt with a tight IT Band and mono this year. Both ordeals have affected the triathlete’s training for major events this upcoming summer.

-The Emerald’s own Josh Schlichter was featured on KWVA’s Quack Smack Tuesday evening. He brought his insight of football and baseball to the airwaves.

Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @andrewbantly

Oregon junior Josh Graham is suspended for the Ducks’ upcoming series with Stanford for a violation of team rules, according to the Oregon Athletic Department.

Graham plays both catcher and pitcher for the Ducks. On the mound, he is 2-0 and 1.83 ERA in 14 games this season.

Offensively, the Roseburg, Ore. native is hitting .224 with two home runs and 12 RBI.

Oregon begins its series with Stanford Friday at PK Park at 6 p.m.

Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @andrewbantly