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This Date in College Football Belt History – October 28
The 3-4 Arizona State Sun Devils of coach Bruce Snyder traveled to Eugene to meet the 10th ranked, 6-1 Oregon Ducks of first-year coach Mike Bellotti. The Ducks featured All-American CB Alex Molden as well as All-Pac 10 players LB Jeremy Asher & RB Ricky Whittle as it looked as if they would claim their first Belt reign but Oregon had a record of 0-8-1 with a history of near misses in Belt games. Arizona State’s All-Pac 10 QB Jake Plummer led two touchdown drives in the final 5 minutes as the Sun Devils defeated Oregon 35-24 to retain The Belt in a game that featured 5 lead changes. Oregon got the only points of the 1st quarter when PK Joshua Smith connected on a 42-yard field goal. In the 2nd quarter, the Sun Devils scored on a 4-yard touchdown run by RB Michael Martin & a 38-yard touchdown pass from Plummer to WR Kenny Mitchell to take a 14-3 lead. The Ducks finished the 1st half scoring with a 14-yard touchdown pass from QB Tony Graziani to WR Cristin McLemore. The Ducks took the lead in the 3rd quarter when Whittle scored on a 1-yard touchdown run. Arizona State’s DE Mike Langridge gave the Sun Devils the lead again when he took the ball out of Graziani’s hand & ran 32 yards for a touchdown. Trailing 21-17, Graziani scrambled 33 yards for a touchdown giving the Ducks a 24-21 lead. With 4:16 to play, Arizona State chose not to kick the tying field goal as Plummer faced a 4th & 1 from the Oregon 3-yard line. He found TE Steve Bush for the touchdown giving the Sun Devils the lead 28-24. After an Oregon punt, Arizona State drove 49 yards in 6 plays with Martin scoring on a 6-yard touchdown run to secure the victory. Plummer finished with 232 yards passing with 2 touchdowns & Mitchell added 5 catches for 106 yards to his touchdown. Grazini threw for 340 yards completing 27 of 55 pass attempts with a touchdown & McLemore had 9 catches for 108 yards with a touchdown in the loss. Arizona State finished the season 6-5 while the Ducks finished 9-3 & ranked 18th nationally. Oregon would play for The Belt again in 2005.
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