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Present Tense

By By Gene Wojciechowski

Monday, August 19, 2002

Nobody at Oregon will come right out and say it. Nobody wants to be the one to tell Onterrio Smith it would have been him on the $250,000 Times Square billboard -- if he just could have guaranteed no more screwups before the end of the most important season of his life. Nobody at Oregon will tell the Ducks' best player, maybe the best tailback in college football, that they've run out of fingers to cross, that they absolutely, positively trust him -- sort of. Instead, Oregon played it safe and ...

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