The reports of Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli’s demise were (apparently) greatly exaggerated.

Masoli hurt his right knee back in the first half of the Ducks’ 52-6 victory over Washington State on Oct. 3. At the time, he said it wasn’t serious — he even jogged off the field following the game.
But then he didn’t practice. And when he finally did it was in shells, not full pads. Backup Nate Costa took over as the first-team quarterback in drills.
Masoli sat — and Costa started — in Oregon’s 24-10 victory at UCLA.
The next week Oregon had a bye, and Masoli started off in shells again. Oregon coach Chip Kelly fueled gloomy speculation by adhering to his policy of listing injured players as either “out” or “day-to-day.” Masoli was day-to-day.
The whole drama — and Oregon seems to have had a lot of drama this season — was put to rest when Masoli ran for two scores and passed for another in Oregon’s 43-19 victory at Washington.
In Oregon’s 47-20 victory over USC on Halloween, Masoli passed for 222 yards and a touchdown and ran for 164 yards and another score.
Kelly joked this week about the rampant speculation surrounding Masoli’s knee, and even his own injury policy.
“I may put him up for comeback player of the year after reading all the newspaper accounts about him being done for the year,” Kelly said with mock indignation. “It’s probably a credit to our training staff that they could get him back from such a catastrophic injury.”
“And it’s amazing that he actually was day-to-day.”
You almost have to forgive Ducks watchers for the skepticism.
Back in 2007, Oregon went through something eerily similar. The Ducks were rolling after a 24-17 victory over USC and a 35-23 win over Arizona State, rising to No. 2 in the AP Poll and vying for a shot at the national championship.
At quarterback was Dennis Dixon, a scrambler who flourished under then-offensive coordinator Kelly’s spread-option offense. Dixon was generating Heisman hype.
But with three games left, Dixon’s knee buckled in a 34-24 loss at Arizona. Oregon went on to lose to UCLA and Oregon State to finish the regular season, and the Ducks settled for the Sun Bowl against South Florida.
As it turned out, Dixon had torn the ACL two weeks earlier against the Sun Devils. Oregon coach Mike Bellotti (now the athletic director) was criticized for playing down the injury and allowing Dixon to continue playing.
In Bellotti’s defense, Dixon asked him to keep the injury quiet, even from his Oregon teammates.
Dixon went on to be drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He watched from the sidelines this past Saturday when Oregon beat USC.
The seventh-ranked Ducks (7-1, 5-0) visit Stanford (5-3, 4-2) this weekend.