patrick chung

Great stuff. Hope that Patchung! gets back out there this week. We need him for a lot of reasons.

This was a strange time for Oregon. The Ducks, who had been dominant for years, were stumbling. In 2006, they went 7-5 and found themselves in the unappealing Las Vegas Bowl. The coaches held a meeting that season and devised a new team philosophy they called “Win the Day,” during which players were encouraged to push as hard as they could whether it was a game, practice or weight lifting session.

Nobody seized this mentality quite like Patrick. Neal remembers him dropping to the ground and doing 20 pushups during quiet moments of practice. Soon other players were doing pushups, too. It became a tradition. And as Neal looks back, he says the foundation for the Ducks’ current run of conference titles and appearances in BCS bowls was laid the week Chung fell to the grass and began doing pushups.

“Nobody asked him to do it,” Neal said. “He did it on his own.”