King For a Week: The 7-days Jaiya Figueras Could Do No Wrong Part 3

 King For a Week: The 7-days Jaiya Figueras Could Do No Wrong Part 3

Originally posted on FishDuck.com on August 7th, 2011
 

Part 3: Going Their Separate Ways–Friends Struggle to Succeed On Separate Paths For The First Time

For friends Jaiya Figueras and Kenny Wheaton, their first couple of years at the University of Oregon had seen the pendulum swing wildly. After their redshirt season in 1993 watching their teammates struggle to win, the two roommates had spearheaded the improbable 1994 season leading Oregon to the Pac-10 title. The following year Wheaton was already a star, while Figueras became the unlikely hero two weeks in a row early in the season, only to then have his career shattered by a devastating leg injury. Wheaton had carried the torch in Figueras’ absence, but for all the success the 1995 team achieved, for Wheaton it felt hollow not having Figueras as a part of the on-field success.

The 1996 season would bring a new defensive coordinator, Rich Stubler, replacing Charlie Waters, and a new defensive scheme, the “Edge” defense, where the Duck linemen would line up a yard off the ball. Fans didn’t get it, the Ducks looked confused, and the experimental defensive scheme was scrapped several weeks into the season. The Ducks would struggle to find their identity that year, going on a 5-game losing streak mid-season, and finishing the campaign 6-5 without an invite to a bowl game.

Jaiya Figueras leaps to snag a fumble out of the air vs. Oregon State – 11/23/1996

 

“When Coach Waters left and Coach Stubler came in…that edge defense destroyed our season, destroyed our mentality.” Figueras spoke, sounding still angry over the switch. “We learned it, we worked on it, we spent months on it, then we junked it halfway through the season. Coach Waters came in after the Rose Bowl and he didn’t change anything, he just added stuff on top. But Coach Stubler came in and he changed everything, so for some of the senior guys we weren’t used to playing in a defense like that. It took us too long to catch up. That team should have been great, but I put that year on the defense. That was on us. We went from the #12 defense to the 112th in the country with a lot of the same players from the year before. Then after that Kenny (Wheaton) left early for the NFL, suddenly what had been an experienced unit was now mostly freshmen starting in ‘97 and me.”


Jaiya Figueras pursues a Utah player during the October 18th, 1997 game at Autzen Stadium, a 31-13 Oregon victory.
 
“That was frustrating for me, being on those great gang green defenses to start out and then my junior and senior year we underperform like that,” lamented Figueras. “It wasn’t because we didn’t have the talent. Stubler was a good coach, but it was too much change for us because we had done stuff two years in a row that had put us at the top of the country, why change it if its not broken? We were small, so we could work in space. But giving teams an extra yard cushion didn’t work because of our lack of size. I still run into guys today we played against that year and they still give me hell about it, asking ‘what was the deal with that weird defense you guys were running back then?’”

Kenny Wheaton agrees that the switch was too radical, on both sides of the ball perhaps, as the offense was also experimenting under new offensive coordinator Al Borges with extensive pre-snap shifts and motions.

Example of Oregon’s short-lived multiple shift offensive scheme.

 

“Don’t get me wrong, Stubler is a great coach, but the biggest problem with it wasn’t the scheme, we just didn’t buy into it,” said Wheaton. “It was foreign to us. You have to get guys to buy into things to be successful in a team sport, and guys just didn’t get it. We complained because we didn’t understand it. We were built for years as a man-to-man defense, we would cover and we would blitz.

Stubler’s defense was a matchup zone where you play with your eyes. Taking guys who played man-to-man for 3 years to now make them suddenly play zone is tough to do. People pointed blame at the team and coaches, where now we had both sides of the ball experimenting with new stuff. Borges had the offense doing all these crazy shifts and the defense was trying to run zone. Blame could have gone to a lot of different places, simply put players didn’t buy in and didn’t understand.“

Jaiya Figueras, as a senior starting safety on the 1997 Oregon Ducks garnered honorable mention All-Pac-10 honors, but the defense again struggled mightily that year. The era of Gang Green defense was over, the Ducks were now an offensive-minded team first and foremost, and the stats reflected that mentality switch.

His teammate and friend Kenny Wheaton was in Dallas in his rookie season of the NFL with the Cowboys after declaring early for the draft following the 1996 season. Figueras had rushed to recover from his injury suffered in 1995 to be there for his teammates in ‘96, but he didn’t regain his speed and on-field prowess until the 1997 season after Wheaton had already left.

“We got to play together in ‘96, but Jaiya really rushed to return and hadn’t fully healed, we as teammates appreciated that but we knew he wasn’t healthy, he wasn’t there.” Wheaton recalled hesitantly, choking up a bit. “So if you think about it, for all the time that we planned and plotted, really Jaiya and me only got to truly start together for one game. Fans might remember Jaiya Figueras from 96 and 97, but the real Jaiya that all his teammates knew was the guy making plays against Illinois and UCLA in 1995. You want to know what kind of player Jaiya Figueras was, remember him for those two games. He rushed back for us, but I could look at him and tell something wasn’t right. But that’s the type of guy he is, he’s going to give it his all no matter what. We stayed up many nights and talked about many things, and after all that all we truly got was that one game together against UCLA at the Rose Bowl in 95. That one is special to me to this day. I think about that game a lot, he was going back home and he made the play, that will always stick with me.”

Jaiya Figueras dislodges the ball vs. Arizona State – 11-15-1997.

 

Wheaton continued, “I really regret not doing a better job of keeping in touch with Jaiya during his senior year in 1997. I was going through tough times of my own in Dallas dealing with the loss of my brother (Kenny Wheaton’s brother Derrek had been shot and killed that November in a senseless drive-by shooting in Phoenix, AZ), and while we talked on the phone a lot, I knew Jaiya was down about the situation back in Eugene and I should’ve done more for him. It wasn’t fair for him to start out on such great teams early and finish like he did…“

Pausing for a moment, Wheaton gathered himself and then strongly spoke, “The one thing that has always really angered me to this day is why Jaiya never got a shot at the NFL. He was good enough to play, why did all these other guys get their shot and not him? He was such a great athlete, he earned his chance.”

For all his hard work to get back up to speed and on the field again for his teammates following his devastating injury in 1995, it will be what he did in the two games prior to his broken leg that will leave the name Jaiya Figueras permanently etched in the record books for Oregon fans. While he didn’t take too much time to enjoy the two plays that will forever define his time as a Duck, Jaiya does look back fondly on his time in Eugene and feels blessed that all these years later the efforts of his teammates are still remembered.

Jaiya Figueras intercepts a pass on a two-point conversion attempt by Air Force in the 1997 Las Vegas Bowl, Jaiya’s last game as a Duck.

 

“We changed history,” said Figueras, reminiscing on the impact his teams had on the Duck program. “We put Oregon on the map. We changed the tone and attitude of the program. Oregon got better in basketball and track after that, more students started coming to the university after the football team started winning. I feel like we had an impact on the history of the school beyond just football. That’s the biggest thing for me, to be a part of a group of guys that changed history. I feel very honored to have been a part of not only Autzen Stadium history, but to have had that kind of impact on the state of Oregon as a whole. People still write me today and tell me about the great father-son moments they had because of those teams and the plays I made, I feel honored to have done that.”



Jaiya Figueras (left) and Cristin McLemore (right) still enjoy the gameday atmosphere surrounding Oregon football, now 15 years removed since they last played for the Ducks.
 
Jaiya Figueras, the man who soared like Icarus to heights most people only dream of in one week’s stretch, only to then crash to earth harder than most can imagine. He reached the highest highs, suffered the lowest lows, and left behind a lifetime’s worth of what-ifs. Time may eventually heal the bumps and bruises left behind by the rigors of college football, but the brief shining moments like those experienced by Jaiya Figueras and his roommate/best friend Kenny Wheaton will remain fresh in the memories of Oregon fans forever.

Almost 15 years removed from his playing days as a Duck, Jaiya Figueras remains active. After time spent as a teacher and football coach, he now operates his own personal training business in Long Beach, CA.

Kenny Wheaton is retired from professional football after a long career in the NFL and CFL. He splits his time between Dallas, TX, and Phoenix, AZ, providing football training seminars to young athletes when not managing the Kenny Wheaton Foundation, a fixture in the Eugene community striving to assist underprivileged children.

“We’re still close, 15 years later,” Wheaton added. “Jaiya’s such a positive person, he’s a guy you want to be around. His attitude was what turned around Oregon football. He’s the one that did that, and nobody realizes it, nobody gives him credit for it. We all rallied behind him and made Oregon football special.”


Kenny Wheaton (center) and Jaiya Figueras (right) remain close friends, here seen enjoying the festivities at the national championship game in January, 2011. Also pictured: Lyndsey Kyle.

On October 29th, 2011, during this season’s Washington State-Oregon game, Autzen Stadium will be buzzing with excitement as the newest class of Oregon Hall of Fame inductees are officially presented, a group highlighted by Kenny Wheaton. For Wheaton, it is the lone remaining goal from the list formulated by him and roommate Jaiya Figueras nearly two decades before when they were freshmen in the dorms visualizing their success to come.

Jaiya and Kenny have both technically already been inducted, as the 1994 Oregon football team is in the Oregon Hall of Fame, honored for the entire season’s impact on Oregon athletics and the university, but Wheaton is now being added again for his individual performance. With his legendary status growing by the year as young fans who weren’t even born yet when Wheaton made his pick continue to idolize him, Kenny refuses to bask in the glory of that iconic moment by himself.

Wheaton and Figueras succeeded from day one of their careers by pushing each other to greatness, the two friends forever linked side-by-side as equals in their minds, though the average fan wouldn’t know it.

Everyone knows the name Kenny Wheaton, the man who supposedly changed Oregon football, but only the most obsessive fan recalls the name Jaiya Figueras. For Wheaton, this is unacceptable, who appreciates the continued accolades but grows tired of constantly discussing his interception vs. Washington as the defining moment in school history without any credit ever being awarded to Figueras for his immense behind the scenes support.

Kenny Wheaton’s attendance at the Oregon Hall of Fame ceremony will be a great honor that he does not take lightly, but he maintains one very strict requirement for the scheduled festivities at Autzen, “Jaiya needs to be on the field by my side for that. He has to be there. That’s as much about him as it is me.”

For more information on Jaiya Figueras’ personal training services, check out:
http://www.signalhillpersonaltrainer.com
For more information on the Kenny Wheaton Foundation, check out:
http://www.kennywheatonfoundation.com 
 

King For a Week: The 7-days Jaiya Figueras Could Do No Wrong Part 2

King For a Week: The 7-days Jaiya Figueras Could Do No Wrong Part 2

Originally posted on August 6th, 2011

Part 2: Jaiya Figueras: The hero’s coming out party arrives early in 1995

The 1994 season was special for the players and fans alike. The sting of losing seasons had been washed away with an improbable run to the Pac-10 title and Rose Bowl berth. It was a huge surprise to everyone, except roommates Jaiya Figueras and Kenny Wheaton, who had visualized the team’s success every night since arriving on campus, pushing each other to make it a reality. Wheaton had become a household name for his on-field heroics in the Washington game that year, while Figueras was the special teams player of the year and Wheaton’s biggest cheerleader behind the scenes, driving him and the rest of the team to greater success.

While the two friends reveled in the team’s 1994 success, it had been achieved without the two of them starting together in the Oregon secondary. The hunger existed to do it again, this time with both of them starting side-by-side. Wheaton was now a starting cornerback, but Figueras remained the third string safety during the opening game of the season at Utah. His status would change quickly though, as an injury to the starting safety on the Monday practice following Oregon’s close victory over Utah meant Figueras was elevated to 2nd string, with Dante Lewis getting the starting nod.
For the home opener that week Illinois was coming to town, featuring two future NFL 1st round draft picks on defense in Simeon Rice and Kevin Hardy.

It was a tough battle back and forth, with Jaiya Figueras thrust into the starting lineup in the 4th quarter when Dante Lewis went down with an injury.

“I was happy that Jaiya was going to get a chance to play against Illinois, injuries happen and it’s unfortunate, but we couldn’t wait for the day that we could both get in and play at the same time. We had talked about it so much, visualized it, planned for it,” Kenny Wheaton recalled, his ear-to-ear smile perfectly evident while reminiscing about the opportunity his best friend and roommate was finally getting. “Before the 94 USC game I was thinking ‘man, I’ll never get to play,’ but Jaiya was always saying that both of us have to stay prepared because we’re just one play away from getting on the field. He understood, he helped me through that whole first year. When he finally got his shot in ‘95 I knew he would come in and do his job. He was 3rd string, but he prepared like he was a starter, and I’ve always taken that lesson from Jaiya to heart. Here I had been getting to play a lot from mid-94 on and finally he was getting his shot too, I was real happy for him.”

“When you’re 3rd string you don’t expect to get into the game come Saturday, much less make an impact” Figueras reflected. “I wasn’t wide-eyed or nervous when I went in, I was prepared for the moment. I had already made plays in ’94 as a freshman, I was so focused I wasn’t even fully aware of the situation it being my first time getting real playing time.”

That moment went largely unnoticed by the average fan too when Figueras, wearing #22, replaced the injured Lewis in the secondary, nor did the broadcasters pay much mind, mispronouncing his first name as “Gee-yaw” several times. In the 4th quarter Illinois had an 11-point lead, until Oregon capped a long drive with a Ricky Whittle touchdown run to bring it to within three points, 31-28.

Ricky Whittle scores a touchdown in the 4th quarter vs. Illinois – 9/09/1995

 

Time was ticking away following a series of punts, and Illinois was getting the ball back, somebody would have to make a play or they could run out the clock and Oregon would lose its opening home game coming off that miraculous Rose Bowl run the year prior. To the fans and players having experienced the joy of being on top for once in the previous season, the prospect of losing at Autzen in the first game back was unacceptable. Into the spotlight stepped Jaiya Figueras..

With 6 ½ minutes left, Illinois was backed up near its own endzone when quarterback Johnny Johnson took the snap and rolled out to the left looking downfield, unaware that Jaiya Figueras was bearing down on him blitzing from his safety position off the edge of the Illinois offensive line on a direct path to him. In an instant Figueras was in the backfield wrapping up Johnson, who in a panicked state exposed the ball, allowing Figueras to swat it away in a single motion. As the ball trickled behind Johnson, Figueras released the quarterback and lunged at the ball, recovering it in the endzone for a touchdown. It took all of six seconds for Jaiya Figueras to go from unknown to Autzen Stadium legend. The crowd erupted in glee over the spectacular play, then pondered collectively ‘who was that #22 that just did that? Gee-yaw? Who is Gee-yaw?’

Oregon took the lead 34-31 on Figueras’ improbable touchdown, and would make a 4th down stop later when Illinois got the ball back to seal the victory. Welcome, Mr. Figueras, to the legend status that your roommate Kenny Wheaton had already earned the previous year.

Jaiya Figueras forces a fumble and recovers the ball for a touchdown vs. Illinois – 9/09/1995

 

“Coach (Charlie) Waters called a strong safety blitz, I saw later on film that the left tackle missed his block entirely so I came free and a guard that was pulling actually pushed me into the quarterback, giving me a little extra speed boost,” reflected Figueras on the play that instantly made him a household name. “I didn’t think about it, I just made the play and jumped on the ball. If we just do what the coaches tell us to do and stop trying to make the big play, then the big plays just happen. Everyone thinks they have to make the big play or that they need to stand out somehow, but just do your job at the right moment, at the perfect moment. There’s no difference between a play like that and any other play, I just did my job and something good happened.”

Not just something good, something great happened. The stuff legends are made of happened, the kind of play that is reminisced about for years later at tailgate parties where fans proudly boast ‘I was there’ happened, whether or not they were actually physically present in the Autzen stands. This was the kind of moment every kid dreams about, the kind of play that is re-enacted time and again in backyards across America.

“I wasn’t scared or nervous that there would be a drop-off, honestly, when Jaiya came into the game for the first time in the 4th quarter,” said Wheaton. “He was probably the best all-around athlete we had in the secondary, including that 1994 team. I was happier when Jaiya made that play against Illinois than I was when I made the pick vs. Washington in 94. Jaiya is always the happiest guy for everyone else’s accomplishments, he’s happy for everyone, so it was so great to see him make a play for once. It didn’t surprise me because I knew he could do things if he just got his shot, the coaches finally gave him an opportunity and he took advantage. I was super-happy for him first, and then happy we won the game second, in that order. If people knew Jaiya the man, the teammate, they would understand. He was of course proud he had made the play, but by the time we got home he was ready to get to work for next week, he always wanted to be preparing for the next challenge.”

“It was pandemonium on the sidelines after I scored,” said Figueras of his touchdown vs. Illinois.

“We didn’t have a good first half on defense, but Coach (Charlie) Waters remained very calm and collected and said we had to step it up in the second half to get the win. We were thinking we could lose and it was going to be on the defense for it, so everyone was going crazy knowing that now we might take it after all.”

Win Oregon did, and had Jaiya Figueras never played another down as a Duck, his one shining moment when he became the savior of Autzen would still be fondly recalled, but more personal glory and a heartbreaking crash to reality were still to come.


Jaiya Figueras played for the Oregon Ducks 1993-1997, earning honorable mention all-Pac-10 honors his senior year.
 
It would be understandable if Jaiya Figueras might get overconfident in the wake of such a Herculean moment, but instead he barely reveled in the hero spotlight among his teammates and crazed fans as there was another game to be played, and Figueras would be called upon once again. Dante Lewis was still injured and ruled out for the next game, so Figueras would be the starter for the first time in his career, playing in Los Angeles versus a powerful UCLA team that had just dismantled Miami 31-8 two weeks prior to open the season.

The Bruins featured stars of the college game that would go on to fruitful NFL careers; including wide receiver JJ Stokes, quarterback Cade McNown, running back Karim Adbdul-Jabbar, and future NFL hall of famer and human bulldozer, offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden. This would be a battle, no time to party with the looming shadow of UCLA a mere six days away.

Figueras plunged into preparation, studying film and practicing for the big game. When gameday came around his glorious moment versus Illinois was already well in the past for him, though quick on the tongue of all media and fans. The game would not disappoint, and once again in back-to-back weeks it would be Jaiya Figueras emerging from the gridiron as the hero.

“That was special for the both of us,” Kenny Wheaton remembers. “We had spent so much time talking about playing together, visualizing playing together, preparing for that day when we would both be starting, and finally for the UCLA game that day arrived. That entire week leading up to UCLA was great, Jaiya would study film like he was starting anyway but this time it was actually happening. That week was totally different, because we knew coming out of the locker room we would be playing together, and for him it was coming home since he grew up just down the road in Glendale. I had the closest thing next to my two brothers by my side, and that was Jaiya, that game was going to be special for the both of us.”

For Figueras and Wheaton, they anticipated that this would be the first of many games to come with the duo starting in the secondary. It was the culmination of all they had worked at since arriving on campus, all those nights of watching film together and challenging each other to pushups or additional reps in the weight room, they were ready to dominate.

The game was a back-and-forth struggle, an epic battle of two teams unwilling to cave, too good to relinquish the fight. Tied 31-31 in the 4th quarter, Oregon quarterback Tony Graziani led an impressive drive down the field culminating in a tremendous 4-yard touchdown catch by wide receiver Cristin McLemore to take the lead 38-31.

Cristin McLemore touchdown catch in the 4th quarter vs. UCLA – 9/16/1995

 

 Confidence seemed high on the Oregon side with time running down and victory all but assured, until UCLA struck back with a hail-mary bomb somehow completed into tight double coverage down to the five-yard line. With under a minute to go, UCLA could get at least leave the game as a tie, or go for the win with a two-point conversion (overtime rules would not be implemented in college football until the following season).

UCLA’s hail-mary gets them within range (see the 1:30 mark)

 

Some teams may have yielded the touchdown to regroup for overtime, but the 1995 version of the Gang Green defense wasn’t one to give up so easily, especially not that day with their vocal leader Jaiya Figueras urging them on.

“As a defense, we expected to stop people,” Wheaton firmly stated. “A lot of that was based on the year before, we had the best leader to ever coach me in (Charlie) Waters, and with him there was no panic. You don’t want to be in that position if you can help it, but everyone remained calm, saying ‘let’s go, let’s get after it,’ especially Jaiya.”

Three defensive stands by Oregon set up one final play for the game. Four seconds left on the clock, 4th and goal from the two yard line, a couple of feet were all the distance between an impressive Oregon victory and UCLA’s life extended to overtime, and looming large was all-american left tackle Jonathan Ogden ready to clear a path. Few outside of his teammates would have predicted that it would be the no-name hero from the previous week who would find a way to do it all over again.
“Well, #1 they had Jonathan Ogden, #2 they had Karim Abdul-Jabbar, a really good running back,” Figueras recapped.

“So we knew that wherever Jonathan went, Karim would follow. So when they snapped the ball and started running a sweep to the left we all immediately started running that way as fast as we could. As soon as he found that crease near the sidelines he dove for the pylon and looked like he was going to just barely make it in. I put my head down and hit him as hard as I could. He missed the goal line by less than 4 or 5 inches. They had four plays and an All-American and future hall of famer to try to beat us, but we had some good guys on defense as well…Jeremy Asher, Rich Ruhl, Reggie (Jordan), (Mark) Schmidt, Kenny Wheaton. Everybody played their part. We weren’t big, but we were tough.”

What happened next was an obscured cloud of dust and baited breath for everyone watching, as the camera angle down the goal line from the far side didn’t give a clear picture of what transpired beyond the evidence of a massive collision and pile of human bodies. What was clear was that Abdul-Jabbar, having sprinted for the sideline, had an angle to the endzone and dove with enough momentum to make it in for the game-tying score. Oregon defensive tackle Desmond Byrd appeared to perhaps get an arm on Abdul-Jabbar slowing him down slightly but not enough to stop him, when seemingly out of nowhere Abdul-Jabbar struck head first a human brick wall named Jaiya Figueras, and fell just short of the goal line.

Jaiya Figueras stops UCLA at the 1 yard line – 9/16/1995.

 

“I just put my head down and ran as fast as I could, probably wasn’t good form to put my head down but I did it at the time and kept driving my legs. I got enough of him to barely keep him out, but he was close. Real close.” said Figueras.

The sidelines erupted in jubilation as the broadcasters spouted in disbelief, “Figueras, with the great play a week ago wins the game, again with the game winning play. Unbelievable!”

Unbelievable indeed. Former players can spend a lifetime retelling the story of their one shining iconic moment of football glory, but who gets to have two of them in back-to-back weeks? Jaiya Figueras, that’s who. If one iconic play makes a football player a legend, two in successive weeks had Jaiya Figueras feeling like Superman. As the celebration commenced on the field for one of the hardest fought victories in memory, nobody was happier for Jaiya Figueras’ second big moment in as many weeks than Kenny Wheaton.

“What better person to make the play than somebody who was so instrumental in getting us together as a team to get us thinking positive,” Wheaton exclaimed, “so fitting that he was the one to make the play. It was a huge moment. I remember seeing the play unfold, everyone running as fast as they could to the ball, and I’m yelling ‘He’s not in! There’s no way he’s in!’ I saw the guys who were over there, and I came as fast as I could, shouting the whole way ‘he didn’t make it! he didn’t make it!’ It’s a great feeling when the game is on the line and we as a unit get it done, then for me it was extra special because it was Jaiya, it was my guy making the play. As teammates we knew he could do it, because he worked hard everyday in practice. He showed us on film and special teams that he was a beast. We all thought we were going to be really good for a couple years here because he was just a youngster too…”

With Dante Lewis healthy enough to return from his injury for the next week’s game against Stanford, in spite of Jaiya Figueras’ repeated heroics for two weeks in a row, he would be relegated back to the bench. This did give an opportunity to enjoy the moment a little, unlike the Illinois game where Figueras immediately started preparing for the next battle, he had a chance to bask in the glow of what had transpired.

“After that UCLA game I felt unstoppable, like I could do anything. Whatever happened, I could dominate this game, barring injury. I was confident,” Figueras remembers. “I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I guess I should have looking back, because my mind was on the next game, but it felt good.”

“Yeah, we celebrated a little bit,” Wheaton laughed, “but our biggest thing to me was just being back in our apartment smiling at each other knowing that we were doing just what we said we would do, we were finally both starting for the Ducks and making things happen.”

Unfortunately, that which goes up must come down, and for as high as Jaiya Figueras had soared in a 7-day stretch from the Illinois 4th quarter to the UCLA goal line stand, a painful and devastating crash to earth was to come quickly. One week after his UCLA heroics, Jaiya Figueras’ season would come to a sudden and gruesome end with a broken leg suffered vs. Stanford.

“Against Stanford the next week I came in for a play and the running back cut back on me, I went after him but my foot got stuck in the turf and I tore every single ligament and broke my leg. Out for six months…” said Figueras, pondering the what-ifs of the moment. “I was super devastated. I had torn my MCL just after the Rose Bowl and was just coming back from that getting my speed back. I got hurt being at the height of my time. I just wasn’t able to ride that wave the way I wanted to,” lamented Figueras, speaking like a true Californian. “Here comes the wave, and lucky Jaiya manages to catch one of the biggest waves in history, I should have been on the ride of my life, and then I immediately get hurt. That was a great team, I wish I could have played with them more. Our defense was so good in ‘95, I’m not sure if fans remember just how dominant it was, we didn’t really realize how good we were at the time either, that team had great players and should have done better than we did.”

“For that Stanford game Jaiya had the same preparation regardless of if he had to step back in the depth chart or not, his prep was always the same, saying ‘c’mon guys let’s go!’” Kenny Wheaton stated emphatically. “He didn’t hold his head down, he didn’t drag his feet even though Dante (Lewis) was going to start instead of him. It was difficult for me because when I’d turn and look my buddy wasn’t back there starting the game with me. But we had to still play another game, and Jaiya prepped the same way he always did. When he went down with the injury it was hard for me, it was hard to see him down because he had been our vocal leader. It was a really tough time for our defense, for a couple weeks we lost our voice. In the locker room he was still a voice, but we lost our vocal leader on the field.”

Jaiya Figueras would spend the rest of the 1995 season on the sidelines watching his teammates accumulate six more wins during the regular season following his injury accumulating an impressive 10-2 record, but losing in embarrassing fashion in the 1996 Cotton Bowl to Colorado, 38-6.

“I always thought the ‘95 defense was better athletically and physically than ‘94, but the difference was trying to get all of us to play on the same page,” Said Wheaton. “We were more interchangeable, more parts, more safeties that could step out and cover, we had deeper depth at all the positions. It wasn’t a complicated defense, it was a little different under Coach (Charlie) Waters, but it was all guys who had seen players like myself and Jaiya and Desmond Byrd having success as youngsters and maybe there was some resentment with the older guys. Maybe we weren’t as tight because the youngsters were doing good things and the older guys maybe should have been playing more, and perhaps athletically, they were probably right.”

Kenny Wheaton led the Oregon Ducks in total tackles in 1995, despite playing much of the year with a massive cast on his broken right hand and with his friend Jaiya Figueras injured for most of the season.

 

In part 3’s conclusion tomorrow, friends go their separate ways as Wheaton departs for the NFL, while Figueras tries to right the ship on his own in Eugene. 

 

King For a Week: The 7-days Jaiya Figueras Could Do No Wrong Part 1

King For a Week: The 7-days Jaiya Figueras Could Do No Wrong Part 1

Originally posted on FishDuck.com on August 5th, 2011.
 

Part 1: Jaiya Figueras and Kenny Wheaton: Freshmen Roommates Driven to Succeed

Every Oregon Duck fan can probably recite verbatim the infamous Jerry Allen call of Kenny Wheaton’s interception versus Washington in 1994, or fondly remember Joey Harrington hitting Samie Parker in stride for an 80 yard touchdown in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl, or Marcus Woods flattening BYU quarterback Ty Detmer in the endzone in 1990. The motivation behind the dedication to their craft for every student athlete is the drive to hopefully be in position for that moment if it ever comes, that time when they can be in the right place at the right time to will their team to success, a moment that hopefully will be remembered by teammates and fans alike. For these lucky few athletes, having hung up their jerseys for the last time long ago, they may have moved on with their lives, but the legacy of their achievements live on forever.

For one lucky Duck, their moment in the spotlight garnered an even greater encore. For a stretch of seven days in 1995, one student athlete wore the king’s crown of Eugene, emerging from obscurity to reach the highest levels of on-field glory, only to then disappear shortly thereafter struggling to return to form. Yet behind the scenes, his legacy stretches far beyond that of a week of athletic dominance, his drive to succeed with the help of his roommate and best friend turned the tide of losing, forever transforming the history of University of Oregon athletics. Witness the meteoric rise, the tragic downfall, the voice that would not be silenced and the what-ifs that will forever surround the story of Jaiya Figueras.

In 1993 Jaiya Figueras was a senior all-state defensive back at Glendale High School in Los Angeles, CA, trying to decide between scholarship offers from Oregon, UCLA, and Washington State. When Oregon Ducks head coach Rich Brooks came to visit the Figueras home to convince Jaiya to be a Duck, his decision was quickly settled.

“He had dinner with my mom and me, and I bought in completely to what he had to say,” Jaiya Figueras recollects, now a personal trainer in the Long Beach area of Southern California. “He was straight with me, and I believed him. I decided then that I wanted to be a Duck. It was in the Pac-10 conference, Coach Brooks promised that I would play early and he was true to his word, I did. My mom dished it back though at him, boasted to him that if my son goes there you guys will go to the Rose Bowl…and we did. My best friend had been shot and killed the year prior and I really wanted to get out of LA, leave and start a new life, find a quiet place to just concentrate on football and school. Eugene seemed like the right fit.”

Jaiya Figueras arrived on the University of Oregon campus in the summer of 1993 and spent his first year as a redshirt on the scout team. Something as arbitrary as who he was assigned to be roommates with in college would prove to have a profound impact on not just his life, but on the history and future of the University of Oregon. Jaiya Figueras was matched to share a dorm room with fellow incoming freshman Kenny Wheaton, an undersized but multi-talented player from Phoenix, AZ, for their first year in the University of Oregon dorms.

Almost immediately, the two freshmen Figueras and Wheaton became close friends, and together began turning heads in practice. There was a buzz in the program that this new freshmen class could be special, but for the two friends they noticed a major flaw in the rest of the team’s attitude. Seniors would often give them grief when they tried too hard in practice, making big plays that might embarrass the upperclassmen while NFL scouts were watching.

For Jaiya Figueras, this bad attitude of players not wanting to give their all in practice was unacceptable. For the team to improve its on-field performance something had to change, and if he had to be the one to do it then so be it.

“That 1993 team, we redshirts didn’t see why they should be losing all the time, because being in the stands watching the games we thought ‘hey we’re good enough to beat this team! Why are we losing?’ said Figueras, sounding still perplexed as to why talented Oregon teams underperformed. “Me and Kenny (Wheaton), we used to talk all the time about how we were going to change things.”
1993 was a season with growing expectations as the Ducks jumped out to a 3-0 start, but it all came crashing down on one early October day in Berkeley, CA. On that sunny afternoon the Ducks appeared to be walking away with the game, but the Cal Bears overcame the largest deficit in college football history, defeating the Ducks in heartbreaking fashion 42-41 after Oregon had at one point led by 30 points in the first half.

Oregon WR Derrick Deadwiler picks up 80-yards on a pass, but comes up short of the endzone vs. Cal in 1993. Oregon was held to a field goal, and would go on to lose the game 42-41 in the final minute.

 

 

“When that Cal loss happened, it took all the air out of the team,” said Kenny Wheaton, who listened to the game on the radio with Jaiya Figueras and the other redshirt freshmen back in the dorms in Eugene. “Jaiya was the one guy who said ‘look, I don’t care if we lost like that, I don’t care if the seniors say this or that, we’re going to play hard. We’re going to practice hard, we’re going to get better, we’re not going to be the same Oregon team that gets walked over all the time.’ He started saying it all the time after that, he said it so much that eventually we all started believing him…at least our class did, the older guys on the team maybe didn’t and perhaps that’s why that team didn’t do so well. But we began believing that we could improve, because of Jaiya.” 

For all the accolades that Kenny Wheaton would go on to receive for his time as a Duck, he believes wholeheartedly it was actually the never-say-die spirit of his friend and roommate Jaiya Figueras that changed the entire course of the Oregon program, not Wheaton, as he is commonly credited. Jaiya’s undying passion for hard work instilled in Wheaton the power of positive thinking, a lesson that Kenny holds dear to this day.

“He said we were going to succeed, he believed we would.” said Kenny Wheaton, speaking with immense respect for his friend Jaiya Figueras. “I truly believe that Jaiya was the reason the Oregon program turned the corner, he motivated everyone to want to be better. We would challenge each other, always competing. We wanted to win the Pac-10, we wanted to be in the Oregon Hall of Fame. These were the goals we set out for ourselves. He would constantly get in my face in our apartment and challenge me to do pushups with him, always trying to do more to get better, never satisfied. I was a real quiet guy my freshman year, honestly Jaiya was probably the only person I spoke to all year, but Jaiya stayed on us all. He started saying the things I wished I could say but couldn’t, he’d say what needed to be said on my behalf. Eventually he got to a point where he would speak out loud to everyone; the seniors didn’t like it, the older guys didn’t believe we could be good, but us younger guys all pushed ourselves because of him, and our efforts in practice eventually started rubbing off on everyone else.“

Wheaton continued, “The thing about the team back in those days was that Oregon couldn’t recruit the 5-star athletes, they would get the two and three star guys that were undersized or unheralded. Give a lot of credit to Strength and Conditioning Coach (Jim) Radcliffe, he’d take a small under-recruited guy and turn them into a vicious animal. We weren’t big, but we were tough. A lot of credit needs to go to Coach Radcliffe for that. But it took Jaiya backing up what the coaches preached, getting in everyone’s face, pushing them harder.”

It wouldn’t take long for the roommates Figueras and Wheaton to make their indelible mark on Oregon history. By the 1994 season Kenny Wheaton had earned a spot in the regular rotation as the nickel cornerback, while Jaiya Figueras played extensively on special teams, garnering the 1994 Oregon special teams player of the year award, and also earning some mop up duty in the secondary, highlighted by an interception vs. Stanford.

Jaiya Figueras intercepts a pass vs. Stanford – 11/12/1994

 
For Jaiya, it was a season of great accomplishment for the Duck team as a whole, while he personally toiled in relative obscurity. While most look at the Washington game that earned Kenny Wheaton his legendary status as the architect of the watershed moment that changed the entire football program, Wheaton argues that in fact it was several weeks earlier in Oregon’s shocking upset of #5 USC in Los Angeles, CA, when things actually began to improve.

“Those first few games in 1994 the team struggled, that USC game was when things started changing, and it was the young guys doing it,” said Wheaton. “Nobody gave us a shot against USC because everyone was hurt. It was my first game getting real playing time, and it was the young guys stepping up. Dino (Philyaw) was a JC so he was like one of us, (Tony) Graziani was a youngster, Reggie Jordan was still a youngster. We went in without our starting QB, our starting RB, or our all-american cornerback, but we went in and believed and got the job done. That USC game was when everything changed, and it was Jaiya who spearheaded all of that pushing us to work harder to succeed. We got behind Jaiya and we just took off. The older guys didn’t like it, but we believed and achieved. He was the one that really turned the whole thing around, not me.”

Kenny Wheaton intercepts a pass vs. USC – 10/02/1994

 
For all the respect and credit that Kenny Wheaton willingly gives to Jaiya Figueras for his attitude and drive to improve himself and those around him, the admiration goes both ways.

“The big thing that helped me was having Kenny Wheaton as a roommate,” said Figueras, reflecting on those early years in Eugene. “Kenny and I used to sit in our dorm room and talk about everything that we were going to do, just visualize it all. Everything we visualized came true. We used to talk about beating USC, UCLA, winning the conference and going to the Rose Bowl. The relationship I had with Kenny had a huge impact, he showed me how to watch film, how to really enjoy watching film on our own time. Not just with coaches, we would watch film back in the dorms. Kenny taught me how to prepare. Having him as a friend, how good he was as a football player, made me a better person.”

In the 1994 season it was the quiet, introverted one among the two friends still trying to find his feet, Kenny Wheaton, who would become the reluctant toast of the town. His interception against Washington on October 22nd, 1994, to this day is replayed on the big screen at Autzen Stadium to pump up the crowd before the team runs out of the tunnel prior to kickoff of each home game, renowned as the greatest moment in Duck history.


Kenny Wheaton became one of the greatest players in Oregon Ducks history during his time in Eugene (1993-1996), and was the first player ever at Oregon to declare early for the NFL draft.
 

After Wheaton’s interception return, which sealed an incredible upset of Washington 34-20, in postgame interviews Kenny pointed out that he had noticed while watching game film that when Washington got into the redzone that season they liked to throw the out-pattern. It was the weeklong preparations, the extensive film study sessions that he and his roommate Jaiya Figueras had done on their own time pushing each other to do more that led to Wheaton’s pre-snap decision to jump the route if it looked like they were passing. When Huard dropped back to throw, Wheaton immediately started to sprint to the sideline to cover the out-pattern before the receiver had even made his move, stepping in front of the pass in stride and 97 yards later stepping into history.

 

October 22nd, 1994, redshirt freshman Kenny Wheaton returned an interception 97 yards for a touchdown vs. Washington, making what many consider to be the greatest play in Oregon Ducks sports history.

 

 

Playing time beyond special teams was limited, even for the buzzworthy Kenny Wheaton that year, as the 1994 secondary was arguably the greatest defensive backfield unit in Oregon history. Figueras was the third string safety, and with future NFL player Chad Cota entrenched in the starting role it meant little available playing time, but a great learning opportunity for Figueras; as both freely admit that Chad Cota was one of the best pure athletes either ever had the luxury to play alongside.

Chad Cota was a terror on opposing teams whether roaming the secondary or blitzing into the backfield, one of the most athletic and hardest-hitting safeties in Oregon Ducks history.

 

“1994 I played a little, I had an interception against Stanford. I had (Chad) Cota in front of me. I felt like I was ready to play right after he left, I was getting prepped by watching an NFL-quality safety everyday,“ Figueras recalled.

The Ducks that year did what had been deemed impossible, winning the Pac-10 conference and earning a Rose Bowl berth, achieving many of the goals Figueras and Wheaton had visualized. There was a new sense of pride and confidence surrounding the program and community, because of the Ducks success. Excitement surrounding the Oregon Ducks football program was at an all-time high, a palpable electricity could be felt in the air around Eugene that offseason with cars and businesses being adorned with pride with the UO logo. Season ticket sales sky-rocketed, donations to the athletic department came in at unprecedented levels, the players and fans couldn’t wait to see what the 1995 season might bring.

The duo had more left to do to complete their list, but it wouldn’t be without setbacks, as Figueras tore his MCL shortly after the Rose Bowl leading to months of rehab to be ready to compete for a starting role the following season. Despite the injury, Figueras and Wheaton continued to push themselves even harder preparing for the tasks ahead.

The learning experience from 1994 studying under greats like safety Chad Cota and all-american cornerback Herman O’Berry would prove invaluable in short order, as the 1995 season would be the opportunity for the two roommates to capitalize on the goals they had set together. It wouldn’t take long for both Wheaton and Figueras to start turning heads, but little did they know that their time playing together in games side-by-side would tragically be cut short, and never be the same again thereafter.

In part 2 tomorrow, roommates Jaiya Figueras and Kenny Wheaton finally get their shot to play together for the Ducks early in the 1995 season, and immediately make a profound impact.