Two-year mission provides maturity for defensive line stalwart

Oregon defensive lineman Brandon Bair says the Mormon mission is

sacred: a rite of passage, an exercise of faith and a calling to serve.

Before his collegiate sports career began, Bair abandoned his hometown

of St. Anthony, Idaho, for the Deep South to complete his mission for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to help others come

unto Christ.

The experience, marked by two years of fried foods and learning

Spanish, might have something to do with what Oregon head coach Chip Kelly

calls the 24-year-old's \"maturity.\"

But Bair's life experience as a husband and father might also have

something to do with it. Bair and his wife of nearly two years, Jordan,

recently had their first child in August — a baby girl named Brooklyn

Hope.