"It happens"....

It's Day 4 in Corvallis, with this afternoon's 2pm practice at Prothro Field being the last before the team straps on the full gear tomorrow. 

As we learned from that bumper sticker in Forrest Gump, "Shi..." well, just go to the 5:30 mark in the clip below and watch for about 30 seconds. Just do it. 

That kind of thing has been happening frequently these days, and it's now time to attempt to sort through it. The notables:

• Oregon State recruit Vil Nau out of Mount San Antonio JC in Walnut, California was deemed ineligible at Oregon State after registering for classes at Oregon State too early-- before he checked out of junior college.. Riley's comment: "He was eligible for everywhere else but Oregon State. It was disappointing to lose him. You spend all this time getting guys. I don't like to think about it. It depresses me. It really does."  
• Offensive Tackle Una Smiley signed with the Beavers last year out Palomar College near San Diego, but was shot in the leg as a victim of a drive-by while on a recruiting trip to New Mexico. Oregon State greyshirted Smiley, giving him time to recover, and kept his scholarship available. He's back now, and at full strength. Riley's comment: ""He's back to full strength, and it's a wonderful story about his recovery." Yesterday, we learned that the man accused of shooting Smiley has been released from counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and shooting at or from a motor vehicle because they couldn't prove that he was the shooter. 
• On October 23 of last year, the week of the Stanford game, we learned that Offensive Tackle Tavita Thompson had been deemed ineligible by the NCAA for the rest of the season-- which turned out being one calendar year. He's in practice, but he won't be able to play in a game until November 1 against Arizona State. It turned out that Tavita took over the counter diet pills that were banned by the NCAA. The problem was that Tavita signed a waiver, acknowledging that he knew all of the substances banned by the NCAA, and that he had not taken any before taking the drug test. That's why the suspension was so hard to appeal.  Worse yet, there's no such thing as a warning for this--or some type of reparation ala OJ Mayo--just a 1 year suspension.