Glanville primed to go... RIley, not so much

There's still five full days remaining until Oregon State kicks off the season this Saturday at Reser Stadium, but if  it were up to Portland State head coach Jerry Glanville, the two teams would be meeting up before then on a high school field somewhere--or if none of those are available, a Wal-Mart parking lot would do. 

"Let's get it going," Glanville said. "I wish the game was three days away. In fact, if the Beavers want to play tomorrow, if they want to change the game, we're ready. Tell them we'll meet them in the parking lot at the Corvallis Wal-Mart tomorrow."

Even though there isn't a Wal-Mart in Corvallis, I doubt the Beavers will be antsy to move the game forward as Glanville wishes. The Beavers have been largely affected by injuries in fall camp, and still are trying to get several players ready for Saturday's opener. 

It has already been established that quarterback Lyle Moevao and running back Ryan McCants--who both started last year's opener at Stanford-- won't play, but that was expected. Darrell Catchings, who suffered that thought-to-be devastating wrist injury early on in fall camp is still sitting out, and has at least a week until he returns. 

The other issue revolves around Marcus Wheaton's eligibility, which is expected to get sorted out today. Apparently Wheaton transfered from his junior to senior season of high school, which has created issues in the NCAA clearinghouse. Even though Marcus should be able to return unscathed from this ordeal, it has still set him back, as he's missed a week of practice. Imagine if the Beavers were still trying to use Wheaton as their starting Split End. For now, it looks like Damola Adeniji will start against the Vikings on Saturday. 

So although Mike RIley is likely excited for the season to get underway on Saturday, I think he'll take the five days of practice to help the more than 20 players who missed practices this fall. 

Who knows, maybe the Beavers will find that camaraderie in these next five days that Mike Riley's teams of the past few seasons have lacked in their early non-conference games. 

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)