Oregon St. wide receiver Victor Bolden, who dislocated the small "pinky" finger on his right hand while attempting to make a catch on a long pass from Sean Mannion in Saturday night's game against San Diego St., is out for an estimated 10 to 14 days, according to Oregon St. head coach Mike Riley.
The Beavers went on to defeat the Aztecs 28-7, and remain undefeated at 3-0 a quarter of the way through the season as they head out on the road for contests at USC next Saturday night, and then on to Colorado the following Saturday.
Bolden is "out" for the Trojan game, and questionable for the following week in Boulder.
With a bye following before the Beavers' next home game, a Thursday night affair against Utah, it's possible that Bolden may not return until then.
Fortunately, 2 other receivers who also did not finish the game, WR/KR Rahmel Dockery and TE Kellen Clute, are planning to try to practice Monday, after re-evaluation today, and are hopeful for the game against the Trojans.
Both suffered hip pointers against San Diego St.
With Bolden out, its possible that true freshman Xavier Hawkins, who has been backing up Bolden in practice, may see the field. Coach Riley had said he hopes to be able to red-shirt Hawkins, but also had him on his "ready" list.
After Saturday's game, Riley mentioned Bolden's injury as being a "two-fer", as Richard Mullaney moved out of his normal split end position to fill in at Bolden's flanker spot.
Oregon St.'s win was impressive enough to receive enough votes to garner 5 points in this week's AP Poll, and 20 in the Coaches' poll that were released today.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com