A week of practice is complete-- and still, the positives and negatives are plentiful. Some quick notes:

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• Sammie Stroughter is still out of practice. Supposedly it's for personal reasons, but that still has to worry Beaver Nation. Riley is just giving him some time off to take care of those issues. When he has been in practice he wasn't on top of his game, so I hope that he can get things straightened out and can return to being the Sammie Stroughter we all love.
• Offensive Lineman Michael Cole is finally in practice. The 2003 graduate of Lake Oswego High School who also attended Lakeridge lettered four years in football and three in basketball. He's listed at 6-7, 290, and has two years of eligibility left at OSU. He played for two seasons at Foothill Community College in Los Altos, but he's also attended Portland State and Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia. Yeah, this guy is well traveled.

  He's listed as the backup of Tavita Thompson at left tackle in the Media Guide, but we could see him compete for time at both tackle spots.

  He has to put in his time with just his helmet before he can strap on the pads, so he should be good to go in a couple days. Once he hits the field we'll have more to say about him.

• As of yesterday's practice, starting strong side linebacker Derrick Doggett was still out for a hurt shoulder. Nobody knows when it happened, and Doggett noticed it when he slept on it wrong.  
• Others that were out: Redshirt freshman WR Kyle Brown, DE Tom Hansen, and DE Kyle Bell.
• The Beavers have another two-a-day today: The first practice started at 8:30, and the second will start at 6:30 inside Reser. We all hope that Sammie is practicing today. As soon as I find out, I'll let you know.

GO BEAVERS!

--JB--