It's the last weekend without college football, which means it is the Sunday when the sports pages are filled with football features, getting the casual reader ready for the season. In this state, it means the trend to "green" journalism has reached record proportions. But there are some good reads on the Beavers as well.
The best one is by the Gazette-Times' Cliff Kirkpatrick, who has a wide-ranging interview with Oregon St. offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf. It's always refreshing when someone other than the head coach speaks (from any team), and often revealing into the where the mindset is at.
Langsdorf's comments about having a plan to get the variety of players that are a part of the "running back by committee", which really means by specialty, into the game without giving away the play, don't go into great depth, but are a welcome departure from "coach speak".
Cliff has really cranked out the content today, with a look at the offensive depth chart, the schedule ahead, and his prediction that the Beavers will go to a bowl game.
The Oregonian's Paul Buker has a report from Saturday's practice, where his headline trys to stir up some excitement about Marcus Wheaton (don't worry, Wheaton just took the hot afternoon off as a part of Riley's plan to rest him), and a summary of where recent events leave the Beavers heading into the season.Buker has promised posted a feature on DE Dylan Wynn on O-Live today as well.
If it seems that this falls injuries have your mind spinning, your not alone. Oregon St. coaches and beat writers can't even keep up with it.
Opinions on when James Rodgers might return range from the UCLA game to the Oct. 1st. trip to Arizona St., and even beyond. No idea what the development that might get a healthy Rodgers cleared for contact might be, but a blow-out loss seems like a good possibility.
RB Jordan Jenkins, cleared by the doctor for contact, apparently isn't as cleared as we thought either, based on Saturday.
And even where health isn't an issue, it is. Opinions on whether Jordan Poyer, who was the leading kick returner in the Pac-10 last year, should be doing that again vary amongst the staff. (It appears Poyer will do some returning.) It sounds like the Beavers won't use Poyer, who, along with Brandon Hardin, were the teams best gunners, on coverage this year though. With Hardin out for much if not all of the season, those Johnny Hekkar punts downed inside the opponents' red zone might be touchbacks instead this year.
It will be interesting to see if indecision about putting the best players in position to make big plays persists once it becomes apparent Oregon St.'s opponents won't hesitate to do so.
A week from today, we will begin to get some of the answers. The Sunday Sports Pages will tell us so.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com