Oregon St. football fans will have to wait for decisions on a multitude of matters that weren't resolved on Monday.
Of immediate interest is the decision on whether WR James Rodgers will play for the first time since injuring his knee last year in the Arizona game on Saturday against UCLA in the Pac-12 opener for both the Beavers and the Bruins.
Oregon St. head coach Mike Riley had said that if Rodgers had another good day at practice, he expected he would play. But when practice concluded, Riley deflected any decision until after a discussion with Rodgers this evening, with an announcement expected tomorrow during the weekly Pac-12 media conference call.
"We are real close to making some sort decision of his possible status for Saturday," Riley said. "We’ll try to be definitive tomorrow."
Rodgers, who has been pressing to get on the field since the end of fall camp, worked with the first string in practice, and showed no indication that he won't be ready to go.
There's been no decision about RB Malcolm Agnew's status for Saturday either. Agnew, who led the nation in rushing yardage after opening weekend, pulled his hamstring the following Monday at practice, and hasn't dressed down since, including for today's practice."I feel pretty good, but I still have to meet with him and see what he says," Rodgers said. "I feel good about how I’ve been doing and how I’m progressing. I just have to talk to coach."
Agnew's status looks far less likely than Rodgers, but won't be known until we see if he can return to practice this week. Tomorrow would seem to be decision day for Agnew as well.
"I don’t know what this means," Riley said. "We’ll see what he can do (today), but he’s not healthy yet. I’ll just see what he can do the next couple days. That’s a good indicator if he’ll play this week."
And another day has come and gone with no decision on Dominic Glover's academic status.
One decision was confirmed, when UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel confirmed that Richard Brehaut, who took over for Kevin Prince for the second time this year after Prince threw 3 interceptions in his first 7 passes against Texas, will get the start for the Bruins this week. But that was known before halftime last Saturday.
Oregon St. also confirmed that the start time for the Arizona St. game in Tempe on Oct. 1 will be 7:30 MST, which is 7:30 PDT. That too was known, give or take 15 minutes, because you can't play any earlier in Arizona this early in the season in an outdoor stadium without people winding up in a hospital. What still isn't known is whether you will be able to see the game if you don't make the trip. Incredibly, no television arrangements have been made yet for the game. None of the usual carriers initially picked up the game, with the UCLA-Stanford game an evening affair, and others waiting to see what appeals most to their programming departments. No other coverage has come together yet either.
Oregon St. and Arizona St. officials continue to work on beg for some coverage, but the distinct possibility exists that the Beavers will suffer the embarrassment of having no coverage for 2 of their first 4 games. A disgrace not seen in years. The Pac-12? Network CAN NOT COME SOON ENOUGH!
Speaking of the Pac-12?, Beaver fans will have to wait at least a little longer to learn of the midwestification of the conference. After Syracuse and Pittsburgh announced they were jumping ship from the Big Little East to the ACC during games on Saturday, and the ACC happily and quickly accepted them on Sunday, it was widely surmised that Oklahoma and Oklahoma St. would apply to, and be instantly accepted into, the Pac-12 today.
The Oklahoma and Texas Boards of Regents did meet today, and they both authorized their school presidents to take action regarding conference expansion. Which opens the door for Texas, with Texas Tech in tow, to head west as well.
Details surrounding the blending of the Longhorn Network into the Pac-1x networks, and the addition of Texas Tech content, could take a while to work out.
Concerns about divisional alignment have also been surfacing from Seattle to Boulder to Los Angeles, and all points in between. UCLA in particular, is not keen about any expansion. But then, there were members of the Bruin community that were still calling for the expansion to 12 teams to be turned down even after the expansion had been approved.
Whether the Oklahoma schools will wait, at least officially, until the Texas questions are solved, before moving forward remains to be seen, as the expansion to 14 teams could be awkward if further growth to 16 is assured.
Unfortunately, none of the models proposed, meet Pac-solve for x Commissioner Larry Scott's requirement that it be simple (please, let there be no zipper talk!), and satisfy everyone, all of whom want annual access to LA and Texas (where they think they will out-recruit USC, Texas, and Oklahoma), but without playing more than 8 conference games (not going to happen) so they can schedule more home games against teams that will provide automatic wins, and, somehow, magically not accrue any losses. All while still having a marquee opponent visit their stadium every year.
Check back tomorrow, by which time some decisions might be made.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com