The Dam Links 7/31/2013

31 days to kickoff vs. Eastern Washington...

EWU Factoid: Eastern Washington boasts over 100,000 alumni. 3,529 of those alumni live in the state of Oregon, according to the university.

Lindsay Schnell continues with her countdown of Oregon State's rising stars, Monday discussing Lavonte Barnett, and previewing the defensive line. On Tuesday, she discussed fullback Tyler Anderson, and previewed the running backs.

ESPN's Ted Miller, on his Pac-12 blog, takes a video look at free safety Ryan Murphy as his Under-the-Radar pick for Oregon State. He also continues his position-by-position review of the Pac-12, and ranks Oregon State as being"In Good Shape" at linebacker. He also considers the defensive line to be in good shape, which seems really generous. Crichton and Wynn, at the ends, are complete studs, but the tackles are questionable, at best, particularly when Riley mentioned at Pac-12 media day that the JuCo transfers they were looking at to step up might be having eligibility issues. To me, this is the biggest single question mark for this team.

Steve Gress of the Gazette Times finishes his review of last season.

The Associated Press takes a look at Steven Jackson's role with his new team, the Atlanta Falcons.

Jack Follman of Pacific Takes lists the Pac-12 coaches on the hot seat. The only one he lists as "Hot" is Lane Kiffin, although Steve Sarkisian gets a "Warm" and Mike Leach and Mike Riley both get a "Cool, but on a burner that could easily be turned on." I suppose if Oregon State reverts back to their 2010-2011 ways, Riley could certainly feel a little heat. I don't see any way he loses his job this year, even with an 0-12 season, unless there's some sort of off-the-field scandal, which seems unlikely with this coaching staff. But a losing season will definitely put him at least in the "Warm" category going into next year. Particularly if he botches the QB situation (again).

Two new recruits: defensive end Shane Bowman (Bellevue, WA) has made a verbal commitment to Oregon State. Also extending scholarship offers were UNLV, Nevada, Montana, Montana State, and Northern Colorado. Also, Iowa defensive end Glyeb Ewing picked Oregon State over North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota and Western Illinois. Good to know we can beat those schools in recruiting. Then again, James Rodgers only had to pick from Oregon State and Texas State, and he worked out OK.

Dylan Harding, a three-star, two-sport defensive back out of Oklahoma, has Oregon State on his "list of schools to take a closer look at." Also on this list are Tulsa, Arizona State, and Texas Tech. It looks like the only one's he has confirmed to take a visit to is Arizona State. Obviously, he is still relatively early in this process.

The Corvallis Gazette-Times takes a look at Oregon State's enrollment future, and whether it may follow the national trend of reduced enrollment. This isn't necessarily a sports-related article, but it is OSU-related. Decreases in enrollment could lead to budget cuts across various university programs.

Here's Johnny! John "Johnny" Hekker, former Beaver punter, hooked up with the guys from Dude Perfect to make a trick punt video. This isn't particularly new, but I haven't seen it get a lot of pub, and it's fun, so I thought I'd relink it here. Assuming it's not faked (which they are adamant it's not), some of the tricks are quite impressive. Hekker also riffs on Pokemon strategy and they come up with today's poll question. Mike Sando of the ESPN NFC West blog provides a little background to it.

We're in the week between media day and the actual start of practice, so things are a little slow, so we're going to have a silly, unrelated video and poll question today. Sorry if you're a fan of relevance. If this 11 second long video doesn't make you laugh or smile, you can demand a refund at the U of O ticket office.

Vote in the poll below, and don't forget to vote in Connor's best OSU play of 2012-13 tournament.

Only 5 days until the start of practice!