Beavers Banged Up, Woods Could Be Back Practicing This Week

Still in a mixed state of relief and disbelief after Saturday night's improbable come from way behind 34-30 win at San Diego St. last night, Oregon St. head coach Mike Riley noted the Beavers are pretty banged up Sunday evening. Look for a lot of players to only be participating partially, or just watching altogether, early this week at practice.

Pac-12 regulations limit visiting teams, other than for the regional rivalries, to travel only 70 players to conference games, and Riley commented that usually he struggles to decide on which players to leave behind to get down to 70 players, but if the Beavers were leaving in the morning for a game, he would have a hard time coming up with 70 players that are healthy enough to go.

Fortunately, Oregon St. won't be doing that for 3 weeks, but that doesn't bode all that well for Saturday's noon game against Colorado.

There is one good piece of news on that front though, as Riley advised that Storm Woods, who spent last evening throwing things at his tv and tweeting, instead of playing in the otherwise ineffective Oregon St. backfield, after suffering a concussion last Saturday night in Salt Lake City, could be back practicing this week.

After spending a week limited to taking "mental reps", Woods went home for the weekend since he wasn't cleared to play in San DIego, but Riley said if things go normally, Woods could return to practice Wednesday. His return, and some health stability on the offensive line, could go a long way toward taking the pressure off Sean Mannion and the passing game.

Not that Mannion, who now leads the nation in passing yards, with 1,604, and is 3rd in total offense per game, at 389 yards per game, had minded making mince-meat of one secondary after another.

It does look like it will be after the bye week before Grant Enger gets back on the field though. Gavin Andrews will start conditioning this week, but he's probably not going to be a factor until the Pullman trip either.

The good news is center Josh Andrews will be one of those "limited in practice" Monday; good because when he couldn't continue in the second quarter, a much longer and worse absence seemed a possibility.

Long snapper Michael Morovic is a bigger unknown though. Morovic will have an MRI on his right knee, and Riley said we will know more on Monday or Tuesday.

UPDATE 9/23:

The MRI on Morovic's knee revealed a torn ACL, and he will be out for the season. Morovic tore his ACL on the play he received a penalty for interfering with a punt catch, which happened because he tore his ACL and couldn't stop or change direction.

Redshirt freshman Harrison Linsky, who transferred to Oregon St. from Fresno St., was listed a Morovic's backup on last week's depth chart, but redshirt freshman Andrew Maughan from Oregon City was listed there for the 3 games prior to that.

Riley otherwise didn't divulge a lot of injury news, suggesting most of what came out of last night was bumps and bruises, and not major injuries, talking instead about a couple of key issues with the defense.

Riley called DE/sometimes DT Dylan Wynn out for praise for his role in the game winning pick-6 by Steven Nelson, noting it was an on-rushing Wynn that took San Diego St. quarterback QuinnKaehler's first option out, prompting the hurried overthrow that Nelson nabbed for the game turning score.

Riley also praised MLB Rommel Mageo, who saw lots of action in the second half, and had 8 tackles against the Aztecs. It sounds like Joel Skotte is going to be benched in favor or Mageo, and not because of any ailments affecting Skotte.

We'll be monitoring for further developments as the week goes along, and Oregon St. starts preparations for Colorado, whom they haven't faced in 25 years, and haven't beat since 1964.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com