A Fortnight

There is now only 2 weeks, 1 fortnight, left until the start of the college football season. And a lot still to be decided, and not just at Oregon St.

Two weeks from tonight, Michigan visits Utah, to kick off the Harbaugh era. The third most interested fan base behind the Wolverines and Utes will be Beaver Nation, since Oregon St. has a trip to the Big House the following weekend, for the Harbaugh Homecoming, and will be spending Halloween in Salt Lake City.

The next afternoon, Oregon St. starts the Gary Andersen era against Weber St., and Washington takes on Boise St. on the blue turf. The next day, Oregon will be involved with Vernon Adams and Eastern Washington, related concepts Beaver fans are also quite familiar with. And the Cougs kick off their season against Portland State.

Everyone that follows Oregon St. is already well aware of the issue of "Zero Separation" in the quarterback competition between Seth Collins and Marcus McMaryion, a competition that better get some separation soon. But down the road, the Ducks still don't know if their quarterback will be ready, or if they will have to use their other quarterback.

In both cases, that's probably better than up the road, where the Huskies apparently don't have a quarterback, which could be a real problem, given that after this week's medical retirement of guard Dexter Charles due to a lingering knee injury, Washington doesn't have any experienced starters on either line.

Over in Boise, it's been a given all off season that the Broncos' starter against the Huskies would be a game week, if not game day, decision.

Washington St. is in the best position of the lot, with Luke Falk returning, but the Palouse is Pirate country, and Mike Leach, the acknowledged king of the spur of the moment decision (he's not called the Pirate for nothing), still hasn't announced his choice of a starting quarterback yet either.

I wonder when the last time none of the northwest's power 5 teams (yes, I know Idaho is also an FBS program, and no, they aren't relevant to this discussion) had settled on their quarterback 2 weeks from the start of the season, and Eastern Washington and Portland St, are the programs with the more settled situation behind center. Its certainly been a while, and a rare situation, but one that might indicate we are in for an interesting, but possibly long and tough season for northwest football.

Today was a one-practice day, a break from the 2 a days of Monday, yesterday, and tomorrow, but neither Andersen, or anyone else from the offense, had any thing to say, turning the afternoon over to the defense, since they are the ones making the best strides so far.

"We're gonna minimize a lot of mistakes because of our guys' efforts," defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake said. "And now, adding the physical part of the game, if they can be aggressive and stay physical, it gives us a better chance of being successful and helping out team win."

Today did see guard Fred Lauina return to action, and running back Chris Brown is finally seeing scrimmage action, as Oregon St. worked at some length on the red-zone production that they have struggled with of late.

But Dustin Stanton was still not practicing, and Isaac Seumalo was held out of action as well. The stability of the o-line that had been hoped for after the turnstile that has been the last 2 years is quickly evaporating.

Tomorrow's daily double will also be another radio silence day from the coaching staff, but Saturday's last open scrimmage might give some insight into where Oregon St. stands as we work through the final fortnight before the fun starts.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com