Oregon State Football

Oregon State Football: Most Valuable Player Countdown- #14 Thomas Tyner

Hopefully we will have a better picture to use for future stories

By Travis Johannes@Travis_Johannes Aug 12, 2017, 4:26pm PDT

Stanford v Oregon — Next time he wears a black jersey it will actually be one of his schools colors

#14 Thomas Tyner- Running Back

Thomas Tyner was one of the greatest high school football players the state of Oregon has ever seen. He along with a stout offensive line led the normally downtrodden Aloha Warriors to a 6A championship in 2010. Following his high school career Tyner went to school somewhere else, and played football for a couple years before medically retiring. But as the old saying goes “absence makes the heart grow fonder”, well it appears that may have been the case for Tyner who decided to return to the game after a two year absence, but this time he would join his former rival and achieve his childhood dream of donning the Orange and Black.

Tyner already has 14 collegiate touchdowns and over 1200 yards under his belt, but decided to put his future as a lumber broker in Bend on hold to see if he could add some more to those already impressive totals. In Corvallis, Tyner joins an already loaded backfield with Ryan Nall, Art Pierce and TCU transfer Trevorris Johnson along with stud freshman Calvin Tyler. While it will be hard to take the reigns from Nall as the workhorse, expect Tyner to see the field plenty as Gary Andersen recently said the Beavs will look to run the ball about 60% of the time, meaning the Beavs will need strong contributions beyond Nall and Pierce. The former Aloha star has looked impressive in fall camp so far, and if he is able to stay healthy could help form one of the best, if not the best, backfield in the Pac-12. While Tyner is listed as senior on the Oregon State roster, Gary Andersen recently stated that OSU will ask for, and expects to get a 6th year of eligibility for Tyner from the NCAA.

Will Tyner be as effective after two years off? Will he stay healthy? How many TD’s will he score in his old stadium at the end of November? We’re just 14 days away from getting some of those answers.