Cliff Kirkpatrick

My post is up early since I’m driving up to Seattle for the game this morning. I’ll update it once I’m there with more information. You’ll see of picture from Husky Stadium at the top when it’s updated.

UPDATE: It was a an easy drive from Corvallis to Seattle. Plenty of Korn, Megadeth and Marylin Manson made the trip go fast.

However, as soon as I arrived OSU’s SID people handed me a statement from athletic director Bob De Carolis about Indiana looking to hire him. Here it is:

“At this time it would not be appropriate for me to respond to rumors and speculation about the position of director of athletics at Indiana University. Officials at Indiana University have this process for this position and I want to respect it. Therefore, I do no wish to make any comments that might directly or indirectly compromise this process. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”

Reading between the lines, and it’s not that hard, he is a finalist for the position and is waiting to see what is offered.

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There are many regular features in the GT’s Game Day section that the Internet reader doesn’t get to see such as match ups, depth charts, stats, standings, polls and predictions. Sometimes I point out the Players to Watch feature from each team on the blog. Here’s this week’s:

Al Afalava
5-11, 212, safety
Afalava is known as a big hitter in the secondary for the Oregon State football team. The senior cemented that reputation last season against Washington when he knocked QB Jake Locker out of the game with a stinger, sending him to the hospital.

Washington fans accused him of headhunting and dirty play for using his helmet on Locker. Afalava used his facemask to the shoulder and Locker tucked his head adding to the glancing blow to the head, making the impact worse.

Afalava heads into the Husky Stadium as a marked man. He’ll be booed, and the Huskies may go after him.

He’s also coming off a groin injury that kept him out of last week’s game against Washington State. He played with the injury at Utah and intercepted a pass for a touchdown.

Overall, it has been a solid season for Afalava. He has 17 tackles and four pass breakups in four the four games he played.

Read more about Afalava and his feelings headed into this game in today’s GT.

Daniel Te’o-Nesheim
6-4, 263, defensive tackle
Te’o-Nesheim is the leader of the young defense, having earned the Washington defensive MVP award from last season. He ranked sixth in the Pacific-10 Conference with 15 tackles for a loss of yardage and ninth in the conference in quarterback sacks with 8.5.

The junior continued his dominating ways this season. He’s fourth on the team in tackles with 27 and leads in tackles for a loss of yards with 4.5 for 28 yards. Te’o-Nesheim has three sacks, and is the only Washington player to register a sack.

How OSU handles him will determine how RB Jacquizz Rodgers can run between the tackles. Interior OL Adam Speer, Gregg Peat and Alex Linnenkohl must be able to block him out of the running lanes.

“He looks like one of the best defensive players we’ve seen,” coach Mike Riley said. “He creates a ton of havoc. He’s very high energy. He always shows up on video, so how good of a job we do blocking him is important.”

Game Day reminder
Read the Beavers Sports site to find all your Beavers news from all sports. There will be a long Q&A with DE Slade Norris and a getting to know interview with Speer.

Also, come back to the blog before, during and after the game for news, notes, photos and video. Feel free to comment.

Basketball stuff
Here’s a link to my story in today’s GT on the first practice of the men’s basketball season. I was impressed with the organization of the practice. It was night-and-day from the previous coach.

Check out some pics, too. At the bottom is a video of the players shooting. There was energy and everyone worked hard.

I’m going to try and wake up for the first 5:30 a.m. practice Monday for a blog and print report, but no promises, yet. The alarm clock could fail.

Here’s a look at the team working on its shooting during the two-plus hour practice Friday night in Gill Coliseum.

Here’s a live action look at the shooting drill.

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