Cliff Kirkpatrick

Oregon State football coach Mike Riley liked how the bye week ended up. There were three practices that were of higher intensity than the usual game week workouts.

There was a lot of scrimmaging with the first-string offense vs. first-string defense. OG Gregg Peat (shoulder), RB Jacquizz Rodgers (ankle), DT Pernnell Booth (ankle), DE Slade Norris (knee, back), DE Victor Butler (ankle), CB Keenan Lewis (toe) and Brandon Hughes (hamstring) took part or all of the week off. S Al Afalava (groin) and WR Shane Morales (quad, back) worked through the week.

“It thought it was awesome,” Riley said. “Our guys worked hard. We got into the game plan a little, but we got a lot of just football in and young guys work. And we kept some guys out to get healthy. We wanted to just get guys feeling better for the next part of the season.”

Veteran guys who needed to sharpen their skills looked smooth such as QB Sean Canfield. He threw the ball around like the old days. RB Ryan McCants and RB Jeremy Francis worked hard with Rodgers taking it easy.

RT Tavita Thompson was on top of his game now that he’s eligible to play after a year off for using an NCAA-banned diet pill. He worked in with the first string to see if he can regain his starting spot. So far, so good.

“The interesting part of this is he stayed ready,” Riley said. “He did not fade away. His offseason workouts were very good. His fall camp was very good, and his work with the team has been very good.”

Many of the scout team players were used more with the regular team to see how far they have come. In general the WRs and DBs seemed pick up the speed this week.

“I think they love it, and they like to work intermixed into practice and not just a young guys’ period at the end,” Riley said. “(The bye) was good for a lot of reasons, so there was no pressure of the game. The urgency of running a bunch of stuff each day is not there. It made for a great teaching time.”

The players are off until Sunday night to rest, get out of town and maybe study. Many of the coaches left Thursday night to hit the recruiting trail.

“We had a team barbeque Wednesday night,” Riley said. “I knew a lot of guys were leaving for the weekend, so I wanted to have it before they left. Then they are truly off until Sunday evening.”

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