Cliff Kirkpatrick

Oregon State football players have their final week of option summer workouts coming up. Then it’s a brief break before training camp.

I ran into a few of them last week, and they all say the training has been going well. They always say that, but I saw some of the workouts strength coach Bryan Miller was doing with them and it was intense.

“We’ve been working hard this summer,” WR Casey Kjos said. “Our conditioning and strength has gone up. They pushed us this summer to take us to the highest level, yet.”

“We’ve been doing a lot lifting and running and a lot of football (passing drills) at nights to keep our timing down with the offense,” TE Howard Croom said. “The DBs have been doing their drills and then we go one-on-one. We’ve worked against each other. It has been a good environment of getting better.”

Offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh used a special motivational tool one afternoon last week. He swung by before the workouts in Reser Stadium when the linemen were there.

He drove around the field in his car saying they weren’t going to be good because Andy Levitre and Adam Speer are gone, and then left for them to think about that. The guys then worked hard, so we’ll soon see if that approach gets them going.

Cavanaugh may come across as having a tough exterior, but he’s a really funny, nice guy.

QB Sean Canfield was supposed to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Corvallis Knights game Saturday night. But he won’t be doing it. The Knights scrambled for an OSU athlete Friday night to fill in, and I think they found a gymnast.

Many of the football players will be in attendance with the incoming athletes of the BEST Program there. There will be an opportunity for autographs, I’ve heard, since it’s OSU Night.

If you go, you’ll see some pretty good baseball. If you are not from the area you may not follow the Knights. They are dominating the West Coast League and are ranked the No. 3 collegiate team in the country by Perfect Game Crosschecker.

Read about Friday night’s game here. It was an exciting finish in the bottom of the ninth.

“It’s really a lot of pride,” C Rocky Gale said of why the Knights keep playing well. “We take pride in what we are doing, and with the preparation of the game. We just want to get better each day, and we haven’t peaked, yet.”

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Related posts:

1. A night with Knights
2. Summer baseball
3. Knights youth clinic
4. More on summer baseball
5. Wrapping up the bye