Cliff: Mass football notes Comments
The Oregon State football team concluded practice this week Thursday afternoon in preparation for the season opener against Portland State on Saturday.
There will be meetings Friday afternoon and the team heads to a hotel that night to keep the players out of trouble and continue meeting about what to do in the game.
It was discussed at the conference level to stop this practice to save money, but it was tabled. Coaches want to keep their players focused and out of trouble. It’s worth the expense.
Noise prep
The Beavers ran a series of plays with crowd noise pumped into Reser Stadium to prepare players for that situation come game day. This is done at the end of each Thursday practice.
It’s a tradition that started in 2004. The Beavers did that every day going into the away Washington game. Noise was a concern and it was a must-win game. The Beavers won, and kept on doing it each week.
“That’s what it is,” Riley said of the ritual. “It’s part of the practice of focus for that day.”
McNeil’s scholarship
Riley doesn’t have a plan for OL Brent McNeil’s scholarship, yet. Since McNeil left the team before school started a greyshirt could be brought in or it could be awarded to a walk-on.
“We have some options there,” Riley said. “One is to save it. The other is look at what is the best thing to do with it, and we’ll decide pretty soon.”
No handshake
The American Football Coaches Association suggested that all teams during for the first game of the season to do a group handshake before the game.
Riley and Portland State coach Jerry Glanville decided not to do it. They are part of 80 percent of the country not doing the handshake, according to the SID network.
“I talked with Jerry and we opted not to do it,” Riley said. “Just because we don’t need to. We have no problem with it. They have no problem with it.”
A logistical reason would be it would be disruptive to the pregame ceremony and warmups.
Public service announcement
The below video was done by OSU, informing fans about game day information such as parking. So I figure I should bring it to the attention to those coming from outside Benton County.
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