Cliff Kirkpatrick

The Oregon State football team came out of Saturday’s game without any serious injuries. There were a few dings, but nothing that will take anyone out of much of practice, if any.

• DT Brennan Olander had back spasams, which is why he didn’t play much in the second half of the game.
  CB Brandon Hardin dislocated a little finger.
  CB James Dockery sprained an ankle.
  WR Damola Adeniji bruised a thigh.

Backup S Anthony Watkins will be back to practice this week.

Coach Mike Riley was asked Sunday about a media suggestion that this year’s team has the least amount of talent since he has been coaching at OSU. Riley laughed.

“We have really good talent,” he said. “We couldn’t win these games without good talent. We can put our team talent-wise up against anybody.”

At the polls
The Beavers entered the BCS rankings at No. 23. They are still outside of the top 25 polls. They are No. 26 in the AP Poll, 12 votes behind Stanford, and No. 28 in the coaches’ poll, also behind Stanford at No. 27.

That’s odd since OSU beat the Cardinal. Yes, I know Stanford wiped the field with Oregon on Saturday, but head-to-head should carry a lot of weight.

And of course USC is ranked higher than Oregon. And the Ducks beat up on the Trojans.

“That’s not right,” Riley said. “Something is missing there. We have to put up with that stuff right now. At the end of the year it will be closer to what it should be.”

The Pac-10 has come together as a competitive conference from one through nine. Usually, it’s USC and a small group of secondary teams and a small group of sure wins.

“It’s awesome,” Riley said. “It’s what I thought about it from the beginning. You give SC its due at the beginning of the year, and then there’s a lot of good teams. We are pretty close. We won’t do this because our records aren’t that good. But we should have six teams in the top 25.”

Lines
To go along with how unpredictable the season has been, the Beavers open up as 10-point favorites over this week’s opponent, Washington. The Huskies beat USC and Arizona, two teams that defeated OSU.

Here’s a link to my Monday story in the GT on the Beavers getting ready for another one of their strong finishes.

Tweet This Post 

Related posts:

1. Cliff: Sunday football notes
2. Cliff: Sunday night football notes
3. Cliff: Sunday night football notes
4. Cliff: Sunday football notes
5. Cliff: Sunday football notes