Cliff Kirkpatrick

Justin Kahut won Saturday night’s game at UNLV for the Oregon State football team with a 33-yard field goal into the wind with seven seconds left. Read about how the Beavers know they were lucky in my Monday GT story.

It wouldn’t have been so dramatic if he made the field goal and extra point attempts earlier the game. Kahut has a history of making pressure kicks and missing the easy ones.

However, there’s no kicker controversy, yet. Coach Mike Riley said Sunday that Kahut is still his guy. The only other option is Matt Barker, who has done well when given the opportunity and has a strong leg.

“The good thing is (Kahut) got to come back and redeem himself in a big way in a tough situation,” Riley said. “A kicker, every time has to go out and do it. Whatever is the past and future is, what’s happening now is what’s important. He has to go out there and still make the play. He has been able to do that. There’s no doubt about (him being the guy).”

Injury report
There were minor dings and bruises that came out the game, but nothing that will force anyone out of practice.

WR Darrell Catchings (wrist) caught passes for the first time Sunday, Riley said. The plan is for him to practice Tuesday.

“We’ll see on Tuesday, he might need another week of practice before he’s ready for a game,” Riley said.

RB Ryan McCants (knee) may practice some starting Tuesday. He might need another week.

CB Keynan Parker will have surgery on his separated shoulder and be out for the year. He was injured Thursday just covering a receiver with limited contact. “It’s obvious he needs to get that fixed,” Riley said.

OTs Timi Oshinowo (knee) and Wilder McAndrews (wrist) are still a month away.

Sleepy Beavers
The lateness of the UNLV game created an interesting travel schedule. Riley was surprised the stewardess greeted him with a good morning after the game, since it was 1 a.m.

OSU arrived in Eugene around 4 a.m. and in Corvallis about 5:10 a.m., Riley said. Players were to report back to meetings at 1 p.m. They went on to workout and have a limited practice as usual the day after the game.

“I talked to doctors about this, and they say it’s best to stay on schedule and then go to bed at your normal time the next day (Sunday) and Monday, and then by Tuesday you are back to normal.”

Interesting stat
Beavers SID Steve Fenk dug up a good stat. QB Sean Canfield leads the nation in passing completion at 78.6 percent. Cincinnati QB Tony Pike is No. 3 at 77.2 percent.

The NCAA keeps the record, but doesn’t release passing like that. It uses passing efficiency. Canfield is No. 14 there and Pike is No. 4.

At the polls
Pollsters must have missed the Beavers game due to it being so late. OSU slipped to No. 28 in the Associated Press Poll, and held steady at No. 24 in the USA Today’s Coaches’ Poll.

OSU’s next opponent, Cincinnati, moved up to No. 17 in the AP Poll and No. 21 in the coaches’ poll. Read about its latest conquest here.

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LAS VEGAS – The Oregon State football is already starting to pull out incredible games. Justin Kahut won it for the Beavers with a 33-yard FG with seven seconds left.

“He just nailed that thing, and it was a big-time pressure kick,” coach Mike Riley said.

“I did not want it to be that close,” QB Sean Canfield said. “We had some opportunities in the third quarter to really put the nail down and we didn’t do that.”

“It was one of those things we didn’t want it to be a Utah game and it turned out to be a Arizona game,” said LB Keaton Kristick, comparing the two close games the Beavers had last year. “This place was a lot harder than we thought. We respect these guys.”

Read all about it in Sunday’s GT here. Here’s the game story with player reaction. Here’s a column on the Beavers looking for their identity. Here’s the Beavers report card. Check out the above coach Riley video after the game.

Lesson learned

There are several comparisons to last year’s Utah game. One was Kahut missing an extra point early. However, Riley didn’t try to go for two points to get it back the rest of the game and fall further behind.

“I wasn’t going to chase points tonight,” Riley said. “And that the end, I thought why didn’t I try. But that was on my mind.”

Bad penalties

The Beavers were dinged with three illegal substitution penalties, two on defense. They came when they were trying to change between the nickel to base defenses.

“It’s part of our rotation in defense, part of our personal groups,” Riley said. “That’s the first time it bit us. We’ve never had that problem. We will iron out this stuff. We’ll do better next week by far than we were.”

Sore Canfield

Canfield expects to be sore for a few days. He was battered on several plays, but kept getting up. There was one in the first quarter that he was leveled.

“I got hit hard, but no injuries,” Canfield said. “That’s just the way it is. It’s part of the territory.

Nickel package
The Beavers used the nickel package in the game. They used three DEs with Kevin Frahm, Ben Terry and inserted Gabe Miller. They pulled DT Latu Moala.

The LBs were Keaton Kristick, Dwight Roberson and David Pa’aluhi. The secondary had three safeties and two corners.

Big fan following.
About 6,000 Beavers fans were in Sam Boyd Stadium, according to OSU. The Beavers sold their allotment of 4,000 and more fans bought directly from UNLV.

There were two orange masses opposite the press box, on both sides of the players.

Quick hits
Game time temperature was 96 degrees. … RB Jacquizz Rodgers had his career-best run of 47 yards. He topped 100 yards for the ninth time with 166. … Redshirt freshman Jordan Bishop had five catches, which were the firsts of his career. … DE Kevin Frahm had his first career sack. … S Lance Mitchell had his first career INT.

Next week’s opponent
Looking ahead a little, next week’s opponents won big. Cincinnati defeated SE Missouri State 70-3. The No. 23 Bearcats are 2-0 and playing well.

When they come to Reser Stadium they will be the first ranked team not from the Pac-10 in Corvallis since BYU in 1977.

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LAS VEGAS – It’s still hot at this late stage of the day. Your skin feels the sting without shade. At the same time you can see the rain falling out of the clouds and evaporating before hitting the ground.

Here are some final thoughts about the game with some photos of Sam Boyd Stadium.

Winning tonight’s nonconference against UNLV would make the early portion of the season for the Oregon State football team.

Much has been made of the nearly nonconference road game problem of the Beavers. If they win this game they will have conquered the demon.

Typically, the Beavers lose to big-name programs. UNLV is not one of them, so a loss will feel worse here than at Penn State. But a road win is a road win.

“We are not going to take solace from a loss,” coach Mike Riley said. “We are playing a good football team on the rise. We are playing against good athletes and we are playing on the road in an unusual environment for us. I think there are a lot things there that are factors. They are good things to overcome.”

But will the Beavers be happy with a badly played win? Or you can term it as a scrappy win.

“It’s never perfect,” Riley said. “We’ll would be excited about the win. We can make great strides with a win. It would say a lot about this team right now.”

The Beavers want to play well all the time, win or lose. Their philosophy is play well, and everything else takes care of itself.

“We were pretty efficient last week, so If we can keep up that level of efficiency and keep that going week-to-week, that would be good for us,” QB Sean Canfield said.

“It’s a challenge because we are playing more younger players than we ever have,” Riley said.

That in a nutshell is the drama OSU must face tonight. A young team with potential is teetering on the verge of long-term success or a major setback.

Please feel free to comment on the blog throughout and after the game. I have to get my print stuff done before I get to the blog due to the lateness of this game.

I’ll have the UNLV postgame blog up in the early morning hours. Make sure to check back Sunday before church.

In game updates – First quarter

• The Beavers missed a first-quarter scoring opportunity when PK Justin Kahut bounced a 47-yard field goal attempt off the left upright. It was set up by an OSU interception by S Lance Mitchell.
• The defense is playing well. Players are being substituted freely to keep them rested in the heat (96-degree game time). The offense need to move the ball better. QB Sean Canfield took a ferocious hit, but bounced back up.

Second quarter

• The Beavers stopped a long UNLV drive when Mitchell dislodged the ball in midair collision after a reception at their 12-yard line. Keaton Kristick recovered it and returned it to the 30.
• Beavers scored with 1:04 left in the first half on a 1-yard TD pass from Canfield to TE Brady Camp. Canfield stood in the pocket and took another hard hit. The ball floated up there and Camp was so wide open he could have called for a fair catch. Kahut missed the extra point wide left.

Third quarter
The Beavers started fast out of halftime. They scored a on a 2-yard touchdown by RB Jacquizz Rodgers to cap off a 60-yard drive. He set up the score with a 45-yard run on the first play.

UNLV responded with a long kickoff return and a 19-yard TD from Omar Clayton to Rodelin Anthony.

Beavers come back with a 75-yard drive. Canfield hit James Rodgers with a 4-yard TD pass.

Fourth quarter
UNLV made interesting with a TD with 10:53 left to make the scored 20-14. Got to make deadline, I’ll be back later.

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