SB Nation - Casey Kjos

2009 Las Vegas Bowl: BYU vs. Oregon State

sroufe — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:33:15 -0000

More photos » by Greg Wahl-Stephens - AP

Oregon State sophomore RB Jacquizz Rodgers (1) has run for 1,377 yards (13th in the nation) and 20 touchdowns this season. Rodgers, his brother James and Beavers QB Sean Canfield are three of the biggest offensive weapons in the Pac-10. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens)

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The VTF bowl scenario poll overwhelmingly reflected a desire for the Cougars to go up against USC - whether it was in Las Vegas or San Diego. But while some might be a bit disappointed for not drawing the Trojans, it's not like Oregon State is some kind of consolation prize. They are an excellent football team and will be a tough opponent. The No. 16 Beavers are the second-highest ranked team in the Pac-10 and narrowly missed playing in the Rose Bowl when they turned the ball over on downs (on the Oregon 28 yard line) late in the fourth quarter and lost 37-33 in the Civil War.

The Beavers won at Cal, and lost close games to Arizona, Cincinnati and USC. In fact, their loss at USC is their only loss this season to a currently unranked school. Interestingly, Oregon State also came to Sam Boyd Stadium earlier this season and squeaked out a win over a feisty UNLV program.

We'll discuss the Beavers more as the bowl game approaches, but for now let's be very, very pleased with this result. The program gets a larger payout than playing in the Poinsettia, probably a greater home field advantage than playing Arizona or UCLA in prior years, and there is the intriguing angle of Mendenhall coaching against his alma mater. This is exciting!

GO COUGARS!!!

Official Announcement - BYU Athletics

"Building the Dam" - Oregon State Blog at SB Nation

Oregon State statistics after the jump...

Passing

		Passing									Rushing					Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Sack	YdsL
Sean Canfield	12	103.0	284	406	70	3103	258.6	7.6	21	6	46	-161	-13.4	-3.5	1	-	-
Ryan Katz	3	60.0	12	21	57.1	186	62	8.9	0	0	7	-7	-2.3	-1	0	-	-
Lyle Moevao	1	0.0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	-

Rushing

		Rushing					Receiving
	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD
Sean Canfield	12	46	-161	-13.4	-3.5	1	0	0	0	0	0
Jordan Jenkins	1	2	6	6	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ryan Katz	3	7	-7	-2.3	-1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ryan McCants	4	6	25	6.3	4.2	0	1	4	1	4	0
James Rodgers	12	54	289	24.1	5.4	0	87	1004	83.7	11.5	9
Jacquizz Rodgers	12	255	1377	114.8	5.4	20	74	509	42.4	6.9	1
Jovan Stevenson	7	25	136	19.4	5.4	1	5	59	8.4	11.8	0
Markus Wheaton	8	11	79	9.9	7.2	1	7	77	9.6	11	0

Receiving

		Receiving
	G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	AVG	TD
Damola Adeniji	12	49	701	58.4	14.3	4
Jordan Bishop	6	11	135	22.5	12.3	1
Brady Camp	5	5	40	8	8	2
Darrell Catchings	2	2	24	12	12	0
Howard Croom	1	1	4	4	4	0
Joe Halahuni	11	34	474	43.1	13.9	3
Casey Kjos	5	8	68	13.6	8.5	1
Ryan McCants	4	1	4	1	4	0
Aaron Nichols	7	11	176	25.1	16	1
Colby Prince	1	1	12	12	12	0
James Rodgers	12	87	1004	83.7	11.5	9
Jacquizz Rodgers	12	74	509	42.4	6.9	1
Jovan Stevenson	7	5	59	8.4	11.8	0
Kevan Walker	1	1	16	16	16	0
Markus Wheaton	8	7	77	9.6	11	0

Kicking

		Field Goals								PAT
	G	0-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50+	FGM	FGA	PCT	XPM	XPA	PCT	pts
Justin Kahut	12	-	-	-	-	-	22	27	80.0%	43	44	100.0%	109

Team Stats - Game Averages

	Pts	Yrds	Pass	Rush
Offense	10.2	419.4	275.3	144.2

Canfield or Quizz: Who do you stop?

Jake Bertalotto — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:42:45 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

about 1 month ago: Oregon State's Jacquizz Rodgers, right, outruns California defense to score during the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, in Berkeley, Calif. Oregon State won 31-14. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

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Jeff Tedford and California chose Quizz.

They couldn't stop Canfield.

We're witnessing the Beavers get better and better as this 2009 season wears on, and it's largely due to the fact that the offense is so balanced. The Beavers are averaging 412 offensive yards per game. 131 on the ground, and 279 in the air.

California did a good job of clogging holes up front and getting sideline to sideline to stop the Oregon State rushing attack. They obviously frustrated Jacquizz Rodgers, who only rushed for 67 yards on 24 carries, a season low. A fair chunk of his total yardage came on a 24-yard touchdown run late in the game, showing that defenses can't forget about Quizz, even if they successfully frustrate him for a fair portion of the game.

But Cal's decision to stop Quizz at whatever the cost opened the door for QB Sean Canfield to light things up in the passing game, throwing for a season-high 342 passing yards, with a 75% completion percentage, no less. Canfleid has been utilizing one of the deepest receiving corps the Beavers have seen in awhile, with James Rodgers, Joe Halahuni, Damola Adeniji, Jordan Bishop, Casey Kjos, Aaron Nichols, and several others all playing a role. The biggest surprises of the year have been Adeniji and Halahuni-- the two receivers who come in right behind the Rodgers brothers on the stat sheet.

Here's what AndyPanda had to say about Halahuni, one of Canfield's favorite targets, in a recent comment that deserves some front page attention:

Joe Halahuni, who had a career afternoon, will be keeping Nick Holt, and future opponents’ defensive coordinators as well, up late. When Arizona lost Rob Gronkwski, a lot of folks figured only Oregon’s Ed Dickson remained as a premier tight end in the Pac-10 (USC’s Anthony McCoy, now injured, hadn’t fully appeared yet). The position has been relegated to history in many programs at all levels, what with the advent of various spread offenses, but Oregon St. has kept what can be a major threat in their system.

Halahuni has made almost a quantum leap on a weekly basis, and is a physical mismatch for most defensive backs in the business. This requires defensive schemes that provide secondary support on nearly every play, which restricts blitz schemes, opens seams for the wide outs, and if a defense isn’t careful and fast, limits run support.

It will be interesting to see what method Nick Holt takes in order to stop the Oregon State offense. Stacking the box and bringing blitzes will open the door for Canfield to hit the likes of Halahuni, Adeniji, and James-- but may limit Quizz. Dropping linebackers into coverage to stop the passing attack will likely allow Quizz to break off solid gains all game long.

How would you scheme to stop the offense?

The balance that this Oregon State offense is developing has to make you feel good about the remaining three games on the schedule.

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Inside the Pac-10: And Troy Fights On, And On, And On...

Avinash — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:36:45 -0000

More photos » by Amy Sancetta - AP

Stafon Johnson and the USC Trojans eeked out an enormous win over the Buckeyes. Is this their first step on the long, hrad road to Pasadena?

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Don't forget to fill out the Eastern Washington report card, only thirteen grades in so far! They're due in Monday at noon PST!

USC 18, Ohio State 15

Golden Bear fans keep on getting more and more confident that this is their year, that the Bears are going to take over the Pac-10 and set their mark. You watch USC stumble around for fifty-five minutes at the Horseshoe, their quarterback not being able to thread a football through, and you start feeling the same things.

Then you see the Trojans rock on two quick two minute drives at the end of each half. You see Matt Barkley complete two huge passes, you see the offensive line take over when they're called to do so and help the Trojans convert every short yardage opportunity that comes theri way. You see Joe McKnight juke and jive his way on that las tcritical drive. You see USC take advantage of two Buckeye miscues (Terrell Pryor's interception, and the Buckeyes not running out the clock at the end of the half).

Vulnerable? Probably. Deadly? Always. Not in this lifetime can you count USC out. And they will always be the favorites until someone burns their walls for good.

What did USC-Ohio State tell you about the Trojans? Do you respect them more or do you fear them less? Discuss it in the comments!

Rest of the games and more discussion questions after the jump.

Paragon did have three additional observations on USC's performance, take note of the first two observations Cal fans!

First...Special Teams was absolutely atrocious. For all the pissing and moaning we have heard about not having a special teams coach having one didn't seem to help with the poor punting and missed field goal.

Second...It didn't matter how many running backs we had in The Stable never was able to get up a lather to really be effective because the Offensive line was getting pushed around by their D line. But Props to Joe McKnight for stepping it up at the right time!!

Third...The defense did a great good job against Pryor, he made some plays...a few nice throws and some key runs but lets not get crazy he was not Vince Young tonight...At least not yet.

via farm3.static.flickr.com (Image taken by Monica's Dad)

California 59, Eastern Washington 7

Okay, the Bears didn't bring their A-game for this one. Hell, you could say they didn't even bring their B-game. Given the result, that seems okay to me.

Cal played a lot of soft zone coverage (and by soft I mean "I WILL STAND RIGHT HERE AND DARE YOU TO NOT THROW HERE"), and Matt Nichols obliged by completing 70 percent of his passes. Yet the Eagles only gained 235 yards, and Taiwan Jones was completely shut down as the Bears enveloped the line of scrimmage. While Cal didn't have a flawless run blocking scheme or even very good pass protection (Riley was blitzed on several occasions and had to get rid of the ball a little bit more than he wanted to), the focus wasn't quite there for many players, excluding the runners.

Like I said on Thursday (because I'm a prophet!!!), Cal would run the ball a lot today, and it showed quickly. In fact the Bears really did nothing out of the ordinary with their run blocking. Lot of man blocking, lot of guard pulling, occasional zone runs, but otherwise a very standard performance in terms of form and style. Other than a clever little pitch involving Best lining up at the LoS, Cal did nothing out of the ordinary. Well, except rush for 300+ yards.

Ultimately this one was a game of talent, and Cal happens to have way more. Credit the Eagles for fighting, but even after playing as best as they could, they were down 31 after three.

via a.espncdn.com

Forest 24, Trees 17

Don't let the final score deceive you. Andrew Luck had a deceptively good game, 23 of 34, 272 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT is nothing to frown at, considering the Furd's recent inability to airmail anything.

On the bright sense, the Furd's defense still looks horrid. Blogger So Dear, Wake Forest's SBN blog, has the story.

For all of the ups and downs, Wake Forest is 1-1, and finally had solid play on both sides of the ball, with 459 yards of offense on the day and no scoring from Stanford in the second half. Josh Adams and Kevin Harris combined for over 100 yards and Chris Givens and Devon Brown also racked up 98 yards on their own. [Riley] Skinner was 18-26 for 187 yards, had a rushing touchdown of his own and a 20 yard reception.

More importantly, the Cardinal only ran 20 plays in the second half. You could say that the Furd offense didn't do enough to keep the offense off the field or the Furd defense couldn't do enough to put the offense on the field. Given that five Demon Deacons rushed for more than 5 yards per carry (including Skinner), I'll opt to the latter.

via farm3.static.flickr.com (Image from EDSBS)

UCLA 19, Tennessee 15

The result is irrelevant here, because like most games last Saturday, it came down to turnovers. Rocky Top Talk discusses how turnovers cost the Vols their chance at victory.

Turnovers were the definitive story on the day, as the one lost fumble by UCLA led to Tennessee's only touchdown on the day, while the three interceptions and one lost fumble by Tennessee allowed the Bruins to score 10 points that would prove crucial to their victory in Neyland Stadium. The Volunteers will now have to answer some questions about their performance, including whether the interceptions and errant passes thrown by Jonathan Crompton were flukes, or if Crompton is indeed back to his 2008 habits. His plight will not be helped much in the eyes of the Volunteer faithful as even the fumble recovered by UCLA was one that had last touched his hands (on a botched snap when Cody Sullins initiated the play too early).

Also:

This is how little faith Tennessee fans have in Jonathan Crompton:

On the Vols' final drive of the game, dozens of UT fans where I was sitting headed for the exits on third down. They didn't stop to watch 4th and 14. They didn't turn around when an offsides penalty created 4th and 9. They didn't listen when other UT fans chastised them for doing so.

And Crompton, true to the form that is without question a more accurate picture of his abilities than the one we saw last week, didn't give them a reason to be wrong.

So the short answer is that Jonathan Crompton was horrible. The better answer is that UCLA's defense was really good.

Hardesty (who you remember from 2007) and Brown, Tennessee's two primary backs, averaged a quiet 2.4 yards per carry, and Monterio was stopped on the biggest play of the game in the Volunteer red zone. Crompton telegraphed his passes pretty well, and UCLA's excellent secondary were quick to snuff out most of Tennessee's offensive drives. Bruins Nation was especially happy with the play of Rahim Moore.

We might as well just start the Rahim Moore for Heisman campaign, given all the hype we were barraged with on the greatness of Eric Berry. Berry is a great player but Moore is now on a journey (if he stays on course) to become one of the greatest Bruin defenders in the tradition of Easley and Turner. Moore once again put together a monster game with 2 picks and would had 3 if not for the homerrific SEC (how do you say that slowly again?) officials who seemed to be making terrible calls and giving Bruins bad spots all game long.

Pretty grimy, but the Bruins get the job done. That's exactly how you'd expect UCLA to upset Cal. A performance like this one shows you they're definitely capable of that sort of mayhem October 17th.

Did the Bruins convince you they're a good team this Saturday?

via a.espncdn.com

Oregon 38, Purdue 36

This was a totally ridiculous, highly entertaining game. This result could've gone a thousand ways. You could say Oregon got plenty of fortuitous bounces--five turnovers turned into 24 points, 17 of those going to Oregon. Purdue also missed an extra point, which was the difference. The Ducks were quite the opportunists.

It was the sign of two teams with two rookie head coaches. Execution was not there.

Big question: Can Oregon overcome the loss of their two incumbent running backs? From the results of yesterday, you'd have to say....uhh, maybe? The Ducks got 193 on the ground, but their leading rusher was Masoli, who ate up half of those yards. The running backs averaged around four and a half yards a carry--reasonable numbers, but they're going to need more than that to win their tougher games. For a pretty rookie offensive line, you can't ask for much more.

But they might need more, especially with Utah and Cal coming to town the next two weeks. Also worrisome: Nick Allotti's defense giving up 451 yards of offense and allowing 86 plays to Oregon's 62.

Has Oregon regained their groove, or are they still funking around?

via media3.washingtonpost.com (Image from Daniel Gluskoter)

Oregon State 23 UNLV 21

Saw the tail end, so all I have to say is that Canfield stepped up pretty well for the Beavers on the road, with big contributions from the Rodgers brothers too. Building the Dam concurs.

Senior quarterback Sean Canfield completed 25 of 31 passes for 198 yards. He threw two touchdown passes (Camp, James Rodgers), and was sacked on three occasions. Canfield was 10 of 11 passing in the first half.

In addition to the aforementioned players, Damola Adeniji, Jordan Bishop, and Casey Kjos also caught passes in the game for the Beavers. The most memorable was Bishop's 14-yard reception from Canfield in which he was upended by a UNLV defender, did a complete flip in mid-air, but retained possession of the ball. Jordan fishished with 5 grabs for 43 yards in the game.

...

For the second week in a row, the Beavers relied heavily on James and Jacquizz Rodgers. Jacquizz rushed for 166 yards on 23 carries and scored a touchdown, and James caught six passes for 48 yards and scored once as well.

"We're just going out there and playing for ourselves," James Rodgers told televison cameras after the game. "A lot of people doubt us. We didn't play to well today. And I thought the defense did great. Offense, we still have a lot of work to do."

Is Oregon State going to be a dangerous team down the road?

Quick looks

Minnesota 20, Air Force 13: Cal fans should watch out for throws to Decker next week, according to The Daily Gopher.

Adam Weber is going to get Eric Decker killed in the Big Ten season. HE HAS GOT TO STOP THROWING TO HIM ALL THE TIME. Worst indication of this: Hayo Carpenter came in in the second quarter and BLOCKED FOR DECKER ON A SCREEN PLAY. Anyone else see something wrong with this? There is no way teams with solid secondaries, such as NU, UW, OSU, PSU and Iowa are going to let Decker beat them, so it's imperative to develop Stoudermire, Green and Carpenter more than we are.

How do you think Cal should gameplan to beat Minnesota?

Maryland 38, James Madison 35 (OT)

I didn't include this in the primer last week. I should have. What on Earth happened Testudo Times?

I'll be frank: Maryland probably shouldn't have won this game. If JMU had a decent kicker, or if they didn't commit 105 yards of penalties, or if they didn't - for some reason I am still yet to grasp - share phenomenal QB Drew Dudzik's time on the field with Justin Thorpe, James Madison probably wins the game.

Both the offensive and defensive lines were manhandled by smaller, less athletic players. Sure, the OL was without Bruce Campbell, but they were facing a much smaller opponent, and one with less natural talent. There were several occasions when Chris Turner had to make a hurried throw and was under pressure, and there was a gaping lack of holes for Da'Rel Scott and Davin Meggett. That hurts Meggett especially - he's a downhill, run hard type of back, and needs holes to succeed.

Bottom line: You shouldn't read too much into Cal's opening season victory. The fact that an FCS team could gash the Terps for 268 rushing yards in College Park on 6.4 yards per carry...it just isn't good. Certainly makes our rout of Maryland way less impressive.

How do you feel about Cal's opening victory given Maryland having now seen their performance against JMU? Are we really as good as we looked?

Washington 42, Idaho 23

UW Dawg Pound is impressed with the way the coaches are pumping up the players.

The enthusiasm on the sidelines was fun to witness in person. This staff works harder than the players which is just fun to watch. These guys leqd by example and I really like it. From a scheme and play calling perspective they didn't impress me as much as they did last week. Once again with USC coming in next week I am sure that they are saving some stuff on both sides of the ball. They did make some gutzy calls along the way but I don't think they open up the complete bag until next week. I would give the offense an A but the defense is scaring me right now. Lets hope it was the vanilla schemes because if it isn't USC is going to have a field day.

Does UW have a chance to upset the Trojans?

Hawaii 38, Washington State 20

James Montgomery is one of the few positives in this depressing loss for Cougars fans.

Player of the Game: James Montgomery. 6.9 yards per carry! 117 yards! A thingy where you go in that one zone that scores points! What's that called? I forgot. Anyway, Monty is for real, and he keeps convincing me that we need to put the ball in his hands more often. A bright spot in a sea of gloominess.

Is Wazzu in danger of going winless?

Arizona 34 Northern Arizona 17: AZ Desert Swarm was quite happy with the performance.

Nic Grigsby ran for a career high 207 yards and had the 2nd longest run in school history with his 94 yard TD scamper in the 4th quarter. Matt Scott played with the first team for the majority and was 14-20 for 150 yards with a TD and an INT. Foles was 6-8 for 44 yards and had 1 TD. Scott actually returned to the game after Foles entered, confusing the hell out of me. We'll get to that later. The defense was not nearly as impressive as they were against CMU, who just beat Michigan State, but Trevin Wade did come up with a pair of interceptions.

Do you care at all at what Arizona does this September?

Poll

The most impressive team in the Pac-10 through two weeks is...

USC

149 votes

Cal

200 votes

Oregon State

3 votes

Arizona

1 votes

UCLA

36 votes

Someone else

5 votes

394 votes | Poll has closed

Beavers Survive Las Vegas, Defeat UNLV

Jake Bertalotto — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:22:14 -0000

More photos » by Daniel Gluskoter - AP

2 months ago: Oregon State coach Mike Riley gestures before an NCAA college football game against UNLV on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Daniel Gluskoter)

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Final Score: Oregon State 23, UNLV 21 (Box score)

Déjà vu, anyone?

The Beavers defeated the UNLV Rebels 23-21 on Saturday night. It came down to a last-second field goal by Justin Kahut that clinched the win for the Beavers. Earlier in the game, Kahut missed a field goal off an upright, and then missed an extra point.

Sound familiar yet?

On November 22 of last year, Justin Kahut missed an extra point following a Beaver touchdown, then hit a 24-yard field goal as time expired to defeat Arizona 19-17.

As Justin told the Oregonian's Paul Buker after the game, "I was on the sidelines when they were up by one, thinking, 'well, it's happened before, why not again? I feel like everything happens for a reason."

"I feel like God has something in store for me," Kahut continued. "Didn't know if it was going to be today, but I knew I was going to grow from it.''

Kahut, who had to be frustrated from missing two kicks earlier in Saturday's game, put it all behind him for the final field goal.

"I was feeling very calm. I was very confident."

* * *

The Beavers struggled to move the ball on their initial three drives. The only points of the first half came when Sean Canfield's lob toward the end zone found junior Tight End Brady Camp. Outside of their lone scoring drive in the second quarter, Oregon State only had 48 yards of offense in the first half. However, the 70-yard drive made the first half respectable.

The Beavers would score touchdowns on their first two drives of the second half, drawing accolades to OSU's game with UCLA last year. Against the Bruins, the game was tied 3-3 at halftime before the Beavers exploded for 31 points in the second half, and won by 28.

However, the game soon became more reminiscent of OSU's win over Arizona from last season, as UNLV charged back with three second-half touchdowns, taking their first lead of the game with 6:56 remaining.

For the second week in a row, the Beavers relied heavily on James and Jacquizz Rodgers. Jacquizz rushed for 166 yards on 23 carries and scored a touchdown, and James caught six passes for 48 yards and scored once as well.

"We're just going out there and playing for ourselves," James Rodgers told televison cameras after the game. "A lot of people doubt us. We didn't play to well today. And I thought the defense did great. Offense, we still have a lot of work to do."

The Oregon State defense held UNLV to only 82 rushing yards, but starter Omar Clayton and eventually backup Mike Clausen had their way at times with the OSU secondary. Clayton threw for 170 yards and a touchdown, while Clausen came in to throw for 58 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

Safety Lance Mitchell came through for the defense and was involved with both turnovers recovered by OSU. Mitchell intercepted a pass by Clayton in the first quarter, and later delivered a blow to UNLV WR Rodelin Anthony, causing a fumble that was recovered by Keaton Kristick.

Senior quarterback Sean Canfield completed 25 of 31 passes for 198 yards. He threw two touchdown passes (Camp, James Rodgers), and was sacked on three occasions. Canfield was 10 of 11 passing in the first half.

In addition to the aforementioned players, Damola Adeniji, Jordan Bishop, and Casey Kjos also caught passes in the game for the Beavers. The most memorable was Bishop's 14-yard reception from Canfield in which he was upended by a UNLV defender, did a complete flip in mid-air, but retained possession of the ball. Jordan fishished with 5 grabs for 43 yards in the game.

With the win, the Beavers picked up their 29th win in their last 41 contests, the second-best mark in the Pac-10 behind only USC. Also, they begin with their first 2-0 start since 2005, when the Beavers beat Portland State and Boise State to begin the year.

I'm sure most of you will agree with this sentiment-- I'm just happy that the Beavers will leave Vegas with a win, but there's still lot of improvement to make. Let's hope that what happened Saturday night in Vegas stays in Vegas.

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Fall Camp Questions - Receivers

Jake Bertalotto — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:10:03 -0000

Jordan Bishop has had a strong fall, and looks to compete for playing time at slotback. (Photo by Ethan Erickson)

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What a fall it has already been for the wide receivers.

First, there were questions of whether Darrell Catchings could fill the void of the departed Sammie Stroughter. Then he suffered a wrist injury, and was expected to be out for the season. Then, the news came that in fact the injury wasn't a fracture as originally stated. Long story short, No. 15 could be back for Oregon State's second game against UNLV.

But beyond Darrell, some other interesting things have happened in the receiving corps this season. When Darrell first went down, true-freshman Marcus Wheaton really looked like he had the wherewithal to handle being put into the spotlight so early in his career. Could he have got open as a split end against Pac-10 defensive backs as a freshman? We may never know. But definitely expect to see a lot more out of this kid as the years go on.

This is now the fifth "Fall Camp Questions" post of camp, (Linebackers, Defensive Line, Secondary, Running Back) and as I write this, I get the feeling that the post would look a lot different had I sat down to write it back on August 10, when fall camp began.

James Rodgers, OSU's stud flanker, has battled a minor knee injury (just a bruise, we hear) throughout camp and missed some practices, but it's nothing that should be long term. Everything we've heard points to both Rodgers' brothers being stronger and faster this season... as if they weren't fast enough already. Expect him to only improve this year, if he can stay injury-free, and help to fill the Sammie-void.

At slotback, we now have two players competing to be the next Shane Morales. Heading into camp, it looked like 6-2 junior Casey Kjos would be the sure-fit at slotback, but Jordan Bishop, the redshirt freshman from West Salem, is giving Kjos a run for his money. Riley seemingly dubbed Kjos as "the next Morales", and the coaches continue to be high on the Ohio native. After all, he's older and more experienced. After all, it took Morales three years after transferring from the College of the Canyons to really mature and figure things out in the slot.

To me, Jordan Bishop first seemed like another Oregon-born guy who would generate some attention as a recruit, then disappear from the map for a few years as he advanced through the program. But now, Bishop really looks like a guy who could contribute as a redshirt-freshman. Not only did he turn heads at West Salem High School, he took the 2008 Les Schwab Bowl by storm with 2 TD's on his way to being named the game's MVP. I heard some ranting and raving about Jordan last year during his redshirt year, but never expected it to amount to much until I've continued to hear great things about him the spring and fall. He has the athleticism to go up and get balls in a crowd, and has the speed to separate from defensive backs. He's definitely the flashier of the two candidates at slotback, but once he gets enough experience to know the playbook in-and-out so he can focus more on his skills-- watch out.

Other receivers who will play a role include Geno Munoz, another redshirt freshman, and Damola Adeniji, the senior walk-on. Taylor Kavanaugh could also be in the mix at some point.

The depth chart at all three wide receivers has been shifting considerably in the first two weeks of fall camp. Will it change even more before OSU's September 5 opener versus Portland State?

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Upgrade or Downgrade? - Slotback

Jake Bertalotto — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:40:17 -0000

We continue our look at the departed starters today with the vacancy left by Shane Morales at Slotback. Just to clear things up, this poll is somewhat open ended in that you could interpret it in a number of different ways. For example, with the Stroughter/Catchings debate this morning, it was somewhat difficult because Catchings is entering his junior year and Stroughter was a senior last year. My stance is as follows: take the age differences into account, and weigh whether you think the incoming players will progress at a higher rate than the outgoing players did. Hopefully that makes sense.

Last Year:

Shane Morales

#13 / Wide Receiver / Oregon St. Beavers

Height: 6-1

Weight: 209

Year: graduated

This Year:

Casey Kjos

#25 / Wide Receiver / Oregon St. Beavers

Height: 6-2

Weight: 215

Year: junior

Again, discussion is encouraged. I'll make sure that my take makes it to the comment thread at some point.

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Poll

Is Casey Kjos an upgrade or a downgrade from Shane Morales?

Upgrade

43 votes

Downgrade

61 votes

104 votes | Poll has closed