Can Ryan McCants, Jeremy Francis, and Jacquizz Rodgers do what Yvenson Bernard did in 2007 in 2008?

That's the question. All three running backs possess different styles. McCants is a strong, physical back that reminds a lot of people of Steven Jackson.  He practiced with the first string throughout spring, and looks to have the job heading into fall camp. Jeremy Francis may have the most resemblance to Yvenson Bernard. The 5-11 junior is a tough, side-to-side type runner who is also a good pass receiver. And then there is the 5-7 Jacquizz Rodgers, who many are calling a "scatback". Jacquizz rushed for 8,245 career yards in high school, the sixth highest ever in the state of Texas. The man can run, but the question will be if he can out-run Pac-10 defenses. His brother did it last year, so we can only hope Jacquizz duplicates.

You may remember that when Yvenson Bernard was tossed into the system in 2004 as a freshman, hardly had any carries. But with the departure of Steven Jackson, Yve became "the man" in 2005 and rushed for a career-best 1321 yards his sophomore year. Check out Bernard's stats:

It's also interesting to note that Yvenson averaged 4.4 yards per carry in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Consistency.

If I was a coach and I had a back who would gain four and a half yards every time I gave him the ball, I'd be thrilled.

Who is going to give us those yards this season?

GO BEAVERS!

--JB-- 

Today's big news (or should I say... yesterday's big news) was that former Oregon State center Sean Carter has transfered to UMass. Not surprising news, but we'll spend more time on this later today.

The ACC has become the first conference to implementing injury reports (a la the NFL) for college football. The reports will classify injuries by four categories (out, doubtful, questionable, probable) and will be issued twice a week. NFL injury reports are most often used by gamblers, but the ACC said that wasn't their motivation for implementation (thank goodness). It was done to keep coaches from having to comment on injuries on a daily basis:

"I don't have any problem with it," says Virginia coach Al Groh. "That means I don't have to answer those stupid questions during the week."

ESPN is attempting to rank the best college basketball programs of the modern era in what they're calling the "Prestige rankings".  This means they're only evaluating the teams from the 1985 on. Why, you ask? ESPN has the answer:

The 1985 postseason was the first NCAA tournament that was expanded to the 64-team format (precursor to the current 65-team format), in which a champion must play at least six games to win a national title. That span -- 24 seasons -- is a large enough sample size to get a true barometer of a program's recent history.

Teams earn points with things like National Championships (25 points each), Elite eight appearances, conference tournament wins, losing season (that'll subtract three from your score (oh shoot, we're screwed)) and so on. 

The Beavers come in at 241st, well behind schools like Caisus (214), Towson (210) Liberty (203), and many, many, others. The 241st place finish even qualifies the Beavers as one of the "underachievers", which are members of the "Big Six" conferences not in the Top 150 overall teams. Arizona State, Washington State, and Oregon State are the underachievers from the Pac-10.

Craig Robinson! Help us!

Ever really wondered what a coaching staff (even better, the Washington coaching staff) does in the off-season? SeattlePI.com's Molly Yanity has the answer.

Lastly: Pac-10 Media Day is tomorrow. The Mountain West Conference had their Media Day on Monday, and BYU was the overwhelming favorite to win the conference. Non-conference opponent Utah comes in at second.

GO BEAVERS!

--JB--

I'm hoping to follow in the footsteps of the guys over at the California Golden Blogs in creating a weekly tribute to the greatness of YouTube. Since we're stealing the weekly YouTube idea, we may as well steal an idea for our first YouTube Wednesday post: Our favorite Oregon State University commercials.

We'll start things off with the official OSU "Let it Rage" commercial, but then follow us after the break for some more, err, interesting commercials advertising the university.

Let it Rage

Continue reading this post »

As fall camp approaches, let's try and answer some burning questions about this year's team:

Heading into last year, Oregon State looked to have one of the top special teams units in the country. With Alexis Serna back for his senior year, punter Kyle Loomis back (he averaged 41.3 yards per kick in 2006), and Sammie Stroughter and Coye Francies to return kicks, the Beavers appeared to be set. Then, everything turned for the worse.

Francies was dismissed, Strougher played in only three games and wasn't himself, and Kyle Loomis left unexpectedly in August. That left us with Alexis Serna to do the kicking and punting, Taylor Kavanaugh to return punts, and Gerard Lawson and James Rodgers to return kicks.

Heading into 2008, the Beavers lose Serna, lose long snapper Joel Cohen, and still do not have a proven punter on the roster. 

We redshirted Kyle Harper last year, well, I thought we did, until I looked at this year's media guide and didn't even see HIM on the roster. According to our "two-deep" depth chart, Sean Sehnem is the punter. But there's another guy, Johnny Hekker, who's also listed as a punter. So we'll see how that goes.

Marcus Perry will be the long snapper. He's a freshman. 

Justin Kahut will be the kicker. He's a sophomore from Clackamas High School. He did impress us all in the spring game, however, when he made four field goals look easy from distances of 42, 50, 55, and 31-- all in the first half. So he's got that going for him.

Perhaps the best thing this unit has going for them is that junior holder Taylor Kavanaugh is back. He's a junior out of Portland's Lincoln High School.

And Sammie Strougher is also back. He and Taylor Kavanaugh will likely share the punt returning duties, with James Rodgers and Patrick Henderson returning kicks.

Is someone going to step up to do the punting in fall camp?

GO BEAVERS!

--JB--

It has come across our desk via the official OSU website that defensive end Victor Butler has been selected as a pre-season cantidate for the Ted Hendricks Defensive End of the Year Award.  Take a look at Victor's profile and stats for more about him. 

You may know that a few OSU baseball players have been spending their summer on the east coast playing baseball in the Cape Co League. Well, Ryan Ortiz is one of them, and he will start the 2008 Cape Cod League All Star Game for the East All Stars. Ortiz will start in left field, a position that he's been playing this summer as well as catcher and first base.

UO defensive back Todd Doxey was remembered with a celebration of life yesterday morning in his hometown of San Diego. Todd drowned in the McKenzie River on July 13. Boyce Garrison has a report from the funeral. Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the Doxey family.

Are you worried sick that USC has been losing their offensive production lately? Me too. Conquest Chronicles looks at both the receivers and the running backs as the areas that have declined. Dude, I think you're going to be alright.

Ever heard of scoreboard envy? Rob Mosely, UO beat writer for the Register Guard, enlightens us the Ducks are installing a new video board to replace their old "Duck Vision." Head over to Moseley's blog for all you'd ever want to know. And if you just want to see a picture, click here. I can only imagine the phone conversation between Kilkenny and Knight on this issue:

Kilkenny: Hey Phil, did you hear Oregon State has the biggest video board in the Pac-10?

Knight: Damn. When did that happen?

Kilkenny: I don't know. I heard they actually have to raise money down there. 

Knight: Oh. Well, I just wired you $2 million. Get er done. 

Kilkenny: Thanks, man.

Knight: Alright, later.

<dial tone>

Lastly, if you want to hear UCLA fans argue about the design of their media guide cover, here's the place for you.

GO BEAVERS!

--JB--

The last semifinal matchup:

(2) Football upsets #2 Cal: The Beavers optimistically traveled down to Berkeley with the memory of a 2005 upset in the back of their helmets. With the Bears ranked #2 in the country and talks beginning to talk about National Championships, the Beavers stunned the Bears, or the Bears stunned themselves, in a roller coaster game that ended on this play:

(3) Ryan Ortiz's Grand Slam Defeats UCLA: With the Beavers needing a huge boost to get them into the post-season, Oregon State found themselves down three in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, Ortiz hit the first pitch he saw from pitcher Brandon Crawford sharply down the right field line. UCLA right fielder Raul Duran knows he should of caught the ball, but he dropped it, and it was ruled foul.  What's funny is that Ortiz was arguing the call on his way back to the plate, oblivious to what he was about to do.

With a 0-1 count, Ryan took Crawford deep to left to end what would become one of the most clutch at-bats in recent Beaver memory. The grand slam put the Beavers up 8-7, and doused UCLA's hope for a series win.

On to second round voting:

(1) OSU wins Civil War: For the last nine years, the home team has won the Civil War. But not this season. With time expiring in regulation, the Ducks failed to ground the ball, forcing their kicking team onto the field with the clock approaching zero. The kicker was rushed, and the extra point fell short. In OT, an Alexis Serna 41-yard field goal sent the game into double OT. In that overtime, it was the infamous James Rodgers fly sweep that put the Beavers on top. Then, it was the Beaver defense shutting down Jonathan Stewart on fourth and one to seal the game. 

(4) Oregon State wins the Emerald Bowl: San Francisco turned orange for a week, the Beavers won a bowl game, and it was lots of fun for everyone who went. What's there not to like? The game itself was a bit sloppy, but the Beavers prevailed over Maryland, a team we barely knew before the season started. The Beavers have now won four straight bowl games, five of the last six.

This should be a great matchup, but I have a feeling we're not going to see an upset this time around either.