OSU football notebook

By Cliff Kirkpatrick
Corvallis Gazette-Times

Matt Moore’s status was downgraded Tuesday from doubtful for the Civil War to being out by Oregon State football coach Mike Riley.

An MRI on Monday revealed the quarterback’s right knee was only sprained Saturday against Stanford and there are no torn ligaments. However, Moore still needs crutches to get around.

“The bad news is he will not be able to play in the game,” Riley said. “The good news is he won’t have to have surgery. He’ll be running around in January.”

Riley wouldn’t speculate if Moore would be ready for a bowl game, if the Beavers win Saturday against Oregon. To get to that point, Ryan Gunderson must run the offense and win the final regular season game.

“This is pretty exciting,” Gunderson said. “Since Saturday evening I haven’t been able to get my mind off it.”

Gunderson is making his first start, and the sophomore says it’s hard to concentrate in class. It’s been the Portland native’s dream to play in the Civil War.

The funny thing is he always imagined wearing yellow and green, not orange and black. Many members of his family attended Oregon, and he grew up a fan. He even was in the stands when the Ducks played in the Rose Bowl and the Cotton Bowl.

“I’ve slowly converted my family,” Gunderson said. “They will be rooting for me.”

While Gunderson was a standout for Central Catholic High, he knew Oregon was not for him. The Ducks didn’t offer a scholarship, but at the same time Gunderson chose OSU because of its engineering department.

“I’m happy I’m in the situation I am now,” Gunderson said. “I don’t want to be there, I want to be here. It’s the right place for me. Some people would say things didn’t work out how I would have planned, but it’s fine. You just roll with the punches, do what you can and enjoy it.”

Gunderson will receive the full attention of Riley and quarterbacks coach Danny Langsdorf this week. He’s already set aside his extra time to watch added film of the Ducks.

As a group, the Beavers haven’t given up and have faith in Gunderson even though they are 14-point underdogs to the 10th-ranked team in the country. Civil War week should have been fun, but two winnable home games got away in the last three weeks.

“We’re trying to put all that behind us,” receiver Mike Hass said. “All we can do is look forward. We want to pull an upset and go to a bowl game. We have to make things easy on him because there’s a lot of pressure out there.”

Hass a semifinalist

Hass, a senior split end, has been named one of 15 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation’s top receiver. The award will be announced on the ESPN College Football Awards Show Dec. 8 in Orlando, Fla.

He’s second in the Pacific-10 Conference for career receiving yards with 3,817. His 1,425 yards this season is a school record and he’s tied for career receiving touchdowns with 20. He leads the NCAA in receiving yards a game at 142.5.

Hass needs seven receptions Saturday to break his own OSU single-season receiving record, set last year with 86. He’s also 96 yards short of setting a new conference record for single-season receiving yards, held by USC’s Johnnie Morton with 1,520 in 1993.

Overblown hype

Even though the right to live in the state is on the line this weekend, home grown players are downplaying the situation. Just needing to win for a bowl game is motivation enough.

“It’s more the fans and the media who build it up,” said Hass, a native of Portland. “It’s just another intense game for the players.”

Pendleton’s Roy Schueunig, an offensive guard, remembers there was limited trash talking in the trenches during last year’s game. Many of the Beavers grew up Ducks fans, so it’s better for team chemistry to leave the rivalry stuff alone.

“I agree with Mike, it is the fans and media,” Schueunig said. “It’s because growing up in Oregon and a Beavers fan, you are taught to hate the Ducks.”

Closed practices

Practices this week are closed to the public and media. Riley said he wanted to eliminate distractions for the players. He’s also concerned over the close proximity of the rival, and who would be watching what kind of wrinkles the Beavers are working on for the game.

Besides locking the gates to Reser Stadium, there were security personnel patrolling the areas where the field can be seen from the outside.