Corvallis Gazette-Times

LOS ANGELES n Excitement, praise and complaints. It sounds as if the beginning of football season is here.

The Pacific-10 Conference kicked off the new year with a gathering of media, coaches and selected players at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel on Thursday morning.

Coaches and players lined up to declare how they expect to be better than before. Some were a little more realistic; Washington State coach Bill Doba said his team wasn’t very good during the spring but improved by the end.

And there’s Southern California coach Pete Carroll, who said he thinks it’s a refreshing change that some of his positions are still up for grabs, and there’s no runaway No. 1 team in the country.

Media covering the the Pac-10 still picked the Trojans to win the conference for a fourth consecutive season. However, it wasn’t a unanimous pick like the last two years.

“This is the year that it’s going to be very competitive,” Oregon State coach Mike Riley said. “We can talk our cliche talk that every game is going to be a battle, but it’s really real this time. You give USC credit the last couple years, but the teams that have been down are rising.”

Much of the grumbling came from the new rules to speed up the game. And there was a mixed bag of feelings about instant replay and its changes.

The Pac-10 used instant replay last year season for the first time. An official in the booth reviewed crucial plays and overruled or confirmed the call on the field.

While that process stays the same, coaches will be allowed to challenge a play. They can ask for one review. If they are wrong, it costs them a time out.

“I think it’s a great advancement,” Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said. “It enhances it. There were a couple times the officials went long in the review, but having it far outweighs that.”

Riley is against instant replay whatsoever. He didn’t like it last year because there wasn’t a universal process.

Even though that has changed now, he’s still not interested. He experienced challenging plays in the NFL as the head coach of the San Diego Chargers.

“I don’t think technologically we are far enough along to be efficient at it, but we got it,” Riley said. “And I think they conceded to the coaches the point to make the challenge. We don’t have the tools to make the challenge. It may end up being good. But in general I’m not for it, but I’m glad they made it consistent across the nation.”

Riley wants a way to make a logical choice to challenge a call. When he was with the Chargers, he had coaches in the booth looking at all the angles who could say it was worth a challenge. Video monitors are not allowed in college.

If he or one his coaches see something wrong from the sidelines, Riley said he won’t hesitate to use his challenge. However, he won’t be challenge-happy.

“Because of the new timing rules, timeouts are more valuable than before,” Riley said. “I’m not sure (the NCAA) knows all the ramifications of this. The thing we are frustrated about as coaches is we don’t even know why they came up with the rules. It wasn’t instigate by TV, which is usually why they want a shorter game.”

Those rules have drawn the ire of a united coaching community. The NCAA is trying to shorten the length of games with changes to keep the clock running:

• On a change of possession the clock starts when the ball is ready to play, not at the snap.

• The clock starts when the kicker’s foot touches the ball, not when the returning team touches the ball.

• The kicking tee is shortened to 1-inch, which should create shorter kicks to cut back on touchbacks.

Even Oregon coach Mike Bellotti backed Riley, but in an even more dooms-and-gloom fashion.

“I don’t think from the fan standpoint the game is too long,” Bellotti said. “It’s an all-day event to tailgate and be at the game. As a coach, I’m appalled by the rule changes. It will change the game as we know it. It changes a lot of strategies. And I can’t find anyone who likes these rules. I hope they are overturned next year.”

With that, let the practices begin. The Beavers start on Aug. 4.