Commentary

We’ve reached 2008 and it’s not too early to look forward.

Football season is just eight months away, after all.

How will Oregon State do? If recent seasons are any indication, the Beavers will start slow and wind up winning a bowl game.

The Beavers have won four in a row, as a matter of fact. And OSU has gone to seven bowls in nine seasons.

They’ve won 19 games in the past two seasons. The Beavers went 10-4 and won the Sun Bowl in 2006 with a wide-open offense led by quarterback Matt Moore and receiver Sammie Stroughter.

When Moore left for the NFL and Stroughter was lost for the season, the Beavers turned to a suffocating defense and a grinding run game to finish 9-4.

Credit Mike Riley.

Riley is quite simply among the best coaches in the country, not to mention the Pacific-10 Conference.

He develops mediocre players into good, good players to great. He molded Derek Anderson and Moore into NFL quarterbacks.

He played a big part in turning a perennial loser into a bowl-game regular.

Riley is the perfect fit for Oregon State. Yet even he won’t be able to overcome an early schedule consisting of Penn State, Hawaii and Southern California next year without getting a few questions answered by the end of August.

The 2007 season was a success, all things considered. Not only did the Beavers have to break in a new quarterback in Sean Canfield, but had to bring in backup Lyle Moevao late in the season when Canfield injured his shoulder.

There was a mix and match offensive line due to injuries and ineligibility and the loss of Stroughter.

The Beavers survived and then thrived because of the resilience of the run game, the emergence of James Rodgers and the fly sweep and a defense featuring three senior tackling machines at linebacker.

The offense could be even better next season. Rodgers will be back and could be joined by his brother, Jacquizz, who has verbally committed to OSU. Stroughter probably will get clearance from the NCAA for another year. On the line, Roy Scheuning and Kyle DeVan are gone, but the Beavers will have plenty of experience with Jeremy Perry, Andy Levitre and Adam Speer back along with Tavita Thompson when he regains eligibility.

Bernard is gone after another 1,000-yard season, but the Beavers have not had much trouble moving from one running back to another in the past decade. Ryan McCants should step in with several other backs waiting in the wings.

Quarterback play is sketchy. Canfield was a train wreck for the first several games. Too often frozen in the pocket, he was sacked time and again and threw far too many interceptions, but he started to get on track for a few games before his injury. Moevao stepped in and led the team to wins over Washington, Washington State and Oregon.

With his constant wide grin and fearless — sometimes reckless — play, Moevao’s spark fires up his teammates. What isn’t clear is whether Moevao has the skills to enable Riley to open up the passing game. If he doesn’t, it might be time to launch a much wider position battle.

On defense, the Beavers will no doubt miss the speed of Derrick Doggett, the craftiness of Joey LaRocque and the power of Alan Darlin at linebacker. The cupboard at Linebacker U (West Coast) is full these days, however. Bryant Cornell, Keaton Kristick, Dennis Christopher, Isaiah Cook, Walker Vave, Will Darkins and Dwight Roberson are among those waiting for a shot.

New starters at defensive end will be needed to replace Jeff Van Orsow and Dorian Smith, but Victor Butler and Slade Norris are back to terrorize quarterbacks.

Safety Daniel Drayton was the lone senior starter in the defensive backfield. Depth at defensive tackle is needed with Curtis Coker and William ‘Akau’ola Vea gone. Gerard Lee has petitioned the NCAA for another year of eligibility.

So how will 2008 pan out?

How does the eighth bowl game in 10 years sound? As for that slow start, Riley will be working on it.

He’s got eight months.

Kevin Hampton covers sports for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at kevin.hampton@lee.net.