By Cliff Kirkpatrick
| Posted: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 12:00 am
Gazette-Times Reporter
The status of Jacquizz Rodgers has been downgraded to doubtful for Saturday's Civil War game, Oregon State coach Mike Riley said Tuesday.
OSU's star freshman running back suffered a second-degree AC joint sprain in his left shoulder Saturday night against Arizona.
The original thought Sunday night was Rodgers could play against Oregon this weekend with rest during the week, but MRI results changed Riley's mind.
"My shoulder is in a little pain," Rodgers said. "I'm doing treatment to get it prepared. It just depends how it feels at the end week. I'm not going to force it."
Riley wouldn't talk about the specifics of the injury, which isn't a good sign. It may be worse than a second-degree sprain, which is already slight tearing of the ligaments.
"It's very doubtful about Quizz," Riley said. "We'll look at it this week. We'll look at the severity of the injury. Unless we find out something different by Thursday and how he feels, we are not going to put him out there."
Redshirt freshman Ryan McCants and junior Jeremy Francis will share the running back workload this week. They subbed for him in last week's game.
McCants ran the ball mostly, while Francis was the third-down back who caught passes and pass blocked.
But are they enough to beat the Ducks?
"For sure we can," Riley said of winning. "We got good players in depth at that position. We won't change a lot of what we do without blinking an eye."
The running game was not as consistent against Arizona once Rodgers left the game. It's tough filling in for the Pacific-10 Conference leading rusher with 113.9 yards a game.
McCants had done well in mop-up duty, carrying the ball 69 times for 282 yards and two touchdowns this season. He had 52 yards on 15 carries against Arizona.
Last week was the first significant playing time for Francis this season. He caught seven passes for 61 yards.
"We are going to better off preparing two backs for this game, and what we have to do in the game," Riley said.
Moevao update
Quarterback Lyle Moevao said his shoulder feels the best since his injury Nov. 1 against Arizona State, and expects to practice the entire week. He shared time with Sean Canfield on the first string Tuesday.
"My shoulder feels great," Moevao said. "Coming into this week, it feels better than it did the Cal week (two games ago) preparing."
Riley will make his decision as to who starts late in the week. He'll take into account how both do in practice and how Moevao feels.
"We just want to win," Moevao said. "And if that means Sean starts, I'm all for it. We're all working toward the same goal."
The 1998 team
Members of the 1998 OSU team that went 5-6 and won the Civil War 44-41 in double overtime will be honored during Saturday's game.
That team is considered to have started the renaissance of a program that will play in eight bowl games in 10 seasons since.
"That 1998 team had a lot of effect on the program," said Riley, who was the coach at the time. "They fought to the end to gain credibility."