Pity for Riley only increased
Last week, there might have been some pity for Oregon State head coach Mike Riley, who had to take his team into Death Valley to play defending national co-champion LSU. But any sorrow felt for the coach seven days ago pales in comparison to what’s happened this week.
The Beavers stunned LSU and had the lead most of the way until giving up a tying touchdown and two-point conversion with a minute left in regulation.
Then, in overtime, the Beavers scored a tying touchdown but lost 22-21 when freshman kicker Alexis Serna missed his third extra point of the game.
It got worse from there, too. Because of an error with the team’s charter airline, they ended up in a travel nightmare and didn’t return to Corvallis until 7 a.m.
“We were tired in a couple of ways,” Riley said. “There was the ballgame, and the trip home was a mess.”
Plus, he’s had to deal with the task of trying to rebuild the confidence of Serna, who had a helmet-throwing, ground-pounding tantrum on the field after missing the overtime kick. Serna won the job in training camp over John Dailey, and Riley said the competition is open once again.
“We talked to him quite a bit and our team’s put their arm around him,” Riley said. “He’s a young kid and an awful hard worker. It was just a bad day at the office, but he’s come back pretty well.
“We’re going to continue the competition and make another decision,” Riley said. “It might be the same one.”
Compounding the agony is the fact that Riley was attempting to call a timeout before the final extra point to consider going for two and the win. But Riley couldn’t get the referee’s attention before the ball was snapped and the Beavers’ fate was sealed.
This week, it might not get much easier, with another road trip scheduled to a tough Boise State team that waxed Idaho 65-7 on Saturday.
“We’ve got to build off the positives of that last ballgame, and like I told our team we have to learn from what happened in that game and win or lose, we absolutely have to get better,” Riley said. “We are going into a hornet’s nest, so we have to be ready.”
Looking good
Some teams come into a season with a lot of hype only to disappoint. Not Cal — or at least not in the first game.
The Bears were given their highest preseason ranking in school history, and made those prognostications look pretty smart after traveling to Colorado Springs and whipping Air Force 56-14.
Even after the convincing win, head coach Jeff Tedford stuck to the party line, passing on a chance to relish in his team’s ability to meet expectations right off the bat.
“I don’t know that we went into it thinking we had to prove something,” Tedford said. “Our goal is to try to live up to our own expectations, the internal expectations we have about one another.”
Not looking good
On the other end of the spectrum is Washington, one of just three Pac-10 teams thus far to lose its opener (Oregon plays its first game this weekend against Indiana).
Husky head coach Keith Gilbertson said he was frustrated by his team’s mistakes, as five turnovers ended any chance of UW coming away with a win against Fresno State at home.
Washington played three quarterbacks — Casey Paus, Isaiah Stanbeck and Carl Bonnell — something Gilbertson indicated he’d continue to do when the Huskies take the field again after their early bye week, which has them idle on Saturday.
“I’m not going to be knee-jerk about it. I’m just going to let itself play out,” Gilbertson said.
Notes
Arizona played just 44 people against Division I-AA Northern Arizona last week. Head coach Mike Stoops said it was no accident — his team lacks depth and he said those were his best players. … USC head coach Pete Carroll was asked about De La Salle High School’s 151-game win streak. That remarkable 12-year run for the Concord, Calif., school was snapped last week for Bellevue at Qwest Field in Seattle. “We’ve been kicking it around, just trying to imagine how extraordinary a streak it really was, going through all of the years,” Carroll said. “OK, they won 50 in a row, then they won 80 in a row, then they won 100 in a row. It’s just staggering to imagine that you can hold that kind of performance for so long.” … Arizona State freshman Jeremy Payton (no relation to Walter) played both ways in his very first collegiate game against UTEP Thursday. Head coach Dirk Koetter said the move was partially out of necessity because of injuries the Sun Devils suffered in pre season. But don’t expect Payton to play both sides on a full-time basis. “It’s safe to say we shouldn’t be calling him Deion Sanders just yet,” Koetter said.