Friday, Sept. 26, 2003 | 9:14 a.m.
Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-2324.
With UNLV taking this week off with a bye, it would be a good time to catch up with Las Vegas' other college team.
You know, the Oregon State Beavers.
Seven Las Vegas prep products dot the Oregon State roster, including four key starters -- tailback Steven Jackson (Eldorado High School), safety Lawrence Turner (Cheyenne) and linebackers Richard Seigler (Chaparral) and Jonathan Pollard (Las Vegas). Two other players -- cornerback Gerald Lawson (Palo Verde) and defensive tackle Curtis Coker (Desert Pines) -- are redshirting and a third, cornerback Kellen Marshall (Cimarron), is out for the season with a knee injury.
"It was a freak thing, too," Coach Mike Riley said. "It was the only real serious injury we had in fall camp. He just went up for a ball and came down wrong and hurt his knee. He would have been our third corner."
Riley is a close friend of UNLV coach John Robinson. He got his big break in the mid-'90s when Robinson brought him aboard to be an offensive coordinator on a Trojans team that featured No. 1 NFL pick Keyshawn Johnson and won the 1996 Rose Bowl, 41-32, against Northwestern. He was credited with helping rebuild Oregon State's program in 1997 and 1998 before departing to the NFL for four years, three of them as head coach of the San Diego Chargers (1999-2001) and another as a defensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints.
He returned to Corvallis earlier this year when Dennis Erickson left to become head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. He was a finalist for both the UCLA and Alabama head coaching positions before that.
Although Riley has coached Jackson for only four games, he definitely likes what he sees so far from this 6-foot-2, 229-pounder.
"He's got all the stuff," Riley said. "He's a really, really classy kid and a great representative of this university. I think he's a can't-miss first rounder. I compare him favorably to LaDainian (Tomlinson) and Deuce (McAllister)."
Jackson goes into Saturday night's nationally televised game with Arizona State (2-1) leading the Pac-10 in rushing with an average of 136.25 yards per game which ranks him seventh nationally. He has gained at least 122 yards in each of his past nine regular-season games and had 122 yards on 30 carries in the Beavers' 26-24 victory against defending WAC champion Boise State last weekend despite playing with a sore left knee that he injured on Sept. 13 against New Mexico State.
"He played with a strained knee," Riley said. "He really handled it well. He looked good. The doctor said he could play. He said he could play. I think I was the only one who didn't want him to play. He's a fun guy and he's loves playing. I don't see any negatives. He's also the second-leading receiver in the conference with 14 receptions."
Riley said Seigler, who is also rated highly in several NFL draft projections, "is one our team leaders and a very good player." He also is very high on Pollard.
"Jonathan Pollard is going to be a really, really good football player before he's done here," Riley said. "He hadn't started before this season and I don't know why. He's very good."
Riley was asked how it is that Oregon State, which is a sleepy college town about 40 miles northwest of Eugene, could be such a magnet for players from glitzy Las Vegas.
"I'm not sure," he said. "I just know that Oregon State has a good presense in that town. I visited six high schools out there this spring and they all seemed very receptive."
But Riley's biggest recruiting job may come at the end of the season when Jackson decides whether to play a senior season or head off to the NFL.
"We'll cross that bridge when the time comes," Riley said. "We know it's something that will be addressed at the end of the season. We kind of went through the same kind of thing with Keyshawn at SC and he ended up staying and became the No. 1 pick of the draft. But it's something we don't talk about much right now."
Not with Pac-10 Conference play starting Saturday night.
"We enter a whole new realm this week," Riley said.
Grudge match
When it comes to bad blood between Mountain West Conference schools, two ofthe most unlikely candidates would seem to be BYU and Air Force.
But all one has to do is look at the final scores of the past two meetings between the two schools to see why both teams are eagering awaiting Saturday's contest in Provo.
Back in 2001 when Gary Crowton was still regarded as something of an offensive genius with his trick plays and a very talented one-two punch of Brandon Doman and Luke Staley, the Cougars crushed the Falcons, 63-33. It marked the most points ever allowed in a game by the Falcons.
The in last year's rematch, it was Chance Harridge, Fisher DeBerry and company who did the piling on, rolling up a 52-9 win in Colorado Springs, BYU's worst loss in almost 10 years. DeBerry admitted afterward that his team had been waiting and preparing "365 days" to get revenge.
Now the two schools meet again on Saturday afternoon at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
"This year, it's going to be a war," Cougars defensive end Brady Poppinga told the Deseret News. "It's not going to be a blowout by either side. We're going to play as hard as we can and they are going to play as hard as they can. Whoever's standing at the end is going to win."
Poppinga is particularly looking forward at another shot at Harridge, who he got into trash-talking with during last year's loss. Poppinga also earned an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in that game for a late hit on Harridge whom he accused of "cheap-shotting me. ... He's just immature."
Just in case that weren't enough fuel for the fire, Crowton seemed to go out of his way to belittle Air Force's 4-0 start with the Salt Lake media this week.
"Air Force is good, but my gosh," Crowton said. "If we weren't 4-0 with that schedule right now, I'd be nervous as a head coach."
Air Force's four wins have been against DeBerry's alma mater, Division I-AA Wofford, as well as North Texas, Northwestern and Wyoming.
Once around the MWC
archive
