Pros vs. Joes No. 15: Fast, athletic and smart —that sums up ‘The Fox’
The odds of Steve Preece making it in pro football were not great.
With Mike Hass, Mike Riley and Dennis Erickson on Hass’ selection for the College Football Hall of Fame
Mike Hass never really made it in the NFL, but the former Oregon State great is getting a very nice consolation prize.
Hass was one of 18 players, along with three coaches, named Tuesday as part of the 2022 induction class into the College Football Hall of Fame.
With Scott Barnes and Bob de Carolis, talking everything Reser Stadium
On Tuesday, five days after the seismic announcement that Oregon State will “complete” Reser Stadium, I spoke for a half-hour with Scott Barnes via telephone.
The Beavers’ athletic director seemed flush with emotion over reaction to plans for a $153-million project that will upgrade the west side of Reser and augment the $80-million renovation to the east side that was completed in 2005.
On the Trail Blazers’ lousy start, Hassan Whiteside and my former boss, Alabama’s long snapper, a Texas grad assistant and all those $$ tossed around in college football
Things on my mind as we kick off a new (and hopefully far better) year …
• A statistical analysis of the Trail Blazers’ disappointing seven-game start to the 2020-21 campaign portends that the local NBA quintet is fortunate to be 3-4.
The off-season emphasis by general manager Neil Olshey was help at the defensive end, something that was a near-constant during Terry Stotts’ first eight years as coach.
On Beaver and Duck football, reffing in the NBA this season, Keanon Lowe’s movie, Terry Baker and the Heisman and death of a champion …
Knocking it around on a variety of subjects on a drizzly Sunday in the Willamette Valley …
• I can’t imagine Jonathan Smith got much sleep Saturday night.
Oregon State’s 27-24 loss to Stanford couldn’t have been much more painful for the third-year Beaver coach.
Losses like that are daggers to the heart a coach trying to build a program.
On the Pac-12 bowl picture, the Heisman, the Eagles’ curious two-point call and more …
A few football thoughts, along with a closing note about golf …
• The lineup of Pac-12 bowl affiliates has been slimmed considerably with the shut-down of the Sun, Holiday, Redbox and Las Vegas Bowls for this year due to COVID-19 complications.
That leaves the Rose Bowl — a CFP semifinal game this year, meaning that the Pac-12 will almost certainly not be a participant — the Alamo Bowl, the L.A. Bowl and the Independence Bowl. The Pac-12 requires a team to be .500 or better to be bowl eligible, so if a team is able to get in its scheduled seven games, it must go 4-3.
The conference has yet to announce a plan for the final weekend of regular-season play (Dec. 18-19).
From Lincoln Logs to football stadiums: Jim Wilson’s thoughts on each of the Pac-12 venues …
It is a strange feeling to watch a football game without fans in the stands. It is even stranger to watch college football on Saturdays knowing that Pac-12 football stadiums are sitting idle.
Through these unprecedented times, I’ve learned how much I appreciate all the pageantry and build-up around the stadiums and the energy that college football fans bring to the overall atmosphere.
And I miss the stadiums themselves.