The Barometer Online

Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: Sports

Keaton Kristick

Bryant Cornell

In the world of collegiate sports, teams always face the problem of replacing graduated seniors. The OSU football team is no exception. With the loss of all three starters from last year's linebacker crew, the team is now faced with replacing an experienced unit that led a dominating defense to become one of the most feared and respected units in the Pac-10.

The three linebacker starters were Alan Darlin, Joey LaRocque and Derrick Doggett. Each of these linebackers earned second team All-Pac-10 honors and were three of the four leading tacklers OSU had last season.

Many would feel that losing all three of the starters would correlate to a drop in defensive production, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Coach Mike Riley feels that many of the returning lettermen for this year's team were involved heavily in the rotation for last year and have plenty of experience at their positions. Riley does not foresee any large drops in defensive production, and with a new crop of freshmen and sophomores battling for time this spring there should be plenty of hard hits come fall season.

Senior middle linebacker Bryant Cornell, who made 13 tackles in 12 games last season, understands what it will take to maintain the dominating force that was the linebacker core of last year.

"We just need to build chemistry," he said. "That's something that the older guys had because they played together so long. We know that we can compete at the same level that they did. We just need the time to learn each other's tendencies and we'll be fine".

Junior "SAM" linebacker Keaton Kristick will finally get his chance to shine as a starter for the Beavers. Last year, Kristick contributed largely on special teams while making a handful of appearances at linebacker. Kristick had 15 tackles and broke up one pass attempt. Kristick learned a lot from the graduated seniors, but intends to learn from some of the mistakes he saw them make along the way.

"These guys were a great group, but they also made mistakes," Kristick said. "We want to learn from those mistakes to help us stay the number one run defense… we don't want to let up one bit."

With so many talented playmakers waiting for their chance to play, Kristick knows it will take something special to stand out in defensive coach Mark Banker's eyes.

"You have to be a playmaker," Kristick said. "With the guys we lost in Derrick, Alan and Joey, Coach Banker will be looking for us to step up and fill their shoes.

"If you're not making the big plays, then you won't be playing."

This new linebacker crew will feature eight returning lettermen, with only one ever having had a career start.


Tyler Britsch, sports writer
sports@dailybarometer.com

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