The Barometer Online

Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Cory Reed Wide receiver Damola Adeniji hauls in a pass during an Oregon State spring practice session.

With four weeks of spring football now in the books for the Oregon State Beavers, things have started coming together, and head coach Mike Riley is pleased with what he has seen.

"There's been some good play-making going on. I think [the] guys have made some plays," Riley said. "Overall it's been very hard to run, which is always a good sign for what we want to [do] defensively."

After getting torched in the team's scrimmage a week ago, the defense settled down quite a bit and put up a pretty good showing during the team's last scrimmage.

"There was some really aggressive, good defense early-on in the scrimmage from the ones," Riley said. "I'm liking the looks of that deal."

A week after "the Darrell Catchings show" the defense got involved with some of the playmaking as well. Cameron Collins made a nice interception in the end zone off of backup quarterback Ryan Katz, and fellow safety Anthony Watkins made a pick off a tipped pass from Justin Engstrom. Watkins also recovered a Jovan Stevenson fumble on the next possession.

However, the biggest relief for the defense was the ferocious play of outside linebacker Keaton Kristick.

"Keaton is one of the most solid and gifted players that we've had," Riley said. "He exemplifies our position of linebacker here. He has grown into it, and I think he's one of the best players in our conference."

Continuing to make plays and quickly becoming one of the pleasant surprises of this spring's camp has been the newly-transitioned defensive end Gabe Miller, who has looked like he's played the position for the last few seasons.

"It looks like it was a very, very good move and looks like a natural fit for Gabe." Riley said. "He's got that body. He could be a good tight end or he could be a good defensive end, but this appears to be a very good move here."

With the absence of Jacquizz Rodgers, the running game hasn't been moving too fast for the Oregon State offense, but the team has compensated, as the passing game is producing like it didn't just lose a couple guys named Sammie Stroughter and Shane Morales.

Continued...

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