Thoughts on the Portland Diamond Project, Kevin Love and Payton Pritchard, Bill Schonely, Jermar Jefferson, Hamilcar Rashed and a new book by Ben Golliver …
Questions on your mind, for which I have answers …
• What’s going on with the Portland Diamond Project? It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything about the bid for major league baseball in the city.
A: A lot, says PDP managing partner Mike Barrett.
“We’ve been crazy busy,” Barrett tells me. “I can’t give you any specifics. Hopefully, we’ll be in position to be able to speak publicly on it soon, but we’re in a sensitive time right now.
‘The Whale’ spouts off on the great running backs in Oregon State history
By Jim Wilson
(Editor’s note: Oregon State’s spring practice began on April 6. To get Beaver Nation in football mode, radio analyst extraordinaire Jim “The Whale” Wilson offers his appraisal of the top five running backs in Beaver history.)
Jermar Jefferson officially ended his Oregon State career when he declared for the NFL draft in December 2020. That didn’t come as a surprise to most Beaver fans, but it does leave a huge vacancy in the Beaver backfield as Jefferson was one of the best to ever tote the football for the Orange and Black.
In three years — make that one full year and two partial seasons — Jefferson leapfrogged into the conversation as one of the top five running backs in Beaver history. He is fifth in career rushing yards behind a decorated group that includes Ken Simonton, Steven Jackson, Jacquizz Rodgers and Yvenson Bernard.
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).
A game for the ages in the fog at Reser
Here is what’s on my mind after Friday’s epic 41-38 Oregon State victory over Oregon in the foggy, eerie solitude of Reser Stadium …
• The Beavers’ come-from-behind win over the ninth-ranked Ducks becomes an instant classic in this, the strangest of all football seasons in the most unsettling year of our lifetime.
On shoddy officiating, COVID’s impact and Pac-12 women’s hoops, along with a little Terry Stotts and Charles Barkley …
Reflections from ye old scribe on a few sporting subjects …
• I’m rarely one to criticize sports officials. I have friends who are referees and admire their integrity and intestinal fortitude. I umpired and refereed during my high school and college years. I believe those who work college and pro sports most often do a very credible job.
But what happened Saturday night in Seattle was nothing short of a travesty.
Beavers flop, Ducks hop In their season openers
A few observations on the Beavers and Ducks after debut Saturday of Pac-12 football …