Spring is here, so is Beaver football

Forget last year. Forget the near-10-win season OSU had. Forget the Emerald Bowl. What happened last year was nice, but what the 2008 OSU football team is going to do will make you forget about the 2007 season.

One spring practice - that's all it took. For a team that lost its second all-time leading rusher, most of its starting front seven on defense, two NFL-caliber offensive linemen and the best place kicker in school history, they sure didn't look like a team that was concerned about it. New players, aching for a chance to step up and be starters, are finally getting that chance right now, and a lot of the newbies are getting their feet wet in Riley's system.

Replacing Yvenson Bernard is the chief of all offensive concerns at this point. But don't think the Beavers' running game is going to take a step backwards just because he's gone. Sophomore James Rodgers was second on the team in rushing last year, and he'll be back. Plus, two faces you probably don't know yet, but will get used to seeing carrying the rock for OSU are redshirt freshman Ryan McCants and junior college transfer Jeremy Francis.

Francis has a solid build and probably the best hands of any back at OSU. At El Camino College, where Francis played before signing with OSU, seemingly half of the offense was built around throwing screen passes or swing routes to him. If you get the chance, check out his highlight video online. He has a chance to be a real sleeper of a back for Oregon State.

But probably the most exciting back of the future for the Beavers program is McCants.

As one of the defensive reserves put it last year, "The dude makes our starting defense look silly at practice sometimes. And that's with the scout team offensive line."

Sold.

He's a freaky athlete. At 6 feet 1 inch and 230 pounds, McCants posses the size and strength to run defenders over, but also has enough speed to outrun defensive backs. He was highly touted out of high school as the No. 10 best overall running back by Scouts.com and was being recruited by plenty of schools more prestigious than Oregon State.I haven't even mentioned the fact that James Rodgers' younger brother, Jacquizz, a perennial all-American and all-time touchdown leader in Texas high school football history, will be here in the fall as well.

Sammie Stroughter will be back at receiver, and as Riley and staff always do, they will find ways to get their athletes the ball. Sure, losing Bernard is a big loss. But with all the talent they have at running back this year, plus Howard Croom, Brady Camp and Gabe Miller coming back at the tight end position and with Darrell Catchings and Chris Johnson returning as wide receivers, offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf is going to have plenty of nice options for scoring points.

The other key spots that need to be filled are at linebacker. All three of last season's starters are gone, and three new ones need to step up. Tentatively, it looks like Keaton Kristick, Bryant Cornell and Keith Pankey are listed at the top of the depth chart. Of course, it's way too early to call anything guaranteed, but it won't take long to replace the likes of Joey LaRocque, Derrick Doggett and Alan Darlin. The Beavers always have great linebackers. Just as LaRocque, Doggett and Darlin stepped in to replace the good backers before them, Kristick, Cornell and company will do the same this year. OSU's defensive coordinator Mark Banker is as good a defensive coach as you'll find in America. He knows how to get the best out of his players, and this group of talented and untested linebackers shouldn't be any different.

The month-long action of spring football can answer a lot of unknowns in terms of who will fill whose shoes and who is going to becoming a key component in fall. But for this year's running back and linebacker situation, it just took one day.

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