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Page 4B SPORTS East Oregonian Saturday, August 6, 2016 College Football Offseason key for OSU’s Garretson Utah State transfer entrenched as starting quarterback By RYAN THORBURN The Register-Guard By KEVIN HAMPTON Corvallis Gazette-Times Darell Garretson hasn’t taken a snap in an actual game for the Oregon State football team, but he’s already entrenched as the starting quarterback for the Beavers. Garretson, who transfered from Utah State, was impressive enough during the spring to settle the battle for the position. Although he’s been with the Beavers for a year, sitting out after the transfer, Garretson’s time this offseason was key in his develop- ment. There was plenty of work put in just to prepare for fall camp. “We really got after it this summer,” Garretson said. “And coach (Evan) Simon and the strength coaches, they made sure that we were busting our tails both in the weight room, on the ield and also developing our skills and being better at certain things that guys can get after.” He was able to spend plenty of time with his teammates, particularly the receivers he will be working with in the passing game. Garretson spent last fall running the scout team during practice, so getting to toss the ball around with established receivers such as Jordan Villamin, Victor Bolden and Hunter Jarmon, along with reserves and those newer to the program was important to build chemistry. “We threw a lot and tried to get our timing right and just the little things,” receiver Seth Collins said. “All of us got to know Darell real good. He’s a good guy and a great leader. All of us respect him and we know that he’s going to be able Corvallis Gazette-Times photo/Associated Press After sitting out a year following his transfer from Utah State, Darell Garretson will take over as quarterback for the Oregon State football team in 2016. to make an incredible impact.” Bolden said it was a big deal to get the receivers together with Garretson. “I think that’s so important, just the chemistry that you build with your quarterback and with anybody on the team because you build that trust,” he said. “It’s important to go out there and gain that chemistry.” It was also a good opportunity for Garretson to get to know his teammates off the ield. That meant grabbing lunch together or hanging out during down time. That often included some video game battles. “Playing video games together, as much as people may bash on it, playing video games together, playing FIFA, Madden, all that type of stuff, it brings guys together,” Garretson said. “It gets guys to hang out with each other more, you start having more conversations with each other and you just start building more of a trust factor with everyone else.” His teammates have been impressed enough by his leader- ship qualities to vote him captain for the spring and again for the season. Sitting out a season wasn’t easy for Garretson, who had to miss the bulk of the 2014 campaign with an injury after playing ive games for Utah State. He completed 91 of 135 passes for 1,140 yards and eight touch- downs as a sophomore with the Aggies before being sidelined. Last fall did allow Garretson to acclimate to OSU and get up to speed. “It was hard, but I got to work on a lot of stuff. I got to work on certain things that you normally wouldn’t be able to work on here in the season,” Garretson said. “I got to really hone in on certain skills that I wanted to make better and add to my game and I was able to do that, so I think a year off was beneicial for sure.” He said the Beavers’ system has some similarities to Utah State’s, but there are enough differences that he had plenty of work to do. Now Garretson said he’s ready to run the offense. “I think I’m right there, I think I’m where (co-offensive coordinator Kevin) McGiven wants me to be. I’ve just got to keep going, keep honing in on the schemes and the defenses and what defenses are supposed to do and where people are at. “So as long as we keep after it I think I’ll be caught up where McGiven wants to be every week.” We’re No. 1!: In AP poll, only 44 schools have made claim Oregon comes in on list at No. 23 By RALPH D. RUSSO Associated Press In the history of college foot- ball, only 44 schools have been able to make the claim “We’re No. 1” and have The Associated Press poll back up the boast. That means just 15 percent of the 296 schools listed as having played major college football at some point by sports-reference. com have ever held the No. 1 ranking for at least one poll. Of those 44 schools, only 21 have been No. 1 in 10 or more polls. The irst No. 1 was Minnesota in 1936. The most recent school to make the list was Mississippi State in 2014. For the irst time, AP has ranked the No. 1s by the number of times a program has held the top spot. Ohio State leads the way with 105 times. There have been a handful of ties at No. 1 over 80 seasons and each team in that situation received one-half point. For fun, AP College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo picked the best of each school’s teams to hold the No. 1 ranking. There were some tough calls, so to determine the No. 1 team of the No. 1s, Russo used the following criteria: •Championship teams were given preference. •Time spent at No. 1 during a single season was considered and late-season polls were given greater consideration. •A metric called simple rating system found at sports-reference. com was referenced to give some perspective on dominance relative to a team’s era. The game and its players have changed so much over the decades that there is no way to truly compare, say, the 1958 LSU team with the 2007 national champion Tigers. •Some feedback from reporters AP Photo/File In this Dec. 31, 1973, ile photo, Notre Dame players team point their ingers skyward as they chant “we’re number one” after defeating then-undefeated Alabama 24-23 in the Sugar Bowl NCAA college football game in New Orleans. and sports information directors who have covered a school for decades was used. Oregon’s 2010 squad made the list at No. 23, just behind the Auburn team that beat them for that season’s national championship. The Ducks enjoyed their longest run at No. 1 that season — seven weeks from Oct. 17-Nov. 28. Oregon’s most recent No. 1 ranking was Nov. 11, 2012. Marcus Mariota’s 2014 team never reached 1, so the ’10 Ducks are the easy pick for best of the Chip Kelly/Mark Helfrich era. Heisman inalist LaMichael James led the way for the fast-paced Ducks, who lost the BCS title game to Auburn on a last-play ield goal. TOP 10 1. Ohio State (105 times ranked No. 1) — Woody Hayes himself called the 1968 championship team with Jack Tatum and Rex Kern one of the best in college football history. The Buckeyes also won titles in 1942, 1954, 2002 and 2014. 2. Oklahoma (100½) — The Sooners have won seven titles (1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985, 2000) but the Barry Switzer era produced the best of the best Oklahoma teams in 1974 with a squad NCAA sanctions kept off TV and out of the postseason. 3. Notre Dame (98) — College football wasn’t quite as deep in the 1940s when coach Frank Leahy won four of Notre Dame’s eight national titles (1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1988), but he did have monster teams. The 1947 team with Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lujack at quarter- back was the best. 4. Southern California (90½) — USC has won ive titles (1962, 1967, 1972, 2003, 2004) but John McKay’s 1972 team gets the nod as best in program history for playing only one game decided by less than 17 points. 5. Alabama (74) — The Crimson Tide as won 10 titles (1961, 1964, 1965, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015) but its irst was its best. Bear Bryant’s 1961 team allowed only three touchdowns and had six shutouts. T6. Florida State (72) — All the Seminoles championship teams (1993, 1999, 2013) were led by quarterbacks who won the Heisman. It was Bobby Bowden’s ’99 team, though, that pulled off a poll feat that had never been done before by going wire-to-wire as No. 1 from the preseason to the inal poll. T6. Nebraska (72) — The Huskers won back-to-back titles under Bob Devaney (1970-71) and Tom Osborne (1994-95) but Devaney’s ’71 team did it best, and beat No. 2 Oklahoma 35-31 in a Game of the Century that lived up to the billing. 8. Miami (67) — The last of ive titles (1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2001) produced the Hurricanes’ best team with Willis McGahee, Clinton Portis and Frank Gore all at running back. They beat their opponents by 34 points per game. 9. Texas (44.5) — Three unbeaten championship teams (1963, 1969, 2005), but extra credit to the ’05 team for Vince Young’s Rose Bowl performance, maybe the greatest by an individual in college football history. 10. Florida (41) — The Gators won titles in 1996, 2006 and 2008, but the Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel-led team of ’96 avenged its only loss by beating No. 2 Florida State 52-20 in the Sugar Bowl. ——— THE REST (Best No. 1 team): 11, Michigan (1948); 12, LSU (1958); 13, Michigan State (1952); 14, Army (1944); 15, Pittsburgh (1976); 16, Penn State (1982); 17, Tennessee (1951); 18, Minnesota (1941); 19, Georgia (1980); 20, Washington (1992); 21, Iowa (1960); 22, Auburn (2010); 23, Oregon (2010); T24. Clemson (1981), Colorado (1990), Syracuse (1961), UCLA (1954); 28, Texas A&M (1939); 29, Maryland (1953); T30, Mississippi (1960), Mississippi St. (2014), Northwestern (1936), Purdue (1968); T34, California (1937), Cornell (1940), BYU (1984); 37, Virginia (1990); T38, TCU (1938), SMU (1950), Missouri (1960); T41, Boston College (1942), North Carolina (1948), Wisconsin (1952), Arkansas (1965). Steve Gleason Recruit Suite debuts at Cougar football complex WSU Athletics PULLMAN, Wash. — Wash- ington State Athletics announced the naming of the Steve Gleason Recruit Suite, inside the Cougar Football Complex, Wednesday afternoon. Gleason, the Washington State Athletic Hall of Famer who played football and baseball in a Cougar uniform from 1995-99, was on hand as the room all future Cougar football players will walk through was named in his honor. “I am stoked to be a small Coaches rank Ducks No. 22 part of this, thanks so much for including me,” said Gleason. “We need to thank Glenn Osterhout for providing the funding for the room and facility. Finally, I’d like to thank my man Jason Gesser for coordinating this. Pullman has been a big part of my development. I have amazing memories from my time here and I am excited I could be here in person today. Thanks again for including me. Go Cougs!” The opportunity arrived cour- tesy of Cougar alumnus Glenn Osterhout’s naming donation of $250,000. With his pledge, Oster- hout, a 1983 graduate who is a certi- ied inancial planner in Bellevue, was presented the opportunity to name the recruiting room inside the Cougar Football Complex. “The recruiting room was something I was very interested in because that is a big part of what the football operations building is about, bringing in top-notch student-athletes,” said Osterhout. “I wanted the room to be about somebody. Steve will be an inspi- ration to a lot of young men who will come through that room.” Gleason was diagnosed with ALS in 2011. He and his founda- tion, Team Gleason, have been global leaders in raising awareness and improving the lives of those affected by the disease. He was a four-year letter winner in both football and baseball during his time at WSU. On the football ield he was a two-time team captain, garnered All-Paciic 10 Conference honors three times and inished his career with 282 tackles, ninth-most in school history. He was also a key igure on defense for the 1997 squad that made WSU’s irst Rose Bowl appearance since 1931. EUGENE — Mark Helfrich’s peers aren’t as high on the 2016 Ducks as they have been in the recent past. Oregon, which entered the past ive seasons ranked as a top-ive team, was voted No. 22 in the preseason coaches poll released on Thursday. It’s the program’s lowest ranking in the preseason coaches poll since 2007, when Oregon was unranked. The usual suspects make up the top ive this year: Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Florida State and Ohio State. “I don’t think we’ve ever mentioned the BCS, I don’t think we’ve ever mentioned the College Football Playoff, I don’t think we’ve ever mentioned any poll,” Helfrich said last month at the Pac-12 media day event. The Pac-12 media picked the Ducks to inish third in the North Division in the preseason poll, behind Stanford and Washington. The Cardinal are the high- est-ranked Pac-12 team in the coaches poll, at No. 7. The Huskies, a trendy national sleeper pick, are No. 18. Other Pac-12 teams in the rankings are No. 17 USC and No. 24 UCLA. The Bruins were picked to win the South Division in the Pac-12 preseason poll. Oregon, which was No. 5 in the 2015 preseason coaches poll, dropped from No. 14 to No. 20 in the inal ranking last season after the triple-overtime loss to TCU in the Alamo Bowl. The Ducks inished 9-4 overall, 7-2 in the Pac-12. The coaches poll is voted on by a panel of FBS coaches, including Washington State’s Mike Leach, Colorado’s Mike MacIntyre, Wash- ington’s Chris Petersen, Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham. “We don’t really pay too much attention to the outside talk, we’re internally motivated to do well,” Oregon senior linebacker Johnny Ragin said. “It’s kind of nice to be the hunter now, as opposed to being the hunted in previous years. But we’re not too worried about the rankings.” The Ducks will open fall camp on Monday. The season begins Sept. 3 against UC Davis at Autzen Stadium (2 p.m., Pac-12 Networks). ——— Amway Top 25 Poll The preseason Amway Top 25 football coaches poll, with irst-place votes in parentheses, 2015 records, total points based on 25 points for irst place through one point for 25th, and previous ranking: Record Pts Pvs 1. Alabama (55) 14-1 1585 1 2. Clemson (7) 14-1 1524 2 3. Oklahoma 11-2 1398 5 4. Florida State (1) 10-3 1351 14 5. Ohio State 12-1 1321 4 6. LSU 9-3 1241 17 7. Stanford 12-2 1149 3 8. Michigan 10-3 1062 11 9. Notre Dame 10-3 1034 12 10. Tennessee (1) 9-4 960 23 11. Michigan State 12-2 901 6 12. Mississippi 10-3 792 9 13. Houston 13-1 668 8 14. TCU 11-2 649 7 15. Iowa 12-2 579 10 16. Georgia 10-3 525 24 17. Southern Cal 8-6 468 NR 18. Washington 7-6 454 NR 19. Oklahoma State 10-3 426 19 20. North Carolina 11-3 422 15 21. Baylor 10-3 383 13 22. Oregon 9-4 361 20 23. Louisville 8-5 331 NR 24. UCLA 8-5 296 NR 25. Florida 10-4 245 25 Others receiving votes: Miami (Fla.) 120; Wisconsin 82; Boise State 73; Utah 73; Washington State 47; Texas A&M 37; Arkansas 34; Texas 34; Northwestern 31; Navy 30; Mississippi State 19; San Diego State 18; Auburn 17; Nebraska 17; Western Kentucky 11; Pittsburgh 8; Brigham Young 6; Appalachian State 4; Duke 3; Arizona 2; Marshall 2; South Florida 2; Toledo 2; Indiana 1; Memphis 1; Northern Illinois 1. PSU receives preseason love PSU Athletics PORTLAND — Media outlet College Sports Madness has ranked the Portland State football team 24th in its preseason Top 44 preview of the Division I FCS level. The Vikings have been ranked anywhere from 17th to 24th in polls already released. The STATS FCS Top 25 poll will be released on Aug. 8. College Sports Madness also recognized nine Viking players on its Preseason All-Big Sky Conference teams. Notable among them was senior cornerback Xavier Coleman, who was named Preseason Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year and 1st team All-Big Sky. Other Vikings on the Preseason All-Big Sky team were: SR OL Cam Keizur (1st team), SR K Jona- than Gonzales (1st team), JR DE Davond Dade (1st team), SR WR Darnell Adams (2nd team), JR OL Randin Crecelius (2nd team), SR S Walter Santiago (2nd team), SR QB Alex Kuresa (3rd team), SR OL Desmoun Thompson (3rd team).
