Mike Riley begins every Sunday evening media conference call with an update on the Beavers injuries from the previous game.

But 18 minutes into his most recent chat with reporters, Riley went back to the health of his squad

"Does that sound like everybody?" Riley asked, making sure he had not forgotten any players that were hurt against Utah Thursday night. "(The medical staff) did 5 MRIs, which has got to be a record, I think."

Start with the bad news.

Starting split end Richard Mullaney's elbow injury is serious enough that Riley said, "We'll be lucky if we get him back before the end of the year." Jordan Villamin, who nabbed two touchdown catches in Mullaney's place in a breakout performance against the Utes, will take the starting spot. Malik Gilmore will be the backup both at split end and slot back. Riley added true freshman Xavier Hawkins, who has already burned his redshirt, "is a possibility" to start learning some split end.

Additionally, an injury to Gavin Andrews originally diagnosed as a sprained ankle was revealed to be a hairline fracture after the Utah game. He will miss 2-4 weeks, with Dustin Stanton sliding in as a starting tackle.

Also, third tight end Kellen Clute is expected to miss about a month with a knee injury. Post-graduate transfer Jacob Wark will move up the depth chart at that position.

Now, the good news. Starting running back Storm Woods (knee) and starting defensive end Jaswha James (knee) are both expected to play Saturday against Stanford. Both players could be limited in practice early in the week.

Here is more from Riley's conference call, where topics ranged from the heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Utah to the Beavers' continuing struggles on offense.

On the injuries:

"It's unfortunate. Everybody, at some level, goes through this. It's always disappointing for the team, for the kids individually. We have to just take the information, though, and put things together and get ready to win."

On the Utah loss:

"It was a good football game. I think the kids know that. I think that there are reasons that we lost, and I think they can learn from those things. We gotta get better, but we've got good leadership. You've got to kind of get past the pain and the pride has to take over. That's where we're at, and I think that these kids will fight back hard. A season is really about — no matter how you start or where you're at — it's always how you finish, and how we're going into the second half of the season and all the games could very likely be like the one we were just in. It's just gonna be a matter of growth. I think we've actually, in some ways, grown up. The disappointing thing about the Utah game for me was how many mistakes we made — penalties and two turnovers. Perhaps had we played a cleaner game like we did against Colorado, we would have enabled ourselves to have a different outcome. But we lost focus, we had procedure penalties. We had trouble with the timing of the snap three times. That was just very unusual. I hate it when those things pop up, when there's been no indication of an issue prior to that. Anyway, that's the disappointing part. And then defensively, we just played lots of good defense. And, yeah, we gave up a 94-yard drive right when we needed a stop. That was also disappointing."

On having extra time to digest the Utah loss:

"I suppose it worked out pretty well. I don't really try to examine that too closely, because you just deal with whatever the schedule is. I was glad for the kids to have a little breathing time, because they won't now. We'll be in a regular rhythm for six weeks. You just take advantage of those moments you have like that. It gave every one of our coaches a chance to be out on the road Friday night and see some high school games. So there's always residuals that you look at when you have a little time like that.

On backup running back Chris Brown's performance against Utah while filling in for Storm Woods and Terron Ward:

"He did fine. We've all talked about this: I have no hesitation with Chris playing in the games. He is I think a good player. I think he will have a great future with the Beavers as we move forward. It might be sooner rather than later, but whatever it is, I think he will be a good player and he did fine the other night."

On the first offensive play call, which resulted in a Sean Mannion interception deep in OSU territory:

"It was a pretty clean throw. He just led him into the linebacker. (The receiver) was wide open and the pocket was pretty good. Everything was good. It was just a little drive play, and if he could have put the ball on him a little bit earlier, it would have been a nice gain. So it was just a little bit of (timing)."

On Mannion having the option to run on third-and-5 during double-overtime:

"I think it's all instinct and availability. I don't know that I ever think he should should, but there are times (that) yes, you should. I'm not sure with that one, I'd have to look back at it. I was looking at our receiver, who pulled up on it. (Mannion) was waiting for him to break behind the linebacker, Villamin, and when he saw Sean move, he stopped. If he had kept going, he would have run into a nice hole, and I know that's what Sean was waiting for."

On not getting a chance to take a shot at the end zone at the end of regulation:

"I thought that that's what we were trying to do, especially if we had gotten the first down and there was enough time to do that. First thing we wanted to do was try to keep it with better field goal (position) and not get sacked like that, but get the first down and now you're dealing with some opportunity."

On the state of the offense:

"I feel like we're just kind of hit and miss. I like the fact (that) if you take away the sacks, we rushed for over four yards per carry against a real good defense. So I like all that. We're just not real sharp throwing the football — and I'm not talking about the quarterback. I'm just talking about the passing game in general. It's just not what it has been in the past and we've got to execute better. And then the other thing that kills us is the penalties. We've gotta quit doing that. And the procedure of the game. If you give yourself a chance without penalties and just getting a good snap, now you can make some plays. We end up so bad on third down because we play behind the odds all the time. We had 21 first downs in the game (against Utah) and we outgained them. The difference in the game was penalties and turnovers. Then you're battling uphill, and we're certainly not good enough to overcome a lot of that. So we've got to execute better, but it starts with just the procedure of the game. We hurt ourselves."

On if bringing the young receiving corps along has been a bigger challenge than expected:

"It's what you run into. Mullaney was hurt early in camp, and then Victor (Bolden) gets hurt early in the season. I thought up to that point right there, we were making strides. Victor had caught 11 balls against Hawaii. If we could have continued in that (way) for a while after that, I think we'd be further ahead. That set us back a couple weeks. And Rahmel (Dockery) gets hurt in the same game (as Bolden), and Richard's hurt now. We've had, really, not good continuity with relatively inexperienced guys in a lot of positions. But I'm not really crying the blues, because I like these kids. I think Hunter Jarmon's gonna be a good player and Victor's gonna be a good player and Dockery is and so is Villamin. I'm actually encouraged. We've just got to keep coaching those guys and think about giving ourselves a chance through execution to make some plays."

On the chance to still improve in the second half of the season:

"I told the coaches that. I said it's a bitterly disappointing loss, but I'm kind of encouraged about this team, because I know there's some things we can do better. If we can continue to play good defense, we can be in all the games. We've just got to be better offensively. A lot of good things on special teams (against Utah). A couple bad plays, but boy, Keith Kostol had a super night. We were tremendously concerned with their return game, and they got the one kickoff return on us and one pretty good punt return. But besides that, they did a great job. Bruce Read had a great plan. So I'm encouraged about a lot of it, but know some things have to change if we're gonna get better, if we're gonna win."

On the Pac-12 season so far:

"You've just got to keep playing. I pay attention a little bit. You spend so much time with your own team, and if you can take care of business, then whatever happens from there (will happen). We're dealing with two losses already, so I don't really dwell on that. But you've just got to keep playing and win games and then stack up some wins and see what happens."

On Stanford:

"They're very, very physical. There's no doubt about it. After we play Stanford, we will have played already this year the top defenses in the league — Stanford, Utah, USC and the Beavers. We're the top four defenses in the league (in total defense). We're second, I think, and Stanford's first. But that's statistically what it looks like right now. So we'll have seen them all. We see the Beavers every day in practice, and we will have seen all the other ones. So this will be physical, hard, and we're gonna have to play much cleaner offensively if we're gonna win that game."

On the players' schedule since Thursday:

"They've been in the weight room but not on the practice field. I'll meet with them in the morning."

--

|