Oregon State football coach Mike Riley on facing, and upsetting, the Trojans in recent years:

"Oh I don't know, you know it takes a great effort. I have a ton of respect for the school and the program and the work Pete has done and that's just personal. I think that it's either going to bring out this best in you or bury you and I'm just proud we've competed well and there have been good football games in general.

I think the whole USC deal with the last few years has made everybody in the conference either have to rise up or fall way behind and it's been good for everybody. Its one of those deals that you got to go year by year and you can't rely on anything in the past. We just look at it as a great challenge and a great opportunity for our team to get better and grow."

(on this year's team)

"Well, they're very impressive to watch as we study them on tape.

I think they're defense as always is really, really strong and very aggressive. I'm very impressed with their front, they don't give people many breaks. They're high energy and really hard to block, and that's going to be a key factor in the game. If you can ever get to it and throw, their secondary is really aggressive and good too, so there's all sorts of factors there that are big.

Offensively, they've got that balance going with a really good running game. I've really, really been impressed with Matt Barkley. I thought in the last game he played with a ton of poise, made some really, really big throws that were, you know they had some people around them and he was pacing in the pocket. All those parts are real and I think they look obviously like a really good team."

USC coach Pete Carroll on Saturday's visit of Oregon State, which shocked the Trojans last year in Corvallis:

"Q. What has Oregon State been able to do against you guys better than anybody else? Scheme wise, position wise?

"They've been really effective against us on both sides of the ball. They've been able to give us problems and they've had good fortune at their place two of the three times. Jumping out on us early offensively. You know, we fell behind 21-0 last year at one time.

They executed really well. Their guys played great football. They played just as tough as anybody we've played on that day. And we had trouble staying up with them, you know. The tempo of the game was set by their side of the football and their guys. And their crowd had a lot to do with it, you know, and they did a great job of it.

It wasn't just because it was a Thursday night game, they did it to us on Saturday, in the afternoon, and the sunshine.

I have tremendous respect for Mike and what he does, and their scheme and their approach. You know, they're an interesting team when you watch them year in and year out, because they have their games. You wonder how could this team play like this had and play at the other end of the spectrum. They struggle with a couple of games this year early.

As we saw them last year, remember, we came off the Penn State game and the Hawaii game last year. In the Penn State they looked terrible in that game...got blown away. And they came back and played a pretty good game against Hawaii. Then they played the game of the year for themselves against us.

So we have a lot of respect for them in that they can figure out their ways. They can get their kids right. They can give us issues that can upset us and allow us to play right. So hopefully we'll be able to overcome that here at the coliseum, and we'll figure out what happens next time around when we play them up there."

Oregon State coach Mike Riley

(on the team as a whole)

"We lost a lot of great players from last year. We had seven players drafted, so we're filling a lot of holes."

(On the health of the Rogers brothers)

"Both of those guys are 100 percent going into camp."

(on the health quarterbacks Lyle Moevao and Sean Canfield)

"I'm hoping that by the time we get to the first game we will have two senior quarterbacks ready to win in this league."

(on beating USC two of the past three years)

"I don't think there's a lot of magic to it. You have to play a great football game and you have to finish it, which is always the crux of it.

"It takes a really, really efficient game. It has to be efficient... lasting against that team is the hard part."

In Saturday's paper, I wrote about the injury recovery of Fresno State safety Lorne Bell (Simi Valley). But Bell isn't the only local Bulldog coming back from a knee injury this season.

Junior wide receiver Chastin West (Moorpark) missed all of the 2007 season rehabbing, and was motivated to play against UCLA yesterday at the Rose Bowl.

One of the top receiving threats in Western Athletic Conference in 2006, West displayed his old form against the Bruins.

He caught five passes for 69 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown catch (as my colleague Joe informed earlier), in Fresno State's 36-31 victory played in front of a large collection of red-clad Bulldog fans.

Hitting him where it hurts: Another local was involved in a big play yesterday during the Stanford-Washington game.

Washington quarterback Jake Locker suffered a broken right thumb in a 35-28 loss and is out indefinitely.

Locker hurt the thumb while making a block on Stanford safety Sean Wiser (Oaks Christian) in the second quarter.

Golden moments: After spending a season behind a porous offensive line as a true freshman, Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen (Oaks Christian) is beginning to show why he was such a heralded recruit.

In yesterday's 38-21 victory over Purdue, Clausen completed 20 of 35 passes for a career-high 275 yards and tied a career-high with three touchdown passes and no interceptions.

"Yeah, I played good out there," Clausen told reporters. "I was reading the coverages pretty good. I felt like I knew what to do coming into the game, and the coaches helped me and got me ready to go."

Victory party: I had a chance to talk with Oregon State sophomore linebacker Dwight Roberson (St. Bonaventure) on Friday - one day after Oregon State's upset of then top-ranked USC.

Roberson said the city of Corvallis was wild in celebration into the early morning hours and the atmosphere at the stadium during the game was electric.

Roberson, who finished with two tackles, said it felt great to be a part of the action in an upset of USC. In 2006, when the Beavers last shocked USC, Roberson was redshirting.

Oregon State, perhaps the surprise team in the Pac-10 over the past two seasons, has some work to do to maintain that lofty position this season.

The Beavers, who open the season Thursday night at Stanford, will do so without departed tailback Yevenson Bernard nor any of the starting front seven from its defense.

"We do have guys that have experience playing but it's always difficult to take that whole front seven and replacing them," said coach Mike Riley.

Bernard had rushed for 1,000 yards in each of the past three seasons. His 3,862 career rushing yards place him second on Oregon State's career list behind Ken Simonton's 5,044 yards. Freshmen Ryan McCants and Jacquizz Rodgers, and El Camino College transfer Jeremy Francis, will pick up the slack.

"It's a bit of a changing of the guard," said Riley. "We're looking for that next back. It's really important to the foundation of what we do offensively... I like the look of our two freshmen."