One of the smallest recruiting classes of recent decades at Oregon State received scant attention from the recruiting services, but the Beavers will take the results.

They especially loaded up on the defensive line, with five of their 16 signees in that one area of obvious need. They brought in a touted quarterback, meeting their goal to keep at least one in each class, and even a kicker to prepare for the future.

Oregon State coach Mike Riley said recruiting "started out being difficult because we did not have the normal 25 guys we were going to be able to sign. We tried to earmark positional needs. From there we got the best players we could surrounding those needs."

The relatively small class came about because the Beavers had only 12 seniors on the roster in ...More