Trojans Make Sure Rich Gonzales Remembers His Oregon State Debut

The only consolation for Oregon State’s Rich Gonzales is that things can’t possibly ever be as bad again as they were on Saturday afternoon.

Never again will he be a freshman quarterback making his first collegiate start in front of more than 50,000 mostly unfriendly fans and a USC team intent on erasing the humiliation of consecutive defeats.

Never again, with luck, will the former Diamond Bar High baseball and football standout have to endure having his family and friends watch him being sacked six times for 61 yards in losses.

Never again, with luck, will he be on the receiving end of a 63-0 drubbing.

“I’m tired of maroon,” Gonzales said after it was finally over, after he’d completed just 11 of 24 passes for 94 yards and been intercepted twice.

“The only time I remember getting beat this bad was when I was a sophomore (at Diamond Bar). I’m not used to losing, really.”

It wasn’t supposed to be this way at Corvallis this season. Six quarterbacks reported to spring drills, and the only quarterback controversy the Beavers expected was in finding room on the bench for the five backups.

Then, before the season started, two of the top three prospects were lost; one quit the team and the other became academically ineligible.

Erik Wilhelm, who was to be a redshirt freshman, became the starter, Gonzales his backup. Then Wilhelm injured his knee.

“He (Gonzales) was a backup for three weeks,” Oregon Coach Dave Kragthorpe said. “Starting is a totally different situation--90% of our practice time was spent with Wilhelm.”

Gonzales was “force-fed all week,” according to Kragthorpe, the coaches cramming information into Gonzales and the players showing solidarity by back-patting and pep talks. In all, Gonzales had three full practice days last week.

“I could tell they were trying to build my confidence all week, trying to let me know the offense is behind me,” Gonzales said. “I knew it would be a pretty physical game. I looked at the films all week, and they (USC) didn’t look like they blitzed that much. But they were coming at me pretty hard today, probably because I’m inexperienced.”

Gonzales was pressured throughout the game but showed poise. He did well on play-action calls and showed mobility on roll-outs. He also made some freshman mistakes. His first completion was to his own center, Jack Lester, who caught the ball after it was tipped.

The next pass was right into the hands of flanker Reggie Bynum, who dropped it. In addition to rubber-handed receivers, Gonzales had to contend with USC linebackers Garrett Breeland and Marcus Cotton, who pounded him for losses.

When the Beaver defense was on the field, Gonzales was talking on the headset to OSU coaches.

“The coaches were telling me what to do in certain situations,” Gonzales said. “I didn’t need to hear, ‘Good job, Rich.’ I needed to know if I missed a read. I need to learn. I’m not a freshman any more after this game.”

With OSU unable to score and USC obviously not having that problem, Kragthorpe pulled Gonzales out of the game in the fourth quarter. He was replaced by junior college transfer Don Lema, who had even less practice time than Gonzales and had never played a down in an OSU game.

He completed 3 of 7 passes for 52 yards and was intercepted once.

Gonzales got a rest at the end of this game, but he’ll start next week.

“I’ve just got to have a good week in practice,” he said. “At first, I was kind of scared out there. I’m not used to college football with the noise and the crowd. Now I am.”