My co-host in the mornings on 95.5 The Game, Chad Doing — the legendary CIP — asked this question the other day on the air and it’s a good one:

Which bet would you most likely make, Oregon State getting 12.5 points in Dallas Saturday against TCU, or the Ducks at home giving 35 to New Mexico?

See, for me, I kind of like taking both our teams. I think Oregon State is going to beat the number in its opener and will play well. But I also like the Ducks to pound that spread by a mile. I mean, they’re going to have a great chance to be up 35-0 by halftime.

So if you allowed me only one bet, it would have to be on the Ducks. But the Beavers wouldn’t scare me, either.

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… but condolences to Nate Costa. I was dead wrong about this one. I thought Costa would win the job. Now, unless Thomas gets hurt, it’s hard to imagine Costa playing a lot.

The way the early schedule breaks down for the Ducks, this team is very likely to get off to a terrific start. The only difficult game shapes up to be the one in the second week at Tennessee, but that game isn’t as difficult as it used to be. The Volunteers are down and it kind of reminds me of that year when Oregon went back and caught Michigan in a down year and beat the pants off the Wolverines in Ann Arbor.

Anyway, Thomas has every opportunity to get his feet on the ground before the schedule gets rough later on. Now will Costa eventually play? Yeah, he better stay ready. This offense, as we’ve seen, can be tough on quarterbacks — and Thomas doesn’t look as if he’s built to take a lot of punishment.

All I can say is that game week is finally here. Man, it will be great to have actual games to talk about.

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… before he names his starting quarterback.

Yeah, sure. Hard for me to believe that. I mean, I would think that by now Kelly knows exactly what he’s going to do. It’s just easier to tell the media that he hasn’t made up his mind yet. Even if he hasn’t made up his mind, it’s hard to believe the whole thing hinges on video of that one final scrimmage. Really?

But, whatever… On the day before it becomes public, go ahead and tell me who you think will be the starter and why.

For me, I’m still saying Nate Costa. There’s so much admiration from his teammates for what he’s overcome to get in this position. That counts for something — something that you don’t see in the video of that scrimmage. The players, not the coaches, decide who the leaders are — and at quarterback, you need a leader.

Can’t remember this much anticipation for a starting quarterback announcement.

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… when I heard about a naked Oregon State lineman in a three-point stance I kind of thought of, well… never mind. Just a picture I couldn’t get out of my mind there for a minute.

I have to agree with colleague John Strong on 95.5 The Game — when it comes to arrests, Oregon State may not quite top the Ducks (although it’s close) in sheer numbers but the Beavers seem to be involved in funnier ones.

Mike Riley took swift action in this one and the obvious question is, if this wasn’t a third-string freshman, would the decision have been as easy?

Am I the only person who would say, “Of course not.” I mean, if this was Quizz Rogers I’d hope Riley would hesitate. Really. And I know there are many who would argue with me. But you saw the Ducks be very careful with Masoli and Blount and I understood that, to a degree. They were important players who had an impact on their team’s success — so any punishment of them affected the success of other players.

I love how people believe that all players ought to be treated the same, whether they’re stars or not. They all think that special treatment for stars is something that doesn’t happen in real life — only in sports.

Yeah, right.

If you work for a company, in these economic times, and your star salesman is making money for everyone — do you think he’s not going to be treated differently than the guy at the bottom of the list barely making his draw each month? He better not be.

It just doesn’t work that way. Maybe that’s not the way it should be, but it’s the way it is. Success buys you second chances in this world.

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Kerry Eggers has this today in the Portland Tribune. At some points, kids are going to have to recognize that their Myspace and Facebook pages can be rather embarrassing.

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Well, if you read between the lines, you might think so.

So far, this is the kind of thing that’s being said about Darron Thomas:

Thomas’ problem has been what everybody assumes is his strength: his feet. Footwork issues have gotten Thomas out of whack and have led to the now declining number of errant, wobbly passes.

“When Darron gets his feet set, he’s outstanding,” Kelly said. “When Darron gets out of whack, and off-balance, so to speak … that’s when he gets a little erratic and his arm starts to move. But if he can keep his feet underneath him and stay in balance, he’s really, really a good passer.”

Helfrich has used an analogy that, although it’s generally lost on the college kids of today, provides a good visual: Stay in the phone booth. Thomas “gets big” with his arms and his legs when he throws. He over-strides, the release point drops, and he gets in trouble.

“He’s corrected that to a degree,” Helfrich said. “Now he just needs for that to become his instinct, his reaction rather than having to think about it.”

And this is what they’re saying about Costa:

On media day, Kelly talked about the U.S. troops withstanding the 117-degree days in Baghdad. Even three major knee injuries pale in comparison to that, but the inspirational effect is similar.

“If someone can come back from that, it shows how strong and how committed they are to the team and to himself,” receiver Jeff Maehl said. “And for it to happen three times, and to keep coming back and keep battling – it really does, it really is like the troops.

“You think you’re tired at practice and you look at him and think, ‘this guy, he hurt his knee three times, and he’s still working hard for us.’ ”

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to put a possible Rose Bowl team at risk with someone who still doesn’t have his throwing fundamentals down. But I would probably like to have a guy whose teammates see as a charismatic leader.

Obviously, the quotes are selective. But I do believe if Thomas is still having footwork problems, it’s going to hurt his chances. Look, a whole bunch of people out there are saying that Thomas should start because he’s the quarterback of the future. Might as well throw him out there now, they say, because it’s going to help get him ready for the next two seasons.

Well, sorry — not this time. This is a season when the Ducks could go to the Rose Bowl. Heck, they’re favored to go to the Rose Bowl. It’s no time to think about the future. For the Ducks, the future is right now.

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Things I saw while holding a microphone for Comcast Sportsnet:

• Chip Kelly has lost weight. “Pac-10 football coaches diet,” he told me off camera. Kelly looked very relaxed and comfortable. And I have to say he was very impressive in his interviews. He actually looked to be enjoying himself — which is the only way to attack that part of the job.
• I think people are getting stuck with the stereotypes in the whole Derron Thomas-Nate Costa battle for the quarterback job. Thomas, who is black, is being thought of as the runner and Costa, a white guy, is considered the passer. That’s an old stereotype — the black guy is always the runner, right? In this case, I’m not so sure. I think Thomas considers himself a passer first and may throw better than Costa — who made his early reputation with the Ducks as a whisper-quick runner. I asked Costa how much speed he’d lost since his freshman season, what with all the injuries, and his answer surprised me. “By now, none,” he said. “My times now are right back where they were when I got here.” If that’s the case, I think you’re going to be surprised at how well he motors in space. I asked each player who was the fastest and neither would answer — leading me to believe that it’s at least close.
• Nick Aliotti is a classic. In his 35th season of college football, Aliotti had lost his voice already — on the first day of practice. He’s a survivor who has taken his share of heat over the years and he isn’t getting full credit for his defensive squad at Oregon right now because the offense gets all the attention. But the Ducks led the conference in defense last year and may just do it again. Nobody cares more about his players than Aliotti — I love the guy.
• LaMichael James says his work with the track team last spring had a big impact for him — “I’m faster now,” he said with great confidence. “No doubt about it. I learned so much about running fundamentals. You’re going to see a difference.”

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Kelly has been giving interviews everywhere over the last couple of weeks. Our mission today on the Morning Sports Page is to ask him some questions you haven’t ever heard him answer.

And hopefully, we’ll learn something new about the Oregon football coach. That’s at 8:20 a.m. today — at 95.5 FM and also 955thegame.com. And oh, by the way, comedian Gilbert Gottfried is expected to join the program at some point this morning, too. Last time we had him on he was hilarious — as you might expect.

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It was first known last week that Portland State added a new assistant coach, Richard Seigler, to its football staff. Since then, I’ve been wondering if anyone was going to write anything about the hire.

I like new PSU head coach Nigel Burton a lot. Seems like a very solid, intelligent and hard-working guy. I wish him the best. But Seigler has quite a past and I’m surprised the Vikings didn’t get out in front of the story immediately when they hired the former Oregon State linebacker. But there has been no mention of his past at all anywhere that I can find.

There is more on Seigler here and it should be noted that he eventually beat the rap. In fact, he may have been the victim of a very unfortunate circumstance in which he was accused of an unseemly crime that he didn’t commit. But this messy story was big at the time — come on, an NFL linebacker being accused of living off the earnings of a prostitute? — and the sad thing about tales like this is that people often remember the accusations a lot longer than they do the end result of a trial.

All that said, it was interesting to see the quote from Burton in the official Portland State press release about the hiring of Seigler:

“Our staff had a chance to watch Richard work our camps this summer. He showed great enthusiasm, rapport with the kids and a great deal of detail and knowledge,” Burton said. “In addition, I think he is a great story for our kids to emulate in that he was one of the last guys to receive a scholarship at Oregon State his senior year of high school. He went on to become one of the greatest linebackers in the history of the program, as well as winning a Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

That part about “a great story for our kids to emulate” strikes me as an interesting thing to say, given the circumstances.

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As this story tells us, the former Oregon quarterback now has a new website (with the obligatory photo of him hugging his grandmother) and a public relations firm helping him out.

First off, am I the only one who wonders where this kid got the money for a public relations company? Second, it seems to be working. I sat on the set of “Talkin’ Ball” last night marveling at how much everyone is willing to buy into the new Masoli story.

Come on, you did not participate in a robbery yet you were willing to plead guilty to this fraternity house crime and torch your chance to to be a Heisman Trophy candidate? Why say you did it if you didn’t? That makes no sense — the kid blew his whole life apart and he didn’t even do the crime? Just as it makes no sense, as he tries to tell us, that he spent months in a juvenile facility during his high school years for robbing someone of 10 bucks and a Jamba Juice card.

Really?

This is a guy who still admits he lied to his coach and the cops — but we’re supposed to believe him now when he says he didn’t have anything to do with that robbery?

Sorry, not buying it. Not buying it at all.

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