Oregon State Football Notebook: Beavers show signs of progress

Oh boy, here we go again.

Not even a week after Smith and Co. tabbed senior Jake Luton the starting QB, he goes down with a concussion against Ohio State on the Beavers’ first drive. With Luton out of the game and in concussion protocol, Smith confirmed postgame, the Beavers turned to sophomore backup Conor Blount, who was competing for the starting job all the way until the bitter end.

In relief duty of Luton, Blount went 12-for-19 for 169 yards and two touchdowns and looked very poised in one of the nations most hostile venues. Granted, there were times that Blount was running for his life with Nick Bosa and others harassing him, but overall, credit has to be given to performance that Blount delivered.

“Conor came in and did some really good things,” Smith said. “He wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but having to be thrown out there after three plays, he performed well. That’s a credit to his preparation.”

With Luton’s status in question for the Southern Utah game, all eyes will once again move to the quarterback position as Smith and his staff have an interesting decision to make. On one hand, Luton’s earned the starting job by being the most consistent QB. But on the other, Blount just went into Ohio Stadium and gave OSU a chance to stay competitive by leading multiple scoring drives.

Monday’s press conference should give us a good understanding of where the Beavers sit in terms of Luton's status, but make no mistake, OSU might just have a rising quarterback in Blount who deserves to be on the field.