75th Annual Brut Sun Bowl

Head Coaches Sunday Press Conference with
Oregon State Head Coach Mike Reilly and
Pittsburgh Head Coach Dave Wannstedt

It is an honor to be here to represent Oregon State. We certainly are excited about the game and appreciate Bernie (Olivas) and all of the folks that work so hard to make this the great event that it is. It is all of the stuff that you hear about the Sun Bowl from year's past. It all comes to real life when you get here - the hospitality, the friendliness of the people. Just going to the high school to practice and you see the high school kids and coaches hanging around, it's a lot of fun.

I think we have a great matchup here. Dave's (Wannstedt) got a really good team - all parts of the game - offensively, defensively and they impact the game special teams wise. So it is going to be a real hard game for the Beavers, but we are looking forward to it. It appears to be a great matchup.

Dave Wannstedt - Pittsburgh

Let me just echo a lot of what Mike (Reilly) said. On behalf of the University of Pittsburgh, we would like to thank Bernie (Olivas) and the committee and everyone involved in it. It has been a great experience so far for our kids. I just hope it has not been too good of an experience. Our kids have truly enjoyed themselves. I think two thoughts come to mind. The first is being part of the great tradition of this game. The second is having the opportunity to get out in the community a little bit and meet some of the people that live here on a permanent basis - not just people that are involved with the Sun Bowl. I have had nothing but real positive feedback from our players and our staff. We have had a great experience and the facilities have been outstanding.

He is probably a little stronger back than people give him credit for, although he has only been in the weight program with us for two years. I think he has a lot of room to grow in that area. But he has great ability to make people miss in the open field. And I think that is one of things that he does too much is he will bounce it outside and bounce around, because of his confidence to make people miss. He has got a lot of vision. He has got a great ability to make people miss.

John (Pelusi, Sr.) was the starting center on our national championship team in 1976, which followed the 1975 Sun Bowl team. So, John would have been the center on that team. John's (Pelusi, Jr.) dad is coming down to the game. He is a big supporter of ours. I know that when we found out that we would be going to the Sun Bowl, it was a neat thing to be able to kind of compare stories between them. It is a neat thing. Anytime you get a father and son involved in a similar situation, it is kind of neat.

With Lyle Moevao and Sean Canfield, they started a couple of years ago in a very good competition for the (starting) job. Actually Sean won it coming out of the season and got hurt and Lyle took over. Sean's was a long-term injury and he just barley got healthy at the end of our fall camp this year. Lyle is kind of a typical progression. They learn and get a better feel for it, and then they become more efficient as they go. He is very smart and efficient. He has got those intangible parts of playing the position. If he walked in the door, you would not pick him as the prototype quarterback, but that does not necessarily matter if they have some of those compensating factors that he has. He is smart and very tough. He can get rid of the football. We led our league in the least amount of sacks. I think a lot of it is good, quick decision making by him and also a good job by our offensive line. All of those pieces fit together and that is what has really helped him to become the play he is.

Wannstedt on OSU QB Lyle Moevao

I had a chance to say hello to him the first night when the two teams were together. He is a very, very classy young man. I was very impressed with him just from talking to him for a couple of minutes. Anytime a team has given up the least amount of sacks, everybody would like to go right to the offensive line. But I have been on a couple of teams, where the quarterback was not athletic. He was smart and knew where to go with the football. Our offensive line was not that good and we did not give up sacks. It goes to the quarterback making good decisions. He can make all of the throws. A lot of guys always love to see if they can make the big-time throws across the field in different areas. He can make all of the throws. He forces you to defend the entire football field.

Riley On Not Playing In A Month

I think you always have to expect the unexpected in our game. In ways, the bowl game is a season unto itself. You got a little extra practice time and you go through your finals with your kids and then you go through Christmas. It is just different. I think what you want to do is try to be as prepared as you can and hope that you don't get stale down in the end and be able to play your best game. And that is what it is going to take for us in this game. I look at Pittsburgh and I think it is going to take our best game to win. That is what you hope for at this stage of the year. There are those unknowns of how you come off of that period of time. You find out as the game unfolds. It really is a new season. It feels like it has its own little part of the world as far as the calendar is concerned.

I have been impressed with the practice and the enthusiasm for practice and how we have gone about our business. I try to not read a bunch of stuff into it and see it for what it is.

We pride ourselves on what we do there and we always work at it very hard. I can tell watching (Pittsburgh) that they have impacted games tremendously that way. As far as more (emphasis), I think it just more in a general schedule with the time that you have. I have actually cut it down and tried not to have to long of practices. We cut the special teams periods down, but the amount of work from the time started practicing until now is plenty for one game.

Wannstedt on Special Teams Preparation

Before we actually got down here, we did not work as much scheme versus Oregon State as we did just fundamentals of special teams - blocking and tackling and some specific things that go along with each phase. We tried to get some individual coaching that way.