Beavers' beaut of a brute.

Byline: Bob Rodman The Register-Guard

C o l l e g e f o o t b a l l

CORVALLIS - He does not necessarily live by the sword, but Curtis Coker is not afraid to draw one.

He most certainly, however, is not about to fall on it. Not after overcoming an overweight and often over-the-top approach to be a Pac-10 Conference football player for Oregon State.

An off-the-field indiscretion during the week of the Idaho game earlier this fall earned the defensive tackle a suspension for OSU's win over the Vandals, a team coached by Dennis Erickson, who recruited Coker to Corvallis.

"My temper got the best of me," Coker said on Tuesday as the Beavers prepared for Saturday's Pac-10 game against UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

Last weekend, Coker had a verbal exchange with Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter before the Beavers beat the Sun Devils 44-10 at Reser Stadium.

Coker took it upon himself to chide the Sun Devils for leading their pregame warmups through the middle of the Beavers' field-goal drill. Later, Coker said, Carpenter reacted to Coker's scolding.

"I told him to remember my number (98), because I was going to tattoo it on him," Coker said, noting that he plowed into Carpenter on the third play of ASU's first possession of the game.

"Coker does not hold a lot back," said Matt Moore, the OSU quarterback. "He's a hard-nosed guy and doesn't take any crap from anybody. He's a beauty. He's done a lot for this team, but he is a loose cannon."

Not exactly the kind of firepower Oregon State coach Mike Riley appreciates.

"Curtis is competitive, fired up, and that's part of what makes him who he is," Riley said. "I like him a lot. He's a really dedicated guy who has done a ton personally to get where he is. He is a load in there.

"But I don't think our players should engage in talking like that to a player from another team before a game."

Coker spent more than a few minutes listening to Riley before Coker joined the weekly meeting with the media on Tuesday.

"I didn't want to upset coach Riley like that," Coker said. "He's a nice guy, and he likes us to be careful what we say and who we say it to."

Most of his talking, he insisted, is done on the field, throwing his 309 pounds around as one of the strongest of the Beavers. He has started eight of OSU's nine games, is tied for third in the Pac-10 with two recovered fumbles, has three tackles for loss and two quarterback sacks among his 16 tackles.

"Mostly," he said, "I keep to myself, like to stay at home with my wife, Linda, and my dog. If you say something to me, I'll say something back.

"But I do want the guy across the line from me to be scared to death of me. Who doesn't? It's hard because I'm 6 feet tall, a little smidgeon, a bowling ball, according to an Arizona State guy a couple of years ago.

"I hit him pretty good, and he didn't say anything after that. I'm really a pretty peaceful person. If I walk around with the way I look, I'm sorry, but it's just my face. I am not going to walk around projecting myself as Peter Cottontail."

Early in this Oregon State player's life as a Beaver, Coker was under height and overweight. Rather than bag a quarterback, he'd reach for a bag of chips.

Which is why Curtis Herman Coker was a 6-foot, 345-pound guy rummaging around near the bottom of the defensive tackle depth chart two short years ago.

"I guess the weight thing is kind of big deal with people," Coker said.

A resident of Las Vegas, Nev., he rolled into the OSU camp as a freshman in 2003 weighing 316 pounds. He filled his redshirt, the poundage ballooning to 345 by the following summer.

"When I was home, my mom would tell me I'd already eaten and not to eat again," the 22-year-old junior said. "My dad would tell me to eat greens and eat protein. But when I got here, I went for the bag of chips and a soda, then grab some more when they were done."

The dream he had to play college football was being eroded by a nasty appetite and a less-than-dedicated approach to fitness.

Never mind that he had been recruited by not only Oregon State but UNLV, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Syracuse, though the latter two programs wanted him as a center.

Coker got his act together, ran, lifted weights, ran, worked out and ran some more, dropping nearly 40 pounds.

He's still 6 feet tall but listed in your program as 6-1.

"Sometimes, I'm still amazed I am here," said Coker, who played in his first 22 college games as a reserve.

"People said I wasn't big enough or fast enough but I tried, I tried real hard."

And so have his Beavers, 6-3 overall, 4-2 and tied for third in the Pac-10, and chasing a fifth straight win. They have recovered nicely from a 2-3 start and to land in the BCS standings at No. 24 for the first time in six years.

"This team has turned things around and so many things are going well," Coker said.

For the Beavers and Curtis Coker.

OREGON STATE AT UCLA

3:15 p.m. Saturday at Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif. TV: Comcast 14. Radio: KKNX-AM (840), KNND-AM (1400). In Spanish on KXOR-AM (660).