Mannion Sparks Comeback Before Oregon State is Stunned by Sac State

Going into Saturday's season opener against Sacramento State, Oregon State quarterback Sean Mannion knew he had a chance to see some playing time.

The redshirt freshman from Pleasanton's put together a strong fall camp and in the days leading up to the game, prepared to see some snaps.

He just didn't think they'd come in the scenario that played out — no one did.

With Oregon State trailing 14-3 at halftime, Mannion was approached by some members of the coaching staff.

"They just told me to get warm and get ready," Mannion said. "I wasn't really sure what the plan was."

Sure enough, when the Beavers took the field in the second half, Mannion was behind center and ineffective junior Ryan Katz, who started every game a year ago, went to the bench.

Under Mannion's watch the Beavers opening drive ended with a field goal, but the Hornets responded with a touchdown to put the Football Championship Subdivison school — formerly Division I-AA — up 21-6.  

In a way, it was a fitting introduction to college football for Mannion. In his two and half years as the starter at Foothill, he made a habit of leading the Falcons to comeback victories — why not continue the trend at Oregon State?

He almost did.

Mannion led the Beavers on two touchdown drives and capped the second with a two-point conversion pass to Markus Wheaton, which tied the game at 21. 

Oregon State blocked a Sac State field goal with 2:35 left and the Beavers took over at their own 17-yard line. On a drive reminiscent of Foothill's game-winning drive against Freedom in the 2008 North Coast Section playoffs, Mannion completed 7 of 9 passes for 59 yards to set the Beavers up with a 27-yard field goal with four seconds left.

It clanked off the right upright and the game went to overtime. The Beavers scored a touchdown on their first possession, but Sac State answered with a touchdown of its own, went for two and escaped Corvallis with a shocking 29-28 win. 

For Mannion, there were mixed emotions. 

"Well its tough because we lost, but I think as a team we did a lot of good things," he said. "We just got to try to build off that and learn from the bad. I was excited to go in, but at the same time we lost."

He finished the game 8 for 12 for 142 yards and drew praise from Oregon State coach Mike Riley, who stopped short of calling Mannion the starter this week as the team prepares Saturday's game at No. 8 Wisconsin.

"Mannion has basically earned the opportunity to play in games," Riley said. "We'll see what the future holds after this game."

Mannion took most of the first-string snaps in practice this week wrote Cliff Kirkpatrick, who covers the Beavers for the Corvallis Gazette-Times, but Riley said Katz was still the team's starter.

As Mannion nearly brought the Beavers back, his dad, John, watched nervously from the stands. 

"We were excited for him," said John, who coached football and taught social studies at Foothill for 14 years. "It's a pretty cool environment. Sean has an apartment right near the stadium and we were over there an hour and a half after the game and his adrenaline was still going. We were proud of him, he played hard."

The Mannion family moved to Silverton, Ore., in the summer of 2010 where John took over the football program at Silverton High. He previously served as the athletic director and co-head coach with Matt Sweeney at Foothill.  

"It's completely different than Pleasanton," John Mannion said. "It's a little off the beaten path, but we're really enjoying it." 

Silverton, a town of just under 10,000 people, is about an hour from Oregon State's campus in Corvallis. The close proximity gives Sean the opportunity to head to his parents' house on the occasional weekend and his parents, two sisters and brother to make it to his home games.

Don't think Sean has forgotten about Foothill, either. 

Still paying attention to the Falcons, Sean? 

"Yeah, I heard they had a tough loss to Pittsburg on Friday," he said in a phone interview Tuesday. "Big game on Saturday against Novato too, they're always good."

Yeah, so is Wisconsin. 

Oregon State's game at Wisconsin will be broadcast live on ESPN on Saturday at 9 a.m.

"(Mannion) has had a lot of work this week in Wisconsin prep," Oregon State offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf said. "Expect to see him quite a bit."

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