No prima donna, Adeniji gets prime time with Beavers

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Nov 3, 2009, Updated Nov 3, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Kevork Djansezian / GETTY IMAGES

Damola Adeniji, a pleasant surprise for Oregon State, comes down with a reception against USC.

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CORVALLIS – Prima donnas run rampant in college football.

Not so much at Oregon State, where coach Mike Riley sets a humble tone that permeates among his players.

But plenty of the scholarship athletes in Division I programs throughout the land carry themselves with an exaggerated swagger and own a sense of entitlement that is offputting, to say the least.

We bad. We bad.

Not Damola Adeniji, who in every sense of the word has earned the scholarship Riley bestowed upon him just before the split end’s senior season.

‘It’s been a great road as I continue down it,” says the 6-3, 215-pound Adeniji, who will be in the starting lineup Saturday when the Beavers (5-3 overall, 3-2 in Pac-10 play) face 20th-ranked California (6-2, 3-2) in a 4 p.m. game at Memorial Stadium. “I can’t complain about anything along the way, but being finally given the playing time and being respected is definitely good.”

Before the season, Riley sought to find “the next Shane Morales,” a reference to the departed OSU receiver who caught 54 passes for 743 yards and eight touchdowns a year ago.

It appeared the replacement would be Darrell Catchings, ticketed to start at split end, with Adeniji as his backup.

But Catchings has missed nearly the entire season with hand and ankle injuries. Enter Adeniji, who is Oregon State’s third-leading receiver – behind James and Jacquizz Rodgers – with 34 catches for 461 yards and three TDs.

“The opportunity was out there for Dom, and he jumped on it,” receivers coach Jay Locey says. “He rose to the occasion.”

Adeniji never experienced the star treatment in high school. Then 165 pounds wringing wet, he was a starter as a senior at South Eugene High but played in the shadow of all-state receiver Matt Bramow – “Matt got all the shine,” Adeniji says – with 20 receptions all season.

“In high school, I wasn’t that great of an athlete, to be honest,” he says.

Adeniji made one recruiting trip – to Linfield, where he met up with Locey, then the Wildcats’ head coach.

“I had no idea Coach Locey would one day be my position coach,” Adeniji says.

“We had no game (video) to look at,” Locey recalls. “But you took one look at him and thought, ‘Wow, this guy could be good.’ He looked the part.”

With no D-I college offers, Adeniji figured his football career might be over. But one of his buddies was going to attend Orange Coast Community College in Costa Mesa, Calif., and suggested they share an apartment and that he give football a try there.

“I was four days late for training camp that first year,” Adeniji says. “I’m on summer vacation, and the next weekend, I’m packing up to leave.”

Despite earning all-conference honors both seasons at Orange Coast, there were still no D-I offers. So he decided to walk on at Oregon State, in part because Corvallis “was close to home, but it wasn’t home,” and in part because his girlfriend then and now, Amanda Cook, was an OSU student.

Adeniji redshirted in 2007 and worked his way onto special teams as a junior last season. In a late-season blowout of Washington State, he sprang onto the scene, blocking a punt and returning it 27 yards for a touchdown, and scored on a 39-yard reception – with what would be his only catch all season.

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