Love plays the passing game

Receiver hits the books so he won’t miss OSU’s season

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Apr 21, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

CORVALLIS Ñ More than once, Marcel Love has beaten himself up over the academic ineligibility that cost him participation last season with Oregon State’s football team.

“I felt like I let my teammates down,” Love says. “As a combo, Mike (Hass) and I had an excellent spring (of 2005). We had high hopes of creating one of the best receiving duos in the country (last season). Not being there hurt me and it hurt the team. I never apologized for it, but the guys know how I feel. They see I’m back and I’m going to give it my all this time.”

Love’s return, coupled with Hass’ graduation and expected move to the NFL, couldn’t come at a better time for the Beavers, who can use his talent and experience.

“I like Marcel as a player and as a person,” coach Mike Riley says of the 6-0, 190-pound senior who caught 40 passes for 523 yards and four TDs as a junior slot back in 2004. “He’ll be a leader for us next fall. We consider him one of our top recruits. To have a bona fide starter coming back on your team after a year off is a very good thing.”

After transferring to Oregon State from City College of San Francisco, Love acknowledges his failure to keep up with academic work. When word came last August that he would be ineligible for the season, it wasn’t exactly a surprise.

“I knew it was coming,” Love says. “It was like, either pass every (class) or that was going to happen. I knew the consequences. It was hard. My senior year É you don’t have too many options getting kicked out of school like that.

“But Coach Riley, his staff, my family, other people from Oregon State Ñ they all supported me. They pointed me to Linn-Benton (Community College) and said, ‘Get your grades right and get back over here.’ I handled business, worked out at the same time and got it done.”

Love needed to pass six units at LBCC to gain readmittance to OSU, he says. Through the fall and winter terms, he accumulated 22 units.

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