BYU football: Beaver QB praises BYU's Brian Logan

LAS VEGAS — Sean Canfield, Oregon State's All-Pac-10 quarterback, can easily do what others have done this season and pick on BYU's 5-foot-7 corner Brian Logan in the Las Vegas Bowl tonight.

He's even got a speedy receiver from Houston, James Rodgers, who is a similar 5-foot-7 speedster, and it would make for a nice matchup and cutout for ESPN folks doing the game. But if Canfield does so, he'll do it with respect, he told the Deseret News Monday at the final press conference leading up to tonight's faceoff between No. 15 BYU and No. 16 Oregon State.

"He's an instinctive player, a headsy player," said Canfield of BYU's Logan, who was recently recognized by Sports Illustrated for his nation-leading passes defended this season. "He's one of those players, when you watch him on film he has a lot of intangibles. He's not the tallest player, he's not the tallest corner, but he's a great football player and to start for BYU tells you something. He's pretty quick. I've seen a good amount of film on him and BYU.

"Logan is just another player on that defense that knows his role," said Canfield.

BEAVER TRACKS: Canfield is OSU's first quarterback to be voted first team all-league by the Pac-10 coaches and has been chosen to play in the Senior Bowl with Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy and Tony Pike. ... James Rodgers, the father of OSU star RB Jacquizz Rodgers and his brother WR James Rodgers, has been in a Texas prison since 2002 for dealing crack cocaine and hasn't seen either son play in high school or college. According to the Portland Oregonian, he will not see today's game on TV. ...Oregon sportswriter Paul Baker's cell phone went off during Monday's press conference when BYU's Dennis Pitta was talking and he couldn't fish the phone out of his pants as the ringtone Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" blared on, cracking up OSU's head coach and players. The ringtone also made BYU AD Tom Holmoe chuckle, "Couldn't he find something more manly than that?"

e-mail: dharmon@desnews.com