By Eric Edholm
April 22, 2008

Roy Schuening

Oregon State OG Roy Schuening is everything you want in an offensive guard: tough, hardworking, dependable and consistent. He started every game in his career in Corvallis — 50 consecutive — and is rated as one of the best power players in this draft class. The son of a high school teacher and a farmer and Oregon State walk-on player, Schuening learned his work ethic from his parents living on a farm in Pendleton, Oregon — about 200 miles east of Portland.

The Beavers were 4-0 in bowl games the past four seasons, including a win in the Emerald Bowl this year against Maryland and a dramatic, comeback victory over Missouri in the Sun Bowl two seasons ago. Schuening, who lists hunting and fishing as his passions outside of football, took a few minutes to chat with PFW about farming, his athletic father, OSU alum Chad Johnson, rooting for the Seahawks and Tombstone — the movie, not the pizza.

PFW: What kind of farm did you grow up on?

Schuening: It was mostly wheat, but also alfalfa.

PFW: What were some of the chores you had to do on the farm? Any heavy machinery?

Schuening: Using tractors, plowing fields, picking up and stacking hay bales and lots of other stuff.

PFW: What was the town and your high school like?

Schuening: There are 17,000 people in Pendleton, Oregon. There were about 900 kids in my high school. For that area, it’s pretty big.

PFW: What do you hunt?

Schuening: Oh, usually pheasant, duck, deer and elk.

PFW: And what about fishing?

Schuening: I really like trout fishing, but I am starting to get into fly fishing.

PFW: How good a player was your dad?

Schuening: He was a great athlete. He didn’t have the same opportunities that I have had. Sports weren’t as big back then, at least not in his family, and he started playing football in high school, I think as a junior. He wrestled for three years and went to nationals his senior years and got sixth (place). In football he was an offensive and defensive lineman.

PFW: Your mom was a teacher. How tough was she in the classroom?

Schuening: I never had her. She always taught in a different town. It was about half an hour from Pendleton. But I was in her classroom a few times. She’s pretty strict. She never was with us kids (he has two sisters). When she gets around her students, she keeps them in line. It’s totally flipping a switch with her. She was never like that at home.

PFW: What schools showed the most interest in you in high school? And what did you like best about Oregon State?

Schuening: Oregon, Washington State, Oregon State and Portland State all offered me (scholarships). My dad went to Oregon State and I grew up listening to them and watching them, so that was a big factor. And Coach (Dennis) Erickson was there at the time, and he had such a good résumé. I really liked his staff, and I knew going in I was going to have the opportunity to start early, or at least play a lot early. So it just worked out perfectly; it was a perfect fit.

PFW: Have you ever met Chad Johnson?

Schuening: No, I haven’t. I don’t think …

PFW: I think you’d know if you did. He’s hard to forget.

Schuening: (laughs). He came to our Cincinnati game last year, but I haven’t seen him around Oregon State.

PFW: Do you think you could be a teammate with a guy like Chad?

Schuening: Yeah, you know, everybody’s got a different personality, and obviously I don’t really know him. So he’s got his way of going about things, and the majority of people are a little different. That’s what he chooses to do, so …

PFW: The  Sun Bowl play — down one with almost no time left, you just scored a touchdown, and instead of tying it up and sending it to overtime, you go for two and win it. I have to tell you, as a Mizzou grad, that hurt me pretty badly.

Schuening: (laughs) I bet!

PFW: Talk me through the play. Did you think the coaches were going to go for two?

Schuening: I was asking for it. We had a game in the past against LSU where we should have gone for two but didn’t and ended up losing. We could have won it at the end of the game. And we weren’t exactly stopping Missouri’s offense, so it might have gotten into a shootout in overtime. All of us, Coach (Mike) Riley, Yvenson Bernard, everyone was saying, “Ok, let’s win it right here.” The play that we ran, we had some good success with earlier in the game, and so we called it. It was a play where I pulled around and lead-blocked in the hole.

PFW: Well you had to be excited when they called for a run right behind you.

Schuening: Yeah, I was just sitting there going, “OK, don’t fall down.”

PFW: I was hoping you were going to fall down! The Corvallis Gazette Times named you the team’s offensive MVP this season. Does that mean that the lunchpail guys are finally getting their due?

Schuening: I got named MVP?

PFW: Yeah!

Schuening: Damn!

PFW: You had no idea, huh?

Schuening: I had no idea. (laughs) Wow. I am going to have to call those guys and tell them, "thank you." Well, there was a lot of hard work that went into it. That’s quite the honor to get because we’ve got some great players. But I was fortunate enough never to get hurt.

PFW: Of those 50 consecutive starts, was there one you almost didn’t make because of injury?

Schuening: Not necessarily due to injury, but it was more because I got pneumonia halfway through this season. And luckily enough, it happened on my bye week. The doctors said I wouldn’t play (the next week). So naturally, I had to prove them wrong. Prove to them that they are idiots. (laughs) I had to keep the streak going. Yeah, I went and played (against Stanford), and it wasn’t as bad as they thought.

PFW: Do you have a preference for the left or right side? Is footwork the biggest difference?

Schuening: You know, I switched around at the Senior Bowl, and that was fine. But I have played the right (side) the majority of my college career, so obviously I am going to be a little bit more comfortable there, but I could play either side and not have a problem with it.

PFW: What was the most interesting interview you had with a team, either at the Combine, at the Senior Bowl or at another visit?

Schuening: Not necessarily. My agent (Derrick Fox) did a great job of preparing me for it, but it was really cool that I got to sit down at the Combine with the Seahawks, the team I grew up watching, and to meet Coach (Mike) Holmgren. That was cool, especially coming from the Northwest.

PFW: Did you think there was some questionable refereeing in the Super Bowl a few years ago?

Schuening: Uh, yeah. Don’t even get me started on that.

PFW: If you weren’t a football player, what do you think you would want to do for a living?

Schuening: Farm.

PFW: What’s your best sport other than football? And let’s assume for argument's sake that hunting and fishing are not sports …

Schuening: OK. (laughs) I guess just because I did it in high school, I would say track. But baseball is my favorite sport outside of football.

PFW: Team you grew up following?

Schuening: I grew up watching the Atlanta Braves.

PFW: On TBS?

Schuening: Yeah. We only had a couple of channels, and they were on one of the channels, and I loved baseball when I was young.

PFW: Have you traveled much?

Schuening: I have been to Hawaii once, and I thought it was beautiful. But I don’t travel a whole lot.

PFW: Country music performer you most want to see in concert? I know you like country because of your cell phone music (it plays "International Harvester" by Craig Morgan while you wait for him to pick up).

Schuening: (laughs) Yeah! I’d say Garth Brooks.

PFW: Name one Beavers player you are absolutely certain you can beat in a 40-yard dash.

Schuening: Kyle DeVan.

PFW: Wow, you said that without even hesitating. What has he run?

Schuening: Well, actually (laughs) … I shouldn’t say that for certain. He actually ran faster than I did, but I didn’t run at the Pro Day. But if he and I were lined up to race each other, I would beat him.

PFW: Pride would take over.

Schuening: Exactly!

PFW: What movie you have seen the most times?

Schuening: Tombstone.

PFW: Great flick. What do you like best about it?

Schuening: Just all the characters, the storyline. I am a big Western fan. And a Wyatt Earp fan.

PFW: Where will you be on Draft Day?

Schuening: We are having a little get-together in Pendelton. I am just going to be hanging out there, waiting.

PFW: Any gut feeling on what might happen?

Schuening: You know, I have no idea. I could go anywhere from the second to the fifth round. But all I care about it is falling into the right situation, the right team and that would make me happy. I hope to make a long career of it.

PFW: And then you have farming to go back to when it’s over.

Schuening: Sounds good to me.