Beavers' future glowing bright
34-24.
That is what the scoreboard at Reser Stadium read on a very dark, stormy, and wet night in Corvallis. In my life, I have never seen Reser Stadium that wet in a game.
But it didn’t matter.
Behind Ryan Nall, the Beavers played smash mouth football and dared Oregon to stop their rushing attack.
Newsflash, they didn’t. And if you were a Duck fan, it was a feeling of helplessness.
Let me paint a picture of what it being an Oregon Duck defender felt like in the second half. It was like you were a sixth grade pop warner team trying to stop Jerome Bettis. The Beavers pulled a page from Stanford’s playbook and ran the ball 21 straight times in the second half, and the Ducks knew all 21 of them were coming, but were pushed around by OSU’s massive offensive line.
The Beavers broke the seemingly unbreakable streak against the Oregon Ducks by running the ball down their throats over and over again. In the words of Gary Andersen, it was big boy football, and the Beavers executed it to perfection.
The rain, the pending winter darkness, none of it could spoil the mood of those orange clad fans who stayed through the torrential downpour in the second half. Their reward for being soaked to the bone? Storming the field and surrounding a Beaver football team that has some positive vibes heading into next season.
Now let's be clear, it's not like the Beavers are going to be in the Rose Bowl next season. They still have a long way to go in order to win consistently in the tough Pac-12 conference. But there was a stark difference between the two 4-8 teams that left Reser Stadium Saturday night.
VID: Gary Andersen post Civil War
The Ducks left the game 4-8 as well, but the stigma around their program couldn’t be anymore toxic. As head coach Mark Helfrich said after the game, “Nobody’s job is safe in college football.” The Ducks are still weathering that storm that engulfed Reser Stadium on Saturday, and who knows when they will be able to see sunshine again in Eugene.
Meanwhile, Beavers left the game with their second straight win, and broke the eight game losing streak against the Ducks, with a ton of promise for their future led by Gary Andersen and playmaking leaders Ryan Nall and Marcus McMaryion. Not too mention OSU’s youth is extremely impressive offensively and defensively. They have a ton of budding young talent that could springboard them in the coming seasons.
“It’s big momentum, you love those opportunities to be able to flip things as you continue to go forward,” Andersen said. “It absolutely has to help the growth of your program and it should help recruiting too. If you want big time college football and you want to play in the Pac-12, then you want a big time college environment.”
The Beavers had several big name recruits on the sideline for the Civil War, some already committed and some that were just weighing their options. Andersen took a chance, bringing a large number of visitors to a game that either team could win. But the boom-or-bust decision from Andersen will most likely pay big dividends in the coming weeks on the recruiting trail.
“You won’t find a better spot as far as that environment, it was intense, energetic and it was a great game, Andersen said. “It It was a great weekend for the (recruits) that were here and there were some big time guys that were here.”
OSU will graduate seniors that played a huge role in this seasons effort. Gone are the likes of Gavin Andrews, Sean Harlow, Dustin Stanton, Victor Bolden, Devin Chappell, and Caleb Saulo to name a few. These were all Mike Riley recruits that bought into what Andersen was selling when he arrived here, and it is almost fitting that they got to leave that rain soaked field with Beaver Nation surrounding them.
Time will tell what is the next step for this football program. Will they be able to continue to make strides under Andersen and assert themselves into the upper echelon of the Pac-12? Or will they struggle to break into the upper half of the conference and settle for middle tier bowl games similar to what the Beavers were in their peak under Mike Riley.
I tend to think the Beavers are aiming for the upper echelon of the Pac-12 and if Colorado can do it so quickly, why can’t the Beavers? It’s a bold statement, but the Beavers made a statement themselves by winning the Civil War and giving Beaver nation something in the future to look forward to.
The future with Andersen at the helm, is getting brighter day-by-day.