Beavers ready for Beau Baldwin's offense

The former Eastern Washington head coach and current Cal offensive coordinator strolled into Reser Stadium with the likes of Vernon Adams Jr. and current Los Angeles Ram Cooper Kupp and kicked the Beaver defense around like they were a high school team.

Granted, that OSU team went on to go 7-6, won the Hawaii Bowl and had the likes of Sean Mannion and Brandin Cooks, but they couldn’t stop Baldwin’s offense.

That was the last time that a Baldwin team faced Oregon State.

Flash forward to today where the Beavers will once again take on Baldwin, but this time, he’s the OC at a Cal.

Baldwin does a tremendous job of tailoring an offense to the personnel that he possesses, and that’s a trait that Oregon State defensive coordinator Kevin Clune has seen in Baldwin from back when they used to go head-to-head in the Big Sky when Baldwin was at EWU and Clune was at Weber State.

“I have a lot of respect for Beau Baldwin,” Clune said. “We had some Big Sky battles way back in the day, 10-15 years ago. I really respect him. He’s a great offensive mind and he’ll find a way to get yards and get points no matter what his personnel is. Going forward, Cal has a gem at offensive coordinator.”

While Cal hasn’t been a powerhouse on offense this season, they’ve won big games including a massive upset against then unbeaten Washington State. However, since then, they’ve been winless. Despite the inconsistency, Clune expects Cal’s best effort on Saturday.

“We are counting on them being the best that they can be,” Clune said. “We aren’t going to count on them being up, down, or sideways. They are going to come out and give us their best. It’s a home game for them and I know they want this and have a lot of juice and fire.”

Beaver fans won’t want to hear it, but Baldwin has to see this game as an opportunity to showcase his skills as an OC as he has been long rumored to be in the running to be the next Oregon State head coach.

“(Cal’s) schemes will be sound and the throw game will be right there,” Clune said. “(Baldwin’s) offense has been adjusted to their personnel very well. Going forward with CAL, whatever personnel they go with, I’m sure it will be a solid scheme with good tricks here and there and using everyone to the best of their abilities.”

The Golden Bears have transformed their offense in Baldwin’s first season. After largely having elements of the ‘Air Raid’ under Sonny Dykes, the Bears have now moved to a spread formation with a lot of different quirks.

“Everybody has to be on the same page,” OSU linebacker Jonathan Willis said. “If we go foot to foot against Cal, I believe that we will come out with the win.”

Safety David Morris, who missed last week's matchup with Stanford, is excited to get back on the field and take on a really aggressive Cal offense.

“They are really good in the passing game,” Morris said. “Their receivers are pretty decent and run really good routes. We just have to lock it down in the secondary and let the d-line and linebackers stop it up front.”

One thing working in the Beavers favor as they face off with Baldwin is that OSU played perhaps their best defensive game of the season against Stanford last week. If the Beavers can continue to build on those defensive strides, they will be putting themselves in a great position to get their first Pac-12 win.

“The run game was squared away, and third down defense was good and in the red zone we had a couple of stops,” Clune said. “There were a lot of good things and the kids were into it and understood what the next plays were going to be. We are going to always come out and keep improving. Every Saturday it has to be an improvement.”