Oregon State Beavers Football: Monday Notebook

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1. Michael Alfieri who? The redshirt freshman walk-on, who is listed as a wide receiver, did not play the first four games of the season, but has played in the past six, mainly on special teams. But on Saturday against Stanford, Alfieri, who is the brother of 2020 OSU target Andy Alfieri, OSU football recruiting assistant Anthony Alfieri, and Stanford linebacker Joey Alfieri, had four rushes for 22 yards. Who saw that coming? Although he played just 16 snaps, Alfieri was OSU's highest graded offensive player at 73.1.

2. The defensive grades... cover your eyes. Yikes. The Beavers didn't have a single defensive player grade over 70 and had five starters grade under 60. (60 is considered on the low end of "average.") Tackling, run defense, and pass rush grades for the Beavs all around were pretty bad too. Just nothing really positive to report except for my next takeaway.

3. Elu Aydon has played well this season. He played 36 snaps off the bench and had a team high in run defense with a strong grade of 76.1. Take a guess at who Oregon State's highest graded overall defender has been this season? Yup, Elu Aydon. Surprising but good to see. He's only missed two tackles this season and has a season run defense grade of 79.0.

4. Artavis Pierce isn't seeing much of the field. He played just 20 snaps against USC and 14 snaps against Stanford. I get that Jermar Jefferson is fantastic, but AP is way too good of a player to be on the bench so much. Michael Alfieri played more snaps than Pierce against the Cardinal! Brian Lindgren has to figure something out to get both JJ and AP on the field. Two back sets, put one of these talented RB's in the slot and throw them screen passes. Something, anything.

5. Jake Luton's passing chart wasn't his best. (The number in the top right of each box is Luton's offensive grade throwing to that area of the field)

Jefferson ran for 109 yards on 19 carries against Stanford, which put him at 1,201 rushing yards on the season. He moved to 11th on the all-time OSU single season rushing yards list.

Jefferson has cooled off the past few weeks. He hasn't scored since his four TD performance against Washington State on October 6 and has 336 rushing yards in his past four games. Those aren't bad numbers, but they pale in comparison to the monstrous numbers he was putting up earlier in the year.

He needs just 14 rushing yards to pass Yvenson Bernard (2007) on the single-season rushing list, and my guess is that Jefferson will finish with around 1,400 yards on the season, putting him at No. 6 in school history.

Bradford has been a model of consistency for Oregon State this season. He's caught 47 of 67 targets (70.1%) for 516 yards and six touchdowns in nine games (didn't play against Nevada). He's dropped just one pass this season and 251 of his receiving yards have come after the catch. Bradford has been a big play receiver for the Beavers in 2018.

The following true freshman have played in more than four games and will not be able to redshirt this season: Matthew Tago (10), Isaiah Smalls (10), John McCartan (10), Jermar Jefferson (9), Kase Rogers (6), Isaiah Tufaga (9), Teagan Quitoriano (8), Isaac Hodgins (9)

The following freshman are still on track to redshirt this season: Deson Wilson (2), Jesiah Irish (3), I'Shawn Stewart (0), Jaden Robinson (2), Bradley Bickler (0), Riley Sharp (2), Jake Levengood (1), Keishon Dawkins (0)

In parentheses, amount of games played this season

At 7-3, this has been a down season by Washington's standards, but they still have a great chance to make the Pac-12 Championship game, and they'd probably be a touchdown favorite against whoever comes out of the South (ASU or Utah).

Washington's losses this season were by five points to Auburn, three points to Oregon, and two points to Cal. All three were either on the road or at a neutral site, which means that the Beavers have a tough task in going to Seattle to try to pull of an insurmountable upset. The Huskies opened as a 31 point favorite against Oregon State.

The game will kick off at 1:30 p.m. PT on the Pac-12 Network. Stay tuned for more coverage of the game throughout the week on BeaversEdge.com.

As a fan of the Pac-12, you want to see Washington State make the CFP. Since it started in 2015, the Pac-12 has only reached the CFP twice (Oregon, Washington) and you'd like to see the Conference of Champions send a team every year.

Washington State is the Pac-12's last hope to make the CFP this season, as the Cougs are a one-loss team. They will need to win out to make it, and that's doable, as they face Arizona and Washington at home, and then would play in the Pac-12 Championship Game if they beat the Huskies.

Just how long of a shot is it? Well, let's look at the one loss teams that are ranked ahead of WSU. Michigan still has to play Ohio State. Georgia has to play Alabama. Oklahoma still has to play West Virginia. LSU has two losses so they shouldn't even be ranked ahead of WSU, and the Cougs will jump them eventually.

But if Ohio State and West Virginia do win those contests, could they, who are also one loss teams, jump the Cougars? It's possible.

All in all, if WSU wins out, they have a shot at the CFP.

November 17

Utah @ Colorado - 10:30 am PT Pac-12 Networks

USC @ UCLA - 12:30 pm PT FOX

Oregon State @ Washington - 1:30 pm PT Pac-12 Networks

Stanford @ Cal - 4:30 pm PT Pac-12 Networks

Arizona State @ Oregon - 7:30 pm PT Pac-12 Networks

Arizona @ Washington State - 7:30 pm PT ESPN

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Pac-12 North

Washington State 9-1 (6-1 Pac-12)

Washington 7-3 (5-2)

Stanford 6-4 (4-3)

Cal 6-4 (3-4)

Oregon 6-4 (3-4)

Oregon State 2-8 (1-6)

Pac-12 South

Utah 7-3 (5-3)

Arizona State 6-4 (4-3)

Arizona 5-5 (4-3)

USC 5-5 (4-4)

Colorado 5-5 (2-5)

UCLA 2-8 (2-5)