70 Comments

My thoughts on the game (and this is from reading since Pac-12 Network is not carried by Hulu / ESPN+, but Big 10 (BTN) and SEC are, is that Gulbranson will only get better. He is a freshman, but already is protecting the ball better than Nolan, and that matters! For a team with limited offensive talent (the Beavers), ball protection is the name of the game. I am sure the coaches are helping with play calling to cover inexperience. I have noted in the past that Coach Smith needs a better Portal Game to build this team up so that it earns the attention of 4 and 5 star high school recruits in the future. But no one can deny that without the benefit of the portal Smith has built the best defense this team has had since the Erickson teams, including the wise decision promoting Coach Bray to DC. So, the crib notes on this OSU football team is they reflect the grit of their head coach and out perform their limited skills. Smith has fixed their early season penalty and pass dropping problems (coaching!!) Coach Smith has created a winning culture in Corvallis, as we knew he would, and we LOVE it.

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I would love to see a great QB in Smith's system.

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VERY well said my man!!! This team has some character, and I am looking forward to watching them continue to grow and develop this season.

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They're a lot of fun... and defense is tough.

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Loved viewing the game. I would say this is the most complete game OSU has played, because it never felt like we were out of control (there was a bit vs. Boise State we were). I personally would like to see Ben start going for the rest of the season. Also keep in mind we have a 4 star QB recruit coming next year (knock on wood), which will make the QB camp interesting. I've posted takeaways on the CFB reddit and noted this time, I couldn't think of any negatives except maybe finishing more often. Also, I don't know who else was at Reser, but I was in the student section at about the 30 yard line terrace side, and there is a mic there for the crowd noise that gets replayed on the other speakers. I did not notice this anywhere else. As for rushing afterwards, we gave them the requested 60 seconds, but the reason why we rushed is because this was the last losing streak that's alive (streak is defined as 3 or more in this context). Now we hold winning streaks or have lost the last one to every P12 team. If we win next week, I expect the students to rush again due to the being bowl eligible in October rarity celebration. Also because Corvegas.

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Amen. There is always something to criticize with even the best of football teams. OSU's defense gave away long runs and passes to WSU, but countered that deficiency with all the sacks you mentioned... and playing clean (few penalties) also covers a large number of gridiron sins. Congrats to the Beavers--it is well deserved.

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Easy to nitpick.

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Gulbrandson clearly has talent, he's made a lot of progress even in two games. But he's also clearly a freshman and not as smooth or comfortable in his position yet. If he continues making progress he could turn into a great qb.

Martinez is also clearly a talented power runner and could also be the next great OSU RB. But he's also a freshman and needs to be better.at reading the line and gaps. Getting colleto and others to pull for him and getting the line out of his way was 100% a great game adjustment, this is going to get some serious results over the next few games if they keep it up.

Idk why we can't use velling and the other TE a bit more, or let colleto play te as he can catch and has the build as well. We need to stop trying to force throws into coverage and take some shorter yardage percentage throws both for the qb sake and to free up our receivers. Our receivers get bagged on as being weak but bolden and Gould are damn good athletes that I think are hampered by coverage and play calling.

Beavers have grit, and clearly want it. They want to go to Vegas they just have to keep playing like it.

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He's got some room to grow for sure.

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I still see a path to Vegas but we have to win out. No room for error. The USC game still stings. Nolan cost us big time. You know this is not personal for me but I never felt confident with Nolan at QB because it felt like he played scared. Last night I never felt uncomfortable. I was confident we would win. I have to think the Gully is the x factor.

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Margins are tight. Losing to Utah hurt. But there is a 8-9-10 win season out there if they want it.

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Staying within yourself and playing outside of the box: a great combo.

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Good sentence there. I like it.

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Ha! Well, I am also a professional... :-)

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Great column John, thanks for adding spice to the season that is becoming the best thrill ride in Oregon!

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It's really fun to cover this team.

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My nephew is on the scout team number 72 Nick Suing

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You've captured it. This is why the Beavers are the best team to follow in college football.

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A lot of fun.

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Great Article! Great Coach who is building a program from zero.

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The Beavs were the better team today. But if the two teams played next week without dropped Cougar passes, it might be exciting.

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Home field was huge. But the point is to win... and they did.

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Actually I was surprised Oregon State was able to win that game. It seemed like Washington State was playing better earlier in the season. It also seems like home field advantage is huge this year.

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I was surprised how easy the defense made it look.

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I think that win at Wisconsin is now proving to be not as impressive as Wisconsin looks to be down this year. Also you can't be so one dimensional as WSU was/is. You have to be able to run the ball more.

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While watching the game, I was saddened this was the last year for Colletto. He is such a key part of all three phases of the game. What becomes of us when he leaves?

But then I was comforted by the thought, the reason Colletto is such an impact player is because Smith knows how to use his pieces so well. He doesn;t try to make up for deficiencies, he doesn;t try to force a his method/scheme on guys.... he plays to the abilities of what he has, and that is what we saw on display last night... guys playing well because its what they do best, and Smith knew how to arrange the board to put them best to do what they do best. And that is what makes the Beavs such a great team :)

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He's filling a ton of holes. Good point. He'll have a solid little run in the NFL if he gets with the right team. He's not a high pick, but he'll make a roster.

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John, heck of a day for you. Two great columns on two great games. Rest up today, you’ve earned it!

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Thank you. So much fun. Thank you all for being here.

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After the game, I realized that Coach Smith and this team reminds me of the squads from the late 2000s and Mike Riley. The Rodgers brothers, etc......A gritty, well-coached team that didn't WOW you but handled their business against the better-talented teams.....the teams that beat USC in Corvallis three times.

GO BEAVS!!! My prediction is they'll be 8-4.

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That's a good observation.

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I predict they win out all the remaining games and go 10-2.. there is no reason they shouldn;t especially because the Civil Was is at Reser

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The ceiling is higher than ever in Smith's tenure.

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if we win out we could be in Vegas in December.

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They will be... if they win out.

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Riley did not recruit or coach defenses well. Smith will have better defensive teams and similar offensive teams. He played under Riley a couple years and Riley is a mentor. Smith had the 11-1 year under Erickson and that team was built on defense, so Smith knows the importance of D. Small and fast teams, built with 3 star recruits, are the reality for the Beavs, as they are the Cougars or the BSU Broncos. Maybe, if they can build a 4-5 year streak of 10 win seasons, they can compete with the Ducks and USC for the 4 and 5 star types, bigger and stronger while still fast.

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Coach needs to put Colletto in at long snapper and kicker for the next game. Heck maybe even for the same play. ; )

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HAAHAHAHAHAHAH... funny.

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The win at Stanford was a watershed moment and this team is only going to get stronger. Gully is the quarterback now and he played through a tough stretch last night and showed he actually can run! Sappington is a good kicker despite many in here who are saying otherwise. His kickoffs are on point and is is 4-6 on field goals. Martinez is a beast and he pounds the holes!

Gully, Sappington and Martinez are all Freshman and our running back corps will all return next year along with Griffin and Fewick!

I think the future looks very bright and Smith should be very careful when using the 'Portal' We need to protect who we have and continue to recruit and develop from within.

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Winners win because they do...

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The greatest team in Beavers history, the 2000 team that Smith QB'd, was built on the equivalent of the portal. Erickson was a master of using Juco transfers to build that team (and his nationally ranked Miami teams before that). When your program is based in Corvallis and you have had years of losing history, you must build a dynastic tradition to attract big city 4 and 5 star athletes to your program. The Ducks did that, with a big boost from Phil Knight and Nike. But Nike was popular for decades before Knight helped turn around the Ducks' program. They were a 2 to 5 win program (under Rich Brooks) until the mid 90s and did not recruit any better than the Beavers

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Rich Brooks took over a program in 1977 that had only one winning season in the prior 12 years. While he had 4 2 win seasons in his first six years, he also had winning records in years 3 and 4, including a big win over the Huskies in Seattle when they were a true national power.

He coached 18 years and one half of his teams had winning records, all before the mid-1990's. His last 6 teams included 4 bowl games and 3 seasons of 8 or more wins, which for long suffering fans like me, were a lot of fun.

With all due respect to the Beavers, there was no real comparison quality wise between the two programs during the Rich Brooks era. Brooks managed to win 46% of his games during that era (and 55% in his last 5 years) while OSU won 22% during that 18 year stretch.

Whereas Brooks managed to have winning seasons in 1979 and 1980 (his 3d and 4th years), OSU did not have a winning season, once the Brooks era started, until 1998, or twenty years after Brooks put one together at Oregon.

In the 10 years before Brooks arrived at Oregon, the Ducks won 35% of their games and OSU 39%. One team started moving in one direction under Brooks and the other bottomed out, to be charitable.

OSU's record during that era was about as close to the worst winning percentage in college football without actually being last (they were second to last).

In many ways, that history makes OSU's recent accomplishments all the more memorable. They are now a program who can play with and beat anyone on any given day, which is what Brooks did for Oregon.

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You completely missed the point, which if you are a hardcore Duck fan is very understandable. I wasn't drawing a comparison between the Brooks' Ducks and the Avezzano Beavers. I was pointing out that Eugene does not naturally draw 4 and 5 star athletes any more than Corvallis does. Neither program has any natural advantage in recruiting. That advantage must be created by the head coach, AD and boosters (aka Phil Knight). The Brooks years even the 2nd half, were not dynastic and recruits were mostly 3 stars, just like where the Beavers are now, which will get you a 6-8 win season in the Pac 12, if you have good coaching. In the late 70s, 80s and early 90s, the Beavers were routinely stacking their roster with 2 stars and many NRs. You have to do special things, like aggressively recruit Jucos or the Portal to break out of that funk, unless you are in Los Angeles or Seattle and have a big-city draw with big feeder HS programs. That was my point.

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"They were a 2 to 5 win program (under Rich Brooks) until the mid 90s and did not recruit any better than the Beavers."

I believe those were your exact words and Oregon clearly, based upon results under the Brooks era, recruited much much better than the Beavers.

The Beavers were literally one of the worst teams in college football during the Brooks era and Oregon was in the middle, so to speak.

That wasn't just coaching, it was also recruiting. OSU actually had some decent coaches during that era and couldn't win with them if their lives depended upon it.

That is the comment I was responding to, which should have been obvious from the focus of my response. The Rich Brooks era.

As for the NIKE era, you state the obvious with regards to Oregon, I didn't disagree with it and hence, didn't discuss it in my post.

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Here is an article to help you understand. And this was Phase 2. I will see if I can find a Phase 1, mid 80s story as well: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/pac12/2014/12/29/oregon-nike-phil-knight-college-football-playoff/21013009/

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You can try all you want to misdirect, but I am not taking the bait. Phil Knight got personally involved in the football program around 1985 and began pumping money into the Ducks facilities and recruiting, building a new training facility, offering a team jet, etc. Plus, he upped the advertising game to feature Nike with the Ducks uniforms which got a lot of national attention. That is what changed the direction of the Ducks program. Until then, the two were almost identical in performance (the Beavers a little worse because Andros was a terrible AD). My point is that Brooks was no better a recruiter or coach than Avezzano, until Phil Knight's involvement. The money pumped into a program, the quality of the coaching and the AD front office, is what determines the recruiting and performance of the team. Got it?

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What bait, Brian.

Seriously?

This is a mostly friendly chat room and you seem to think this is Fox News on steroids.

I'm not wasting anymore time with you.

My point was not to rile you up, which I clearly did.

It was to disagree with your obviously incorrect comments regarding the Rich Brooks era as compared to OSU's performance.

That's it.

No bait, Brian-just a comment.

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And it is always good form to 2nd guess the coach. John, did you agree with Smith's decision to kick a FG at 3 minutes on 4th and 1 on the WSU 18? I thought he might, though the kicker, Sappington, is not very good. A 17 point lead would be insurmountable with 3 minutes left. But I hoped Coach Smith would go for it with Colletto. How many times have defenses stopped Colletto on a 1 yard keeper? Then they could have run out the clock and not given WSU an opening. It didn't matter, but an interesting decision.

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Colletto is money.

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I agree in the short term... but Smith is always looking long term. He has to get his kicker confident in kicking, and I think that is what that was about. The game was near won, and we need a kicker to feel confident and practiced in in upcoming games where those three points might make all the difference

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I agree with this. good strategy. playing for another day.

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Yeah I agree, they really needed one more score if you ask me just to put that statement out there, but there were so many tools to get one yard I can't believe they went with sappington who's just miserable

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I just don't get why you think Sappington is not a good kicker. He is 4/6 and his free kicks are on point. He can kick it out of the End Zone or to the 1 yard line to force a return.

he is a Freshman. I believe in him and I think Smith does also or he wouldn't throw him out there.

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He's 5 for 7 apparently, so better than I thought. forgot the one miss got erased and replaced with the TD run.and I think another miss got rekicked due to penalty. I know I've seen at least 4 misses. Maybe it's just the ones he's missed could have really turned the games so it feels worse, and missing from the 25 doesn't seem like it should happen. But my point still stands on this one, things were clicking I don't think a kick was the right call, specially with the team buying in. I'm with you though, he's got a good leg and kicks well, potential for sure. Maybe it was good for his confidence down the road but I'd take the run and 1st down.

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I went back and checked FGs missed that I remember...one was by Everett Hayes at the end of Q3 in the USC game (which I remember thinking would be critical at the end of the game, as it was). So that one was not on Sappington. I also remembered a missed EP. Both Hayes and Sappington missed EPs. Hayes was only 2 for 5 on FGs, so it is more his performance than Sappington that has hurt this year. And Hayes has no range with nothing longer than 23 yds and 3 misses over 30. But neither have been great kickers. Neither have 40+ range, which is HS level, or even 50 yd range, which all good FBS teams seem to have

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Yeah I'm likely thinking the USC game/misses from Hayes was him, just too many misses in general though. I think he has the leg, but needs some accuracy work.

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