Home Football Bowl Game: Oregon State vs Notre Dame

Bowl Game: Oregon State vs Notre Dame

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The interesting things about this game will be watching new, younger players and coaches. I’m excited to see BG get a start, new coaches who hopefully understand 4th down better, etc.

Terrible start time. It’s in the 50s today and I want to get out on the bike. Gonna try to do both; we’ll see how this goes.

I think you have to like Notre Dame to win it given our situation. But it looks like they had a lot of key players opt out. Could be an ugly game.

34-24, someone? I’m going to go wild here and say BG plays with his hair on fire given he’s the player who got screwed the most.

270 COMMENTS

  1. ND has a qb with little experience and will lean on the running backs. If OSU can stop the run, ND will struggle to move the ball too. I’m concerned about the o-line issue for OSU, but I think the offense will be effective and less predictable without Lindgren calling plays, so a net win for the Beavs. Hopefully we see some variety in the types of running plays, fly sweeps with Bolden a few times would be nice, bubble screen, qb keeper, and misdirection all need to be part of the approach. The good thing about BG is they won’t rely on a 6 sec route tree for a 30 yard sideline jump ball to a 5’9″ wr as the staple to the passing game. BG will have his moment and the team will rally around him as the true locker room leader in a bounce back game.

    Beavs 27- ND 16
    Go Beavs!

    And JS is a loser for what he did to this season and how he quit on this team.
    WSU (agent was already in contact with MSU that week and JS was distracted),
    UA (JS likely had his in person interview during the bye week leading up to UA game, distracted again) and
    Oregon (announced to the team during the week he was leaving, against the warnings of the coaching staff).
    I think the UW game was just a dogfight but JS was already gone mentally too.

    • I heard Mike Parker on the radio this morning. He was asked about the new staff with ties to the program. He also talked about their ties to the Fiesta Bowl team. He talked about everyone by name except for the qb that won mvp of the bowl game. I don’t think that was by accident.

  2. Wouldn’t want to be Vegas in this one. It’s very unpredictable with both teams missing all their key guys on offense.

    ND offense has a lot of guys getting their first starts ever.

    QB has only seen mop up duty this year.
    Top RB is out but backups look good
    OLine is missing both tackles.
    Top 3 WRs are out. Most catches by the new starters is 16 for 252 yards. Behind the new starters have pretty much zero catches.
    Top TE is out, the two players listed on the depth chart have 3 combined catches

    ND defense has nearly all their guys playing and they had a very good defense.

    Beavs offense looks shaky. They’ll have to be creative to move the ball. Hoping to see more pre snap motion.

    Beavs defense looks good. Should expect them to get a lot of pressure on passing downs.

    Big disadvantage for the Beavs is the coaching staff. A lot of fill ins and guys who haven’t been on field coaches before. Will need to keep procedural errors to a minimum.

    My prediction, it’ll be a lot of handoffs and a lot of commercials today.

  3. Fen and Newell need to run hard. They may not get a lot of yards, but need to protect the ball and break a few to keep moving chains. Fen has seemed quicker this year, and i’m hoping he breaks a few. Hell, he might even hurdle someone….

    I wonder with the lack of TEs if there will he some 5 receiver sets w/Gulbranson getting rid of the ball quickly?
    Terry will get a lot of reps today though.

    I don’t think this team will be intimidated by ND.

  4. Beavs with a win could finish as a top 15 team in the final polls.

    NC State lost, Louisville lost,

    K State unlikely to pass, Ok St might, SMU lost, Liberty unlikely to win,

    Will need Wisconsin to beat LSU, and probably Tennessee to beat Iowa.

  5. Weather looks to be 58 and sunny. Little to no wind.

    2008 Sun Bowl had a lot of wind which kept the throwing to a minimum but let Hekker kick 60 yard punts and get the game MVP

  6. Wow, Mike Parker, in his pregame interview with Kefense: “. . . the previous coach, and we all know who he is . . .” He ain’t gonna say the name. Good for him.

    • 1
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      Like how many panning shots obscured by the field goal uprights do we need? Or fisheye camera lense shots?
      Or shots from field turf level?
      Feels like the production team wanta to wina filmography award for their bowl game work

  7. GB a little out of sync, throws put receivers out of rhythm. Expect him to settle in, but we are going to need RB to block in run protection to pick up blitzers…ND bringing the house.

  8. Well, hopefully they have the 1st drive jitters out of their system. That was way too easy for ND on offense and defense. Chisom looked a little lost on that td pass. In zone and his back was turned away from qb focusing on a guy that was double covered already. Needs to back peddle being in that small of a zone vs a full turn and run. Little disappointing that the defense struggled so much on that drive considering we have more of the normal starters there vs on offense.

  9. We are close to putting drives together. Fenwick has been positive yardage up the middle, and the short dink and dunk will be there as long as ND keeps pinning its ears back. The sweep/trying to string out their D is not it.

  10. Pretty much what I expected coming into this game. The run blocking isn’t great and the pass blocking is really struggling. They need to do some hard count’s because they’re jumping the snap every time.

  11. One run. Positive yardage. It’s like we just read all the articles about how our line would be manhandled. And now the fake punt giving them field position to score before the half. That should have been a run heavy set, milk the clock down and worst case go in down one score. FFS.

  12. Bad idea to fake there. Pin them back and you might get a break.
    Now they may go up 2 scores. Feels like a desperate move but if it had worked of course good gamble. Too bad. I thought we had moved on from those goofy calls.

  13. 4
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    A fake punt with a run to the short side and 9 defenders waiting at midfield on 4th & 6 is a look they thought they had on film?
    Cookus should pick his bags and go to Michigan ST.

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      It’s not good when guys are flying by trying to tackling with shoulder hits and looking like they don’t realize they have arms to help with tackling more effectively.

      I hope Bray actually reviews film and benches guys who like try for big hits rather than make the
      Tackle.

  14. Defense is getting worn down. Having issues wrapping up.

    All of these pass concepts are too familiar. I understand what Kefense said in the interview with being confident in the players and scheme, but with such a talent disparity and a month to prepare you’ve got to come up with a new plan of attack, ESPECIALLY when you abandon the run game.

  15. Beavs are playing hard, I was hoping they were just shaking off the rust early – the first ND drive in the second half will be the ball game. They will need a stop. A turnover or two would help. Overall – the lines look they lost a good 250 pounds of experience.

    • My thoughts exactly. Multiple play killing calls on Beavs. Plenty of opportunity to throw the flag on ND. Take your choice. Late hits and holding a plenty.

      Defense is getting exhausted. Looking rough to finish.

    • NB I think its the same cheesey ruling they used in the ucla game when apparently the punter runs outside “ the box” the rule doesn’t apply. That was my understanding anyway.

  16. Well – that’s ballgame – Hope we avoid the shutout though. Liked the effort, but I’m hoping we get some reenforcements going forward. Strength and conditioning is going to be big this off-season – it has to be.

  17. How many freshman are out there on D? 4or 5? It shows. Offense has given a piss poor showing and it starts with the play calling.

  18. It will be interesting to see how Bray addresses these many issues this offseason. I know you have to be able to block, but I hope they open up the offense a little more.

  19. DeVan has his work cut out for him. Losing Levengood in addition to all of the other guys not playing. Could possibly get Bloomfield and Brewer back for another year. But still a ton of depth and experience will need to be replaced from a line that had years to gel.

  20. Tough day for the offense. Third string QB. Top 3 receiving options out, Jack V/Gould/Bolden. Martinez and Fenwick out now. No Fuaga/Brewer/Gray/Bloomfield. I understand sitting out, hope fenwick’s injury isn’t serious.

    Defense doing what they can. E M-A and Arnold departure really hurting. DB has been a shit show all year with Injuries and the recent transfer. Melvin, Chisom and Kitan playing hard.

    The penalties are stacking. Outside of delay of game, what’s been called on ND today? Serious question, not looking to make excuses. Just struggling to think of anything so far.

  21. I dont disagree and think that probably was a safety, but if tulhe official make the opposite call, a replay has to show clear evidence it was wrong. There was no camera angle that showed evidence of the spot. Official just winging it today

  22. 6
    3

    How does anybody discern anything positive out of this hot mess? As it looks with this personnel, we are at most, a mid-tier MWC team. What looked so promising at the start of the year sure turned pretty rotten. I figured, while not maybe winning this game, we should have been able to put up a few points. 1 yard rushing???

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      False. No one ever thought he was the heir apparent or anything. He was just another Lindgren recruit that may or may not have turned into anything.

  23. Proud of how they kept playing even though they were so obviously outmatched, the most Beav way to put up 8 otherwise meaningless points.

    Now back to business, getting through the last few days of the Portal window and getting ready for winter workouts and whole new era of Beav football.

  24. I’m not sure if ND’s two’s were that good or the Beavs that bad. The one constant I’m concerned about is the missed tackles. Bray couldn’t fix it this year, so I don’t know what will change next season. It seems to be philosophical or cultural because it’s a lot of different players using poor technique. Probably gave ND 50-100 extra yards today. Hopefully, Heyward-Johnson has some solutions.

  25. Wanted to check how former Beavs were doing who left the hoops squad. Lucas is lighting it up for Nevada. Glen Taylor Jr. not doing much with St. Johns. It’s one of the things that bugs me in the Tinkle era – fans will buy the “we’re young” bit for a year, but to see players develop just a bit – then bolt is incredibly frustrating. There is no payoff for this program. At least the women’s team is decent this year.

  26. 1
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    Just got word that my Sun Bowl hoodie has shipped! I will wear it with pride. Honestly, these made to order sites offer a better selection and better prices than you’d get at the bookstore.

    • Agreed, brutal. Let’s see what happens next year with a full coaching staff and an off-season of reshuffling. We might be a weaker product overall, but our schedule is definitely easier.

    • Brutal and totally outmatched, but some of the young guys got got great work in (Vaslin, Chisom, Jordan, Caufield).

      A poor showing by the O-Line reserves aside from the play of the game from the Regis walk-on. Wells and Christian-Lichtenhan are good additions but need to get some more help from the Portal and some big development out of the guys coming back if they really want to be serious about making a run next fall.

      All in all, wasn’t surprised by the outcome and loved how they fought even though it was so ugly, true Beavs all around.

      Interested to see what the Offense might look like coming up here in spring ball, the QB’s they’ve brought in suggest a move back to more of a Spread/RPO style that we haven’t really seen at OSU aside from the forgettable GA experiments.

      • Ha ha, caught my attention when you said “Regis walk-on” since I went to highschool there. I guess that’s something to smile about after an otherwise ugly game.

  27. It was weird seeing the team completely outmatched for two straight games after such a tough loss to Washington. What a difference a few short weeks make in this day and age of college football. The team was on the opposite side of that last season.

  28. I thought the young secondary played fairly well. Gave up a few big plays on blown coverage but they were in great position for most of the game. Tackling is where the major concern is. Hopefully that can improve with time and building some muscle. Early in Traitor Smith’s tenure, we weren’t even in good positions defensively and had awful tackling so ideally we can get better at the tackling. If Robinson comes back, Julian is healthy, Skyler Thomas fully recovers, that’s a good 3 piece and perhaps Ivy, Jordan, Swen or Noble Thomas can make up the final 2 spots of the rotation.

    ILB seems to be in good spot with Chisom and Jordan. OLB is a question mark. Maybe the Wyoming xfer makes that step up or MMD/Hickle have bulked up enough to be contributors. DL should be ok with the MN xfer and the Northern Col xfer. Plus some of the guys returning.

    WR seems very talented but largely unproven outside of Bolden. Valsin is a dude and it’s a shame he didn’t get more run time this season. Some really exciting pieces with Card, Anderson and Durant. Definitely some speed.

    Major question marks will clearly be the OL and QB spots. I have a feeling we saw the last of Dr Ben. Seems unlikely to have him take all the snaps in that game if he was planning on being back next season. Excited with the 2 QB additions though for sure and hopefully we get some of the OL starters to stick around 1 more year and fill in some spots with the Colorado xfers.

      • Definitely would welcome a veteran guy to help transition McCoy and Johnson for sure but that leaves a pretty crowded room. Perhaps we do see Throck or Montiel leave?

    • Hickle is a DL now I believe. Also have Nikko Taylor and the Indiana transfer coming in.

      There are also lots of young guys from last class that will hopefully step up outside of card. Hatten, Reddicks and Wells could all have a chance at playing time. Excited about Valsin.

    • It’s very early still — 2nd part of recruiting cycle, plus practice, installing offense, and determining what starting roster will be.

      I anticipate growing pains, even with any experienced players we happen to bring in; younger players & everyone in general will have to work on building that cohesiveness.

      Unlike prior transitions, this team isn’t empty in the cupboard.

  29. This is the last
    Year for the Covid super seniors right? I’m wondering if a lot of the recent “depth” we seemed
    To have was simply illusory as a result of several guys having an extra year in the system. Will the same be reflected in other programs next year?

    • It will be the last without a redshirt or medical waiver. Seems like hardly anyone plays football for five straight years without something coming up. On the basketball side, I heard someone mention Jarod Lucas and I thought surely that dude is gone, but no he had in essence two freshman seasons because of COVID, so he’s finally done at Nevada after this season, but he has played five uninterrupted seasons.

  30. 8
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    What a dumpster fire. Glad I turned it off after that horrific fake punt. Doesn’t look like I missed anything.

    When’s baseball start?

  31. Was accepting this bowl game a net positive for the program, with the context of so many missing players, loss of coaches, absence of Bray? Did it hurt recruiting more than it helped current player development ?

      • Teams have canceled, but it’s usually around some disciplinary issue. I think South Carolina did not accept one year because of some fights at the end of the season. Many teams declined during the COVID year. Seems like I remember a mediocre Miami team canceling one time.

    • Isn’t there a financial payout for the conference from that? Seems like we would have needed that given that we just paid Ohio State rates to play against MWC teams.

    • I think the consensus is that getting a few extra practices in, and 1st string reps, for the young guys is definitely worth it, particularly for a later bowl game like this. It’s essentially a 3rd camp and likely a good opportunity for the new coaches to see what they have to work with. I’d also argue that most knowledgeable people would understand the situation the Beavs faced and don’t put much into this bowl result. ND had most everyone playing on their top 10 defense…this would’ve been a tough match-up under optimal conditions much less what we were able to scrape together in short order.

      I think what this really does highlight is the major talent gap we have outside the starting group. Yes, we were starting to get a few players in each class that were big enough and talented enough to start or play meaningful minutes, but we are largely a program that gets guys with high upside that need time to bulk up and get coached up. We can’t replace 15+ regular starters vs a school that is mostly comprised of 4/5 star recruits who are more physically and athletically ready to go on day 1.

  32. Worse than I expected but didn’t expect a whole lot more either.

    Time to move forward.

    I really would like to see some sort of rebrand, even if it’s just returning to the Trent Bray playing years look, the helmets looked almost red on the bar TV, need a change.

  33. 25
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    Historically speaking, an 8-5 season for Oregon State football would be one to celebrate. 8-5 never felt so terrible. Losing 3 of the last 4 was brutal. It’s another season of “what ifs” for certain games for OSU.

    I don’t care what anyone says. What Smith has done to this program, his alma mater, was a spit in the face and nothing else. What he’s done here, in the manner it was done, has trumped most of what he’s done for us. As I’ve stated before, I never expected him to stay forever (even thought he likely could have if he had wanted to), but I expected him to at least stick out this conference uncertainty of the next few years with us. There are always big time job openings in college football.

    I hope if he ever comes to another OSU event and gets introduced to the crowd, a thunder of boos rain down.

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        Studentbeaver elicited vomits because he was rooting for the Beavs to go 8-4 from the start, now he acts like he is disappointed at the state of things.

        JS quit this team plain and simple and they couldn’t overcome his treachery. It is a sad situation in college sports to have such a low character guy leading a program of such importance for a university. JS will always be a fraud in my view, unbelievable how poorly he handled the whole month of November. Gould hinted in the post-game Civil War that there was a lot of stuff/internal locker-room drama and you can be sure JS was at the center of it.
        Bray was in all likelihood the de facto coach since JS had ling since checked out on the team. So bad for the guys and they deserved more after all that this season represented and potentially could have been..

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      Agree with most of this – but I also think he knew he’d lose his best coaches, given the new salaries Bray is having to negotiate. And if you are an HC and you have a crew that have delivered for you – you really have to consider the risks to your personal career development if you lose key staffers. It’s not unlike what unwound the Pac-12. Would the schools have preferred to stay together, provided they would be on par financially with other P5 conferences? Sure. But when that went out the window, they had to scramble to just ensure future stability for the school’s athletic department. Smith was thinking about himself no. 1 – he won’t get a medal of courage for it. He’s just a football coach.

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        The schools would only see a shortfall for one or two years, and that shortfall would be less than the over they would make beyond that.

        We don’t need to rehash UW and UO making bad financial decisions that will make them less revenue than even the Apple base guarantee for the next five years, when travel is accounted.

        If a coach can’t handle assistants being hired away, then he better get used to universities firing him, because not having assistants hired away means you’re not succeeding.

  34. PFF ratings from the game:

    Offense
    Top 3
    Caufield
    Gulbranson
    Irish

    Bottom 3
    Sharp
    Terry
    Miller

    Defense
    Top 3
    Oladapo
    Rawls
    Lolohea

    Bottom 3
    Melvin Jordan (surprised by this one)
    Saluni
    Andre Jordan

  35. 7
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    The game needed to be played. It will serve as a reminder this offseason to the coaches and players how far they have to go to get to ND’s level.

    ND doesn’t win off of flash like UO does. They win the line of scrimmage and have a punishing defense. That’s what I want to see Bray build at OSU.

  36. 8
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    Sorry u guys got screwed by the ducks and pac 12 prez I am a razorback fan in 1990 we had a proactive ad who knew this was comeing with out his foresight Arkansas has to take the tcu path I been reading this site for a week

  37. At least we scored more points in our game than Ohio State did.

    The portal and NIL has made the already awful bowl season even worse for fans.

  38. 2
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    Columbia Missouri is a dump! But they have been able to recruit and get their program built back up. If they can do that so can the Beavers. I wouldn’t say that they have ground and pound offense, more like a spread but Schrader rushed for over 1,600 yards! I think he had around 30 carries but their offense is more innovative than ours of the last six years. Everybody says run the ball, run the ball, but sometimes you have to set up the run with passing.

  39. On a positive note, we are getting a left-handed pitcher! Another Aussie is joining the program. Shouldn’t look past women’s basketball or wrestling, but, if the guys can hit like they’re capable of, this could be a ridiculously good team

  40. AZ finished the season well. I didn’t expect that success so quickly.

    One of the most frustrating beaver losses in recent memory. I turned off the game after the stupid fake FG attempt.

  41. 6
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    There may be a concern with Bray hiring so many alums to help with the reset. Will he be ready to jettison the guys who underperform at their tasks? I’m looking at Cookus as the prime example. What if DeVan isn’t able to build up the oline and we begin to look worse than MWC teams along the lines? Will Bray be ready to move off of the initial key guys he brought back to help right the ship?

  42. 12
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    Why college football has lost its luster:
    Highly touted players now choose teams primarily because they are the highest bidder
    Bowl games no longer have the best players playing
    Too easy for athletes to jump ship and find another suitor
    Conferences are all in disarray and no longer represent a true geographical region
    It is all about money money money, with the richest BUYING their way into the playoffs or more prestigious bowls. Reason why I so disdainfully hate the Ducks. Those that have less are at a huge disadvantage.

    • CFP used to be about “culture” – schools fielded teams from their region, you had border wars that went back to the Civil War, now players are from all over the place, and likely will play someplace else next season. I have no problem with the money – but these bowl games for the most part have become spring football scrimmages.

  43. You have to think the bowl game sponsors are going to start dropping out if they continue to be shitty matchups of 2nd and 3rd string players that no one really cares to watch. The Georgia – FSU game would have been an exciting game for all fans to watch, especially given the CFP circumstances. Now FSU’s roster is decimated and Georgia is favored by 3 TDs. No need to watch that debacle now.

  44. 4
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    I hate to say this, but I think the Ducks will have more success in the Big 10 then people think because they have a high powered offense. The Big 10 offenses suck! Very good defense but little offense.

  45. 2
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    It’s almost as if all the people claiming a playoff would destroy the sport 30 years ago were right?

    The day the BCS (a 2 team plays) was announced this day was inevitable.

  46. Looks like Ohio State game was a yawner? Probably PSU too? Funny watching several big name programs fall flat in unwatchable bowl games. Its what the NCAA and networks deserve…

    • Yeah, because not much offense generated. Very good stout defense. Iowa, Mich, Oh St, Penn St, all have very good defenses. Bray would not do wrong copying those defenses. Just need to add a high powered offense with bigger receivers to create mismatches. Lots of teams have success with big athletic TE’s.

  47. Penn St is throwing the ball alot here in the second half because they are playing catch. Give me a high powered quick strike offense because your rarely out of a game and you can come back quickly.

  48. 2
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    Because they control tv times and to a large degree bowl matchups, ESPN has set the process in motion where they are degrading the bowl product and attempting to NFL lite the postseason.
    In years past I would have thought these are a lot of unintended consequences to have so many players opting out and transferring prior to bowl games. However, after the last 4 months of litigation and back room pressure, I think it is all calculated to force the lesser known and less desirable bowl venues to simply fold up due to eventual lack of sponsorship. Once they pried the Rose Bowl out of that traditional arrangement, no bowl venue is safe. I’d say it has been a ploy to push the transfer portal into the December window in order to deplete well over 50% of rosters. The bow product is now simply a spring scrimmage preview for the majority of these teams, and blue blood teams with depth and qbs will be the winners.
    It’s all gross and sad simultaneously.

  49. There has been some criticism of the CW network that carries some ACC football games (and today’s Barstool Arizona game; probably the most entertaining bowl game of the year), but I would take the irreverent CW crew over ESPN blowhards like Joe Tessatore, who had to broadcast that farce of a Peach Bowl game, Rece Davis, etc. any day of the week. Innovative camera work and sideline interviewing too. breaking the mold. If I had Barnes’s number I’d tell him to reach out to CW to carry the Beavs and Cougs. Today’s crew, matched up with say, Mike Leach in days of yore, would have been pure Gold. Those guys could make the Beavs and Cougs national brands.

    • Agreed, the CW isn’t just linear, it’s available for free nearly everywhere. There was a time when Foxsports was scoffed at, it’s hard to argue they don’t do it best now.

    • Good call, I was watching the game off and on (one of the better bowl games) and was wondering if the CW is looking for content next season. They also seemed to have the crowd mic’ed in some way to make it pretty loud and exciting.

  50. Talk about running it predictably on 1st down Dallas has done it since I started watching and it always gets stuffed. It’s amazing these coaches don’t see this and mix it up.

  51. 2
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    Still can’t get over the juxtaposition of how amazing this fanbase was feeling about the future a year ago today, compared to today.

    • 2
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      I feel great about it. We get to shed the dysfunctional entities of our conference, and now we get tp set the rules going forward–a future that will most likely see some of the 10 wanting to come back, after a while.

      Still can’t believe you think you can take a victory lap because things other than the team caused the team to reach its floor, something you originally called the ceiling.

        • Conference Win Alert for the Fighting Tinkles!

          Almost 20-point win over little Lebron’s Trojans.

          Pretty crazy that we still haven’t played a road game. Tournament resume is intact with no bad losses :)

          • Seen the rpi’s and net rankings of Pac-12 teams.

            You are correct on one thing. The beavs have the worst out of all 12 so it’ll be hard to fall. But it’ll also be hard to improve.

            CBI or bust.

            Didn’t watch. Just being realistic.

            Baseball is only about 7 weeks away.

    • 4
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      Who cares?

      Bowl games were never meant to be important, and now they’re what they are supposed to be.
      Unless it’s a playoff that starts the week after the season ends, it’s all bullshit.

      Kirby can keep quiet about the current system, because it exists to enrich his school, and by extension, him. He has played along with it, up to now. But now that it’s all exposed as what it is, he’s suddenly concerned?

      Go away, loser.

    • Tinkle understands what JS didn’t, a little spike in success goes a long way at OSU. One rabbit out of the hat gets you 5 years more, 2 rabbits will get you tantamount to a lifetime contract.

  52. 1
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    Happy New Year, Beavs. Looking forward to a little break from sports as the New Year begins(after WBB takes down Oregon today, of course)
    Stay safe and have a great evening.

    • Such a good win. Since the Sabrina days very few piss and green at gill, today was no exception. Pretty full stands, good energy and great comeback from a 1st half of 22% FG shooting. Watching Kelly squirm at the end was fun. Knowing they’ll have to travel 2000 miles next year to take losses is icing on the cake.

      #FTD and Happy New Year angry beavs

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