…

I’m looking through CFDW and can’t find any big game victories.

In fact, I can’t even find many big games.

I’d list:

2008 Civil War
2009 Civil War
2012 Stanford

These games had National/BCS bowl implications, so “big game” applies. Riley is 0-3.

Then there are the intriguing games that weren’t necessarily big games:

LSU 2004 L
USC 2006 W
Cal 2007 W
Penn State 2008 L
USC 2008 W
TCU 2010 L
Boise State 2010 L
Wisconsin 2011 L
Wisconsin 2012 W
Washington 2012 L
Texas 2012 L

So Riley is 4-7 in these games. You could argue some other games, like Boise St 2006 were intriguing. They don’t help Riley’s cause, though. And maybe USC 2006 was just a “good win”, but not an intriguing game. Morale was low going into that game, but there was something in the air that day. If you take away USC ’06 and add Boise St 2006 (national TV game, ESPN, favorite, etc) he’s 3-8.

Anyway, in both the USC games and Cal, OSU was a big underdog (i.e. zero pressure). So out of these games, that leaves Riley with 1 victory (Wisconsin) where there was an expectation to win (granted, the line was -7, but many fans thought OSU had the better team).

Intuition told me Riley doesn’t perform when the games matter most and/or there are expectations. I just wanted to check the numbers.

The presentation Saturday was truly is embarrassing. A bunch of dandy pumpkins running around to a chainsaw video.

This is not to say the black (horrible) or white (best of the worst) uniforms are good.

I will never understand OSU marketing. Their solution for solving an identity crisis was to come up with an equally bad identity? So was the thinking that, “It will take fans a few years to figure out this identity sucks, too”, and that’s a few years with less heat on the administration? Or do they just think those uniforms and that atmosphere are solid? I don’t know. Anyone here have ties to marketing and know the thought process?

The best way to deal with pain is through humor, so let’s hear what you think Riley is doing with his off day. I’ll guess he’s tuning up his bike and waving to the Postman.

Also, I liked this comment in the last thread:

Oregon State Teasers.

In the MR era the Teasers have managed to show flashes of greatness and then ultimately break our hearts. The Teases get a strong win here, go on a five game win streak there, and everyone gets excited. As excited as you can get with the occasional loss to Fresno State, or fcs opponent sprinkled in from year to year. At first I didn’t buy into Angry’s 9 game cap for MR. But facts don’t lie. This team is honestly just a cock tease. 9 wins is the maximum amount of wins to be irrelevant. Every single year, minus the shitty ones, the Teasers seem poised on the edge of greatness. Just one big win and perceptions would change. But the big win never came. And the funny part is, more often than not, a good portion of Teaser Nation is confident in that big win. Take the Stanford game; this year or last year for that matter, Teaser Nation was feeling a victory. Minimum quiet confident. The Beavs shit the bed both years. It’s what they do. It’s just what they doo. We poop in our pants. Just imagine if we would have won half of the ‘Big Games’ that were played during Riley’s tenure. The Beavers would have at the minimum gone to the Rose Bowl. Oregon State Teases I’m reminded of KGB’s in Rounders. “Just like a young man coming in for a quickie. I feel so unsatisfied.”

Sums it up. Nice work, Jailbreakbeav.

I encourage people to look through Mannion’s numbers here; the guy just isn’t clutch in big games. He seems to put up the best numbers in games that mean nothing. The biggest games last year were probably Washington and Oregon, and in both he threw 4 INTs. This year, Stanford and USC are the biggest games, and he laid an egg tonight, and underperformed vs Stanford.

We’ll see if this trend continues.

Riley laid another egg tonight, too. To get out-athleted is one thing, but to come out flat is another. Beaver football is hilarious. Every time I buy in and think I my overarching hypothesis might be wrong, Riley is there to reel it back in and make me look good. Thanks, coach. That’s probably the only thanks you’re getting tonight.

The questions are : how long can this go on? Do donors ever get tired of this obvious pattern? Are they too dumb to see it?

Arizona State is one of the worst matchups on the schedule. The Beavs could get blown out in each of the next three games. I had Washington at 50/50 a few weeks ago, but that was after I fell into the trap (again!) and had a bout of optimism.