Home Football What Does a Win Versus Arizona State Mean?

What Does a Win Versus Arizona State Mean?

12

Not much, and the reason is simple: OSU was not playing for anything. To win a “big game” or pull of a “major upset” when there is nothing on the line rightfully means very little. For example, beating then #18 USC to move to 4-0 would have been a greater accomplishment than beating #6 ASU to move to 5-5. Beating #20 Utah to move to 5-1 would have been more important.

All this win did was stop the free fall. It stabilized the situation for recruits. It gave Bob D and the Riley-friendly media some ammo to shoot at dissenters. That’s about it. The reality is still the same: we have an average to slightly below average head coach who is a nice guy and who might pull off a respectable season every so often.

The only way this season can be considered even a minor success is if OSU beats Oregon and breaks the CW streak. That’s been the reality since the Utah loss, at which point the season was over.

12 COMMENTS

  1. Am I an ass if I think Canzano is manufacturing the Brenda Tracy story a bit? It was an awful thing that happened and whatever happened its affected her deeply which is very sad. But if she didn’t want the players to “live life as usual” and for them to face consequences, why not press charges? Why leave it up to a football coach to decide such a thing?

    I apologize for the insensitivity, I know it takes a lot of courage for someone to press charges in such a case, I’m just failing to see Riley’s mistake.

    • Damn, I just saw the story.

      She reported the gang rape to police in 1998. She’d told investigators the men stood around, watching it happen and cheering the others on. At one point, she said she begged one of the men to make it stop. “A bad choice?” she asked herself over the years. “I get sick of reading articles about how great a guy the coach is.”

      That coach is Mike Riley.

      Damn!

    • I find Riley’s quotes nauseating throughout the article. He asks Canzano what he thinks about having her talk to the football team. Really? That is his reaction to it…to feel out how he can benefit, and trying to see how he can use her to teach his football team lessons? That is extremely selfish. What a dick.

    • Yeah, yer an ass. There is huge incentive to not report rape, as the victim normally gets raked over the coals in a trial. Riley’s mistake? Well, the perps got less punishment for ruining a life than Blount did for puching another player. And I recall Riley advising UO on that punishment.

  2. It’s a one week break from feeling like losers.

    Last year, the UW game was considered to be an even matchup and then UW ran all over the defense. 530 yards last year! I hope then can use that as some inspiration this year.

    Facing a similar type QB in Miles. Stuff the run and make the guy pass. They don’t have a go to WR and most passes are short. .

  3. Jack’s post/link in an earlier thread and the stat about being 5-5 at home versus top ten teams since 2000 kind of crystalized it for me. Riley is able to sustain the perception of good coaching (BTW, when Parker threw it to Preece for the post-game “interview” last Saturday night he called Riley “a great coach”) by winning a home game against long odds versus a top 10 team. To have long odds and be perceived as an upset the Beavs have to be within a pattern of underperformance at the time of the upset in question. Of course, these trends appear almost annually. This “good coaching” perception has its roots in the ’98 civil war, even if UO wasn’t a top ten team at the time and is particularly evocative for the fan based that followed the team or matured between 1971 and 1997. Those of us who are “millenials” (as it were, that is, took up their status as a fan since Erickson; I’m one of those people) are not captive to this perception. As oft pointed out on this site, the win-cap and “big spot” phenomena are more compelling to this other half of the fan base. Satisfaction with mediocrity as Jack’s link gets in the way of truly good coaching. What we have to watch out for is that BDC will double down now and give Riley an extension!

  4. Like I keep saying, Riley CAN coach, but just cruises most of the time. So he needs to go.

    What does ASU win mean? — huge deflection of further criticism, as now they MIGHT go to a bowl, and even if the next two are losses, this win gave it a shot. He could see he needed a rabbit to come from the hat, and lucked out. But for four big plays, 2 long runs and a long pass for td’s and a pick 6, we lose. We were lousy in a lot of it….like 3rd down conversions, penalties…

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