After tie-breakers, Arizona was 2nd in the Pac-10 and should go to the Holiday Bowl. We were third, but the Sun Bowl elected to enact their “no repeat” clause (this is their option, they could have selected us). Last year’s 3-0 effort vs Pitt hardly helped that cause.
That left the Emerald Bowl or Las Vegas bowl for the Beavers.
Even though the Las Vegas Bowl is a lower bowl (5th place vs 4th), maybe the selection committee gave the Beavers a break and a vote of confidence. Think about it:
1. The Vegas Bowl pays out $1,000,000. The Emerald Bowl pays $900,000.
2. The Vegas Bowl is the only Pac-10 bowl outside the Rose Bowl that pairs teams ranked in the top 20.
3. Given that bowl revenue is shared, did the committee and Pac-10 agree that Oregon State has a better shot (than USC) to bring home the higher payday vs BYU?
4. A win gives the Beavers a top 15 finish, and with many returning starters, opportunity to begin next year ranked.
5. Better day and time than Emerald equals more national viewers.
Whether any of this was the intent (they probably wanted to get the pariah out of the way) of the Pac-10 or selection committee, it worked out serendipitously for the Beavers. Hopefully they see it this way as well and show up for this game. It’s a great opportunity to climb the rankings both this year and next. A 9-4 record gives Riley more ammo in the upcoming recruiting season as well. Huge game, really.
Good thoughts. I went to the Emerald Bowl two years ago and it was a joke. The game was decent, but the bowl atmosphere was nonexistent and AT&T Park is a horrible place for a football game. It’s tough to wedge a football field into the stadium (the last three yards of one end zone are in the warning track–two inches below the level of the rest of the turf). My dad and I had eleventh-row seats that were barely higher than fourth-row seats in a true football stadium because ours were out in left field. San Francisco was great–the hotels off of Market are pretty cheap that time of year, and the city itself is fun for a visit. But for the bowl itself, I’ll pick Las Vegas any day–and that’s speaking as somebody who’s been to Vegas and hated it.
I’m with you…hate Vegas–will not be going to that game.
Love SF but that Emerald Bowl looked so lame on television. And they gave us Maryland instead of Georgia Tech making the game a bad watch even for hardcore Beavers.
Well, the wife just okayed me going to the Vegas Bowl, so I’ll be there. Have to come straight from the airport since I’ll be flying in about 1 hour before game time (already had another trip planned so I’m flying in from there instead of home). How’s the parking situation at Sam Boyd? Anything anyone can tell me about this venue would be appreciated. I went to the Stanford game and watched the Oregon game on TV, there is no WAY that we should have been excluded from the Holiday Bowl. I think a matchup with Nebraska would have been awesome, but am still looking forward to the Beavers in Vegas.
I’m frustrated about one thing: we seem stuck on the cusp of really arriving on the national football scene. I moved to St. Louis in August, and everybody interested in football does know who we are, but nobody has any idea whether we’re good.
That said, I remember that in 2001-2005 I was frustrated that we seemed stuck getting five, seven, or eight wins each season. With so few games in a season, it seems reasonable that it takes a certain significant amount of progress before you can really make a jump up to the next plateau. If we beat BYU, that’s four consecutive four-loss seasons, but this season and the last have been better than the previous two in intangible ways and in our final rankings. Unless the program stagnates (and I don’t see any reason to believe that it will), we should make the next jump in the next couple of seasons.
Dave,
Usually when a team wins 9 games 4 years in a row they reap the rewards on the recruiting trail. What is killing OSU is that Riley likes the 2-star local boys and there aren’t any uber recruiters on the staff. Until we get more team speed (on defense) the next plateau will remain asymptotic. 36 wins in 4 years and still landing the same talent as 5 years ago. That’s the problem. It’s also a problem with national perception. Cal, Oregon, USC…these teams are “sexy” because they have the elite recruits and elite speed. The casual viewer gravitates to that.
A huge opportunity was missed when Riley hired Heyward over Robin Pflugrad…we’d be heading towards the elite with the latter recruiting.
I would point out that it seems pretty rare that we recruit in “rough” areas, correct me if I am wrong. Not to say that all great players come out of the rough areas but it certainly limits who we recruit. I also think it would be helpful if Riley went on the recruiting trail for our big recruits (I don’t think he recruits). I think he has a good personality that could sell kids on the program.
Riley hits the pavement. I think he was up in Portland last night and today… I think.
He was down in Oakland during our last bye going after Thompson and Murphy (O-Tech). Friends in Oakland tell me Murphy has top end speed, and Thompson is a bruiser.
I can see your point, but I don’t put much stock in recruiting rankings. They seem to be based more on what teams express an interest in a particular player than they are on the actual empirical quality of a player.
That said, I agree with you about speed. I think we do just fine on offense without getting the fastest guys, but sometimes it kills us on defense. Would like to see us recruit better speed there. I don’t have any idea whether anybody on the staff is a good or bad recruiter. I don’t get to see them interacting with the athletes, so I don’t think I’m fit to judge.
I also question Mike Riley’s aversion to JC players. You can’t build a program around JCers, and I would take an adequate high school player over an exceptional JC player any day. But sometimes this approach leads us to put inadequate high school players in, when we might have looked at recruiting somebody from a JC. Our DBs for the 2009 season is the area I’m looking at now.
Yeah, I haven’t seen them recruit either, but I’ve seen the product. It’s good. But it’s not elite.
It’s like a farmer. I don’t see him farm, but by tasting the vegetable he produces I can make conclusions. This kind of deduction is pretty common in every facet of life.
As far as recruiting rankings, there isn’t a huge correlation between top 25 classes and top 25 finishes on the field (I looked into it, it’s not there). But I think there is a correlation between top 25 finishes and team speed, especially on defense. The Beavers can’t land these guys, so maybe they should try landing fast safties or even running backs and converting them to LBs.
I agree that team defensive speed is what we need to win. We win a lot of games but we fall short against our strongest competition due to lack of speed. To get to that next level we need to beat those strong teams (like the ducks), the only way to do that is with better speed.
The Dockery/Maehl thing…that Dockery had 60 yards to catch him and only lost ground was eye-opening. And Maehl is listed as a 4.72 forty.
Heh heh heh…
Yeah, and Jerry Rice ran a 4.71.
Yeah, I’m in Nebraska now, most people know the Ducks better, even after the Beavs 3 trips in a row to Omana, and 2 trophies. Plus, when I where my OS stuff….Oklahoma State?
Sorry, spelling was bad, my eyes are still bleeding from watching both the Beavers and Huskers finale’s…not to mention the ulcers.
Can the Huskers have the Beavers Offense and the Beavers have the Husker D? I figure there is about a week apart between the two games, the Huskers D could fly into Vegas and then the Beavs Offense could join them for the Huskers in the Holiday Bowl? They are challenging for the a top 5 ranking I think if they could merge the two…
Except for the Tuesday game, I like our situation for a bowl. We play the best team available in any of the Pac 10 bowls. I don’t know how that works out, but I’ll take it.
I remember reading Cliff’s blog and it saying all the greyshirts are on track to come to OSU, which includes Dunn. Very excited for this guy. He run a 4.28 and 4.35 40, both being hand times I think but I’m pretty sure most are. Also Catchings should be back and I think should qualify for a redhshirt. It looks like OSU returns probably the best group of WRs in the conference next year.
I heard a while ago that Dunn was a no go, and the Beavs are looking elsewhere to fill that slot. I can’t find the link, but it follows our recent success with many JUCO’s.
I remember reading before fall practice that he was greyshirting and unlikely to come to OSU, but Cliff posted on his blog that all the greyshirts are on track to be there in January.
http://cliffkirkpatrick.mvourtown.com/2009/10/29/cliff-osu-football-notes-4/