You have to wonder, what is the old guard protecting?

Bigger picture, how do we bridge the gap between old guard expectations and the modern era fanbase? Is there a way to do it amicably? Does the old guard raise expectations, or do the younger fans lower theirs’ (this is essentially what the old guard is asking we do, and personally, it makes me feel indignant and a bit disgusting to suggest, “you just need to lower expectations and everything will be okay”…).
The comment below is from O-live and sums up the old guard’s viewpoint. The sentiment is not dissimilar to a prisoner’s rationalization right before he’s about to take it in the ass.

“beaver84

1 Hour Ago

I am a 84 OSU Graduate. Most of the Riley doubters must be much younger than me and/or haven’t studied the history of Beaver football. Riley has built the Beavers into a nationally respected team from what used to be one of the laughing stocks of Div I football. WE were the team that everyone else used to use to pad their schedules. Now we represent a team that can play against pretty much anyone on any given night. Of course we have up and downs, but you must look at the reality of OSU before blaming Riley. HE and his style of coaching is why we get ANY decent players to commit to OSU. Even if Nick Saban came to OSU, I guarantee the results wouldn’t change much. OSU cannot compete against the big name schools in terms of recruiting, EVER. Other than a few good players from the state of Oregon, Riley and crew usually have to work with second tier talent that comes to OSU because they were not given scholarships by bigger name schools. Riley and staff have done a great job developing what they have to work with and have produced many NFL players. For example, do you think James Rodgers & subsequently Jaquizz would have even considered OSU if UT, A&M, Baylor, etc would have offered him scholarships? No way. OSU has a great reputation for the program due to Riley and that is why we can woo a some of these overlooked gems to “cowtown” Corvallis Even with such a handicap, we have kicked ass on some big name schools over the last 13 years AND have been to a lot of bowl games. OSU football is exciting to watch, and YES very nerve wracking when they blow opportunities to win. Riley works with what he has. He can run a balanced attack, we just don’t currently have a Simonton, Jackson, Bernard, or Rodgers for him to work with…or perhaps as talented or as big of an offensive line as in the past. Any way….if you want a scapegoat for the last three games, it should be Mannion. Great kid with lots of talent who has made a lot of mistakes the last three games against teams you need to play with minimal errors. He got banged up against Stanford and lost the touch. Very similar to Derick Anderson when the Beavs were 4-0 and let the nation in passing. DA got murdered by USC in game 5 and lost the next 4. Riley didn’t throw the interceptions agains Stanford…it was bad decisions by Mannion. The two in/near the end zone killed us. If we scored on those, we most likely would have won….and remember, Stanford was ranked like #6 in the county at the time. Same story against USC and ASU. If Mannion can erase his jitters and not hold the ball so long in the pocket when the rush breaks through, we can beat Washington. I know the coach is ultimately responsible, but if the program gets rid of Riley, don’t expect anything great to happen over the next decade.”

Even if the modern era fans are overly optimistic “dreamers”, I’d rather associate myself with them than that ^

A reason Ed Ray will never considering firing Bob D is all the backlash from the ’84 grad types. Until the majority of fans have a clear vision of what they want/demand, the AD will not, and we’ll toil in this tug of war (that is bordering on a fanbase Civil War).