If Beavers brewing a title contender, Saturday a good time to show it
Updated 8/30/2022 12:10 PM
CORVALLIS — Jonathan Smith begins his fifth season at the Oregon State football helm Saturday night when Oregon State faces Boise State in a 7:30 p.m. game carried by ESPN, a sure-to-be-favorite by late-night fans all up and down the East Coast.
Fifth season? Can it be? Seems like only yesterday that Jonny boy was throwing strikes to Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh as the Beavers were pulverizing Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. (As I think about it, I haven’t had to spell T.J.’s last name for quite a while.)
A 7-6 record and Oregon State’s first bowl appearance since a 2013 Hawaii Bowl victory over Boise State got Smith a nice raise and a contract extension through 2027. Now the 43-year-old (no!) coach of the Beavers has to earn it.
That won’t be easy. This has the potential to be the best Oregon State team since Mike Riley’s 2012 club that started 6-0 and finished 9-4, losing 31-27 to Texas in an Alamo Bowl game it absolutely should have won. Smith has eight defensive starters returning along with quarterback Chance Nolan and most of his receivers, with five Pac-12 quality running backs. There is the kind of depth that Riley had on some of his best teams.
Junior quarterback Chance Nolan should benefit from a year’s experience as the Beavers’ starter. (Courtesy: Oregon State sports communications)
But let’s not get carried away. The schedule is head-to-the-pavement hard, especially to start.
After the opener against Boise State, there is a visit to Mountain West’s Fresno State, which went 10-3 last season. You might remember the Bulldogs’ game in Eugene, a 31-24 loss to Oregon in which Fresno State led until the final seven minutes. Senior quarterback Jake Haener, who threw for 4,096 yards and 33 touchdowns last season, is on all the national watch lists.
Then there is a matchup with Montana State of the Big Sky at Providence Park. The Bobcats were 12-3 last season, losing to North Dakota State in the FCS Championship Game. If you think games with Big Sky opponents are gimmes, ask Riley, who lost to Sacramento State (29-28 in overtime) and Eastern Washington (49-46 in Vernon Adams time) in season openers in 2011 and ’13, respectively.
Then Southern Cal comes to Corvallis. New coach Lincoln Riley will surely remind players of their loss to the Beavers in L.A. last season. After that, a visit to defending Pac-12 champion Utah, still smarting from their only league loss in Corvallis last season. And then another road test at Stanford. The Beavers won last year’s meeting, breaking the Cardinal’s 11-game win streak in the series.
On Monday, Angie Machado of Beaver Blitz asked Smith about the seemingly extremely difficult first half of the season that his team faces.
“You look at the records from last year, our first six opponents looked pretty tough,” he said. “We’ll find out who the best teams are as the season goes.”
Last year’s early slate was less daunting, with non-conference home wins over Hawaii (45-27) and Idaho (42-0). Purdue (a 30-21 loss) was a reasonably tough road opener, and the first three Pac-12 games were at SC (45-27 win), vs. Washington in Corvallis (27-24 win) and at Washington State (31-24 loss).
The Beavers have lost six straight season openers. Smith was asked about that, too.
“Openers are important,” Smith said. “Every game is important. We’re going to prepare as well as we can. What has taken place in the past has no effect on this one. It has nothing to do with this particular Saturday.”
A 3-0 preseason can only happen if Oregon State wins the first one. It starts Saturday against perennially tough Boise State, which has not had a losing season in 25 years. However, last year’s 7-5 record was the program’s worst since going 6-5 in 1998.
The Broncos’ second-year head coach, Andy Avalos, is the former Oregon defensive coordinator (2019-20) who worked with Smith for two seasons at Boise State under Chris Petersen (2012 and ’13). Smith was quarterbacks coach and Avalos coached linebackers.
If you are looking for player names with the Broncos, here are four:
• Hank Bachmeier, 6-1, 210-pound senior quarterback who threw for 3,079 yards and 20 TDs last season.
• George Holani, 5-11, 210-pound redshirt junior running back. He rushed for 1,104 yards and seven TDs as a freshman in 2019 and has battled injuries since. “We’re not taking George out of the game unless we have to,” offensive coordinator Tim Plough told the media this week.
• Scott Matlock, 6-4, 300-pound senior defensive tackle who had eight tackles-for-loss and seven sacks last season. “No. 99 is all over the place making plays,” Smith said.
• JL Skinner, 6-4, 220-pound senior safety, who piled up a smorgasbord of stats last season with a team-high 92 tackles, seven tackles-for-loss, three fumble recoveries, two forced fumbles and two interceptions. Now, that’s being all over the place. “They have a couple of guys in the secondary who look like (NFL) draft picks,’ Smith said. Skinner is one.
Oregon State has plenty of talent, too. The Beavers weren’t picked to place fifth in the Pac-12 — second behind Oregon among those out of the former North Division — for nothing.
Junior quarterback Chance Nolan “gives us the best chance (no pun intended) to score the most points and eliminate negative plays,” Smith said. “That’s why he won the job.”
Nolan’s full season as a starter should lead to improved decision-making this season. He completed 64 percent of his passes and threw for 2,677 yards and 19 touchdowns with 10 interceptions a year ago. Nolan also ran for 391 plus yards in 2021. I’d like to see him take advantage of his ability to pick up yards on the scramble more this season.
Juniors Deshaun Fenwick and Trey Lowe will get the ball first, but Smith said Monday he expects true freshman Damien Martinez To see some action Saturday. The coach also indicated the other two running backs, sophomore transfer Jam Griffin (Georgia Tech) and redshirt freshmen Isaiah Newell, will get their shots this season. All are Pac-12-caliber backs.
Junior Deshaun Fenwick (5) has earned a starting nod (Courtesy: Oregon State sports communications)
The Beavers have veterans on the offensive line and at receiver, and all through their defense. Interestingly, though, they have only a dozen seniors — quarterback Tristan Gebbia, receivers Tyjon Lindsey and Tre’Shaun Harrison, offensive guard Brandon Kipper, defensive tackles Simon Sandberg and Cody Anderson, linebacker Kyrie Fisher-Morris, safeties Jaydon Grant and Ron Hardge, cornerback Rezjohn Wright, punter Luke Loecher and utility man Jack Colletto.
A few other notes worth mentioning:
• The Beavers might have the biggest pair of outside linebackers in the country in 6-6, 255-pound junior Riley Sharp and 6-5, 250-pound junior John McCartan.
• This is Oregon State’s 126th season of football competition. No, I haven’t seen them all. I do remember back to 1962, Terry Baker’s Heisman Trophy season.
• In most seasons, when you lose your top rusher (B.J. Baylor, who led the Pac-12), receiver (Trevon Bradford) and tackler (Avery Roberts, second in the Pac-12), you are worried. I don’t think the coach is worried.
• OSU defensive coordinator Trent Bray, an All-Pac-10 linebacker in his playing days, had 19 tackles in a 53-34 loss at Boise State in 2004. There was a lot of chasing Bronco quarterback Jared Zabransky that day.
• In Smith’s four seasons as the Beavers’ head coach, they have averaged 4.7 yards per carry and 179 yards per game rushing. Those kind of numbers would be big Saturday at Reser.
• Special teams are always important in a close game (early odds have the Beavers favored by three points). Oregon State is in good hands, er, feet with with junior placekicker Everett Hayes and senior punter Luke Loecher. Last season, Hayes was 12 for 18 on field goals, including a school-record 60-yarder, and had 52 touchbacks in 74 kickoffs. Loecher shattered Dainard Paulson’s school-record for punting average with 47.1 yards on 31 punts.
Some pundits have suggested Oregon State is a team that, if things go right, could vie for the Pac-12 Championship. I asked Jonathan what it would take for him to consider the 2022 season successful, and if he believed they were contenders for the conference title.
“Always a big goal for me is to be playing our best football at the end of the year,” he said. “Sometimes you guys (media) think this is Coachspeak, but the mentality of the process of each week is playing our best, going to work, and we’re going to learn a bunch about ourselves. Then we have to address the flaws. If you’re doing that and your process is right, you’re playing your best ball at the end of the year.
“We’re at a place in our program where every time we line up on Saturday, we have a chance to win the game. If we go about that and play really well week in and week out, a championship is (a) possibility.”
A win Saturday would be a good first step.
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