Sparlimb
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As bad as it was for us, we won. It was obviously more painful for OSU...
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or.../2016/09/canzano_oregon_state_football_1.html
MINNEAPOLIS -- Don't know what you saw on Thursday night. Don't know if you liked Oregon State's opening performance. Don't know if it gave you hope for the rest of the season or made your gut burn. But one thing became clear as Minnesota was closing out a 30-23 win over the Beavers.
It's this: Oregon State still doesn't know how to win.
I suppose we could focus on the breakdown of pass protection on the Beavers offensive line. Or the missed tackles on defense. But I'd like to instead focus on coach Gary Andersen's face as he came out of the locker room after addressing his team, and up the stadium tunnel holding an 0-1 record that could have easily been 1-0.
Andersen wore a visor. Beneath it, his skin was chapped red. His eyes looked determined. He was pissed off, muttering, and clenching his jaw. He mumbled something to me about the "that fourth-down down play" and then, leaned back against the stadium wall.
"You're already replaying the plays in your mind?" I asked.
"Yeah," he shot back.
"You go over and over them?" I continued. "Then you watch film later tonight? And by then, you're probably..."
"By then," Andersen cut me off, "I'm nauseous about it."
The theory goes that there's a natural evolution to a rebuilding football program. First, a team spends a season getting blown off the field. Then, it supposedly plays closer but still loses anyway. Then, it figures out how to win big and carries the genius coach off on its shoulders. I was going to suggest to Andersen that the painful experience he suffered on Thursday was all just part of the natural progression to him being carted off someday but I feared he'd punch me straight in the throat.
"After a game like this you either get tough or you curl up in a ball," he said.
Which is it?
"My guys have already decided to fight."
Oregon State led Minnesota 23-17 early in the fourth quarter on Thursday. That's of note here because Andersen had coached the Beavers in 10 prior contests against Power Five conference members and he'd never enjoyed a fourth-quarter lead in any of those games. The best effort his Beavers previously mustered against a major conference opponent was a 10-10 fourth-quarter tie against Colorado in an eventual 17-13 loss. But they'd never led.
Not until Thursday night in Minnesota, where 44,000-plus Gophers fans were screaming from their gizzards to make it stop. So maybe in some alternate universe the Beavers defense made tackles instead of missing them on that fourth-quarter drive that gave Minnesota the lead for good. Maybe even as Oregon State fell behind 24-23, it took the ensuing kickoff and used the final six minutes to drive a stake in the heart of a state already on its knees from the news of Teddy Bridgewater's knee this week.
Why not? When quarterback Darell Garretson came into the huddle on that final drive, he said he looked around and, "It felt good. I have faith in those guys like no other." He had Seth Collins, a big play guy, in that huddle. He had Ryan Nall, who would finish with 151 all-purpose yards, in there. He had eight other teammates who Andersen challenged all summer to, "Be tougher! Be stronger!" in there.
But what Garretson didn't have was much of anyone who had won a close college game in recent years. In the end, Oregon State looked a little like a search party, out looking for a victory. It started the day ambitious and with good intentions, but forgot flashlights and it was left fumbling around in the dark at the end of the night. Ultimately, therein lies the great paradox for the Beavers -- they must figure out how to win these kinds of close games without having players around who have won these kinds of games.
Also, they'd like to do it sooner rather than later.
The Beavers are better this season, true. They're more interesting, too. They're stronger and tougher. The talent level has risen. But this team still needs to figure out how to win close games.
"We have maybe five guys out there who have been a part of winning close games like that," Andersen said. "These guys know that has to change."
Andersen is the right coach. That I'm sure of. Also, Garretson looks capable of leading that charge. He was 25 of 40 for 228 yards and three touchdowns. He made a couple of brilliant throws. Except, he's not going to lead the Beavers anywhere while being blindsided by pass rushers who ran untouched toward him. Collins, who had 57 receiving yards, looks capable, too, of being the kind of talent who breaks open a game. Nall, too. Jordan Villamin as well. Except, how are any of those guys going to catch passes and collect ovations when Garretson is on the ground looking out the earhole of his helmet?
Answer: They aren't.
The whole thing was compounded on Thursday night by a bearded Minnesota fan in a bright gold T-shirt who spent his evening drinking Miller Lite and screaming insults. He sat above the team, immediately behind the Beavers bench, and shouted things such as, "When they scheduled this game, you guys knew you weren't good enough!!" And, "This loss is your fault!! You guys know you suck!!"
The guy was like Oregon State's deep-rooted subconscious, hurling verbal insecurities at the backs of the Beavers heads. To their credit, they never turned around and acknowledged his existence. But they had to hear him. He was incessant and loud. The Beavers offensive lineman sat in front of him at the end of the game, their eyes staring at their shoe tops. I wondered how much they'd like to climb into the stands and feed him their shoulder pads. I wondered how much they'd love to shut up everyone who still believes Oregon State football is the equivalent of a 98-pound weakling.
"I am proud of the hurt it showed on their faces," Andersen said after the game.
But really, you had no idea unless you were here. Because after Minnesota extinguished the clock, capturing the win, Oregon State's players shook hands. Then, athletic department staffers directed the Beavers toward one corner of the end zone. It's a post-game Andersen tradition he started last season. Win or lose, the players stand before the loyal Beavers fans and sing the university fight song after games.
No band present.
No student section, either.
Just 65 or so football players standing shoulder to shoulder with each other, staring up at the emptying second deck of the stadium, looking for anyone wearing orange. There were a lot of Gophers fans in gold, confused, looking down at them, leaving the stadium. There were maybe a dozen or so visible Beavers fans still up there, looking down from the deck, waving at them.
The Beavers weren't alone. They had each other. All last season, I wrote that Andersen's program was on the right track. He's going to win at Oregon State, eventually. A night like Thursday suggests it so. But I just don't know how many unforgiving and painful nights like this it will take to get there.
Like the coach said: "This has to change."
--- @JohnCanzanoBFT
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or.../2016/09/canzano_oregon_state_football_1.html
MINNEAPOLIS -- Don't know what you saw on Thursday night. Don't know if you liked Oregon State's opening performance. Don't know if it gave you hope for the rest of the season or made your gut burn. But one thing became clear as Minnesota was closing out a 30-23 win over the Beavers.
It's this: Oregon State still doesn't know how to win.
I suppose we could focus on the breakdown of pass protection on the Beavers offensive line. Or the missed tackles on defense. But I'd like to instead focus on coach Gary Andersen's face as he came out of the locker room after addressing his team, and up the stadium tunnel holding an 0-1 record that could have easily been 1-0.
Andersen wore a visor. Beneath it, his skin was chapped red. His eyes looked determined. He was pissed off, muttering, and clenching his jaw. He mumbled something to me about the "that fourth-down down play" and then, leaned back against the stadium wall.
"You're already replaying the plays in your mind?" I asked.
"Yeah," he shot back.
"You go over and over them?" I continued. "Then you watch film later tonight? And by then, you're probably..."
"By then," Andersen cut me off, "I'm nauseous about it."
The theory goes that there's a natural evolution to a rebuilding football program. First, a team spends a season getting blown off the field. Then, it supposedly plays closer but still loses anyway. Then, it figures out how to win big and carries the genius coach off on its shoulders. I was going to suggest to Andersen that the painful experience he suffered on Thursday was all just part of the natural progression to him being carted off someday but I feared he'd punch me straight in the throat.
"After a game like this you either get tough or you curl up in a ball," he said.
Which is it?
"My guys have already decided to fight."
Oregon State led Minnesota 23-17 early in the fourth quarter on Thursday. That's of note here because Andersen had coached the Beavers in 10 prior contests against Power Five conference members and he'd never enjoyed a fourth-quarter lead in any of those games. The best effort his Beavers previously mustered against a major conference opponent was a 10-10 fourth-quarter tie against Colorado in an eventual 17-13 loss. But they'd never led.
Not until Thursday night in Minnesota, where 44,000-plus Gophers fans were screaming from their gizzards to make it stop. So maybe in some alternate universe the Beavers defense made tackles instead of missing them on that fourth-quarter drive that gave Minnesota the lead for good. Maybe even as Oregon State fell behind 24-23, it took the ensuing kickoff and used the final six minutes to drive a stake in the heart of a state already on its knees from the news of Teddy Bridgewater's knee this week.
Why not? When quarterback Darell Garretson came into the huddle on that final drive, he said he looked around and, "It felt good. I have faith in those guys like no other." He had Seth Collins, a big play guy, in that huddle. He had Ryan Nall, who would finish with 151 all-purpose yards, in there. He had eight other teammates who Andersen challenged all summer to, "Be tougher! Be stronger!" in there.
But what Garretson didn't have was much of anyone who had won a close college game in recent years. In the end, Oregon State looked a little like a search party, out looking for a victory. It started the day ambitious and with good intentions, but forgot flashlights and it was left fumbling around in the dark at the end of the night. Ultimately, therein lies the great paradox for the Beavers -- they must figure out how to win these kinds of close games without having players around who have won these kinds of games.
Also, they'd like to do it sooner rather than later.
The Beavers are better this season, true. They're more interesting, too. They're stronger and tougher. The talent level has risen. But this team still needs to figure out how to win close games.
"We have maybe five guys out there who have been a part of winning close games like that," Andersen said. "These guys know that has to change."
Andersen is the right coach. That I'm sure of. Also, Garretson looks capable of leading that charge. He was 25 of 40 for 228 yards and three touchdowns. He made a couple of brilliant throws. Except, he's not going to lead the Beavers anywhere while being blindsided by pass rushers who ran untouched toward him. Collins, who had 57 receiving yards, looks capable, too, of being the kind of talent who breaks open a game. Nall, too. Jordan Villamin as well. Except, how are any of those guys going to catch passes and collect ovations when Garretson is on the ground looking out the earhole of his helmet?
Answer: They aren't.
The whole thing was compounded on Thursday night by a bearded Minnesota fan in a bright gold T-shirt who spent his evening drinking Miller Lite and screaming insults. He sat above the team, immediately behind the Beavers bench, and shouted things such as, "When they scheduled this game, you guys knew you weren't good enough!!" And, "This loss is your fault!! You guys know you suck!!"
The guy was like Oregon State's deep-rooted subconscious, hurling verbal insecurities at the backs of the Beavers heads. To their credit, they never turned around and acknowledged his existence. But they had to hear him. He was incessant and loud. The Beavers offensive lineman sat in front of him at the end of the game, their eyes staring at their shoe tops. I wondered how much they'd like to climb into the stands and feed him their shoulder pads. I wondered how much they'd love to shut up everyone who still believes Oregon State football is the equivalent of a 98-pound weakling.
"I am proud of the hurt it showed on their faces," Andersen said after the game.
But really, you had no idea unless you were here. Because after Minnesota extinguished the clock, capturing the win, Oregon State's players shook hands. Then, athletic department staffers directed the Beavers toward one corner of the end zone. It's a post-game Andersen tradition he started last season. Win or lose, the players stand before the loyal Beavers fans and sing the university fight song after games.
No band present.
No student section, either.
Just 65 or so football players standing shoulder to shoulder with each other, staring up at the emptying second deck of the stadium, looking for anyone wearing orange. There were a lot of Gophers fans in gold, confused, looking down at them, leaving the stadium. There were maybe a dozen or so visible Beavers fans still up there, looking down from the deck, waving at them.
The Beavers weren't alone. They had each other. All last season, I wrote that Andersen's program was on the right track. He's going to win at Oregon State, eventually. A night like Thursday suggests it so. But I just don't know how many unforgiving and painful nights like this it will take to get there.
Like the coach said: "This has to change."
--- @JohnCanzanoBFT
