Pac-10 Notebook: Beavers three wins away from Roses
Thursday, November 13, 2008 5:26 PM PST
By Andrew Bagnato
The Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe last time Oregon State spent New Year’s Day in Pasadena, in 1965, Joe Paterno was a year away taking over at Penn State.
What’s the connection?
If No. 23 Oregon State and Paterno’s seventh-ranked Nittany Lions win out, the Rose Bowl will be a rematch of Penn State’s 45-14 rout of the Beavers in State College on Sept. 6.
It’s enough to make Rose Bowl organizers contemplate jumping from the highest bridge over the Arroyo Seco.
Oregon State coach Mike Riley has other things to think about first — namely, a closing stretch against 6-3 California, 6-3 Arizona and 7-3 Oregon. But he wouldn’t dread a rematch with Penn State.
“I think our players should have learned a ton more about themselves now,” Riley said. “You know, that was a thorough beating, so it would be a great lesson in the rematch. There would be a ton of respect, but I don’t think there would be fear in our team, which would be a good thing because we have been through a lot since then.”
The Beavers are 6-1 since the wipeout in (un)Happy Valley — and the loss came on a last-second field goal at Utah, which has climbed to No. 7 in the Bowl Championship Series standings.
Payback coming?
Revenge is on the minds of California and USC as they hit the road this weekend.
Cal will visit Oregon State, which denied the Golden Bears a shot at No. 1 in a 31-28 victory at Berkeley last fall.
After No. 1 LSU lost earlier in the day, second-ranked Cal stood to climb to the top of the polls for the first time in 56 years.
But the turnover-plagued Bears fell just short, their last hope dying when quarterback Kevin Riley tried to run for the winning touchdown instead of throwing the ball away and settling for a potential tying field goal. He was tackled at the 10 and time ran out.
That loss started a 1-6 tailspin. But coach Jeff Tedford said the loss to Oregon State, as galling as it was, didn’t ruin Cal’s season.
“We didn’t really reflect back too much on, ’Hey, if this would have happened, we would have done this,’ because you just never really know what would have happened after that anyway,” Tedford said.
In an ironic twist, Tedford has picked Riley his starter against the Beavers on Saturday.
Meanwhile, No. 6 USC visits Stanford in a rematch of one of the most stunning upsets in college football history.
Last fall, the Cardinal went into the Los Angeles Coliseum as 41-point underdogs and walked out with 24-23 victory — a result that helped deny the Trojans a shot at the national title.
Asked this week what went wrong that night, USC coach Pete Carroll cited his decision to stick with injured quarterback John David Booty, who threw four interceptions after halftime.
“I played a quarterback with a broken bone in his throwing hand,” Carroll said. “That’s what went wrong.
“I should have taken him out,” Carroll said. “Really, I just made a mistake in judgment that he could perform at a good level, good enough for us to win.”
Of course, Booty wasn’t on the field when USC failed to stop the Cardinal on fourth-and-20 on its way to the decisive touchdown.
“The same result may still have happened,” Carroll said. “(Stanford) played great that night.”
Delirious Devils
Arizona State (3-6, 2-4) avoided a school-record seventh straight loss in a 39-19 victory over winless Washington last weekend.
“It’s like I told our team, we’ve been in this room a lot of times here this year where it hadn’t been much fun, but it was a little bit better feeling and we have to keep that feeling going,” coach Dennis Erickson said.
The victory left Erickson 13-9 at ASU, and it followed a trend he’s established in two seasons at Tempe.
Erickson is 6-0 against teams that had losing records when they met ASU.
He’s 5-8 against opponents that came in with winning records and 2-1 against .500 teams.
That bodes well for the next two weeks, when the Sun Devils play Washington State (1-9) and UCLA (3-6).
“At least now you can look forward to, hopefully, a few more before it’s all over with,” Erickson said.
Fourth and inches
Something’s got to give when UCLA meets Washington in Rick Neuheisel’s return to Seattle. Neuheisel’s Bruins have yet to win a road game. The Huskies have yet to win anywhere. ... Oregon State tailback Jacquizz Rodgers has 1,089 rushing yards, a Pac-10 freshman record. He’s on track to become the first freshman to lead the league in rushing. ... USC leads the nation in both scoring defense (6.7 points per game) and total defense (206.4 yards per game). The Trojans have allowed only one touchdown in last five games — to Arizona, which needed four plays to go 15 yards following a USC turnover. ... Washington State has had 17 offensive players make their first career starts this year. The latest is freshman tailback Logwone Mitz, who started against Arizona last week and carried 11 times for 57 yards and a touchdown.
Past Month's Most Commented Stories