Beavers Chomp Gators
Oregon State got a whole-program win in whipping Florida 30-3 in the Las Vegas Bowl.
The Beaver defense dominated. Even given the Gators had to turn to a backup QB, Jack Miller III, with no game experience, though he was and is a 5 star recruit, it was still not just impressive, but staggering, that Oregon State's defense came within 37 seconds of shutting out Florida, the team that hasn't been shutout in 436 games, a streak dating to 1988. That's not just the longest active streak, its the longest in football history. So close.
But by the time Adam Mihalek, who had missed on the first scoring opportunity of the game, drove thru a 40 yard field goal to avert the shutout, it was far too late. Far, far too late. Unless you had Florida + 28 (when the spread was officially and generally 10.5), all it did was avert a footnote in the record book.
The dominating defensive performance, which limited Florida to 219 yards, and only 39 on the ground, was lead by Kyrei Fisher-Morris, who had 13 tackles. But it was truly a team effort, as 20 different Beavers recorded a tackle. The Gators were held to 6 yards in the 2nd quarter.
Turns out that raise and contract extension Oregon State negotiated with defensive coordinator Trent Bray might have been a shrewd, home-town friendly deal.
There were ample reasons to be concerned that it might not be a Beaver blowout win, even against a Gator squad minus more than 20 players for a variety of reasons. And a lead of only 10 points at halftime bore that out.
Afterall, Oregon State had WR Treshaun Harrison reduced to the status of sideline cheerleader, and WR and All-American punt returner Anthony Gould also sidelined, after aggravating a knee injury in bowl practice. Freshman RB Damien Martinez getting knocked out of the game with a left shoulder injury after only 3 carries didn't help either. Nor did Tyjon Lindsey having to miss some 3rd quarter time as well.
The apparently depleted receiving corp didn't miss a beat though, and as a result, Ben Gulbranson and Tristan Gebbia, who both played multiple series, combined to complete 17 of 25 passes, for 189 yards.
Silas Bolden had a big part in that, grabbing a game high 6 catches, for a game high 99 yards, including the biggest single play of the game, a 34 yard diving catch, above, that set up Oregon State's first, and as it turns out, game winning touchdown. Bolden also snared a touchdown catch of his own, a 15 yard touchdown toss from Gulbranson that capped the first drive of the second half, and extended the Beaver lead to 17-0.
Deshaun Fenwick, above, one of the key contributors to Oregon State's come from way back win over Oregon, also after a game shortning injury to Marinez, came up oversized as well, with a game high 20 carries, for a game high 107 yards. That led a Beaver ground game that ground out 164 yards (despite an 11 yard sack of Gulbranson that killed Oregon State's first drive, and a 12 yard loss when Gebbia mis-handled a snap), on a time consuming 39 runs that kept Florida's offense off the field for much of the middle portion of the game.
And of course, there was another stat-sheet stuffing effort from Jack (the "Jack-Hammer") Colletto.
Colletto contributed a couple of carries, including a huge, first down producing 11 yard run, as well as a lot of blocks, and the deception play of the game, where center Jake Levengood snapped the ball between Colletto's legs (with Colletto under center as the QB) to Gulbranso, who was ligned up as the tailback, and proceeded to run for a first down.
Colletto also had 4 tackles, including a drive ender when he stopped Miller on a roll-out run in the open field, his usual contribution to the best defense Oregon State has had in a generation.
But it was his 3rd quarter blocked punt that highlighted his day, and set up Gulbranson's 7 yard QB draw touchdown run, below, that opened a 23-0 lead before the middle of the 3rd quarter.
The signature offensive drive of the game came shortly after that, after Florida punter Jeremy Crenshaw's 59 yard punt had pinned Oregon State at their own 2 yard line. In what was still a 3 possession game, and over 2 1/2 minutes left, a field-flipping stop, or an OSU turnover could have substantially erased a lot of the day of domination, and given the Gators a realistic shot at a comeback.
Instead, Gulbranson and Fenwick (and Bolden) led a 98 yard touchdown drive that took nearly 7 1/2 minutes off the clock, culminated when yet another of the sizable stable of running backs, Jam Griffin, jammed a run in for the last 2 yards to make it 30-0, and leave nothhng to be determined over the last half of the 4th quarter besides whether Florida could finally avoid the shutout.
14th ranked (and likely to rise further) Oregon State already had their 4th win in a row, and 7th in their last 8 games, sealed up.
The win, Oregon State's first ever over an SEC opponent, produced a 10-3 season, only the 3rd time the Beavers have won double digit games in a season, and the first time since 2006.
It was one last check-box checkoff win in a season full of them for Coach Jonathan Smith, who also happened to be centrally involved in that one season that was statistically better than the 2022 campaign, having been the QB in the 11-1 Fiesta Bowl winning 2000 team.
Maybe the extension and raise for Coach Smith after the Oregon win was an even bigger bargain deal than the one with Coach Bray?
Hand the trophy to Benny!
andy_wooldridge@yahoo.com