Game Evening In Portland
Gameday! Which will be followed by Game Evening. In Portland.
It won't quite be Gamenight, at least until about halftime, thanks to the 5 PM Start. And it will be a unique (we think; AD Scott Barnes wouldn't squander a precious home game, especially one in good weather again any time soon, would he?) game day experience, a marketing event wrapped around a game against an FCS opponent Oregon State thinks they can beat despite a self-disadvantaged situation, probably the only FBS (never mind Power 5) team to play an FCS opponent away from their home stadium.
We will see how much fun the festivities planed for outside Providence Park will be, and in the weeks to come, we might find it attracts more on-going support and new customers from the Portland area than it loses from the existing customer base. It might work, but there is probably also a good reason why none of the other 130 FBS teams have done something like this.
It won't be a true road game, as there will still be way more Oregon State fans than Montana State ones, and there will be an actual road presence of the program, as this year's version of the OSU Marching Band makes their debut tonight. Benny will even show up (he was a no-show in Fresno; apparently it was too expensive to send Benny along with the team on the trip). So the marketing event will actually provide some support for the team that's trying for a 3-0 start to the season for the first time since 2-14, as Coach Jonathan Smith cotinues to work on his checklist tour, which has gotten off to a really good start at the expense of the Mt. West Conference.
But it won't be a home game either. There will be fewer Beaver fans in the old baseball converted to soccer stadium Oregon State has played in 80 times before, though not since the disastrous 49-0 loss to UCLA in November of 1986. This because despite the game being a sell-out, capacity is still less than even the reduced capacity of Reser Under Reconstruction Stadium. But certainly more than made the trip to Bulldog Stadium last week. Providence Park is not an FBS facility, but it can be loud, thanks to the echo chamber effect of the roof over the leftover from baseball days. Beaver Nation has a unique opportunity to make a unique experience a uniquely more positive one. And that's one of the things game days and nights are all about. Unique experiences that exist nowhere but at a college football game. Besides, it would be good to prove Beaver Nation is at least as capable as a Soccer crowd.
Coach Smith is treating it as a road game as well, having taken the team to Portland yesterday, so they can have a necessary walk-through in an unfamiliar setting in order to be better prepared. Being down a couple key players in Luke Musgrave and Trey Lowe, the Beavers' options, and therefore their margin of error, are decreased. But so to will be the so far also unbeated Bobcats, who are missing not just their presumed starting running back, but 4 of their top 5 (so a Portland high school product Elijah Elliott from Central Catholic will get the start in his homecoming).
It won't be the most watched game in the region or the conference today; indeed being a later than usual game against an FCS foe on a weekend when Washington and Oregon are playing home games against ranked FBS (contrast with Montana State being a ranked FCS team), and Washington State is playing a game against a Mt. West team at home, about the only way Oregon State will get more than a one-liner on the late night sports report will be if something goes very wrong. Very very wrong.
Which is why its important for the Beavers, be they on the field or in the stands, bring a Gameday worthy effort to Game Evening In Portland.
After all, its Game Day! Go Beavers!
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com