Homecoming Game Day and Night!
It's another in the long series of Game Days and nights like no other this week as Oregon State hosts a real stranger in UCLA before they become even more of a stranger. Probably.
It's the first time the Beavers have played the Bruins since 2019, due to the Pac-12 conference schedule rotation, and the first time UCLA has come to Corvallis since 2015. There was a scheduled 2020 game at Reser, but Covid cancelled that.
And only the 4th game between the teams since the 2nd game of the Alamo bowl season, 2012, over 11 years ago; the 2016 game was in Pasadena.
So while the impending divergent conference alignments (if Oregon State even has one) will disrupt a lot of oft-played and familiar rivalries, no one might actually miss this one for so many years that by the time they do, it won't matter. Unless schedule chaos actually creates a game; UCLA is exploring options around a current back to back bye they have coming up, as well as the extra week in the schedule the calendar affords college football every few years, including next year. I bet that turns into a Cal-UCLA game instead though, although Oregon-Oregon State and Washington-Washington State aren't the only rivalries that have even more than the usual amount of discord involved these days.
But it is also probably the biggest game in the history of the matchup, certainly since 1967, as the Beavers are ranked 15th and the Bruins 18th. And since both teams are only once beaten, in road single score losses, those were both conference games, so it's probably an elimination game for making the conference championship game, and any long shot at the college football playoffs, as the loser will fall 2 games behind the winner of the Oregon-Washington game, and lose self control of making it to Las Vegas.
And it's Homecoming, when the black-out Beavers will wear the ever popular Happy Benny Helmets. That alone will make it a Game night worth remembering! And making the Bruins remember it too!'
The forecast for showers has brought up that if it does rain, it will be the first road game in the rain for the Bruins since 2016 at Cal. However, it should also be remembered that that 2015 visit to Reser was played in a game long deluge, and ended in a 41-0 blowout, the last time the Beavers did not score in a game.
I remember that game as the one time I have left the stands at a Beaver game before the conclusion. It was so lopsided, 41-0 after UCLA scored with 1 second left in the 3rd quarter, and so wet, even more inhospitable than a certain Stanford game, and a Civil War that concluded in unplayable conditions, that we abandoned the field after the end of the 3rd quarter (which was still much later than most), although we did watch the scoreless 4th quarter on a monitor outside a concession stand under cover, and actually go back up or the post-game, when, mercifully, the rain finally let up.
Despite full goretex, I've never been wetter at a football game, and in going on 58 years of games, that includes a lot of soggy days and nights.
And what Gary Anderson tried to pass off as a defense may have done more to boost the career of Josh Rosen than anyone else.
That visit definitely needs to be replaced as the lasting memory of the sometimes big bad Bruins in Corvallis.
The theme of the season with the demise of the conference has been to remember notable games, and for me, against UCLA, I prefer a singular experience, when the Beavers played the Bruins in the Rose Bowl back during the life of Riley years, and Oregon State played the game live on the endzone scoreboard, with a few thousand students and fans watching while sitting on blankets on the field. And complete with the OSU Marching Band (who played but did not march that day), and a few thousand more fans in the stands. It was something Oregon State had never done before, and for unknown reasons, something they have never done again. Even though it brought the Gameday experience to campus, even though it wasn't a game day on campus.
This week's matchup of ranked teams will be a wilder and louder Gameday experience than any in many years between the Beaves and Bruins. Over the years, the UCLA-OSU games have tended to be lopsided affairs, one way or another, but this one likely won't be, as UCLA has one of the best defenses in the country, never mind the conference, and Oregon State a rushing game that's the best in the conference to match up with.
Both teams can pass the ball, and the Beaver defense has been a different animal.
And its a #Pac12AfterDark experience as well, since it will end long after dark, and not eclipse induced (that's first thing in the morning), and be the final game to kickoff today involving a conference team.
So Go Beat The Bruins for Homecoming Beaves!
Andy_Wooldrige@yahoo.com