Huskies and Beavers, and a Game Day for the Ages
Well, we got what we wanted in a November game day, even if we aren't getting Game Day, who chose a game involving a team beset by the worst NCAA decision ever, instead of a game with a team beset by the worst conference management decision ever.
A game with 2 very good teams, in a game both really want, and need. Oh, and its Husky week.
The 108th Husky-Beaver game in a series first played in 1897 (Oregon State won 16-0 in that first visit to Corvallis by Washington) may well be the last one. But it is also the biggest one. Ever. The first time when both teams are as highly ranked, Washington #5 and Oregon State #10 in the AP Poll, and #11 in the CFP rankings, at the time they played.
The 2000 4 hour war in Husky Stadium featured teams that would finish the season more highly ranked than either team currently is, but that game was played the first Saturday in October. We all kind of figured both teams were headed for big things, but Rose Bowl & Fiesta Bowl trips couldn't yet be assumed. And there was still time for both teams to rebound if they were on the short side of what would be a 33-30 Husky win.
It's also the biggest game in Parker/Reser since the Civil War that year, when it would be Oregon that got the Rose Bowl berth, not the Huskies, and Oregon State would not have gone to the Fiesta Bowl, had the Beavers not won 23-13.
And the biggest game the Beavers have played since at least the Civil War for the Roses in 2009, though that was in Eugene.
With due respect to a couple of visits from USC, those, even the history making and altering game in 1967, the stakes have not been higher for both teams in a game in Corvallis this late in the year. Lots of games, against the Huskies and others have had a highly ranked team playing for even bigger things, but the other team, even if playing for a better bowl themselves (the 2008 Civil War comes to mind), was playing to play spoiler as much as anything.
Washington is undefeated, and a win will earn them a berth in the last ever Pac-12 Championship game, but also keep them in the running for the College Football Playoffs.
Though Oregon State has a couple of 3 point road losses, a Beaver win keeps alive their chance to make it to the Pac-12 Championship game as well, heading to Autzen next Friday for the last for at least a while Civil War, which probably won't be that (Civil), in official name or conduct.
All season, the impending demise of the conference has made any game between teams not headed for the same destination in next season's conference shuffle has contributed to the Game Day atmosphere, but these last weeks of November will see that taken to a new high, especially in the animosity-rich rivalries in the Northwest.
Add to that the fact that the Beavers are 2-2 1/2 point home favorites over the higher ranked Huskies, and we might see another 4 hour war settled by a field goal. After all, the last 2 years in this series, the game was won by a made field goal by the home team. Last year with 8 seconds left in the power outage delayed game on Montlake. The year before in Reser, by a field goal as the clock expired in Reser.
Can this game live up to the build up? Or could it exceed it, and really be the biggest Husky-Beaver game ever played?
I wouldn't be surprised if it does, and I wouldn't miss it for anything. If we never see another Husky-Beaver game, this last one will be a fitting one to be the one that the series is remembered for. Buckle up!
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com
(Photo be Andy Wooldridge)