Oregon State Beavers
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EXTRA POINTS: Oregon State Beavers (4-1, 1-1 in Pac-12) @ Tulane Green Wave (1-4, 0-3 in AAC) ‘At the 50… Oregon State got drubbed in its last two visits to Louisiana, so why go back? Two things come to mind. First BAKER off, they’re not playing LSU this time. The Tigers swamped the Beavers 38-3 in 2008 and 44-14 in 2012. COOKED Plus, OSU’s first-ever trip to the Bayou produced one of the school’s greatest highlights, when Heisman UP QUITE winner Terry Baker led the No. 18 Beavers to a 13-7 upset of No. 1 Kentucky in the 1950 Sugar Bowl. OSU A TREAT was hand-picked for the game after the Kentucky coach vetoed the Sugar Bowl’s first choice, No. 2 University of San Francisco, because the Dons had African-American players. The Kentucky coach: Bear Bryant. The 45… Oregon State and Tulane have met just once, with the Beavers winning 13-7 at home in 1979. It seems the BEAVERS odd matchup was born of similar circumstances as this year’s game: A borderline bowl team attempting to CAN SNIFF pad its win total at the expense of a patsy. Except in ‘79, OSU, which went 1-10 in 1978, was the cupcake A CUPCAKE and Tulane, which barely missed out on a bowl the previous season because of overscheduling (losses to FROM AFAR ACC powers Georgia Tech, Maryland), was in search of an easy score. It’s interesting to note that Tulane, despite the shocking loss in Corvallis, went on to make the Liberty Bowl, where it lost 9-6 to Penn State. The 40… Oregon State coach Gary Andersen is no stranger to the Superdome. It’s where, as Utah’s defensive SUGAR coordinator, his defense forced two turnovers that helped produce a 21-0 lead in the Utes’ shocking 31-17 ON TOP win over Alabama in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. Andersen went on to be head coach at Utah State, where his signature win came in his one and only return trip to Louisiana, a 23-21 upset of Louisiana Tech in Ruston. The 35… New Tulane coach Willie Fritz has climbed the coaching ladder since his days as Pittsburg (KS) State’s fourth FATHER, all-time leading receiver (191 catches). Along the way, he coached at Willis High (TX). His star quarterback SON TO there, Donnie Guyton, later joined Fritz as an assistant at Georgia Southern. Fritz tried to bring Guyton with MEET AT him to Tulane, but he elected to stay with the Eagles. Guyton’s son, Datrin, is Oregon State’s second-leading TULANE? receiver this season (18 catches, 303 yards, four touchdowns). The redshirt junior will be eligible to transfer as a graduate senior next year. Tulane seems a logical place for a family reunion. The 30… Oregon State backup quarterback Luke Del Rio, son of Oakland Raiders coach Jack Del Rio, and Tulane PATHS starting QB Devin Powell were teammates at Alabama to begin their college careers. Both were prep stars CROSS (Del Rio in Colorado, Powell in Florida) before they jumped into the QB frying pan at Alabama in 2012 with AGAIN incumbent AJ McCarron. Both redshirted and eventually left the program. Powell’s highlight at Bama: Playing Everett Golson on the scout team in the Tide’s preparations for Notre Dame in the BCS title game. The 25… Powell ranks 11th in the nation in total offense (1,267 passing, 202 rushing), but let’s not put him on the NO ‘D’ Heisman Watch quite yet. According to analyst Jeff Sagarin, the Green Wave have played the seventh- IN FOES softest schedule. Among the 128 teams in FBS, only one of Tulane’s five opponents -- UMass -- ranks in the top 50 defensively. And UMass, according to Sagarin, has played the easiest schedule of anyone. The 20… Oregon State quarterback Seth Collins put himself on the national map when he threw for 414 yards and QB seven touchdowns last week against Cal. Mel Kiper, Jr. currently rates Collins, a redshirt sophomore, as the BAR SET seventh-best pro prospect among college quarterbacks. That sounds good, but consider this: Three of the QUITE LOW last four OSU quarterbacks to get drafted -- Erik Wilhelm, Mike Hass and Sean Canfield -- never started an AT OSU NFL game despite each having been among the first eight QBs taken. The other (Derek Anderson) had one good year (2007 with the Browns), but has started only 42 games (17-25 record) in 11 seasons. The 15… Oregon State has moved last year’s third-string QB, Darell Garretson, to tight end, and he has responded GRANDPA with 10 catches for 82 yards and a touchdown. Garretson’s famous grandfather, also Darell, once made a CARRIED key move in his sports career. The senior Garretson, an All-American wrestler at Illinois State, was a football TWO official at various levels for 16 years. He worked the Raiders’ win over the Vikings in the 1977 Super Bowl. WHISTLES Garretson eventually moved on to the NBA, where he famously ejected Larry Bird in Game 1 of the 1987 Finals. Garretson’s son Ronnie (the tight end’s dad) officiated Game 7 of the Cavs-Warriors finals in June. The 10… If the Beavers are looking for things to do in New Orleans, they might want to ask reserve safety Treston THIS IS Decoud, their only player from Louisiana. The junior safety transferred to OSU from Delta Community College BOURBON in Monroe, where he started on a team that advanced to the 2014 state finals at the Superdome. After STREET teammate Enrique Carrasquero (now the Tulane punter) tied the game at 20-all with a field goal with 1:10 remaining in the title game, Decoud recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff to set up the winning score. The 5…’ It will take the Oregon State football team five hours to fly home after Saturday’s game, which is about 16,000 THEY fewer than it took Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to make their historic Louisiana-to-Oregon trek, mostly WON’T on horseback, from 1803-05. Lewis & Clark College in Portland has never played Tulane in football, but it, NEED A sort of, took on Oregon State in the program’s first season in 1947. The appropriately named Pioneers MAP FOR decided that was a bad idea shortly after getting crushed 60-7 by the Oregon State JV’s. Alas, Lewis & Clark coach Matty Mathews got some measure of revenge seven years later when he guided the University of THIS TRIP Oregon to a 33-14 win over the Beavers, ending a six-year losing streak in the Civil War rivalry. FOR MORE INFO, CONTACT JEFF CHAPMAN AT S.T.A.T., [email protected], 925 413-9400 .