Ryan Gardner/Mid-Valley Sports Oregon State coach Mike Riley is doused late in the fourth quarter of the Beavers' victory.

Commentary

By Brooks Hatch
Mid-Valley Sports

There was no phony enthusiasm, no hip-hip-hoorays, when Oregon State's coaches slunk into the Valley Football Center on Oct. 3.

They were still reeling from the 49-7 knockout punch California had administered the previous day. They were shell-shocked, 0-2 in the Pacific-10 Conference and at 1-4 overall, with USC, Washington and Oregon yet to come.

"There was no fooling anybody, it was not good," Beaver coach Mike Riley said on Saturday in recalling that morose morning, the first of 14 days of October that would play a large role in determining the fate of the 2004 Beavers.

"We said, ‘We are who we are, and we just had to fight out of it.' "

It's not an exaggeration to report that the Beavers, and a staff that hadn't exactly enjoyed unanimous support throughout the Beaver Nation to that point, were in serious trouble in one of the most pivotal seasons in the program's long history.

Teams that finish 4-7, 3-8 or 2-9 won't sell the 8,000 tickets necessary to fill an expanded Reser Stadium next fall. Losing programs don't excite recruits, sponsors, or the television networks.

Riley and company had to stabilize a sinking ship, take an accurate and realistic damage assessment, and then get it steaming in the right direction again. Fortunately, they had a bye to work with, and the horrible Huskies on the immediate horizon.

On Oct. 16, they escaped Seattle with a 29-14 victory over the Huskies.

Was it a thing of beauty? No; they should have beaten the Huskies by 40.

But it stopped the bleeding. And it began the dramatic turnaround that on Saturday was culminated by a 50-21 annihilation of Oregon before 37,042 raucous fans who remained at Reser Stadium until the glorious end.

Seems like a million years ago now, doesn't it, that the Beavers escaped Husky Stadium with a milestone win and their confidence restored?

OSU learned how to win again at Washington. And what followed — four more wins, and the toughest test No. 1-ranked USC has faced all fall — was special, magic that most likely will propel the Beavers to the West Texas town of El Paso for a Dec. 31 Sun Bowl matchup with either Northwestern or Ohio State of the Big Ten.

Several Beavers recalled those 14 days of October on Saturday in describing how the 1-4, headed-for-disaster Beavers transformed themselves into the 6-5, making a run for the border Beavers in seven short weeks.

"We were pretty down," wide receiver Mike Hass acknowledged. "All we could do is go play game-by game. We had to win five of our last six, and that's what we did.

"We knew we could. A lot of people said, ‘They can't do it,' but we just kept faith in ourselves.

"And we came though."

You probably remember hearing the same stuff from the losing Beaver teams of the 1980s and 1990s, dedicated players who also swore they'd turn things around after a poor start.

They never could, though, and that's what adds to the 2004 Beavers' second-half accomplishments. They won three Pac-10 road games. They took USC to the limit.

They beat all three of their Northwest rivals to win the mythical Rick Neuheisel Northwest Trophy for the first time since 1974.

They backed up their post-Cal pledge to play better in the second half.

They trusted themselves when thousands of Drugstore Beavers were falling all over themselves to hop off the bandwagon.

"During that bye week, we believed that we could beat everybody who was left on our schedule," senior safety Mitch Meeuwsen said. "We almost did it," save for the 28-20 loss to USC on Nov. 6.

"We did what we wanted to do: finish with a winning season and get to a bowl game."

Hass confirmed that it looked awfully bleak after the California fiasco. But he also knew that the Beavers had played a brutal schedule to that point and that the ranked teams would be replaced by opponents that were just plain rank when compared to the Golden Bears, to LSU, to Boise State and to Arizona State.

"We played ranked teams every week, it seemed like," Hass said. "We knew we had the softer part of our schedule coming up, and that we could do it. It worked out."

Riley said that even through the losses the Beavers had a good sense of who they were, and why they were who they were.

That's why he felt so confident walking out onto the Reser Stadium turf before Saturday's game. His team had kept its focus during the media circus surrounding the recent suspensions of four players, and practices had been unbelievably crisp.

"I will never admit this during the week, even if I think I know it," Riley said. "But I thought we practiced well. I liked our intensity and our enthusiasm.

"Everything had the right edge about it. I was really impressed. Even in our Friday walk-through, we ran 22 plays, just bang. I told (offensive coordinator Paul Chryst), ‘That was really good.'

"I thought we were going to play well. I have a lot of respect for the Ducks, I think they're talented, and a good team. So that's why I'm really proud of beating them like that."

Hass didn't have to be quite so diplomatic. The Pac-10's leading receiver confirmed he was chapped that pre-game comments from Oregon safety J.D. Nelson that questioned his ability, alleging that his impressive numbers (81-1,274 yards, 7 TDs) were attributable to the system, not him individually.

"We're going to a bowl game, and the Ducks aren't," Hass said. "That's all I can ask for."

Brooks Hatch's columns appear on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. He can be reached at brooks.hatch@lee.net