SB Nation User Blog: beavers415

"Those New Uniforms Are Tight!"

beavers415 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:12:12 -0000

I don't want to sound heavily medicated, but I think that duck looks pretty tough.

Can you believe that someone actually ok'd robo duck for launch? At some point someone had to say "I think this new duck mascot is freaking tight." If you were in charge of the marketing department of this athletic department would this person still have a job?

But this was five years ago and they learned from their mistakes. Right?

Bring out the black uniforms with the feather shoulder pads! And a new era has started at Faber. The "lavender" era.

In case you missed it, the ducks unveiled their new all black costumes last week, and it bears repeating. They had feathers on shoulders.

Not only had the uniforms had wings. Mike Bellotti was sporting a new "O with wings" hat. Even the schmuck fans were sporting the new fly gear in the stands. The next day I read that a press member said the new duds looked "tight" and Bellotti gave the uniforms a very positive review.

This is funny because everyone I know thinks the wings are ridiculous. And I'm not just talking about Beavers and dawgs here. I am talking about duck fans.

Take my brother's story for example.

"My die hard duck friend Derek said it best when the first thing he said to me days after the unveiling, and before I could even get a word out was, "I don't even want to hear a word about the new ducks uniforms. They are an embarrassment and I don't want to talk about it."

But I have run into duck fans on the internet that are really excited about the new threads. Most of it stems from the fact that they were in all black uniforms and the majority of people were trying to take pride that the ducks can wear their rivals color just because it is not listed as an official color. They claim the only OSU color is orange.

But when was the last time Oregon State was not sporting black in their uniforms? I think it is well established the OSU is orange AND BLACK and no sensible fan would argue this. And if you're rival has established this color pattern, you just don't wear this color/shade. Period. Seriously, how stupid and arrogant can you get?

My only explanation is a con versation overheard according to a toothless guy on Mercer Island.

Sometime in the year 2005....

Pat Kilkenny: Hey Phil, did you see that Oregon State got to the College World Series this year?

Phil Knight: Sure did, who do you think supplies their uniforms and owns the local semi-pro team?

Pat: Why don't we have a baseball team?

Phi: You know how I got ripped and accidentally made my now famous shoe thinking I was cooking a waffle to cure my munchies? Well everyone started wearing my shoe except the baseball team. They laughed at me and proceeded to give me a wedgie that ended my track career. They got theirs and the rest is history.
Pat: I don't know if that's such a wise move these days with this obvious cash cow developing for Oregon State. I make you a bet whatever they can do, we can do better.

Phil: If you did bring baseball back, you'd have to take out a men's sporting team. And don't forget about other kinky Title 9 rules.

Pat: You could take out the wrestling team. Back when I was a cheerleader the wrestlers used to make fun of us and I would go home and cry.

Phil: Don't remind me. I was the one helped ban you guys from the track meets.

Pat: What if OSU won a NCAA Championship in baseball? Would you be willing to pull the underwear out of your crack and give America's pastime another chance?

Phil: Yeah, right. They'd have to win back-to-back in order for me to consider that.

Pat: So Phil, why does our football team have armor on their knees and shoulder pads.

Phil: Ha, ha, ha. That's not armor. Its diamond plating and it makes you look tough, like a soldier. Just wait till they sport the all white uniforms and we look like Storm Troopers. What else would a guy named Tinker design?

Pat: No offense Phil, but acid washed jeans looks better then those rags.

Phil: I know, I know. THEY'RE HORRIBLE! We got into a hot spot with our son and the only way we could get him off the hook was give the design responsibilities to some six year girl from China, and that was through wall Wal-Mart who was in trouble because of child labor. You know the old switch-a-roo.

Pat: Are you serious? What if someone finds out that some 6 year old Chinese kid who works for Wal Mart is designing your uniforms?

Phil: Don't worry about it. Do you think the fans of this school would ever call out their home team? They believe everything we tell them and I own the media.

Pat: I make you a bet that I could design a uniform that would make them come unglued.

Phil: No way. We've put studies into this. This design is the most obnoxious and offensive ensemble ever. It even beat out the early 90's New Jersey Nets uniform that was blue and red tie-died.

Pat: You don't think I could do it?

Phil: Never. Anything short of you being the AD, having the worst uniforms, and wearing your rivals colors, this fan base will never turn on you.

Pat: Sounds like a wager to me.

Phil: You're serious. You really think you could do worse then this? It's a bet.

Pat: Standard wager?

Phil: Standard wager.

Fast forward to November of 2008

Pat was seen handing Phil a dollar behind the Casanova Center.

Photo courtesy of photobucket.com

This Week is Your Chance to Deserve to Say "We"

beavers415 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:41:40 -0000

It's been a while since I've posted a real rant on BtD but with the economy in the shape that it is in my priorities have been with work. I hope you can understand. But with Beaver Nation experiencing what could be one of the greatest seasons ever I couldn't hold in my thoughts any longer.

First of all, I love that everyone is dedicated to the "one game at a time" philosophy. Not just the players, but especially you, the fans. I truly believe that your thoughts and hopes for this team help in every single way. It may seem "hippie and holistic" but I truly believe if you can focus and imagine good things happening for your team, it will happen. You just have to have faith and Beaver Nation has that with this team.

So what about this game against Cal? Every week it seems like each game just becomes bigger and bigger and the stakes become higher and higher. OSU is facing a very tough Bears team that has won its past two games inCorvallis and in convincing fashion. The last game in Reser was over well before OSU got on the board. It was especially annoying for me because I was living in San Francisco at the time and got suckered into bringing a Cal fan up for the game.

(Actually, the Cal fan was pretty gracious in victory but he should have been after dropping one of my Beaver flags on I-5, puking on my brother's living room floor and hopelessly hitting on OSU coeds in embarrassing fashion. We referred to him as "The Cal Guy" because we just met him through a mutual friend/Beaver fan and he was being That Guy. He was a good enough dude but he was the DB of Destiny that weekend. But he did buy me three other Beaver flags for the one he dropped on the freeway and I still rock those flags to this day)

Regardless of recent history in Corvallis, I think OSU will win this game and do it in convincing fashion (although I will take a squeaker if it means the W). Here are my reasons why.

This team is focused: I know, I know, I just said this, but you can see that this team is taking things one game at a time and not looking ahead to any opponents. They didn't look past Hawaii, WSU or UW and while we've seen many teams say the same things that the Beaver players and coaches are preaching this team is really pulling it together. I don't think this will change against the Bears, especially since you cannot even get a cat nap in againstCal without the Bears taking advantage.

The home crowd will be fired up: While I wasn't particularly impressed with the Beaver Crowd's enthusiasm against ASU (although the die hard fans are always exempt when I make these kinds of statements) I think the crowd knows how important this game means to Oregon State. Not only is a Pac-10 Championship within reach, but this game will be broadcast regionally on ABC. Every Beaver fan should know that voices come back, tired legs will prevail and nothing buys you more respect from your piers from other schools then a great home crowd. And if you are still worried about being sore for cheering too much at this game, don't forget that God invented beer for these types of occasions. Just be responsible and don't be a jerk to the Cal fans that drove a long ways to do the same thing for their team.

(And I hope the rumor that the Student Section is planning a black out is true. That would look really cool)

This team is really confident: While some people might be discouraged that the Beavs couldn't put a slumping ASU team away at home and were sloppy on offense against UCLA in the first half, the way that this team has responded shows that this team knows how to win games. Sure, I would love to see OSU coast to a victory in every game, but I find it more comforting seeing so many different players stepping up to make plays throughout the game. When this happens, your teammates know that they don't have to carry their team and they just have to go out there and do their jobs.

How else does Sean Canfield recover from three costly turnovers in the past two games? He knows that he doesn't have to do it all because he has a great offensive line and the best freshman running back in Pac-10 history (let alone the best RB in the Pac-10 this year).

What about Victor Butler rolling out in coverage to intercept the game tying two point conversion against ASU? Would he have been able to do this if Slade Norris and Stephen Paea couldn't get pressure on the passer with great consistency?

How about Greg Laybourn's game clinching interception last weekend against the Bruins? How is it that this guy just seems to be in the right place at the right time at the most important times in the game? I'll tell you why. Coaching.

Greg was saying that his coaches told him before the play "watch for the wheel route." All he had to do was wait for Kevin Craft to throw the cheese (pun intended). Give the pressure that the Beavers d-line was putting on the Bruin QB, it was just a matter of time till things floated into his hands.

And this last Laybourn example just shows how much the faith these kids have in their coaching staff. Mike Riley knows he would never have to pull his pants down at halftime to get their attention. This team knows that if they execute the game plan the way they practiced it all week they will be successful. It doesn't matter what "cage" the other team has planned or how many 4 and 5 star players are lining up on the other side of the ball. If this team executes, they win. It's as simple as that.

I have a lot of respect for Cal but: The Bears will have to be better then the Beavs on all these counts to beat them and I don't see this happening.

But let me kiss up to the Bears for a second. Cal has a great defense and the 3-4 look with a very talented linebackers could cause the offense some fits. Let's also not forget that Cal always has playmakers on their offensive side of the ball and their o-line is one of the best in the conference.

OSU fans shouldn't forget that if it wasn't for Joe Ayoob completing 2/3rds of his passes to the field turf worms in 2005 ("an embarrassment to the forward pass" was what one of my Cal friends texted to me after the game) and Kevin Riley's bonehead mistake of thinking he could outrun Pac-10 linebackers with no timeouts and less then 10 seconds remaining, Cal would own a four game winning streak over the Beavs coming into this game. With Nate Longshore being the more effective QB against the Trojans last week and his impressive outing in 2006 against OSU, the Beaver DB's better have their heads on a swivel.

But that is why they play the games.

OSU might be catching Cal at the perfect time. If there is one thing I know about the Bears, is they don't recover well from hangovers. All last week the local media was playing up the "program changing" opportunity the Bears had against the Trojans. This was the Bears "Super Bowl" and the key to their run at the Roses. When they lost to USC, the feelings coming out of Berkeley was that their season is now a disappointment. The team's goals have regressed to hopes of a Holiday Bowl appearance and fans in the Bay Area are taking a more cynical approach to the Bears. Anyway you slice it; this is not good for the Cal faithful.

Don't worry Cal fans. You have a great program and have one of the best coaches in the Pac-10. You will have your opportunity in this conference and a tough defeat to the Trojans is not that bad. You might figure this out someday, but not this weekend against the Beavs.

One final thought: We have some of the greatest fans in the nation and I am not saying that because I am a blatant homer, but we can be better. While 50% of you cheer like this is the last game you will ever see, the rest of Beaver Nation needs to step it up for this game. This is especially true if you are one of those fans that say "we" when talking about OSU sports teams. If you really truly think you deserve to say "we" when referring to the Beavs, then you can earn it by doing your part and lifting up this team with your undying support. This is even more crucial when your team isn't playing well and they need a lift. At this point in the season, this is the biggest game of the year and as much as I believe that the fans were an integral part in the victory over USC, you will be for sure during this game.

So stand up, yell loud, wear Orange (unless you are in the student section), and give a Cal fans a beer to show them who the best fans in the nation are. They may need it after the whooping they receive this Saturday. This week is your chance to deserve to say "We."

(photo via photos.oregonlive.com)

Still Undecided?

beavers415 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:16:03 -0000

Last night I was watching the Monday Night Football game when I stumbled upon Barack Obama (1 degree from Beaver Nation) and John McCain speaking to Chris Berman in a taped interview. Berman asked the candidates some slow-pitched softball sized questions but one really struck me.

What would you change in sports?

McCain said that he would get rid of steroids and performance enhancing drugs (might as well asked for world peace while you were at it even though I am very pro for both concepts).

Obama said that he wanted to see an eight team college football playoff.

So if Tavita Thompson was undecided yesterday I am sure he knows who he is voting for today.

-Beavers415

Can OSU beat USC?

beavers415 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:59:29 -0000

Why can't OSU beat USC? Some say it's because of the Trojan's superior talent. Others will say it's because of better coaching. Even a few will say that they are USC and OSU is just Oregon State. But this is all why they play the games.

And I hope that more then a few Beaver faithful understand that this is a game that Oregon State can win and not with just dumb luck (but I'm sure that OSU will take as much luck as they can get in this one). Will the effort require a perfect game? Well, it wouldn't hurt but here is how I think OSU can beat the mighty Trojans.

1. Do not get caught up in the mystique and hype that is USC.

They are just another team that scores the same amount of points for a touchdown, field goal and safety and point after TD as OSU. Sure, Rey Maualuga and Mark Sanchez are talented (and they have both been arrested for some form of assault) but you have lined up with guys just as good as them before. And once you get past the glitz and the glamour that only a team in LA would possess you will just realize they are another team that starts the game off with the same amount of points as you.

2. Tackle. Good open field tackling.

Against Hawaii the Beavs showed that they can be a good tackling team that many have known the past two years. And while Stanford and Penn State had some good and great athletes that might have been better then what Hawaiipresented, a good tackle still beats a broken tackle. More then likely, broken tackles are just usually the results of a bad effort by the defensive player.

3. Oregon State will need to keep the home crowd into it.

Not only will ESPN be there to broadcast the Thursday Night College Football, I can't remember the last time the World Wide Leader in Sports was at Parker Stadium to bring the Beavers to the entire nation. This crowd wants to show the world that it is one of the best in the country and the Beaver football team could really use this to their advantage to rattle USC and keep OSU pumped through the game.

I feel like this one is so important. I remember the OSU/USC game in 2006 and that crowd was great. But this was helped tremendously by the Beavers making plays to keep the crowd into it and in the end I think this was a tremendous advantage.

4. Penetrate, Penetrate, Score, Score (my favorite Stanford student section cheer).

So I'll state the obvious but some things to note about OSU on both its lines.

Last year the OSU offensive line was just torn up by the Trojans. It's amazing the Sean Canfield was injured by the cheap shot artist Will Harris who plays safety instead one of the DL's who were hitting him all night long. This year they need to be nasty (hopefully with the return of Jeremy Perry) and protect their QB. If Lyle Moevao gets time to find his receivers the Beavers could score some points.

This year the OSU defensive line has taken i ts time to warm up but you saw some signs of improvement against the Rainbow Warriors. And I don't want to take away any credit from the Beavers for getting some penetration through theHawaii line but they need to prove that they can do it against one of the bests. USC coming into town is perfect timing for OSU's DL to show up.

5. Let LA buy into their hype.

Now wait a second. Didn't I just say that OSU needed to ignore the hype generated for the Trojans? Yes I did but have you been following the coverage of this Trojan team? They are the cats meow in LA and Bristol, Connecticut. Instead of KEZI and KOIN covering some practice before a big game, this team has ESPN and CNN providing viewers of recaps and a look ahead to the next game. After a while you start to believe you can do no wrong and you are all that and then some. Sometimes this can help you in a big game type scenario (Ohio States and Notre Dames) but when you head into bees nest with national expectations of a blow out it could turn into a long night. Don't forget everyone saw OSU get destroyed in State College. How could that team beat USC? Why are they even playing this game?

6. Could USC be overlooking the Beavers?

All the talk I've heard from USC has been about focusing on OSU. Mark Sanchez said right after the Ohio State game and on Game Day the following weekend that their thoughts are on OSU. I even mentioned it on yesterday's epic That Guy Sports CFB Journal when I wrote that Sanchez said his only worry was falling asleep against the Beavs. I tried to make it sound like if Ernie McCrackin in Kingpin was making one of his condescending comments towards the competition even if Sanchez was not intending to come off like that. But I still wonder how much USC respects OSU.

In practice they are using one of their shorter running backs to mimic Jacquizz Rodgers so they could get used to finding a smaller RB in traffic. If I were USC I would be concerned if their Quizz rip-off can plow over a defender when he meets him in the open field. I wonder if he has moves like Barry Sanders and can block like Tom Rathman. Because if he doesn't USC might not be ready once the real Quizz appears from behind that line.

And I would still like to call out Sanchez for focusing on not falling asleep against OSU. Does he really think that if he just shows up he's going to win? That if he just shows up for the game that this OSU team won't be able to hang with USC? I'm sure Pete Carroll and company will do everything to do in their power to get their team ready for one of the best defensive backfields in the conference and practice the silent counts for a loud Parker Stadium. But if USC just expects to do their thing and goes through the motions against the Beavs then its going to be a really tough game.

7. Join the Mountain West Conference.

Just kidding. But as much Pac-10 looks bad this year I think a lot has to do with playing a tough non-conference schedule. And many think the Mountain West (well, all except for That Guy Sports) is just like the WAC or the Sun Belt, but this conference should have its conference champ play in a BCS bowl game every year.

8. Just imagine OSU beating USC.

Last year before OSU played the #2 ranked Cal Bears in Berkeley, no one would give the Beavers a chance. But I did and I wrote about how I could see it happening (http://thatguysports.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-can-see-osu-upset.html). At the time I was living in San Francisco and heard all these Bear fans saying that OSU didn't have a chance against the Cal. Later that day OSU pulled off one of the greatest upsets of the season and Cal, which plummeted them in the polls, had their season spin out of control for a 7-6 season.

And of course there is what happened the last time the Beavers and Trojans met in Corvallis. It was somewhat similar to what is going on today.

In 2006, OSU was 4-3 and no one gave them a chance against the Men of Troy. That victory spring boarded OSU to a 10 win season and a lot of the confidence and swagger that we see with the program today. If OSU can somehow find a way to beat USC can you imagine how the rest of this season could end up? A conference championship? A Rose or BCS Bowl? How about the seasons after this one?

All you have to do is start seeing OSU beating USC on Thursday night.

-Beavers415

State College, Pros, Cons, and Random Stories

beavers415 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:56:25 -0000

Note from Jake: Building the Dam Nation, I would like to introduce you to "Beavers415", who will be writing on Building the Dam from time to time. He would like to tell you a little bit about himself. Continue after the break to access the story that the headline above suggests.

As a die hard Beaver fan who moved to San Francisco after graduating from OSU and then relocated to Seattle earlier this year, I have found it tough to casually discuss with local sports fans about my favorite teams. So in order to keep my fiance from going insane by talking her ear off about recruiting classes and spring games, I started writing on a blog called That Guy Sports (www.thatguysports.blogspot.com). Not only do I cover OSU sports, but my other favorite teams and our own award "That Guy of the Week." This award, and a lot of my blog, basically rags on the establishment and tries to weed through the BS that is our mainstream media (ESPN). But mainly it is just my perspective on sports.

But when it comes to college football I take it more seriously. The past two years I have written my own CFB preview (this year I predicted all 119 teams) and I will start submitting my own top 25 in a couple more weeks when we really know who the good teams are. I do this because I am sick of the established press pushing the stereotypical powerhouses on us and I would rather take a chance with a team like South Florida then BS the reason on why Miami or Notre Dame will be good this year. I call it how I see it and I want to be as objective as possible. Even with my beloved Beavs.

I hope you can all enjoy my work that will be posted here at Building the Dam. This week I wrote up my experience in State College from this past week. I tended not to focus on the game but make a point to tell the story of what made traveling to this road game so much fun. Since I am a season ticket holder and plan on traveling to UCLA later this year, I will continue to give you my stories and hopefully some good news on what is happening on the field starting this week against the Rainbow Warriors.

GO BEAVS!

-Beavers415

How many years is it going to take before OSU wins an out-of-conference game on the road? Better yet, how long is it going to take before they play a competitive game OOC game on the road? Other then Hawaii in 2006, which was at the end of the season, it seems like Mike Riley cannot get the troops off on the right foot to start the season.

But I am sick and tired of trying to explain why the Beavs cannot win a big game on the road to start the season. I'd rather focus on what I would say was one of the best college football road trips I've ever experienced (minus the 45-14 ass whooping).

It All Starts in Our Nation's Capital

Five of us took red eyes from the West Coast on Thursday night and met up at Dulles International Airport Friday morning. River and I travelled from Seattle, Seth and Greg from San Diego, and Brett from the LBC. Which brings us to our first pro of the trip.

Pro: This is a shout out to our friends Greg and Ethan (who showed up from NYC on Saturday morning) who are not even Oregon State alums but who rocked the orange and black in support of the Beavers. Even better, Greg is an Ohio State fan and Ethan Southern Cal. See folks, everybody loves a Beaver.

Our friend Jason who was in DC the night before picked us up at the airport in a rented minivan and started our road portion of the trip in style rocking five Beaver flags and an old glory. As far as we are concerned we set a record for most OSU flags on a single vehicle in the states of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

After a long drive winding through the Appalachian Mountains of SE Pennsylvania, which included stops at the Battle of Antietam and an unexpected side trip to the set of the film Deliverance, we arrive in Happy Valley. Which brings us to our first con of this trip.

Con: Purchasing Alcohol in the State of Pennsylvania.

I know that some states don't allow you to purchase liquor from regular supermarkets and such, but what state restricts you from purchasing beer at a "wine and spirits" store. Things like this make me miss BevMo in California.

After Bret and Greg spent an hour searching for beer for our Friday night prefunc, I symbolically started off the drinking in Happy Valley by shotgunning a 16 oz of Keystone. It hurt so good.

(it should be noted that the real reason I shotgunned this beer is because I lost a bet with the smartest guy in the car).

So after consuming a good amount of alcohol that might has well been bootlegged from West Virginia, we headed to our first stop of the night in State College at a bar called Rathskeller. Here we were greeted by our first group, of what will become many, very friendly Penn State fans.

Pro: Penn State Fans

It didn't matter where we went. We always ran into a ton of very friendly Penn State fans. The most frequent question of the weekend was "are you having a good time in State College?" After a while it got annoying having to tell everybody, "yes, we are having the time of our life (I'll tough on more of this later in the blog).

After a visit to down the road to the Sports Cafe, where we met more friendly Penn State fans which included the owner of the bar, we called it a night in preparation of what we were confidently predicting a very competitive football game. Other then the jackass who wasn't even going to the game the next day, most PSU fans agreed with us that it would be a "knock them out-drag them out" type game. Ohhh, were we all fooled.

The next day we would all eat crow with our inaccurate prediction. Who would have thought we could be so wrong after consuming 5-20 beers?

Game Day

I set the alarm for 7:30am. We woke up at 9:00am.....

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