Oregon State Beavers 8-3 Overall (6-2 Conference)

This Week’s Score: Oregon State 42 – Washington State 10

Next Week’s Opponent: BYE

Full disclosure, I didn’t get a chance to see Oregon State cruise to victory against WSU, but is a recap really necessary? I mean, Wazzu attracted a grand total of 16,167 fans to Martin Stadium and I would venture a guess that many of them were wearing black and orange.

The Cougars just aren’t a great measuring stick for any other Pac-10 program this season, so I find it pointless to review the predictably lopsided statistics from Saturday’s game. Instead of going over how great Canfield and ‘Quizz played or how easily Mark Banker’s defense seemed to handle the Cougs, let’s instead talk about two things that are currently on my mind regarding this OSU program:

1. Mike Riley is my favorite coach in the Pac-10 and has been for a while now. He is a true class act who maximizes the ability of his players and seems to embrace the overachieving role. With Saturday’s win at WSU, Riley moved into second place on OSU’s coaching record chart (64), and he deserves every bit of success that he has earned in Corvallis. I fully expect him to retire as the Beavers all time winningest coach (the mark is 74 wins).

2. Barring a freak injury in practice, OSU will have everyone healthy and ready to go for the War for the Roses (Brennan Olander may be the only exception). Beating WSU was a foregone conclusion, but leaving Pullman without major injury concerns was the real victory.

Now the stage is set for arguably the most epic Civil War of all time (that’s right, even more epic than the one from 1861). Will a healthy ‘Quizz be the difference maker that was missing from last year’s meltdown? Can QB Sean Canfield continue his dream season by leading the Beavs to a win at Autzen (and in the process wrap up Pac-10 QB of the year)? Can Mark Banker’s defense hold up against the Ducks powerful misdirection spread attack?

I sure as heck don’t know the answer to any of these questions, but it will be a lot of fun to watch them get answered on December 3rd.