With spring practice in full swing, and many exciting position battles to ensue for the Beavers, it’s a little difficult to predict how next season is going to turn out. Regardless of kickoff being roughly 150 days away, here is an extremely premature look at how I believe the 2009 Oregon State Beavers will fare. (I will certainly go into each match up in more depth as the season progresses, but here are my off the cuff predictions).
9/05 Portland State (W) – I like the fact that Oregon State will start the season against a relative cupcake, as opposed to LSU, Stanford, etc. in years past. Beavs win this one easily.
9/12 @ UNLV (W) – The Runnin’ Rebels did win at ASU last September, but struggled mightily the rest of the season. I expect UNLV to keep it respectable in the first half…but the talent gap will become evident early in the second, as the Rodgers brothers should have a hay day against this lower tier Mountain West opponent.
9/19 Cincinnati (W) – The Bearcats won the Big East last season and nearly upset Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. However this year’s team will have a completely different look as they graduated nearly all their contributors from a season ago. It should be an entertaining non conference matchup, but the Beavers, and more importantly the Pac 10 will get a much needed win.
9/26
10/3 @Arizona State (W) – Things were awful down in Tempe last season, and in my opinion its not going to be any better this season. Their will be a new quarterback for the Sun Devils, who also return nearly all of an underwhelming defense. The Beavers inexperienced defensive backs shouldn’t be tested much at all by Erickson’s bunch.
10/10 Stanford (W) –
10/24 @ USC (L) – Even with the losses of Sanchez, Cushing, Big Ray, and Matthews,
10/31 UCLA (W) – Slick Rick leads the Bruins into the
11/7 @ Cal (L) – The Beavers have had success against
11/14 Washington (W) – Dad’s weekend welcomes the Huskies to Reser Stadium. I expect
11/21 @ Washington State (W) – Everybody will look forward to playing the
I think the UNLV game will be tougher than you suggest. They have a solid QB and despite their struggles last year (5 wins) they made vast improvements (clayton went down late too). They run the spread which has proven time and again to give the Beavs some problems (I'm not suggesting 65 points worth of problems because the ducks run and rebs do not run the same system). I do think we get the win, but this one might come down to it.
ReplyDeleteCincy loses all their defense but with Kelly has coach I think they'll still be good. Gilyard is a stud in the return game and Pike returns as QB, they could give us troubles but in Reser you have to expect the win.
I'm with you in thinking Arizona will surprise some and be pretty good next season. Tuitama was good, but he also held them back in certain situations. They return two solid running backs but in the end its again at Reser and another Beaver victory.
Now we get to Tempe, this is a big game. We've struggled there in the past and they have to be improved from last year. This game to me is 50/50 and I think we'll lose this one. I find it nearly impossible we start the year 5-0.
Stanford will be a win even if its a difficult win. (Hopefully Gerhart doesn't go crazy on us again) Then you have the biggie, USC. I disgree that we'll get thumped, after the 2006 upset, we held with them pretty good in the Coliseum. The coliseum is nothing special, I don't think we'll win but I suspect a two score loss, not much more.
The UCLA game is dangerous but I think it'll come in a point in the season where it is a must win, it'll put us in a solid bowl game as added motivation.
Cal is tough, we've proven we can beat them in Berkely and I think we matchup well. Thompson will be trouble in the secondary if Canfield is playing and best will get his two 50+ yard carries but I think the Beavs win again.
The UW game is a trap game as they should be a lot better but I think you gotta expect a sweep over the washington schools.
Then you have the civil war, regardless of what team is better or what team is hosting, I do think this one is a 50/50 game. I just hope both team's have healthy rosters this year.