Oregon State vs Texas…It’s GameDay!

GameDay is finally here and for Oregon State it represents the opportunity to be the most talked about team heading into the New Year. A high-quality bowl win over Texas and a 10 win season would set the tone for the program to be a national contender. Couple that with the soon to be revealed rebranding and OSU would have momentum in the Top 10 around the country heading into the 2013 season. Beaver Nation will be so juiced that BDC will have to announce more specific plans for Reser Phase 3 and the plans will go towards the higher end where ending up with a 50K stadium by 2016 may become an exciting reality.

Shawn Heilbron, Senior Associate Athletic Director of Development at Oregon State University, yesterday tweeted “Trust me when I say our new look is strong!” in regards to this being the expected last game with the angry beaver and OS logos and the new rebranding efforts indeed being ‘powerful’ as many have urged. Lindsey Schnell actually went further and stated the Beavers could have a surprise in store today saying “They’re supposed to be wearing orange jerseys, black pants and orange helmets. They got new cleats for the game I’m pretty sure, but I don’t know what they look like.”

If that is true and not a cruel typo, then OSU is doing the double setup for today’s game and teasing like rock stars before coming out for the main event.  As long as Lindsey is accurate look for someone like Shawn and the equipment staff to change out the helmets that are currently setup and swap in new orange lids a couple hours before kickoff. OSU would then be making the entire nation take notice as they play in the day’s highest profile matchup. To win the game OSU needs to try to take the early lead but do so with a balanced attack. Don’t ask Cody to do too much or put him in situations where we need to convert on 3rd and long very often. As long as we take advantage of down and distance and make Texas know that Ward and Woods will be in bezerker mode all day then that will open up plenty of lanes and opportunities for the likes of Wheaton and Cooks. Jordan Poyer needs to come out and have an impact performance he will always remember and that is true for the entire defense as well. Release the Crichton, lock down on pass defense and let our speedy outside linebackers stuff the running hopes of the Longhorns.

I think this game will be pretty close most of the way and a typical Beavers heartstopper. Beaver Nation would love to see OSU get up by a couple touchdowns and really feel confident but that hasn’t been in the cards for most of the big matchups where it is anyone’s ballgame. Texas has plenty to play for and a large fanbase who wants to take their frustrations out on the Beavers of Oregon State.

To win we have to be the more disciplined team who is on point throughout the game and playing to win. Good teammates forge together to win games like this and that is exactly what I think OSU will do.  It has to be for all 4 quarters though and OSU cannot afford to get too pass happy down the stretch or if down at any point. OSU was great at Stanford for 3 quarters and then played a different game in the 4th. They can’t do that and if they don’t, look for OSU to leave Texas as champions of the 20th Alamo Bowl and the pride of the State of Oregon and Beaver Nation.

Go Beavs!