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PrintA week before the Missouri football team began its slide, losing four of its last six regular season games, the Tigers’ Sun Bowl opponent, Oregon State, saw a major change in its season.
On Oct. 7, the Beavers played at home against Washington State and lost, 13-6. Washington State finished eighth in the Pac-10 Conference and is not in a bowl game. The loss was Oregon State’s second in a row and dropped it to 2-3. It was shaping up to be a long, painful year for Oregon State.
Then, something changed.
Inside the Oregon State locker room after the loss to Washington State, the players made a choice. Something inside the team had to change for the Beavers to have anything that could be considered close to a successful season.
“I think we played well even though we lost,” defensive end Jeff Van Orsow said. “From then on we started on the winning streak. (Southern Cal) was kind of a confidence builder.”
But it was more than just playing well in a losing effort that caused a change for the Beavers after the Washington State game. The culture of the team went from being driven by an individually-centered attitude to a team-centered one.
“That was a big point, everybody did a little soul searching, and we had to come together as a team,” wide receiver Sammie Stroughter said. “We all needed to put away our egos and just come together. It was a team effort and everybody really did a nice job of that.”
With that, the Beavers’ season took off. The Beavers’ run of success started with two wins on the road. The turnaround was completed with a victory against then-No.3 Southern California. Entering the Sun Bowl against Missouri on Dec. 29 in El Paso, Texas, Oregon State (9-4) has won seven of its past eight games and finished third in the Pac-10.
After scouting Missouri (8-4) on film, a few of the Oregon State players said they saw similarities between the Tigers and a few of the teams on Oregon State’s schedule.
“The QB (Chase Daniel), probably not, but their
offense, we probably saw a lot of that the last three games,” Van Orsow said. “Oregon and Hawaii are pretty similar. That idea, we played those games as good practice for the bowl game.”
Van Orsow played a major role in the start of the Beavers’ winning ways. He knocked down the potential tying two-point conversion pass by USC quarterback John David Booty to preserve the victory for the Beavers. Since then, Van Orsow said, the Beavers’ defense has continually closed out and preserved victories for Oregon State.
“I’d say just the ability for us to finish games,” Van Orsow said. “Just to be able to keep it going and always learning has helped us.”
With the defense clicking and running back Yvenson Bernard contributing 100 yards per game on the ground, the Beavers aren’t lacking confidence. When asked what stood out about this Oregon State team, Bernard had a few answers.
“Everything,” Bernard said. “Offense, defense and special teams. We’re clicking well on everything right now. In practice we’re just working to get that much better.”
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