The first thing I thought when I realized that the HLSTNHT25-PE had The University of Oregon With Fewer Uniforms Than The Other One ranked number 20 is that we, the Loyal Sons, are still wincing from the painful memories of 2 spankings applied to the rear of the Notre Dame football program by the Beavers. The first, of course, came in the form of the 2000 Fiesta Bowl. I attended that bowl. It was easy to do so b/c it seemed like almost no other ND fan did. It was pretty much just me, the teams, 60,000 OSU supporters, and their 120,000 “boomsticks” or whatever the hell you call those damned inflatable noise sticks.

The 2000 Fiesta Bowl: Made Me Want To Use My Boomstick.

The second spanking, of course, was in a much more low-light setting: The 2004 Insight.com bowl. Know what else is usually in a low-light setting? Amateur porn. I don’t know what that’s got to do with anything, but I can tell you that both are pretty ugly and make me feel ill, so…

Back to the matter at hand: The Beavers. Having gone 10-4 last year, and now getting back 16 starters (the most the Beav has had since 1998), Coach Mike Riley looks poised to do some damage in 2007. One small problem though: They’ve got to replace their starting QB. Still, the team’s veterans should be able to balance out too much inexperience, considering they return 8 starters on each side of the ball.

Offense: Like I said, they’ve got to find a new starter at QB. Frankly, none of their skill guys are even that recognizable, but they do return 8 of their top 10 offensive linemen, so the skill guys should be pretty well protected while they figure out how to become a cohesive unit.

Defense: This group should be pretty solid. The defensive line looks to be pretty darn good. Since 2002, OSU has had 5 linebackers get drafted. That’s pretty impressive, and this year that talent looks to shine as they get back their entire 2-deep from 2006.

Special Teams: For the last few years, the Special Teams of OSU have been really, really good. So good, in fact, that Dallas went and poached the Special Teams coach. So now they get all their Special Teams starters back, but will be coached by someone else. And, frankly, Special Teams is all about attitude, and the attitude is established by the coach. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Facts:

• This is the 7th year at OSU for Head Coach Mike Riley. Oddly, it’s also his 2nd tenure at OSU. He first coached their from 1997-98, and came back in 2003.
• OSU’s all-time bowl record in 6-4. Before 2000, it was 2-3.
• Until 1999, the Beavers enjoyed a streak of 28 losing seasons.

HLS Top 25 Meta:

• Highest spot on a HLS ballot: 19th
• Lowest spot on a HLS ballot: Not Ranked
• Average rankings on HLS ballots: 21.25

Why Alex Trebek Loves Them:

• The Oregon State Flag actually features the OSU mascot, a Beaver, on one side.

Around The Web:

• The Beavers
• Building The Dam

HLS Tracker 10 Forecast Technology Says:

Prediction: Apathy. What’s going to happen to OSU, unless they really light a fire and beat Southern Cal and UCLA, is they’ll be forgotten. If that does happen, which it wont, then they could be a nice, solid top-25 team, but nothing more, really. 50-50 they’ll just fall out of the top-25 as their new QB learns the ropes.

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