LAS VEGAS BOWL 2009 IS TODAY, OSU vs BYU

The 2009 Las Vegas Bowl is today at 5pm PST. The Beavers will be playing the Cougars of BYU. For the 4th year in a row the Beavers have finished the PAC-10 Standings in 3rd place or better but this may be one of their most difficult bowl game match ups in that time span. And that is saying a lot since the Beavers have played teams like Missouri and Pittsburgh in the Sun Bowl. Both of those teams had BCS aspirations early in the season and so did BYU. But BYU brings something to the table that the other two did not. A head coach who played at Oregon State and coached for the Beavers in 95 and 96. BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall was also a member of the Beavers football team the last time the Beavers played BYU in 1986. The Beavers won that game in Provo 10-7 and Mendenhall made 4 tackles in that game.

BYU (10-2) had hopes earlier in the season of making it to a BCS bowl game and many thought they would do just that before losing to the undefeated and Mountain West Champion TCU who will be going to the Fiesta Bowl. The BYU offense is focused around the passing game of QB Max Hall and leading receiver and all-american Dennis Pitta at TE. Hall threw to 12 different receivers this season for 3368 yards and 30 touchdowns / 14 interceptions. BYU's running game features Harvey Unga who ran for 1016 yards and 10 TD's this season. Compare that to Sean Canfields 3103 yards passing, 21 TD's / 6 interceptions and Quizz Rodgers 1377 yards and 20 TD's this season and you can quickly see where the rubber meets the road in this game.

Both teams can move the ball on the ground and threw the air. The story will be which team can stop the other from doing what they want to do. The Beavers will want to establish the running game with Quizz and then stretch the field with Adeniji and James Rodgers. BYU will counter that by taking a page from the Ducks defense that stuffed the running game and then switching to just stopping the pass and pressuring Canfield in the pocket. It was that switch in tactics late in the Civil War game that spelled doom for the Beavers.

The big story for the Beavers banged up secondary is can they stop the BYU passing game and still provide enough up front to keep them from running the ball and controlling the clock. Time of Possession for these two teams is almost identical. In fact, from looking at the stats for these two teams you could swear the Beavers were playing themselves. Although BYU leads more categories then the Beavers do. Most are almost identical to each other.

BY THE NUMBERS - Click Here for Full Stats on both teams

Two things in the stats that stand out to me are sacks allowed and interceptions. BYU is protecting their QB better then the Beavers are which will give Max Hall time to find receivers down field against our banged up secondary. The Beavers O-line needs to protect Canfield and give him the time he needs to find receivers and not add to BYU's total of 11 interceptions this season.

It really is amazing just how close the statistics are for both teams. It should be a close and exciting game to watch and the team that does the better job executing their game plan and adjusting to the flow of the game will come out on top.

THE BOTTOM LINE

I feel the Beavers need to run the ball successfully and not get pass happy in this game. By establishing the running game the Beavers can grind out long drives and eat up the clock keeping BYU's offense off the field as much as possible. But for the Beavers to be successful they must score touchdowns. Several times this season the Beavers controlled the game and the clock but settled for field goals, not touchdowns and lost the game. Most notably the USC and Oregon games. So scoring touchdown in the red zone will be big for the Beavers. Not sure that this being Quizz's first bowl game is a good thing. Quizz missed last years Civil War and then under performed in that game this year. So will Quizz be able to get over his excitement and put together worthy of being considered one of the nations top running back next season. That is the type of game the Beavers really need from Quizz today. Total domination in the running game for the Beavers wins this game.

FINAL SCORE

BEAVERS 45
BYU 38

GO BEAVERS!

2009/2010 Bowl Games and Links

The 2009/2010 Bowl Season starts today with the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, NM and finishes on Jan. 30th, 2010 with the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Al.

All 36 bowl games are listed with conferences, teams, dates and links to each bowl games website.

I hope you all enjoy a great bowl season. Go Beavers!

2009-2010 NCAA College Football Bowl Games (Ordered by date)
Bowl games and bowl game sponsors as well as the website urls change annually as new sponsors and new bowl games take shape. The links will be updated each fall as the new bowl games become available. Bowl Games

BEAVERS START PREPARING FOR LAS VEGAS BOWL TODAY!

The Beavers will be beginning their Las Vegas Bowl preparations today hopefully inside as the temperatures in the Willamette Valley are well below freezing this morning. The Beavers will face the BYU Cougars 10-2 and also former Oregon State football player and current BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall. All reports from Provo are that BYU is pumped up to play the Beavers in Las Vegas and that their preparations are going well.

As for the Beavers. Coach Riley will be going after his 6th consecutive bowl victory. However the Beavers players and coaches must first put behind them the disappointment of losing the Rose Bowl for the second year in a row. We all know that Coach Riley will prepare his players for their next opponent very well but how will be able to put aside his own disappointment in order to get his players to do the same thing.

We think of a football coach as being a person who watches tape, prepares game plans, manages his staff and manages the team on gameday. We don't often thing of a head football coach as also a councilor and father figure to his players. Having to take that still young man by the hand at times and talk with him and encourage him to persevere when times are toughest. To get that young man to put what is past in the past and move forward to the next challenge. But that is exactly what Mike Riley faces or has already faced since the crushing loss to the Ducks 6 days ago. Can Coach Riley rally his team for one more victory this season? Will his players respond to the challenge of putting the Civil War behind them and going out and playing a great game in the Las Vegas Bowl? Only time will tell but I have faith in Coach Riley and this team that they will get the job done one more time.

GO BEAVERS!

BEAVERS FALL SHORT OF ROSES IN 113TH CIVIL WAR

In what will become an instant classic of Civil War football games. The Beavers came up inches short of fulfilling 45 years of hopes and dreams once again. It has taken me a few days to overcome the disappointment of losing the Rose Bowl for the second year in a row. Now with Bowl Selection being made and the Ducks going to the Rose Bowl and Beavers once again did not get to go to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. And we were prevented from attending the Sun Bowl due to their no repeat clause much like two years ago when the Beavers dropped all the way to the Emerald Bowl. The Beavers ended up in the Las Vegas Bowl.

How close we were to living the dream! For the second year in a row Mike Riley, his coaching staff and the players of OSU's football team shocked all the experts by getting within one game of going back to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 45 years.

Sean Canfield and the Beavers had prepared and had a game plan to defeat the Ducks. The plan was working and with 10:51 to go in the third quarter the Beavers held a 30-21 lead. With 2:28 to go in the third quarter the Beavers held a 33-28 lead. But that was the last time the Beavers would be able to get into the end zone as the Ducks changed their strategy and put more pressure on Canfield.

With a little over 6 minutes to go in the game the Beavers faced a 4th and 15 at the Ducks 27 yard line trailing by 4 points. Riley knew that if he gave the ball back to Oregon they could run out the clock with the way they had been moving the ball on the ground. So Mike decided to gamble and go for it. The Ducks pressured Canfield and he was forced to release the ball sooner then he wanted to. The first option on the play was Halahuni over the middle but they had not time to wait and went to James Rodgers on the out route at the sticks. The ball sailed inches from his outstretched fingers and the Beavers turned the ball over.

Even then the Beavers had time if they could only make a stop. Something they had not been able to do the entire second half. Three times the Beavers had the Ducks in position to get the stop. And three times the Beavers failed to stop the Ducks and get the ball back. What if they had made the stop? Could the Beavers have driven the ball on the Ducks defense to get the winning score? We will never know and it becomes part of Civil War history as one of the greatest games in the series.

This year the #16 Beavers go to Las Vegas for the second time in a season to face #15 Cougars of BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl. This game is already being promoted as one of the best match ups of any of the 2009 Bowl Games. It also has some interesting story lines with BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall playing at Oregon State. But I will break down stories on the Las Vegas Bowl later in the week.

For now the Beavers and their fans need to put the Civil War in the past and move forward to the Bowl Season and continuing their streak of 5 straight bowl victories. Hopefully I will be in Vegas to watch it happen.

BY THE NUMBERS - Click Here Postgame Stats

GO BEAVERS!

MY CIVIL WAR DAY SO FAR - THIS IS NUTS

My day started off with Beaver Nation on KGW in Portland then switched to the Today Show in New York and I have spent the rest of my day trying to fix computer problems, keep up on the last minute Civil War talk and get some work done. Ya right!

Less then four hours to game time and my mind is on nothing else. If you are a business owner you might as well right off today and tomorrow for any kind of productive work from you employees because today is the build up for both teams and tomorrow will be either the party of the decade or the biggest hangover ever from disappointment.

I have been watching the beavers play for 45 years and this is something I have never witnessed before. I don't think even the Fiesta Bowl hype was this big. It probably was but it was so long ago now that it is hard to remember. However it goes down tonight it will be one that I will never forget.

Is it ok to pray for victory? I am not sure but the Beavers and Beaver Nation need this game so much more then the Ducks do. It would help the school and football program both financially and in many other ways. But no matter what I will be an OSU Beaver Fan forever.

GO BEAVERS! BEAT THE DUCKS!

Best Civil War Video

Saw this video of the little kid kicking the Duck mascot this morning and it is the best one of the year. 1 more day to the civil war.

If you are on twitter, be sure to sent tweets to #gobeavs and #beattheducks

Wear the colors, fly the flags, get pumped up Beaver Nation. 1 DAY TO GO!

GO BEAVERS BEAT THE DUCKS!