Commentary

By Kevin Hampton
Gazette-Times reporter

Call it media hype if you want.

The Oregon State football team is creeping closer to the Rose Bowl every game.

Now the magic number is down to two.

Everyone knows by now. If the Beavers win at Arizona on Saturday and the Civil War against Oregon in Reser Stadium the following weekend, they win the Pacific-10 Conference title and go to the Rose Bowl.

There are no special formulas. It doesn’t matter if Southern California jumps to the top of the BCS standings and lands a berth in the national title game.

It will be OSU in the Rose Bowl.

If you’re saying that this is more media hype, take a moment to think. It’s the subject of discussion among every Beavers fan in the country.

The players and coaches are talking about it. When they’re not talking about it, they’re thinking about it.

They certainly don’t need prompting at a press conference.

And why shouldn’t the Rose Bowl be a topic of conversation? Winning the conference title and landing the Rose Bowl berth is the goal of every Pac-10 team going into every year.

It’s not as if this has been a sudden development. The Beavers put themselves in the position when they defeated USC on September 25.

No doubt the talk has increased in recent weeks. Five straight wins will do that.

Maybe OSU coach Mike Riley’s job has gotten a little more difficult as he tries to strike a balance among his players between approaching each game with confidence and looking down the road at the ultimate prize.

Riley holds to the one-game-at a-time theory.

“It’s actually been pretty simple because there’s only been one story,” Riley said. “It’s like I said before about football: We only get one game a week. We put in countless hours during that week to get ready for that game. You will never hear us say that, ‘Well, we overlooked it,’ or ‘We didn’t prepare as hard.’ That will never happen.”

Some fans are worried that engaging in talk of the Rose Bowl will somehow jinx the Beavers.

Relax.

The Beavers are not going to lose to Arizona or Oregon because they realize they have a shot to win the conference title.

The Beavers will not overlook the Wildcats or the Ducks. Of course, that does not guarantee a win. The Beavers could lose both.

They could wind up in the Holiday Bowl (still quite an accomplishment) or the Sun Bowl (not too bad, considering OSU’s start to the season). Even a trip to Las Vegas would be fun.

Nevertheless, the Beavers have a chance to finish out a special season. How special? Well, it’s been nearly 44 years since OSU’s last Rose Bowl appearance. There are plenty of Beavers fans who were not alive for that one.

Wringing hands about OSU’s potential record is a waste of time. It’s fine to look back and go through the wouldas, couldas and shouldas, but the best record the Beavers are going to have at the end of the regular season is 9-3.

Maybe it’s not perfect for the Rose Bowl, but it’s not unusual and history shows the record really doesn’t matter much.

In 1976, 8-2-1 UCLA beat 10-0 Ohio State 23-10. In 1978, it was 8-3 Washington defeating 10-1 Michigan 27-20. In 1984, the Bruins got in with a 6-4-1 record and trounced 10-1 Illinois 45-9.

In the past 20 Rose Bowls there have been 17 teams with less than 10 wins going into the game.

If the Beavers get to Pasadena, they will belong there.

OSU fans should revel in the possibility. Don’t fear the future. This team is worth following to any bowl game.

In the meantime, everyone should enjoy the ride.

Rose Bowl or not, these are the best of times for OSU football.

The Beavers are getting mentioned on TV and radio, magazines and newspapers.

Isn’t all this media hype what you wanted?

Kevin Hampton is a columnist for the Corvallis Gazette-Times. He can be reached at Kevin.hampton@lee.net.