Oregon State @ Colorado State preview
Sonny Lubick Field at Canvas Stadium
Oregon State enters Saturday’s season opener at Colorado State - the first game on the 2017 FBS calendar - craving a bowl berth after three straight sub-.500 seasons. The Beavers will be playing in a daunting, high-altitude environment against one of the Mountain West Conference’s better teams, which also will be opening its new 36,500-seat on-campus stadium in front of a sellout crowd.
Oregon State finished 4-8 a year ago in coach Gary Andersen’s second season in Corvallis - doubling their 2015 victory total and finishing 3-6 in the Pac-12 a year after a winless conference campaign. Now, the focus is on making a similar jump this fall and playing in the postseason for the first time since 2013. “This year you can just feel it,” senior safety Brandon Arnold recently told the Oregonian newspaper. “You can tell that everybody is very serious about trying to win. (Everybody) wants that bowl game, wants something better.” The Rams have made four straight bowl appearances but their sights are set on christening CSU Stadium’s debut season with their first Mountain West championship since 2002.
TV: 2:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network. LINE: Colorado State -4
ABOUT OREGON STATE (2016: 4-8): Picked fifth in the Pac-12 North preseason media poll, the Beavers have one of the league's most experienced teams with 17 returning starters. However, senior quarterback Darell Garretson will take a back seat to Ventura CC/Idaho transfer Jake Luton, who was a Junior College All-American last season while setting Ventura records with 3,551 passing yards and 40 touchdown tosses. Luton will rely heavily on junior tailback Ryan Nall, the Pac-12’s third-leading returning rusher, and an experienced defense bringing back nine starters - highlighted by linebackers Manase Hungalu and Bright Ugwoegbu and cornerback Xavier Crawford.
ABOUT COLORADO STATE (2016: 7-6): Rams coach Mike Bobo is also entering his third season at the helm in Fort Collins and has one of the Mountain West’s most experienced rosters with 16 returning starters. Senior quarterback Nick Stevens, who boasted the nation’s highest passing-efficiency rating from Oct. 11 to the end of last season, was an honorable mention all-conference selection despite barely starting half of the Rams’ games and was joined on the All-Mountain West squad by wide receiver Michael Gallup (first team) and center Jake Bennett (second team). Defensive lineman Darnell Thompson, linebacker Josh Watson and safety Jake Schlager headline a defense which ranked in the middle of the Mountain West pack with 419.2 yards and 30.4 points allowed per game.
EXTRA POINTS
1. This will only be the third meeting between the two programs and first since 1975.
2. Oregon State will be without leading returning receiver Seth Collins, a converted quarterback, due to a finger injury.
3. The game was originally slated for Sept. 23, but the Beavers agreed with Colorado State’s request to move the contest up in order to break up a jam-packed schedule which had featured 12 straight weeks without a bye.
PREDICTION: Colorado State 38, Oregon State 24