Our good friend Anthony Q. Newman joined Chad in the afternoon Monday to talk about dominance of the resurgence of the Oregon State Beaver program in 2012.

Newman admits that he was critical of some of the work that Riley had done in the past couple of years, but insists that now that he has some talent on his roster, he is one of the best coaches in not just the Pac-12, but the nation.

 Q. insists that there are two big differences between this year’s team and last year’s team.  Number one, the talent is better at nearly every position.  Whether that’s because of the recruiting class, players getting more experience, or players being healthy, the team is stronger everywhere compared to last year.

The other big difference between this year’s squad and the 2011 unit is that Riley’s calling the plays.  Under his play calling, Sean Mannion is passing much better, the linemen are blocking better and the running game – which was awful last year – is much improved.  And he expects this year’s Civil War to be a hard fought battle – quite possibly for the Pac-12 North division.

Take a listen to Q’s analysis of the Beavers and pay attention to his preview of the Ducks – Huskies match-up this weekend at Autzen.