Could The Beavers Start The Season 10-0?
By STEVEN VAUGHAN, 750 THE GAME
The win total for the Oregon State Beavers is set at 8.5 wins. After a 10-win season last year, the Beavers aim to be in the mix for a Pac-12 championship this season.
Nick Daschel covers the Beavs for the Oregonian, and he raised some eyebrows in his most recent appearance with John Canzano when prognosticating the 2023 Oregon State season.
Daschel cites a favorable schedule as the biggest reason for a possible hot start.
“The two toughest games are the last two games of the season (vs Washington, at Oregon),” Daschel said on 750 The Game. “There’s a path to 10-0. I’m not going to say it’s going to happen but there’s a path to it which you couldn’t have drawn up last year or probably any other year in Oregon State history — maybe not even the 2000 season.”
That year, the Beavers went 11-1, blowing out Notre Dame 41-9 to win the Fiesta Bowl.
Since 2000, Oregon State’s best start to a season was a 6-0 beginning to 2012, when they ultimately finished 9-4 and lost to Texas in the Alamo Bowl.
This year, Daschel picked the Beavers to finish second in his preseason Pac-12 poll.
“It’s not necessarily that they have the second-best roster,” he explained. “It’s the schedule. This schedule is awesome. It’s everything last year’s schedule wasn’t. The non-conference schedule is doable. They don’t play USC. They got the tougher games at home.”
You may think that Daschel — who covers Oregon State — is being a homer. But he told John Canzano that this thought of the Beavers starting 10-0 will be reflected in Vegas on the betting line as well.
“I was looking at it and I was thinking – what game will they not be favored in?
“The Oregon game, for sure (Nov. 24th at Autzen Stadium). But other than that – what game are they not going to be favored in? Utah, they are playing them at home on a Friday night (Sept. 23rd). What if OSU’s 4-0? There’s no way Utah will be favored in that game. The schedule is what makes this season as promising as anything.”
If Daschel is right and the Beavers start out 10-0 then they will be right in the thick of the College Football Playoff race. A race that the Pac-12 hasn’t been a part of since 2016 when Washington made the playoff.
Listen to the full interview with Nick Daschel by clicking the podcast below. Catch the Bald Faced Truth with John Canzano weekdays 3-6 p.m. in Portland exclusively in Portland on 750 The Game.
