Outside of the Ducks, Washington Is Oregon State’s Biggest Game Of The Year
By 750 The Game Staff
The college football season is nearly upon us. The Oregon State Beavers are coming off the first ten-win season since 2006 and are looking for more.
Jonathan Smith enters his sixth season as head coach after taking over at his alma mater in 2018. Under his guidance, OSU has won 2, 5, 7, and 10 games (2020 Covid season not included). They have reached a bowl game in consecutive years for the first time since 2012-13.
This year, the aim is to get to Vegas and play for a Pac-12 Championship.
T.J. Mathewson covers Beavers football for 1240 KEJO in Corvallis and he joined the Bald Faced Truth with guest-host Judah Newby to talk about the OSU season as fall camp approaches.
Newby asked Mathewson for the game on Oregon State’s schedule he’s most looking forward to watching — not including the rivalry game against Oregon.
“I’m going to say Washington,” Matthewson said, adding a close second in the Friday night home game with Utah on Sept. 29th. “Washington is right up there with USC and Oregon in terms of having to win the conference this year.”
The Beavers host the Huskies on Nov. 18th, a week before the Oregon game. Mathewson thinks Oregon State has a pathway to being undefeated by the time they host the Huskies.
“When I look at Oregon State’s schedule this year, I think there’s a very real chance that they could be 11-0 heading into that Oregon game.
“I mean if you just look at the home games that they have, in terms of the tough conference games: Utah they’re playing at home, UCLA they’re playing at home, Stanford – they’re terrible – they’re playing at home, and Washington they’re playing at home.
“So three of those four teams are in the top half of the Pac-12, as opposed to their road schedule.”
The Beavs road opponents in the conference are Washington State (Sept. 23), California (Oct. 7), Arizona (Oct. 28), and Colorado (Nov. 4).
“Four of the teams outside of Oregon they play on the road could be among the bottom five teams in the conference,” Matthewson said. “So the schedule really works out.”
Even if Oregon State has dropped a game or two prior to the UW affair, Mathewson said that game at Reser Stadium will still have high stakes for both programs.
“When I look at that Washington game, that’s the pivotal game saying, wow, this could be the difference between a New Year’s Six bowl and the Alamo Bowl. If you beat Washington at home with (UW’s) expectations of winning a national championship this year, that’s the one I’m circling. I think it’s going to be a fantastic matchup.”
Revenge could be on OSU’s mind as well. One of the Beavs’ three losses in 2022 was a nailbiting 24-21 loss on a windy, wet Friday night in Seattle last November.
“I know Oregon State fans want to get a bite back at Washington for a game they thought they should have won last year up at Husky Stadium,” Mathewson concluded.
Oregon State has a projected win total at 8.5 wins, per betting lines in Vegas.
They open the season on a Sunday afternoon, Sept. 3rd, at the Mountain West’s San Jose State.
Listen to the full conversation with T.J. Mathewson of 1240 KEJO in Corvallis at the podcast below. And don’t miss the Bald Faced Truth with John Canzano afternoons 3-6 p.m. exclusively in Portland on 750 The Game.
