Beavers’ face plant the latest bad result vs. Mountain West
Reaction to Pac-12 developments on and off the field ...
1. The Jimmy Cruddy Bowl
Let’s begin at the end of the week, with an abysmal performance by Oregon State in the Jimmy Kimmel L.A. Bowl.
The Beavers were favored by a touchdown over Utah State, scored on their first possession and caught an early break when the Aggies’ starting quarterback, Logan Bonner, left with an injury.
His replacement, Cooper Legas, was the third stringer for most of the season and had never attempted a pass, so things were looking quite favorable for the favorites.
But then Legas dropped back and let fly his first throw as a collegian. The 62yard touchdown strike tied the score, changed the game and sent the Beavers on their way to an awful loss.
Oregon State’s offensive line, one of the best in the Pac-12 all season, couldn’t handle the Utah State defensive front.
Oregon State’s defense was a tick better than it has been in previous games away from Corvallis, but it wasn’t nearly good enough.
Also, the Beavers committed 13 penalties and didn’t play with nearly the passion Utah State displayed.
OSU finished 2021 with a 7-6 record — a successful season, sure, but not nearly what it once seemed. After all, the Beavers were 5-2 and in the hunt for the North division title after a rousing late-October victory over Utah.
But they lost four of their final six, played particularly poorly on the road, fired their defensive coordinator (Tim Tibesar) and ended the season with a complete clunker.
The Beavers have made substantial progress under coach Jonathan Smith. The program is light years ahead of its position just three seasons ago.
But clearly, they have loads more ground to cover, especially on the defensive side, before we can envision them winning a division title.
2. Out with a whimper
Mercifully for us all, the Pac-12 has played its final game of the season against teams from the Mountain West or Brigham Young.
The conference finished with a 5-6 mark against the MW and was 0-5 against BYU.
The results include 0-2 records against each of the Mountain West division winners.
Washington State and Oregon State lost to Mountain division champ Utah State.
Utah and Arizona lost to West division champ San Diego State.
There are a plethora of reasons for the Pac-12’s season-long struggles against its neighbors, and some of them are quite credible.
But the bottom line is simple: The conference doesn’t win nearly enough games against teams it should beat based on the caliber of rosters and the level of resources.
Forget the College Football Playoff drought, or the frequent struggles against Power Five opponents.
Any sustained recovery for the Pac-12 must begin with the basics. It cannot lose more games than it wins against the Mountain West.
That can’t happen. And yet it did.
3. One down, five to go
We’re often asked whether bowl games matter, and the Hotline’s answer is always the same: Yes, they matter.
They help shape the conference’s reputation; in certain situations, they impact recruiting; they provide extra practice time; and they can create additional momentum, following a successful regular season, that carries into the ensuing year.
The Pac-12 sure could use a successful bowl season, but the likelihood of reputation-shifting month plunged with Oregon State’s loss.
The conference has five games remaining and is an underdog in all five.
UCLA is a narrow dog against N.C. State; same with Washington State against Miami. Meanwhile, Oregon isn’t expected to beat Oklahoma, and Arizona State and Utah are sizable underdogs against Wisconsin and Ohio State, respectively.
In other words, the Pac-12 was favored to win just one of six bowl games -- and it lost that one decisively.
We don’t expect an 0-for-6 performance, not by any means. But it’s difficult to imagine the conference winning four of the final five, which is required to climb onto the high side of .500.
4. Speaking of (potential) recovery ...
Oregon State’s face plant ended a five-day stretch of indisputably positive developments for the conference -- developments that provide glimmers of hope for 2022 and beyond.
One involves the cast of quarterbacks we can expect to see next season. Three teams improved their options substantially this week.
• Tuesday brought news that Indiana quarterback Michael Penix is transferring to Washington, a move that makes immense sense for both sides:
Penix was one of the top quarterbacks in the country in 2019, when he worked with Indiana offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer.
Yes, the very same Kalen DeBoer who was recently appointed head coach on Montlake.
Penix was not the same player in 2020-21, partly because of injuries and partly because DeBoer left Bloomington to take over Fresno State.
If he stays healthy -- and that’s hardly a safe bet -- then Penix will upgrade UW’s quarterback play, either as the starter or as the veteran bar that Dylan Morris or Sam Huard is able to clear.
• Two days later, a second established quarterback emerged from the transfer portal on a Pac-12 campus:
Dillon Gabriel, who threw 70 touchdowns and only 14 interceptions at UCF, announced he will finish his career at UCLA.
Granted, Dorian Thompson-Robinson hasn’t confirmed (at least in a public manner) that he’s leaving school for the NFL Draft. But it’s safe to assume Gabriel wouldn’t be heading to Westwood if he suspected a threeyear starter was returning for Year Four.
That seemingly leaves Gabriel to compete with Ethan Garbers for the starting job. The situation could be much worse for the Bruins. Much worse.
• One day later, on Friday, came reports that a third veteran passer would join the Pac-12:
Purdue’s Jack Plummer is headed to Cal, where he instantly becomes the overwhelming favorite to replace the departed Chase Garbers.
Now, Plummer’s career hasn’t been an unequivocal success with the Boilermakers. He has missed time because of injuries and was pulled on multiple occasions for ineffective play.
The Bears now have a Big Ten starter with 500 career attempts on the roster to compete with freshman Kai Millner for the No. 1 job.