Oregon
Bill Oram: Beavers fans can let Oregon go. Washington State is the rival Oregon State needs
CORVALLIS — It was a No One Watches Bowl for the ages.
And, yeah, I think that’s probably what they ought to call this thing. Forget the Pac-2 championship or the Left Behind Bowl. The schools need to lean into that bitter mondegreen of Lee Corso’s actual quote, the one that left folks so intensely riled a year ago. Because the display from Oregon State and Washington State on Saturday, well, that was certainly worth watching.
And for Beavers fans, worth celebrating.
A week after hitting the low point of Trent Bray’s tenure, the Beavers responded with a brilliant new high: A thrilling 41-38 win over the Cougars.
It was secured when Everett Hayes’ sent a 55-yard field goal just inside the right upright with 20 seconds remaining.
If you’re the type to quibble with whether a win over a Washington State team on the periphery of the top 25 truly merited an orange crush of fans storming the field, well, you’re just going to have to let them have this one.
That’s what you do when you beat your rival. Yes, I said rival.
Maybe it’s premature, but with Oregon continuing to distance itself from Oregon State, Beavers fans should let go of the Ducks — at least in football — and embrace this new, developing rivalry that on Saturday delivered a classic.
Will it be the same? Of course not. Nothing is. But unlike with the Ducks of the Big Ten, Washington State gives the Beavers a foil that is part of a shared experience. That has fought similar battles only to end up on the same field at the end of the season.
That’s what made Saturday’s win so sweet for Beavers fans. It was catharsis.
For a long season.
For a long year.
Saturday marked 364 days since Jonathan Smith announced his decision to leave for Michigan State. (How do you plan to observe the anniversary on Monday?) And while not every issue this program has faced can be hung on that moment, it was the beginning of the unraveling.
Assistant coaches followed Smith to Michigan State. Players jumped into the transfer portal. The Beavers were left with a roster, and frankly also a coaching staff, with too many questions and not enough answers.
I’m not alone in buying that the game with Washington State has achieved genuine rivalry status.
“I do and I have, to be honest with you,” said Bray, who grew up in Pullman and played for the Beavers. “It always has been.”
Maybe to some degree. But not a full-fledged rivalry with emotion and pride on the line.
Suddenly, it has all of that.
Especially after everything the Beavers and their fans have been through, off the field and on.
By Saturday, Oregon State was 4-6, riding a five-game losing streak. If this season even had a rock bottom, you hoped it was that inexcusable 28-zilch Coach Bray seat-warmer at Air Force. But you really couldn’t be sure, especially not against a WSU team that had harbored aspirations of crashing the College Football Playoff before crashing out against New Mexico last week.
So what happened?
Starting quarterback Ben Gulbranson got healthy after missing the trip to Air Force with a concussion, offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson simplified the playbook, and the Beavers did something they had been unable to do in close games against Nevada and San Jose State.
They found a way.
Gulbranson overcame two second-half interceptions to complete a gotta-have-it fourth-down pass over the middle to Trent Walker to set up the go-ahead field goal. Before that, Jaden Robinson got a paw on a fumble to give the Beavers the ball at midfield when it seemed like it would, in fact, be Washington State that would milk the clock and kick a game-winner.
So when the game ended, and fans streamed onto the field, it was more than just a celebration of a single game.
“They’re the best fanbase out there,” Gulbranson said, “and I’m really happy that we could finish this one off for them and finish the season off right, here at Reser (Stadium).”
Does that make up for a season of frustration? Does it render moot the questions of a week ago? Of course not. Bray has serious questions to answer about the state of his team and the roster. He has a long way to go before he has a team that can contend for the CFP. He needs to find a quarterback.
This season has been a whiff at the most important position on the field. But Gulbranson is a tough customer. After he was passed over the job for a third consecutive year, he stayed ready for a third consecutive year, and stepped into the role when called upon for the third consecutive year.
On Saturday, he completed 22 of 34 passes for 294 yards. Just enough to tough out the most meaningful victory of the year.
You have to wonder if the Beavers might not have been able to pick off a few more wins if they had just trusted their Steady Eddie, Reliable Ben from the beginning.
Now, the Beavers are likely a week away from the end of their season. At 5-6, a bowl game is almost certainly out of reach.
They would have to beat No. 12 Boise State on the blue turf next week and that’s a tough ask of any team. Especially with the way Ashton Jeanty slices through defenses and the trouble OSU has had stopping the run.
So Saturday against the Cougars felt like the Beavers’ bowl game.
And maybe that’s the way it should be for two programs caught in this awkward purgatory. They are joined at the hip, not by choice but by necessity. Whether that makes them “buddies” or not, that’s for others to Dickert — I mean, dicker over.
But since when should rivals pretend to be friends? Beavers and Ducks never did.
There’s no replacing what the annual matchup with Oregon has meant to the state, but with that game now a nonconference matchup and not even a sure bet to be played beyond next season, it is, quite sadly, hard to put too much stock into anymore.
But Washington State? The Beavers will play the Cougars twice next season to highlight a schedule held together with duct tape and bubble gum.
And if this new iteration of the Pac-12 that the schools fought so hard for is going to make it and have an identity of its own, OSU and WSU have to be at the center of it.
A good rivalry needs a name.
The Beavers and Cougars can thank Corso for theirs, even if he was misheard, misunderstood and misquoted.
Maybe nobody in the Power Four conferences wanted these two schools.
But if Saturday is an indicator of how this rivalry is going to go, everyone will be watching.
— Bill Oram is the sports columnist at The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The Oregon Ducks are set for one of the biggest timelines of their recruiting cycle, as many top targets are nearing commitments. This time around, the Ducks have a ton of top targets still remaining on their board compared to past seasons, as the Ducks have eight total commitments at this time.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning and his staff still need to land a safety commitment, but three-star safety Elijah Butler out of Maryland recently included the Ducks in his final six schools.
Oregon Target Elijah Butler Makes Exciting Recruiting Announcement
Butler announced his top six schools ahead of a crucial part of his recruitment, according to a graphic by Leyton Roberts. The Ducks made the cut alongside the Maryland Terrapins, Virginia Tech Hokies, Auburn Tigers, Florida Gators, and the Alabama Crimson Tide. The talented prospect would be a great addition for any of these teams, as they could all use a safety prospect at this point in the recruiting timeline.
Butler is from the state of Maryland, which makes the Terrapins one to watch.
It is also worth noting that he has been labeled as one of the best players in the state of Maryland, as he currently ranks as the state’s No. 9 prospect, according to Rivals. This is important as the Terrapins have always made solid attempts to land their in-state stars, including last season when they landed one of the better players in the state’s history, Zion Elee.
As of now, the prospect hasn’t been predicted to land with any of these schools, which means it is likely still a tight race entering the official visit schedule. He has yet to schedule an official visit with all of the schools he has listed in his top six, as he is still missing three key official visits. Butler has scheduled official visits with Alabama, Auburn, and Florida, according to 247Sports. This means he still needs to set one with Oregon, Virginia Tech, and Maryland if he wants to take one to each school.
If the Ducks are able to get Butler on a visit, then they would likely be in a more favorable position to land his commitment, as it currently. seems they are one of the trailing teams from this list. It seems highly unlikely that the Ducks will gain his commitment unless they get him on an official visit, which is still possible at this point, as plenty of top prospects across the nation are still scheduling their official visits.
As of now, the Ducks have 27 prospects set to take an official visit, according to 247Sports. Among all of the prospects who have scheduled a visit thus far, only one of the players is listed as a safety. That player is a three-star target, Junior Tu’upo. This leads one to believe that the Ducks could try to get Butler on a visit, or at a minimum, pitch their program to the prospect from St Frances Academy.
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BLUE RIVER, Ore. (KATU) — The founder of a former disaster relief nonprofit is being sued for allegedly diverting nearly $837,000 in donations and grants for personal gain.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed the lawsuit Thursday against the founder and executive director of Cascade Relief Team (CRT), Marcus Brooks. In the complaint, Rayfield calls CRT “a sham.”
Brooks is accused of stealing donations and government grants meant for disaster relief following wildfires and flooding in 2020, and using it for personal expenses including casino visits, travel, vehicles, and more.
CRT was founded in 2020 and was hired for cleanup and relief services following the Labor Day Wildfires that burned over 1 million acres across Oregon.
In Blue River, an unincorporated community in the McKenzie River Valley, the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire destroyed nearly 800 homes and burned more than 173,000 acres.
I am angry that my community was taken advantage of
Just months after the fire, long-time Blue River resident Melanie Stanley said CRT stepped in and promised help to the community.
“For us, it was…like a savior at that point,” Stanley said.
Stanley was the manager for the Blue River Resource Center and worked for Brooks to help facilitate recovery efforts. She said CRT operations slowly became questionable.
“None of us knew the level at which all of this stuff that finally came out was at,” Stanley said. “We knew that there was some stuff that had started to look hinky or feel hinky, or there was just some lack of communication that was happening. There were some other things that were happening, and so we just all were kind of guarded.”
In fall of 2023 the nonprofit was reported to have run out of money, and Brooks allegedly fired staff without disclosing the organization’s financial conditions and did not notify donors or beneficiaries. Stanley was one of those people fired.
The state now claims the funds that were meant to go towards communities like Blue River, never made it out of Brooks’ hands, including donations given by Blue River neighbors.
“I am angry that my community was taken advantage of, and I am angry that they now have to worry about trusting when something else happens, because we know something else is going to happen,” Stanley said. “We hope to God it’s never anything as big or as bad as what has happened, but you know, we also have learned that groups like Locals Helping Locals…they are our foundation, and they are because they’re us.”
The state is seeking to recover the money, permanently bar Brooks from serving in a leadership role at a charitable organization and dissolve the nonprofit.
Stanley said Brooks’ actions have tainted reputations.
“We as a community and as the people from the community who helped kind of put all of these things together, we did what was asked of us,” Stanley said. “We did help clean things, and we did help get things to provide, you know, more progress and get things moving forward, and we did good work, and so I just really hope that this is not overshadowed.”
According to Stanley, Blue River’s recovery now stands at 50%.
“We will be very picky from here on out about who and what groups gets let in to help with anything,” Stanley said. “And sadly, it may be to our detriment, but he did more damage now, as far as reputations go, and for that I’m angry. I’m very angry.”
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