Oregon
No. 16 Oregon State hosts a San Diego State team hungry for a win against the Pac-12
San Diego State sees No. 16 Oregon State as an opportunity to revisit some recent Aztecs history and topple a Pac-12 team.
The Aztecs are more than 24-point underdogs against the Beavers on Saturday in Corvallis. Oregon State is San Diego State’s second straight Pac-12 opponent this season following a 35-10 loss at home to UCLA last weekend.
But while San Diego State (2-1) has lost to its last three Pac-12 foes, the team can still look back to 2021 for encouragement, when the Aztecs beat Arizona and Utah in back-to-back nonconference games.
“(We) take it as a challenge and just show up and play,” senior defensive lineman Garrett Fountain said. “We have to play our game and if we play to the standards that we hold for ourselves, then we have the ability to make things happen.”
Overall, San Diego State is 7-5 against the Pac-12 since 2016.
The game could be a precursor of what’s to come. Oregon State and Washington State are currently the lone teams left in the Pac-12 for next season after the other 10 teams bolted in realignment. They open conference play against each other next week.
There has been speculation the Beavers and the Cougars might try to lure Mountain West Conference teams into a new Pac-12, or that they might merge into the MWC outright. San Diego State is among 12 teams in the Group of Five conference.
Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith wasn’t going to speculate about the future when asked about it at his Monday news conference, noting only that the Mountain West has seen success against the Pac-12 in recent years.
“I mean, you’re locked in on the week approach, and this week, where they’re at, where we’re at. … I’ve got a lot of respect for them. Mountain West teams, those guys are competitive and have beaten Pac-12 teams the last three years. So that’s what we think about,” Smith said.
Oregon State (2-0) has decisive wins over San Jose State and UC Davis to start the season. The Beavers have won six straight dating back to last season, their longest streak since 2013. A win over the Aztecs would give the Beavers their first seven-game winning streak since the 2000 season.
SMOOTH OPERATOR
While a lot of attention has gone to new Oregon State starting quarterback DJ Uiagalelei and his receivers, running back Damien Martinez was praised by San Diego State coach Brady Hoke this week.
Martinez is averaging 124.5 rushing yards per game, second in the conference. The sophomore from Texas has gone over the 100-yard mark eight times in his short career.
“He’s a guy who’s very physical, but he’s quick, really good balance. Can get in and out of his burst really smoothly, and then he’s a physical guy too.” Hoke said. “He’s not afraid to put it down and run through you.”
TRAVEL TROUBLES
The Aztecs had planned to stay at a hotel down the road a bit from Corvallis in Eugene. But there was a problem: A fire in February damaged the hotel, which is still closed and undergoing repairs.
Finding another hotel in the area was tough, because the Oregon Ducks are also at home Saturday and Eugene is also hosting the Prefontaine Classic, an elite international track meet.
So San Diego State opted to stay in Portland, more than a 90-minute drive to the north. That means the team will have an early wake-up call for breakfast before heading to the game, set for 12:30 p.m. local time.
MAKE NO MISTAKE
Oregon State hasn’t turned the ball over this season, one of just nine teams nationwide without a turnover.
“We’re not going into games with the ultimate goal is just, ‘Oh, don’t turn it over.’ We’ve got a mindset that we want to be aggressive,” Smith said. “But after two, we’ll take it. I’m sure we’re going to turn it over at some point throughout the season but the longer it goes, the better.”
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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll
Three Oregon lawmakers say they plan to introduce a bill that would bar utilities from raising rates if they have unresolved wildfire lawsuits for three or more years, describing it as an effort to hold PacifiCorp accountable as the utility faces a series of lawsuits stemming from the deadly 2020 wildfires that ravaged the state.
Republican state Reps. Jami Cate, Virgle Osborne and Ed Diehl announced their proposal in a statement Monday, on the heels of an approved rate increase for PacifiCorp customers and a federal lawsuit against the electric power company.
The federal government sued PacifiCorp last week over the Archie Creek Fire, which ignited in Oregon’s Douglas County in September 2020 and burned more than 200 square miles, about half of which was federal land. The complaint accuses the company of negligence for failing to maintain its power lines to prevent wildfires. In its filing, the government says it brought the suit to recover “substantial costs and damages.”
A PacifiCorp spokesperson said in an emailed statement Monday that the company was working with the U.S. government to resolve the claims.
“It is unfortunate the U.S. government decided to file a lawsuit in federal district court, however PacifiCorp will continue to work with the U.S. government to find reasonable resolution of this matter,” the statement said.
The federal lawsuit was filed on the same day the Oregon Public Utility Commission approved a 9.8% rate increase for PacifiCorp’s residential customers next year. In its rate case filings, the company said its request to increase rates was partly due to higher costs stemming from wildfire risk and activity.
When the new rate takes effect in January, PacifiCorp rates will have increased nearly 50% since 2021, according to the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, which advocates on behalf of utility customers.
The three lawmakers said they will introduce their bill in the upcoming legislative session, which starts in January.
“The federal government is doing the right thing by filing this lawsuit, and we stand firmly behind it,” Osborne, who is set to be the future bill’s co-chief sponsor, said in a statement. “PacifiCorp needs to pay up and take responsibility for the destruction they’ve caused, and putting a stop to rate hikes is the best way to achieve it.”
PacifiCorp is poised to be on the hook for billions in damages in the series of lawsuits over Oregon’s 2020 fires.
The company has already reached two settlement agreements over the Archie Creek Fire, including one for $299 million with 463 plaintiffs impacted by the blaze and another for $250 million with 10 companies with commercial timber interests, according to its website.
In other litigation, an Oregon jury in June 2023 found it liable for negligently failing to cut power to its 600,000 customers despite warnings from top fire officials and determined it should have to pay punitive and other damages — a decision that applied to a class including the owners of up to 2,500 properties. Since then, other Oregon juries have ordered the company to pay tens of millions to other wildfire victims.
The wildfires that erupted across Oregon over Labor Day weekend in 2020 were among the worst natural disasters in state history, killing nine people and destroying thousands of homes.
— The Associated Press
On Wednesday at 2:18 a.m. the National Weather Service issued a wind advisory valid from 10 p.m. until Thursday 10 a.m. for North Central Oregon and Central Oregon.
The weather service states, “South winds 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 45 mph expected.”
“Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result,” adds the weather service. “Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution.”
Advance Local Weather Alerts is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to compile the latest data from the National Weather Service.
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