Oregon State Beavers College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Oregon State Beavers Biggest Key: Offense
The big plays for the passing game have to return. The Beavers struggled with the air attack during the mid-2010s with too many misfires, too much inconsistency, and without any downfield pop.
Things got better for a little while, but last year the O averaged just 6.3 yards per pass and hit 58% between Tristan Gebbia and Chance Nolan.
The quarterbacks will get the protection behind the veteran line, and the receivers have to do more when they get the ball in their hands. Getting to 200 receiving yards isn’t the problem – the Beavers did that time and again.
Dinking and dunking didn’t help with the time of possession battle and certainly didn’t scare secondaries.That has to change.
Oregon State Beavers Biggest Key: Defense
Be more dangerous in the backfield. It all ties together.
The run defense wasn’t anything great, offenses had too many easy third down chances, there wasn’t any pass rush, teams kept converting those easy third down chances to own the clock, and it was all rough for the Beaver D.
Start, though, with the inability to get behind the line.
The 2019 Beaver defense was a terror. Starting with a mammoth 22.5 tackle-for-loss season from Hamilcar Rashed, Oregon State generated over seven tackles for loss and 2.67 sacks per game.
Last year? Seven sacks in seven games. That was bad, and the 3.86 tackles for loss per outing were even worse. There’s too much talent and too many good options in place for that to happen again.
Oregon State Beavers Key Player To A Successful Season
QB Tristan Gebbia, Jr.
Or Colorado transfer Sam Noyer, or sophomore Chance Nolan. The Beavers need more production under center, and they’ve got the options to do it.
How often do you get a quarterback who was a second-team all-conference performer the year before? That’s Noyer, and he’s going to provide a huge push with his ability to hit the downfield throw – a problem last year for OSU.
But it’s still Gebbia’s gig to lose. He’s getting past a leg injury, but when he’s right he’s not bad at spreading the ball around and he’s got the baller attitude always be battling.
No matter what, though, the Beavers need the spot to be a major positive.
Oregon State Beavers Key Game To The 2021 Season
at Purdue, Sept. 4
Go ahead and pick your poison among the Pac-12 games, but the Beavers could use a tone-setter. The last time the program won a season-opener over an FBS team was …
2012 in a strange 10-7 battle with Wisconsin. Before that? 2007 against Utah. And the last time your Oregon State Beavers won a season-opener on the road over an FBS school was 1999 at Nevada.
To get even crazier, the last time Oregon State won a season opener on the road against a Power Five school was …
1965 over Illinois.
The 1967 Beavers beat Purdue in the only meeting between the two, and they did it in West Lafayette. Do it this time around against the high-octane Boilermakers, and there will be plenty of reasons to get fired up for a big start with home games against Hawaii and Idaho ahead.
– Oregon State Schedule Analysis
2020 Oregon State Beavers Fun Stats
– Time of Possession: Opponents 32:03 – Oregon State 27:57
– Fumbles: Oregon State 9 (lost 3) – Opponents 7 (lost 1)
– Total Scoring After 3 Quarters: Opponents 182 – Oregon State 129