The year was 1907. The price of gas was 22 cents a gallon, Teddy Roosevelt was President of the United States and the Oregon State Beavers were 6-0.
Jump to 2012, where the Beavers could make history once again as could go for their first 7-0 start in school history against the Washington Huskies.
After a 3-9 finish last year this impressive start by OSU has been turning heads across the country.
The #7 BCS ranking ties the highest ranking for the program, dating back to 2000 when the Beavs went 11-1 and took down Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
With only six games under their belt OSU is already bowl eligible, the earliest a Beaver squad has ever made that mark.
But this team isn’t about to settle on what they have already accomplished and will take that attitude to Seattle this weekend.
The Huskies have had a rough start to the 2012 season, due in part to the fact that 5 out of their 7 opponents this year have been ranked.
The losses to Oregon, LSU and Arizona were not the prettiest for UW, but they were able to upset Stanford 17-13 at home who was #8 at the time.
If the Huskies and head coach Steve Sarkisian look to upset another top 10 team at home this week they will have to find a way to combat the dominate OSU defense.
So far on the year the Beavs have been putting up staggering numbers on defense.
OSU is ranked 5th nationally in rushing yards allowing 80.8 yards per game, led by sophomore defensive end Scott Crichton who is currently 2nd in the nation with 1.3 sacks per game.
This Saturday’s matchup will be a homecoming for the Tacoma native Crichton.
“A lot of my family and friends are going to be there so I’m excited.”
UW will turn to running back Bishop Sankey who has gained 574 yards on the season and quarterback Keith Price to lead the attack against the Beavs defense.
Price is coming off a career best 29 completions in the loss to Arizona, but has had turnover issues so far this season with 10 giveaways in his past 3 games.
Price and the rest of the Huskies will likely face turnover issues again this week based on the Beavs +1.7 turnover margin which puts them 6th nationally.
This margin is due to already racking up 12 interceptions, thanks in part to lights out play from cornerbacks Jordan Poyer and Rashaad Reynolds.
Coach Riley spoke to the media after Thursday’s practice and did recognize the fact that UW is full of talent and it has showed at times this season.
“We have a lot of respect for that team and their obvious capabilities.”
Riley went on to praise the UW defense, which is currently ranked 2nd in the Pac-12 in pass defense at only allowing 184.6 ypg.
“Defensively they have some really good defensive tackles, big guys that play hard in there, they have good speed around the edge for their rushing and they have two of the better corners that we have seen or will face so far.”
One of those corners is speedy senior Desmond Trufant, who gathered in five tackles against Oregon and Arizona.
Although the biggest story leading into Saturday’s game is the return of OSU quarterback Sean Mannion.
As Beaver Nation and the rest of the college football world knows Mannion underwent knee surgery less than three weeks ago to repair a partially torn ligament in his left knee.
After Thursday’s practice Mannion wanted to focus on the upcoming matchup, and not his knee which he says feels “great”.
“My knee feels 100%, feels as good as new. That has nothing to do with the game really, I’m just focused on playing football.”
Mannion went on to respect the Huskies and the season they’ve had thus far.
“We know that they’re a good team, there’s no mistaking that, they’ve had some big wins. You can tell on tape that they have an athletic secondary and some big guys up front. “
To establish an aggressive passing attack the Beavs will first look to the ground and challenge a Husky rush defense that ranks last in the Pac-12 allowing 196 ypg.
After the performance OSU running back Storm Woods had against Utah in which he rushed for three touchdowns, the UW defense will have their hands full against the Beavs offense no matter who has the ball.
The second half of this already stellar season is full of tough games for the Beavers.
This matchup against a capable and spoiler ready Husky team is sure to be a game that OSU will need to bring their best play on both sides of the ball, to prove they can win in a hostile environment like Century Link.
OSU will take on UW in Seattle on Saturday October 27th at 7:15 on the Pac-12 networks.
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