Counting down the days to the start of Oregon State’s 2023 preseason football camp on Aug. 3.
Here is the fifth of 10 countdown topics: The most important game of the Beavers’ 2023 season.
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It’s Oregon State at Oregon on Nov. 24, no?
Of course, if the Beavers are 9-2 or better and have a shot to reach the Pac-12 title game. But so much must happen to make the game meaningful beyond the rivalry.
The key game to the entire season is, instead, Utah at Oregon State on Sept. 29.
Oregon State is going to be in the preseason top 25, probably somewhere between 15 and 20. Let’s assume the Beavers sweep the non-conference schedule, and end a 10-year drought in Pullman and beat Washington State on Sept. 23.
At that point, OSU should be inside the top 15. But if the goal is to make October and November as meaningful as possible, then what happens at the end of September is everything.
Utah vs. Oregon State, 6 p.m. Sept. 29 at Reser Stadium.
Beat Utah, and 5-0 Oregon State is inside the top 10 for the first time since 2012. If OSU were to follow up with a week at California on Oct. 7, it’s virtually a slam dunk ESPN’s College Game Day visits Corvallis for the Beavers’ Oct. 14 game against UCLA.
Oregon State defeated Utah 42-34 two years ago in Corvallis, but the stakes were minimal. This time, you can make a case this is the biggest game at Reser Stadium since OSU’s 2008 game against Oregon when there was a Rose Bowl at stake.
Utah is the two-time defending conference champion, so this is a chance to take out the king. It’ll be a chance to take remodeled Reser Stadium for the ultimate test drive; can a hungry fan base and a quality Oregon State team put on a show on national television?
Is the season sunk if the Beavers lose to the Utes? No. Oregon State still has a shot at the Pac-12 championship game, and its best bowl appearance in two decades, even if it loses Sept. 29.
But a loss likely ends any chance at a College Football Playoff appearance, and the margin of error for other primary goals is greatly reduced.
There is the potential of bigger games down the road. Frankly, if Oregon State ends October at 8-0, every game in November suddenly becomes the biggest in quite some time. The Beavers haven’t entered November undefeated since 1939, and that year, they were 5-0.
Can you imagine the atmosphere if Oregon State were 10-0 facing Washington on Nov. 18 in Reser Stadium? Or Oregon on Nov. 24 with a 12-0 record as a possibility?
Big games. Arguably, the biggest regular season games in school history.
But only if Oregon State takes care of business Sept. 29 against Utah.
–Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel
