Friday, December 24, 1999
THE DISH
If ever there is
An Oregonian's view By Bill Kwon
a lock, it’s gotta
be the ’Bows
Star-BulletinHawaii will beat Oregon State.
It's that simple because I'm betting on the Beavers to win.
Don't sic the cops on me. It can't be gambling, if it's a sure thing, right?
After all, how much more of a lock can it be if the Beavers are nine-point favorites, have the second best defense in the Pac-10 and the league's leading passer in Jonathan Smith and touchdown-maker in Ken Simonton?
And everyone knows that the Rainbows are 0-2 against two teams that finished worse in the Pac-10 than Oregon State.
The Beavers are also a big-play team. Just ask UCLA, which lost, 55-7. They had 54 plays that gained 25 or more yards this season.
My old ticker might pump blood that's Rainbow green, but my mind says go with Oregon State.
That's why I think the Rainbows will cap their amazing turnaround season under first-year coach June Jones by beating the Beavers.
Let me explain.
I'm the same guy who told others that no way could an upstart team from that no-account league -- the AFL -- beat an established NFL team. Especially the Baltimore Colts, who went 15-1 in the 1968 season.
Even if Broadway Joe Namath personally guaranteed a victory in Super Bowl III.
Needless to say, the Jets won, 16-7, and the NFL and Namath haven't been the same since.
Neither have I.
Friends have been calling me Joe Bftsplk ever since. You know, that character in Lil' Abner who walks around with a black cloud hanging over his head.
Whenever I'd pick a team to win, they'd go the other way. NFL, college, high school, you name it.
They reminded me what happened the last time I picked UH to beat Oregon State.
That was in 1976 when the Rainbows were in their second season at Aloha Stadium. The 'Bows were 3-6 using an offense called the "Hula-T" that caused Jones to transfer out of here to Portland State.
The Beavers came to town with a 1-10 record, finishing tied for last with Oregon in the Pac-8, as the conference was known then before the Arizona schools joined up.
The Beavers, whose only victory was a 10-9 squeaker over California, made Steve Harvey's syndicated Bottom Ten ranking that season.
No way can the Rainbows lose to these guys, I said. Not a junk team like that. Even if it's the Pac-8, last place is last place.
Final score: Beavers, 59-0.
I don't know who was more embarrassed, me or the 'Bows.
When they met again in 1989, I didn't say a word and the Rainbows won, 23-21.
That's why I'm taking the reverse psychology approach this time, even though I'm silently pulling for the Rainbows.
No cheering in the press box and all. But I'm also trying to sneak one by the football gods.
You have to wonder, though, if the Rainbows can really beat the Beavers. Wishful thinking, maybe.
But, hey, what's Christmas but a time for best wishes?
I know, Oregon State has enjoyed a turnaround season of its own under Dennis Erickson, like Jones, a first-year repatriate from the NFL. This is the Beavers' first bowl appearance in 35 years, for goodness sake. And they had 28 consecutive losing seasons.
And many of the Beaver players know what it's like to lose, and lose, and lose.
Defensive tackle Aaron Wells put it the best. "Losing 10 games is just horrible," he said, referring to the 1995 season when he first came to Corvallis.
If Wells thought losing 10 games in a season was horrible, imagine what it was like going 0-12 right after a 3-9 season.
The Rainbows know what it's like being in football purgatory, especially fifth-year starting seniors Kaulana Noa, Adrian Klemm and Tony Tuioti.
They deserve it more, Santa.
So consider the bet a small sacrifice on my part to help the Rainbows.
More talented Beavers
By Roy Gault
will chew up Hawaii
Special to the Star-BulletinThe mutual admiration, the gracious kissing up, is over.
The Oregon State football team can make one last curtsy at the coin flip tomorrow, then start mopping up.
For nearly a month, Dennis Erickson and June Jones have talked in public as though their coaching staffs are one big Brady Bunch, as though this Oahu Bowl game is a big lovefest from the 1960s.
I recall the Sixties.
That's when you never wanted to lose to your sister in checkers, never ever gave up that E to a classmate in H-O-R-S-E, never quit fishing until you had the biggest salmon on the boat, never conceded a 16-inch putt if a quarter was riding on it.
So the compliments that Erickson and his staff have been handing out, the propaganda that Hawaii can match up against the Beavers, is pure malarkey.
The Beavers didn't come to Hawaii simply to snap pictures, get sand in their sandals and have a picnic.
They came to make a statement.
This is a matter of a good Hawaii team being matched against a pretty good Oregon State team.
The Beavers aren't great, aren't what they'll be in four years, aren't what it takes to win the Pac-10.
But they are a solid Pac-10 team, and we've all seen what Hawaii has done against the Pac-10's not-so-solid teams.
The Rainbows are a group of fine young men who have made their families proud, who have accomplished wonderful things, who have worn the glass slipper.
But 3:30 p.m. tomorrow will be like midnight for Cinderella.
The Rainbows can pass the ball with the best of them, but they can't pass it if Ken Simonton has it.
Oregon State has a running game like Hawaii hasn't seen all season. With Simonton ripping off yards and controlling the clock, OSU quarterback Jonathan Smith may never go airborne.
When he does, his play action off what Simonton has established will occasionally leave Hawaii's secondary chasing on the heels of Imani Percoats, Roddy Tompkins and Robert Prescott.
Hawaii quarterback, Dan Robinson, is a good one.
But Kaulana Noa and Adrian Klemm to the contrary, he doesn't have the supporting cast that Smith has, and he's never encountered white jersies in his face like he'll see Saturday.
Hawaii's only chance of winning this football game is to look at what happened to Oregon State at midseason, when the Beavers turned the ball over 14 times in three straight defeats.
Pray for Simonton to drop the ball, Rainbow fans. Pray for Quincy LeJay to pick Smith's pocket.
Without that sort of intervention, the Beavers will wear Hawaii down. OSU was second in the Pac-10 in defense, including No. 1 against the pass, and third in offense.
If it's close, Oregon State will win on the strength of place-kicker Ryan Cesca alone.
These are two football teams that know each other inside and out. Hawaii defensive coordinator Greg McMackin coached on Erickson's Seattle Seahawks staff, along with OSU assistants Gregg Smith, Willy Robinson, Eric Yarber and Tim Lappano.
And Gregg Smith has learned Jones' run-and-shoot from the ground floor up, coaching with Mouse Davis at Sunset High in Oregon before Davis ever hooked up with Jones at Portland State.
There are no edges in the game for inside knowledge, for overall knowledge or for quality of coaching staff.
The Beavers also have more Pac-10 quality players. They will silence the crowd and in the end it'll be just like when they visited the Polynesian Cultural Center.
OSU defensive end Toalei Talataina performed there as a youngster and ended a team luau Monday by demonstrating his best Samoan footwork.
Tomorrow, Talataina and the Beavers will get the last dance.
Roy Gault covers Oregon State football
for the Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal
