A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2022
SPORTS
OREGON STATE FOOTBALL
OREGON FOOTBALL
Beavers seek rare
win in the desert
Playoff hopes dashed,
Ducks look to rebound
BY JOHN MARSHALL
Associated Press
TEMPE, Ariz. — No. 25 Ore-
gon State is back in the rankings
and bowl eligible in consecutive
seasons for the first time in nine
years.
The Beavers face a daunting
task Saturday against Arizona
State, trying to win in Tempe for
just the second time in 50 years.
The Sun Devils have gone 19-1
at home against Oregon State
since 1972 and, despite playing
under an interim coach, have Or-
egon State coach Jonathan Smith’s
attention.
“It’s always tough going down
there to Arizona, especially late in
the year,” Smith said. “It’s always
tough to play down there, so we’ve
got to prepare well to do that.”
Oregon State (7-3, 4-3 Pac-12)
also is trying to do something
that’s proven to be nearly as diffi-
cult as winning in the desert: win
as a ranked team.
The Beavers broke a nine-
year drought in the AP Top 25
two weeks ago and promptly lost
to Washington. Oregon State
bounced back with a win over
California to move back into the
poll and is hoping to win while
ranked for the first time since
2012.
The Beavers arrive in the desert
on a defensive roll. Oregon State
dominated Cal in a 38-10 win last
week, holding the Bears to 132 to-
tal yards, including nine rushing
— fewest allowed since 2007. The
Beavers are allowing 21.6 points
per game, on pace to be their low-
est-scoring defensive season since
2000.
“They do a great job not get-
ting hit with big plays,” said Sun
Devils interim coach Shaun
Aguano. “They do bring exotic
pressures, very similar to Wash-
ington State, but they play disci-
plined football.”
BANGED-UP BOURGUET
Arizona State’s Trenton Bour-
Naji Saker-TNS
Oregon State’s Jaydon Grant (3) tackles Jalen McMillan (11) as the No.
23 Beavers face the Washington Huskies in a Pac-12 football game at
Husky Stadium in Seattle on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. Washington won 24-21.
OSU at ASU
• Saturday, Nov. 19, 11:15 a.m.
• Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe,
Arizona
• TV on ESPN2
guet has been solid since replac-
ing Emory Jones at quarterback,
throwing for 992 yards and eight
touchdowns with four intercep-
tions. Bourguet left last week’s loss
to Washington State in the second
quarter with a lower-leg injury,
but said this week he’s feeling bet-
ter and expects to play.
GO, GO GULBRANSON
Oregon State has played the
last five games without quar-
terback Chance Nolan due to
a neck injury. His status for the
rest of the regular season is un-
certain, but Ben Gulbranson
has played well while Nolan has
been out.
Gulbranson has thrown for
817 yards and seven TDs with
an interception in his five starts,
adding a rushing TD last week
against Cal.
“With every snap you take
you grow from those opportu-
nities and I’m just grateful to be
in this opportunity and playing
these games and I look forward
to finishing strong here,” he said.
BEAVERS INJURIES
Oregon State saw nine players
go down with injuries last week
and may be in a similar situation
this week.
Safety Jaydon Grant, corner-
back Alex Austin and running
back Jack Colletto were among
the players injured and the avail-
ability of all the injured is still up
in the air.
“We’re not the only program
dealing with that,” Smith said.
“Shoot, we’re playing Arizona
State, and they’ve had a bunch.
I look across the league. It’s an
unfortunate part of the game.
No one is playing with their full
roster at the end of the year.”
AGUANO’S AUDITION
Aguano was promoted from
running backs coach when
Herm Edwards was fired on
Sept. 20. The Sun Devils (3-7,
2-5) haven’t exactly turned it
around, but they did knock off a
ranked Washington team while
Aguano has gotten growing sup-
port from the fan base and those
within the program to be named
the full-time coach.
“You got a local guy that
knows the people in the Val-
ley and knows all high school
coaches in the Valley and that
wants the job,” Arizona State
defensive coordinator Donnie
Henderson said.
BY TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
Dan Lanning had regrets.
That should be expected after
the coach watched Oregon’s
chances of making the College
Football Playoff slip away be-
cause of decisions he’d like to
have back and mistakes on the
field a week ago.
“I think we all had a taste in
our mouth that we’re ready to
get out of our mouth,” Lanning
said. “Ready to go back and
attack things. This (last) week-
end certainly didn’t go the way
we anticipated. Like I said after
the game, that really falls solely
on me.”
But those regrets can’t linger
if the 12th-ranked Ducks still
want to make this a special sea-
son, not with a visit from No.
10 Utah coming up on Satur-
day night, Nov. 19.
While the Ducks’ playoff
chances were shot down by
Washington last week, they still
control their path to the Pac-
12 championship game and
a chance at the Rose Bowl in
Lanning’s first season.
Beat Utah, beat Oregon State
next week and the Ducks (8-2,
6-1 Pac-12, No. 12 CFP) will be
bound for Las Vegas no matter
what else happens around the
conference.
“Good teams can find a way
to bounce back from a loss.
I think (coach) Lanning has
really emphasized don’t let
(Washington) beat us twice,”
Oregon defensive lineman Ca-
sey Rogers said.
The same scenario holds
true for the Utes and their
hopes of getting back to the
conference title game. Thanks
to its win over Southern Cali-
fornia that started a four-game
win streak, Utah (8-2, 6-1, No.
10 CFP) will find a spot in Las
Vegas if it beats the Ducks and
then Colorado next week.
In that sense, Saturday’s
matchup could be viewed as
a de facto semifinal, although
there still remains a scenario
Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Oregon quarterback Bo Nix (No. 10) drops back to pass as the No. 6
Ducks host the No. 25 Washington Huskies in a Pac-12 college foot-
ball game at Autzen stadium in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday, Nov.
12, 2022.
Utah at Oregon
• Saturday, Nov. 19,
7:30 p.m.
• Autzen Stadium, Eugene
• TV on ESPN
where five teams could all fin-
ish 7-2 in conference play and
create tiebreaker chaos.
“Obviously, the game this
week has implications, confer-
ence implications as does ev-
ery game. You say this is a big
game, they’re all big. If you lose
one prior to this then this game
doesn’t matter. So every game
is important,” Utah coach Kyle
Whittingham said. “It’s gonna
be a tough environment. ...
We’ve got to handle the cruci-
ble that is Autzen Stadium.”
INJURY WATCH
Oregon came out of the
loss to Washington banged
up, with the biggest concerns
surrounding quarterback Bo
Nix, who appeared to suffer a
lower leg injury in the fourth
quarter. Nix returned for Ore-
gon’s final drive but was on the
sideline when Lanning chose
to go for it on fourth-and-1
from the Ducks’ 34 with less
than two minutes remaining.
The Ducks were stopped when
running back Noah Whitting-
ton slipped in the backfield.
“In retrospect, I wish I
would have called a timeout
based on the look we got not
so much just to get Bo in,” Lan-
ning said. “But it’s really easy to
go back and replay the game in
your head. There’s probably 10
plays that I would have played
a lot different.”
Oregon also has concerns
on the offensive line after Ryan
Walk and Alex Forsyth suf-
fered injuries against Washing-
ton. Lanning declined to give
updates on the status of either .
GETTING EVEN
Utah beat the Ducks twice
last year by a combined score
of 76-17, including a 38-10
thumping in the conference
championship game. One of
the deciding factors in the two
wins was Utah running back
Tavion Thomas. He rushed for
94 yards and three touchdowns
in the 38-7 regular season vic-
tory, and followed up with two
more touchdown runs in the
championship game.
Thomas had been quiet
most of this season while deal-
ing with personal issues but fi-
nally had a breakout game last
week in a win over Stanford,
rushing for a career-high 180
yards and two touchdowns.
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