What Went Wrong
If not for Kansas, Oregon State would have been the worst Power Five program in the nation in 2017. Gary Anderson quit on the team mid-season, because, quite frankly, he did a terrible job with this program. He bemoaned his staff's deficiencies to reporters instead of dealing with them himself, given that he is the guy who hired those staffers. He never seemed t be comfortable leading this program, and he very well may not coach for some time on any Power Five level job, if he does ever again.
On the field, the Beavers were a mess. Jake Luton gave them hope early at QB, but when he went down, Darrell Garretson could not get it done, averaging just 146.5 yards per game, and completing just 57.9% of his passes. It may have gone better, but Marcus McMaryion was chased out of the program, and transferred to Fresno State, where he ended up starting for a division winning football team. Bad decisions...
Ryan Nall, the best player on the offensive side of the football was only limited to 15 carries per game, and that was a shockingly bad decision when it came to game planning, and not one receiver caught as many as 35 passes for the season.
Defensively, the Beavers were abysmal, allowing 43 points per game. No one player finished with more than six TFLs for the season, and the Beavers finished with just 50 total TFLs. The Beavers also only finished with seven INTs for the season, while allowing 12, and no one player had more than four PBUs.
There was little help from the field goal unit either, as Jordan Choukair hit on just 12/19 FG attempts, or just 63.2%.
The punting unit was not much better. Nick Porebski and Alex Brand combined to average just 38 yards per punt on the season, which completely screwed their defense.
What Went Right
There really was only one thing that went collectively right, and that was the play of Nall. Nall rushed for 861 yards for a terrible football team, and he had a knack for the big play, but when he was the only skill player that showed up to work every single week, he literally had nothing to work with.
What Does the Future Hold?
Former Beaver QB Jonathon Smith has returned to Corvallis after working with Chris Peterson in Washington as the OC for the Huskies. His return has generated a ton of buzz for the program, but the reality is that he has not been a head coach at any level, and he has a massive mountain of doom ahead of him in trying to not rebuild this program, but build it from scratch. With Oregon right down the road, the facilities and resources still pale by comparison in Corvallis, and he is way behind the ball in recruiting. The Beavers open at Ohio State next season, but winnable games against Southern Utah and Nevada come after. One thing to remember is that Oregon State has not been great against FCS Big Sky teams as of late, so that SUU game looms larger than it should.
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