Battle of the Besties I is over and it was a good day to be a Coug on the Palouse. Loads of credit needs to go to Wazzu Head Coach Jake Dickert and his quarterback Cam Ward. The Heisman Trophy isn’t awarded after Week Four for a reason, but if it had to go to someone today, the list of players more deserving than Ward is shorter than the list of cable companies carrying Pac 12 Network.
Ward has been sensational and Saturday night was perfect timing for him to put his best performance as a Cougar on tape. In last season’s meeting between these two teams, Oregon State held Ward to under 50%, picked him off once, and allowed just one touchdown in a 24-10 win that the Beavs had control of from the opening kick at Reser. Ward completed north of 82% of his passes on Saturday, threw for 404 yards and four touchdowns through the air, and added another on the ground to account for all five Wazzu scores on the night, his second consecutive five-touchdown outing and the first of his career against a Power 5 opponent.
It’s a pretty incredible story. Ward was an unrated recruit without a single star beside his name coming out of Columbia High School in West Columbia, Texas. He starred for two seasons at Incarnate Word in San Antonio, going 13-6 as a starter and also earned the Jerry Rice Award as the most outstanding freshman at the FCS level. When UIW Head Coach Eric Morris left San Antonio for the offensive coordinator position at Washington State in spring of 2022, Ward followed him to Pullman and earned the starting QB nod in spring camp.
His talent was obvious, but erratic in his first season as a Power 5 starter. Through the first third of this regular season, Ward has put it all together and deserves to be in the conversation among the top gunslingers in the country. Very few quarterbacks have yet to throw a pick this year, and even fewer have multiple impressive wins like Ward does against Oregon State and Wisconsin on their resume.
“I thought Cam was phenomenal, I thought, offensively, we kept the gas down all game,” Dickert said to the media after the game. “Cam deserves to be mentioned with the best quarterbacks in the country, period. I think he continues to show that. I think nationally we undervalue him and what he’s doing.”
Dickert, Ward, and Cougs all over the world will have a healthy chunk of time to enjoy this one. Washington State gets their bye week in Week Five and will head to Pasadena for a date with the Bruins on October 7. Now that we’ve sufficiently credited the Cougs, we need to turn our attention to the other locker room.
Too little too late is the theme for Oregon State in this one. A 21-3 fourth quarter in favor of the Beavs was just enough to make the loss that much more heartbreaking. Jonathan Smith and the Beavers have the opposite of Wazzu’s opportunity when it comes to the schedule. There’s one fewer day for OSU to dwell on what could have been on Saturday, No. 10 ranked Utah is on their way to Corvallis for a Friday night matchup under the lights in Oregon State’s first conference game since completing the $161 million renovation of Reser Stadium.
The Beavs, who fell five spots to No. 19 in the AP poll, are early 1.5-point favorites against the Utes.
The respect should come as no surprise. Oregon State played far from its best game on the Palouse and still had a decent chance of escaping with the W. In the last 14 games at Reser Stadium, the Beavs are 13-1, the only loss coming in the form of a 17-14 heartbreaker against USC where the Trojans needed four interceptions of then OSU quarterback Chance Nolan to eke out the win.
Utah, who has been without star quarterback Cam Rising stemming from his ACL tear in the Rose Bowl, is coming off a 14-7 win against UCLA where they held the Bruins scoreless until the 3:39 mark of the fourth quarter. There hasn’t been a ton of clarity on Rising’s status, but whispers around the conference indicated he’s closing in on being ready to return.
Kyle Whittingham’s offense has been pedestrian through four games in 2023, but it hasn’t needed to be anything more than that without their star quarterback. The 9.5 points allowed per game is the best of any Pac 12 team and ranks sixth out of 133 FBS teams. Insert a coach-speak quote about how the key to the game is to always score more points than the other team here. Utah is currently only outscoring hapless Arizona State in the points department, but outputs of 24, 20, 31, and 14 have all been good enough for wins in 2023. Whether Rising plays on Friday night or not, Utah will take a similar approach in another ranked-on-ranked/nationally televised game against the Beavs. An approach that favors the home team and should help Oregon State get their season back on track.
Utah wants to play a ground and pound style on both sides of the ball with the winner determined by who wins the most in the trenches. That is exactly how Oregon State wants to play and it will be fascinating to see how it plays out between two teams representing unstoppable forces meeting unmovable objects on down after down after down.
The Beavs boast the conference’s—and possibly the country’s—best ground game. Damien Martinez failed to hit the 100-yard mark for the first time this season, but still managed 4.8 yards per carry for a total of 81 while his running mate, Deshaun Fenwick hit 101 on just 11 carries and found paydirt three times.
The ground game should be fine, but the passing game will have another big challenge against a stingy Utah team that doesn’t give up big plays. The Utes are led by Jonah Elliss, who has been one of the best pass rushers in the nation in 2023 and currently leads the Pac 12 in sacks and tackles for a loss after a massive outing against UCLA.
It’s unlikely that this game will be the prettiest a football game has ever looked, but it will be tough, close, and hopefully OSU’s offense gives the stadium ops department more than a few opportunities to unleash Reser’s new orange light show.
Prediction: Beavs win 21-20