LITTLE ROCK — Oregon State generated the school’s biggest one-year turnaround and could secure its third 10-victory season by beating Texas in the Alamo Bowl on Saturday.
The Longhorns? They are trying to reverse a three-year slide from the days when 10 victories were just a footnote on the way to BCS bowls.
Beating the 13th-ranked Beavers tonight would be another baby step back to the elite for Mack Brown and company, with still a long way to go. No. 23 Texas followed a loss to Alabama in the 2009 BCS championship game with a 5-7 record - the only losing season in 15 under Brown- and an 8-5 mark last year that included a Holiday Bowl victory over California.
Lose to Oregon State, and the Longhorns (8-4) will have a second consecutive eight victory season and a long off season to think about a three game losing streak, too.
“I think that at Texas we want to be 13-0,” Brown said.“The standards are higher than eight, and that’s what the kids need to understand and our coaches do understand. And we are ready to take that next step and get it back to where it should be.”
Mike Riley has had to do a little rebuilding of his own after leading the Beavers (9-3) to 10 victories in 2006 and three more winning seasons after that. Oregon State matched Texas at 5-7 in 2010, then slipped to 3-9 a year ago.
The Beavers are six games better in 2012, beating one Rose Bowl team - Wisconsin - in their opener and almost beating the other - Stanford- on the road. Oregon State brings a little momentum into the Alamo Bowl because Hurricane Isaac turned the original opener against Nicholls State into the finale. So after losing to Fiesta Bowl bound rival Oregon, the Beavers trounced Nicholls State 77-3.
Quarterbacks Cody Vaz and Sean Mannion split the snaps against Nicholls State after injuries led to both being starters during the season. Riley picked Vaz, a former receiver who has 11 touchdown passes and just one interception, to start against the Longhorns.
“It’s been a hard decision,” offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf said. “It’s probably been more difficult on the two kids. They have been kind of flip-flopping back and forth. But I think our team understands that there’s two guys that can go out and win a game.”
The Longhorns saved their flip-flopping at quarterback for late in the season. David Ash was named the starter for the Alamo Bowl after starting the first 11 games before he was pulled in a loss to TCU on Thanksgiving. Case McCoy started the finale against Kansas State. Texas officials originally said Ash sustained a rib injury against the Horned Frogs, but Brown acknowledged this week that Ash was actually injured the previous game against Iowa State and made the start against TCU anyway.
Sports, Pages 19 on 12/29/2012