A funny thing happened on the first full college football Saturday of the 2022 season. Actually, quite a few funny things happened. 

First, the ESPN College Gameday team not only acknowledged that Oregon State University exists but also has a football team, and also also unanimously picked that very team to win its first game of the season, bathing the whole lower third of the screen in that gorgeous beaver orange and paddletail black. 

Second, Oregon State football took the field under the bright lights of Reser Stadium in front of a sold-out crowd and the eyes of a national TV audience watching on ESPN. Yup, that same ESPN. Not ESPN2, not ESPN+, Not ESPN8 (The Ocho), not any random and poorly funded network available exclusively on some obscure streaming app, the game was on actual ass ESPN! 

Third, Oregon State’s defense came out swinging in the first quarter! They weren’t just dominant, they were devastating. They weren’t throwing punches, they were throwing haymakers. Boise State couldn’t get anything going on the ground or through the air, so Broncos head coach Andy Avalos made the choice to pull veteran signal caller Hank Bachmeier and replace him with freshman Taylen Green, a—wait for it—mobile quarterback (gasp!)!

You may now pause to pick your stomach up off the floor. I don’t blame you for reacting in such a way. Mobile quarterbacks against Oregon State defenses have traditionally meant Oregon State’s demise, but that’s one of the funny things, though, is that it wasn’t their demise! Save for one run, it barely even mattered! Oregon State’s defense was spectacular all night en route to the Beavers first season-opening victory since 2015. 

So many things. So many funny, happy, wonderful things in just one college football gameday. God I missed these feelings! 

Editor’s note: JP, please play five seconds of ‘Cut to the Feeling’ by Carly Rae Jepsen

The last 48+ hours since Oregon State’s season-opening 34-17 against Boise State have been unfamiliar territory for a lot of Beaver fans. Rarely, if ever in this millennium, has a season this anticipated started with a victory this convincing against a high quality opponent. The question dancing through the dreams of Beaver Nation after week one isn’t the familiar dread of ‘how quickly can we recover?’ but rather, ‘how good can we be?’ 

It’s a scary place to be, but damnit, it’s a fun one too! Don’t suppress these vibes, Beaver Fam. You deserve this. We deserve this. Dare to dream those impossible dreams! 

It’s easy to scoff at Oregon State finally winning a season-opening game under Jonathan Smith as an insignificant milestone. A 1-0 record doesn’t represent the height of expectations for any team. It’s a pretty low bar to cross in a vacuum. Yet to do so also diminishes the progress the program has made under Smith since he accepted what has been described as ‘one of the toughest jobs in college sports’ in November of 2017. 

Smith inherited a to-do list denser than a 1st-edition copy of The Brothers Karamazov his first day on the job. If the first page of that list reads “merely survive,’ and the last page reads “Make Benny with the Good Coif’s wildest National Championship predictions come true,” then buried somewhere near the beginning is “win a season-opener.” 

It’s not the sexiest milestone to clear by any stretch of the imagination. Beating Oregon, beating USC in the Coliseum, posting a winning record, are all more fun and probably should have taken longer if we’re really being honest about where this program was after 2017. 

It may not be a milestone adjacent to planning any parade routes or celebrations in Pioneer Courthouse Square, but that’s the nature of building something as sustainable as it is special. Everyday can’t be the day you blow up the Death Star and topple the Imperial regime, somedays the goal is to just climb out of the Great Pit of Carkoon and not get eaten by the Sarlacc. 

Star Wars nerdery aside, all of this is not to say the 2022 Oregon State Beavers football team should aim low. Quite the contrary. In just one game the team showed flashes of true brilliance and potential not possessed by most Beaver football teams in years past. 

This team could turn out to be a competent/good football team, and it could also turn out to be the special team we’ve been waiting decades for. Or somewhere in between. Or neither. There’s a long season ahead and it’s silly to make such grand propositions after one game. But it’s equally silly to not stop and smell the flowers (#FlowersForFenwick) and appreciate the foreign feeling of being undefeated after Labor Day. 

It’s been a long stretch of rough season openers for us, Beaver Fam. Don’t believe me? 

• 2016 @ Minnesota: Beavers 23, Gophers 30

• 2017 @ Colorado State: Beavers 27, Rams 58

• 2018 @ Ohio State: Beavers 31, Buckeyes 77

• 2019 vs Oklahoma State: Beavers 36, Cowboys 52

• 2020 vs Washington State: Beavers 28, Cougars 38

• 2021 @ Purdue: Beavers 21, Boilermakers 30  

The 2015 season opener was a 26-7 win against Weber State. The last season-opening win against a fellow FBS team was another dominant performance by the defense in that historic 10-7 win against Wisconsin in 2012. 

What a special season 2012 turned out to be. Hope springs eternal, as they say…

Dare to dream, Beaver Fam. Dream with your whole beautiful hearts.